Sunny Day Real Estate

Despite the fact that they never did meet with huge commercial success, Sunny Day Real Estate can at least claim to be titans of their own genre; before the term emo was hijacked by the media in the mid-noughties and completely arbitrarily applied to the likes of My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, it referred to a nineties scene in the U.S. that saw the likes of The Promise Ring, American Football and Texas Is the Reason making incendiary guitar music - think indie rock, but heavier, and with an unyielding emotional edge. In 2009, eight years on from their initial dissolution, the stars finally aligned in a manner that allowed a Sunny Day reunion; one of the many factors keeping them from touring throughout the noughties was bassist Nate Mendel’s obligations with his other band, Foo Fighters. They toured the world extensively to rave reviews, playing sets that spanned their career and tearing through the classics with an energy that, if anything, was even more visceral than it had been first time around. They intended to record a new album once they got off the road, but the sessions ended in failure, with just one new song, ‘Lipton Witch’, emerging; officially speaking, the band are now dissolved again, but don’t be surprised to see them play further live dates in the future.