Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary Transcript

https://bit.ly/SDRE_Diary

Music Rewind welcomes Danny Prokup to discuss Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate.

A great conversation about the debut album from SDRE on Sub Pop Records set the musical direction for a young teenager in the midwest. .

Album: Diary Artist: Sunny Day Real Estate Year: 1994

Transcript as follows:

Participant #1:

Hello and welcome to Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums. I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode, I will invite a guest to tell us about their favorite favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them. Joining me today is another old friend from my high school days, the infamous Danny Pro cup. Danny works in advertising as a copywriter up in Chicago, where he lives with his wonderful wife and kids. Music has been a passion for Danny all his life, and his memories are often soundtracked by what was playing at the time. And lastly, he is another sports legend out of Hall High School. Welcome, Danny, and thank you for being on the show. Steve, what's going on, man? First of all, infamous like mob deep. I don't know if I'm brave enough to ask what give you that distinction. It's more than famous. Yeah, but I don't know how and did you say sports legend, Steve? I think we're stretching the definition of the word legend with that one. There. A handful of listers in the Illinois valley will understand. Yeah, they're going to be the ones complaining in the comments. I'm sure they are pumping this podcast through at Rips every week. Yeah. And everyone's going to say, who in the hell is that guy? Then he sits the bench, those guys, for the 90s way. Oh, man, we're old.

Participant #1:

Yeah. Thanks for having me on, Steve. This is awesome. Looking forward to talking music with you. Yeah, it's going to be a fun episode. All right, Dan, let's jump right into this. What is your favorite album and how did you discover it? Well, first of all, I got to set the tone here because when you asked me to be on, we were talking about this a little bit. I had a list of I kid you not. I think I narrowed it down from 50 and I'm still going back and forth on it until we got on. And that's not to take away from the record I want to talk about, but just to tell you why I want to talk about it. And I want to talk about Sunny Day real estate's diary.

Participant #1:

For those of you who don't know. Steven, I don't know how much you know about the record, but sort of a classic to me. I mean, now it's been and I guess at the time it was too, but I didn't really know sort of the overall aesthetic or the storyline around it, really. But it's become or that most people talk about it as like the cornerstone of this new at the time, the newer emo sound. It was sort of the link between sort of the post punk or hardcore kind of email thing. Midwest email is a turn I've heard a lot, but at the time, to me, it was just really it came out at a time where it really spoke to me. I'm looking forward to diving in with it and with it, man. Yeah. This was a surprise to me because I had never really dove into this group at all. They kind of completely blew past me. And when I listened to it, my first thoughts were the early 2000s emo bands such as Brand New and a few others were like, there's a connection here. This is maybe the same time. And then I looked, no, this was released in 1994. Yeah, that blew me away. I had no idea that this album was out there in the 90s or that early because it sounds exactly like, say, Brand New or Jimmy Eat World or some early MCR and some of those other bands. So, yeah, I can totally see why this was a game changer for the emo scene. What's odd, or I guess not odd, but the way that I came to it or the way that I fell in love with it was completely separate from the emo scene, if you will. And I know a lot of that stuff came later, but to me, I believe I saw the video. I'm assuming that I saw the video for seven or in circles on 120 Minutes before pre Internet and staying up late on Saturday nights on MTV in the Illinois Valley. I have watched that recently because it's on YouTube. 120 Minutes performance of them, like, live. Yeah. So I have seen that in the past 24 hours. All right, there you go. So this record comes out in 94, like the spring of 94, and it's Sub Pop, it's Seattle, but it's sort of going back to the spring of 94. It comes out just after so Nirvana is over. Cobain dies, I think, a month before this record comes out. And to me, it had nothing to do with because we all grew up on that same music. Right. It's Nirvana soundgarden, the Seattle Sound and all those bands. I didn't know this was Seattle. Yes. And what's crazy to me is I think that's what got me into It Had To Be is because it was on Sub Pop. I think it was just at a time where I bought the cassette disc jockey in the Prue Mall. Shout out to the Prue mall. And I think it had to be just like I said, I don't really remember. But my assumption is that I had to see the video on 120 Minutes, bought the cassette and the artwork. The cover is the Fisher Price. I don't know if you remember growing up. Little people. Little people. Yeah. And my cousin was younger and he loved those growing up. And there was a toaster on fire and just weird, sort of there was no pictures of the band, I don't believe, on the back of the cassette. Like, there were song titles or anything. It was a black Sub Pop cassette. It was just like so strange. But I remember what hit me about it is when you put it on it was very aggressive, very melodic, heavier music, which I love. Some of my early Injustice for all from Italica is a cornerstone record for me. Those early sound guard records, some of the harder stuff but then that would be just opposed to the lyrics. This more of it voice said you're not really prepared for it when you first hear it and I mean that in the best way possible because it doesn't necessarily go with the music. To me, it sort of reminded me and I'm not comparing the vocal styling of the lead singer Jeremy with either of these singers but it reminded me of the first time of hearing dismiss. You get this jangly upbeat music and then all of a sudden morris iconic vocal stylings. But it takes a while for that to sort of link. It's kind of similar like Death Cab for QD okay, where you've got those very angsty, emotional melodies that are really leading in and then you get this voice that just like oh, I wasn't expecting that voice at all. Totally. And I think there's a great band out of Chicago around the same time, call the Smoking Pope, who are still around today. I think they had a song on the Clueless soundtrack was their claim to fame at one point but they were pretty big and like I said, they're still around today. I've heard of them but I couldn't tell you a song. But they have a very similar approach. They're more straight ahead punk and pop punk, I guess you would call it. But the singer has more of that laid back sort of approach. And again, the lead singer Jeremy Anneck from Sunny Day doesn't have that styling but it's sort of that on paper it doesn't seem like it should work and it just did for me. I don't know, it just blew me away. I think you put the record on. It's very unique for the music that was popular at that time, the rock music, because I can't compare this to Sound Garden or Nirvana or The Pumpkins or even Green Day. It's unique when compared to those popular bands of the time. You know, it's interesting when you said pumpkins and I've been going back and spending more time with it and another favorite record of mine is Siamese Dreams from the Pumpkins. And to me and I think going back to sort of email and when I started talking about getting into this record, to me, I think one of the reasons why I like this record so much and there's many of them that I hope to fit in. But it did remind me of Siamese in a way that you take a song like today and you hear it and it became like the celebratory thing and then you sit down and you listen to the lyrics and it's pink ribbon scars that never forget my angel wings are bruised and restrained my belly, it's dark and you're like, Whoa. It's super dark. Yeah. And it's just I think Siamese is a masterpiece. And to me, this record, Diary shares DNA with that record in my head. And I think some of the softer singing from Billy and even when he lets go and he starts shredding his voice and all that stuff, very much reminds me of sort of what Jeremy is doing on this record. Going back now, those bands you brought up, Brand New and Jimmy World, there's actually this great book by Andy Greenwald, the pop culture critic, called Nothing Feels Good. And it's sort of a history of this emo scene, bands like Jawbreaker and The Promise Ring from Milwaukee, who sort of laid the groundwork for, if you will, for these other bands that came along. And I'm not well versed in email at all. So for the listeners out there who have been screaming at me that I'm getting all this information wrong about email, I apologize. But to me, coming from that grunge classic rock, you know, at this time, too, this is 94, so 1314 years old. And like I said, we're seeing the tail end. Like I said, Cobain just died. Which really, honestly, for me, I remember like it was yesterday. And it's also sort of that you're starting to see the cracks in the facade of some of those newer bands coming up. You're starting to get like your limp biscuits and some of your other bands clinging on to grunge to that sound, but that they didn't really have sort of the no one became formulaic. I know exactly what you mean. To me, Diary just represented it was taking elements of that, elements of sort of the punk, like Fugazi, some of those bands, but they were accomplished musicians, so it had some twinges of 70s Prague in there, almost. There was a scope and a passion and emotion. Sorry to go on the email, but they bring a lot to the table. Overall, it's an excellent album. Oh, thank you. It's not a but it's an excellent album. And the emotion that you mentioned is there there's some angst. It's heavy. If the lyrics spoke to you in high school, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, man. I don't know what this dude was going through at the time, but what was the name of that book you just mentioned? It's called Nothing Feels Good. That could have been the name of this album. And I get that's why people love it with email. But to me, I think, at the time, and I'm going to quote Andy Greenwald here and not quote him, I guess I'm going to paraphrase something that he wrote in the book, but it was something along the lines of that Jeremy was just so intense and so passionate that he almost loses track of language. The lyrics to me was like almost he's inventing words sometimes. Oh, yeah. You can't really tell what he's singing unless you dive in. And to me, I think that's what made it even more sort of accessible, if you will, because it was almost just that blank slate of, you know, you're a teenager, there's pent up emotions. I love Nirvana with all my heart but load up on guns and bring your friends it's time to lose and to pretend yeah. Not to take anything away from Kurt, but that's very specific. It doesn't necessarily speaking to me and what I'm going through, and not that Jeremy was or wasn't, but just that release and that emotional release of you could sing along because you could sing anything you wanted to it and it still made sense. Yeah. The way I prepare for these shows, I'll listen to the album and then I will eventually listen to the album with the lyrics in front of me, which has helped tremendously on some albums like Pearl Jam and Radiohead, where you've got some mumblers and some whiners and just the different styles of singing that I don't on the initial listen. I'm loving the music and I'm loving the way the lyrics fit in the song, but I may not be understanding every word and getting that poetry that someone has written, so I do like watching the lyrics so that I can get that full experience and then looking at the lyrics of this album, like I said, he does make up some words and some of them are just completely indecipherable. Yeah. And I think not to take anything away from I'm sure Jeremy is going to listen. Not to take anything away from him or as a lyricist or anyone else. Welcome to come on the show, Jeremy. Yes, please. We'll bring Danny back. You guys can talk it out, you can yell at me and all my accomplishments as a songwriter, but you're right, I mean, there are some great things in circles. I think if there was, like you were saying before, nothing feels good. The line I dreamed to heal your wounds but I bleed myself. If that's not an emo banner, I'm not sure what is.

Participant #1:

So there is a lot of that when you dive down in it. Yes, it makes sense. And walking around in circles and so many different things that he talks about are he singing and Dan Horner, the other guitarists who are doing sort of the backing vocals and that interplay that again, that you see in bands like Brand New and Taking Back Sunday and stuff. They are saying something and I think they are saying something real. But again, I think it is almost that feeling of being a teenager where you're maybe so frustrated or so sad or so angry or everything's jumbled up in your head that you just need that release. And I think that's what maybe spoke to me at the time looking back on it. But it was just the music and the interplay. I mean, there's such great musicians. I think if anybody knows the band or maybe knows the story by now. But then Nate Mendel, the bass player, is a fantastic bass player, has been the bass player and the Foo Fighter since the beginning. And Will Goldsmith, the drummer. Will and Nate then left and joined Foo Fighters. They were like the original band days put together. I did not know that. Obviously accomplished musicians. But I think just the way that they flowed together and it all fit together really just sort of spoke to me again. It's just that scope of their playing. I don't know, it just works for me. So when you listen to this album, do you go front to back or do you pick out select tracks? No, I totally go front to back. And what's weird is, when I was going through trying to pick my records, one of the criteria was, can I sit down and listen to it? Or how often do I sit down and listen to it all the way through to even be in the running? And I think what is important with this one to listen all the way through is in those first few minutes when it starts. I think just like when seven hits, you know what you're in for. And then it takes this weird it's sort of straight ahead driving guitar. And then it takes this weird sort of time signature change. Nate's bass comes in, is just phenomenal on it. And then it almost stops and you hear Jeremy's voice and then it just flows from there. In Circles, I think, is one of their greatest songs.

Participant #1:

Yeah, you get it. Don't skip it. I mean, there's a piano bout in the middle. Some folks I've seen, some folks say, well, it gets slower in the second half or it drops off in quality or whatever. But to me, the piano bowed in the middle kind of has a shift to it. But to me, that was the same as hearing, like, you're talking about Fortune Sketo, I am going to commend you for trying to pronounce it. I intentionally did not, because I have no idea. I was listening to that one and it's like, well, this is weird. What the hell is this? And then it hit me. This is a waltz. Exactly. It's literally a waltz. Yes.

Participant #1:

So maybe that's your my Chemical Romance, right. The Black Wall. We're tying it all together. Yeah, it was definitely a weird one. But it does kind of fit in the album. It's almost like an intermission, you know? And to me, it reminded me of one of my other favorite albums, the Replacements, Let It Be. When the song Androgynous comes up and it's got that sort of piano ballad in the middle and you're like, at first, this doesn't really fit, or does it? And then when you listen to it all the way through and it kind of you're right intermission and it sort of takes you off because then it goes into Shadows. Yeah. Shadows and 48. And Shadows is a fantastic song, but it starts off a little bit slower, so it's almost like it finishes very strong, though. It's like perfect sequences. Yeah.

Participant #1:

Again, I think it's just especially that 3123 punch of seven, In Circles songs about an angel, or even four. And then you go to Round and 47. You got to listen to it all. I recommend it. Yeah. I like Round a lot. You got track one, seven, track two in circles. Track three is Songs about an angel, and those are say it's good. One, two, three. And then track four, it picks up that energy because track three kind of does slows it down a little bit, but then Round really kind of just brings that energy back to it.

Participant #1:

Round is a highlight. And to go up on a little tangent here, there's a band called Death Heaven. I don't know if you're familiar with them or not, but came out with some pretty heavy metal, real dark kind of metal records. And then their last album, Infinite Granite, took a complete shift. And it sounds more akin to this record. And I think Round is essentially like a blueprint for that album, which is sort of strange, but the interplay of lyrics and the heaviness and I say that just to say that it's still, I think, another reason why I love this record so much is because you can see sort of sprinkles of it, or at least I can in other genres of music that I also love. So keep coming back to, or that still speak to me today. Sonically, at least. Yeah, sonically. I could revisit this album anytime, every single track, except for maybe the waltz. That's not what I'm going to rock out to. Okay. And then there's Grindel. You're skipping that one. I don't know what the fuck that was. That one kind of threw me. I did like when the music finally kicked in, but it was a bit of nonsense. This is coming from a Pink Floyd fan who say, roger Waters can spout Scottish gibberish for 30 minutes and I'm enjoying it.

Participant #1:

So, yeah, Grandola didn't really click with me, but the rest of pretty much every other track aside from those two, I could easily put in a playlist, listen anytime for the music. Not necessarily the lyrics don't speak to me, but, yeah, that's a solid band playing together there. Yeah, totally. And I will say this as a Sunny Day fan, and their second album is more of and it's called LP Two. They spend a lot of time coming up with the title for it is more of a cohesive. It's a better record for them overall. I think it's the more cohesive of the two LPs that they put out when they were originally together, but they kind of broke up, like, right after that. They started falling apart. Right after that, I think Jeremy, the lead singer, became a born again Christian. And then right around that time, dave Grohl had just recorded the first Foo Fighters record and was looking for a backing band. And whether this is true or not, I believe the story goes that he went to see Sunny Day play and then got in touch with Nate and Will, the bass player and the drummer, to see if they were interested in touring and behind that first few Fighters record. And then I just poached them. Yeah, well, I think the band was pretty much over with at that time anyway. Sunny Day Real Estate was and I think Jeremy was taking a different path. Like I said, Nate's been in the Foo Fighters ever since, I believe. Yes, but they got a different drummers. Taylor Hawkins, I think is. Yeah, I think the story goes Will, he didn't click with they were pretty much hired guns because Dave had recorded everything on that record. And I can only imagine trying to fill a drum seat of Dave Grohl and then when they were recording, because even the video, Forever Long has Taylor in there. Yeah. So I think Will was on the first tour with them and then when they went to record their second record, I think he was in the recording session. And I believe, whether this is heresay or what, I think Dave went and then re recorded all of his drum parts and offered to take them as a hired gun to be the live drummer. And I think Will just say no. And that's when Taylor entered the fold there. I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure that we'll just say that's fool, or at this point, there you go, that'll work. It makes sense, though. The Seattle music scene is a small community. A lot of interchangeable as far as collaborations up there. Yeah, totally. Well, and it's weird, too. That not weird, but I think especially with Sunny Day, because to me, we're getting this all, especially in a small town where we're at from at that time, we're sort of getting everything all at once. Right. So there was, well, Sunny Days on Sub Pop or Nirvana on Sub Pop. So they must have grown up together and all that kind of stuff. But Sunny Days a different sort of generation then than those guys, than Nirvana. And those guys, they're a little bit younger. Nirvana's first record is 87 or 88 with Bleach, I think they might only be like five or six years younger, but that's a big difference when you're 23 years old. Oh, absolutely. So when they're putting out this record, it's almost, like I said, Nirvana's already huge. grunges, the Seattle Sound, Mark Jacobs, flannel shows and all of that is maxed out to the end degree. And so this was sort of something new that I learned in hindsight, looking back on it, but I wasn't really aware of at the time. To me, it just spoke to me in a way, the same way that Undervana Record did, or Sound Garden did, or all of those bands that I loved. And it was just strange to me. I didn't understand why Sunny Day wasn't the biggest band in the world and no one else loved them as much as I did, seemingly, at the time. But it makes sense in hindsight. And here it feels silly saying that now because it is such a fans of emo and sort of that genre. I'm not doing it justice here on the podcast because it's a seminal record to them and a cornerstone, the blueprint for all those bands that you had mentioned before. But to me, I was coming at it sort of with those bands that I love, that Nirvana, even Fugazi. Like I said, I heard The Smith in it, the aggressiveness that I loved from early Metallica records. I heard that in Sunny Day, okay? And then by the time email really takes off, I was sort of off on a different path. So that's where I sort of I love those early bands like The Promise and as I mentioned before, Jimmy Eat World and some of those bands I think are great. But then I started going into that's, like when Wilco's coming out and sort of the country stuff is coming bigger. And I was more mainstream rock than email, I guess. Yeah, those types of bands in those albums I discovered years later.

Participant #1:

I mentioned this on Mike. I wasn't staying up and watching Alteram Nation or 120 Minutes. I wasn't really doing that. I would occasionally catch Headbangers Ball. I was kind of more loved when I was listening to it was either that or classic rock. I had a large influence from my dad, cousin and uncles as far as in 94. I was super pumped about the Pal Freezes Over Eagles reunion coming out. Yeah, 94, that was my musical world. Why is nobody else caring about this? The Eagles are reuniting what no one cares. And I was just kind of alone with that one. But I was cool with that because the Eagles are just phenomenal. But it was always in reverse that I was like, well, let me go back and listen to that album. Never mind. Let me go back and listen to Ten. Let me go back and listen to Siamese Stream and then on the backside of high school in Hanks garage. That's where all that music came together. Everything from the past eight years, the late Eighty S and then early 90s, all just so many CDs in that garage. But this wasn't one of them. Interesting. I don't ever remember Sunny Day making that playlist there, which is a shame because it's an excellent album. But we had oasis in there and other things. Yeah, great stuff. But this would have fit, it really would have. But I had never I mean, I heard seven many times, but I could never tell you who sang it. It was just a song that you'd hear. But where we grew up, it's not like we were in a city where there were touring shows and posters. You had to seek out a record store somewhere to find some of this stuff. And like I said, Pruom all you have this jockey. That's about it. Sam goody. And if you weren't staying up late and watching MTV, which is a shame, MTV doesn't have that musical influence anymore because it was such a good thing at the time. But the internet changes things, right. I'm glad you brought this. I never would have really listened to this one before. Cool. Yeah. It's so weird to think about, too. I think we're at age wise, it's weird to think about. There was a time where those influences were, I got injustice for all, which is weird now. But Michael, your past guest, my cousin bought it for me from the spinner rack at Valley News and Booze, because it was on there and it was like my 8th birthday and I have an eight year old now and I'm thinking, Oh, my goodness. But just remember having that on my headphones. And that brought me into a different world. And had I not seen one on Headbangers Ball, I might not have known who Metallica was. But then, getting influences, we were talking before we started recording about sort of listening to records and stuff. Growing up. Influential to me was my parents being born in their early 80s, me, not my parents listening to their records. And then it would be Pink Floyd, The Wall, and my mom would have John Cougar, still John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellon Camp, but on the radio it's Prince and it's Springsteen. And it's all of these seminal artists that now you take for granted as canon, but this is when they're making those big records and then having babysitters come over and listening to Poison or Wham or whoever. And then my cousins were big into the 80s hair metal scene, and then my other cousin turned me onto The Smiths and television The Cure, who I absolutely love. And then it's been talked to death, but Nirvana, and for me, it was Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And hearing Ten for the first time, just being in the Ten Club is the longest relationship I've ever had in my life. That's a whole other podcast. But it's sort of that love of growing up on that classic rock, but then falling in love, hearing Appetite For Destruction, that 70s, where now it's dirty and it's bluesy and it's heavy, and then you're getting into Sound Garden and then Nirvana and Pearl Jam, like I said, and then Alison Chains comes out and the pumpkins and the great Chicago scene, but you're getting it in bits and pieces and I think that's what is really different than here. And really, to me, the first time I heard this record, but the first time I really fell in love with it is when I got a car and I had an 83 dots in Maxima. This is how old we are. Nice. And it had a cassette deck and it was so small that if I set up straight, my head would fit through the sunroof. But I had the cassette deck and I just remember I had this and I think the Talking Heads, sand in the Vaseline, Greatest Hits and like a couple of others that I would have, but the ultimate Midwest rite of passage that I still love to this day. The windows are down, the radio is up, and this is one of those records that I highly encourage everyone. If you can't, if you have a CD player, you bluetooth, whatever, hook it up, roll the windows down, crank it up, just drive. It's just fantastic. And I think that's when I really fell in love with it. But it was on my walkman a lot as well, and it's always just been a part of my life. I didn't listen to it or it's not something I go back too often, but it's just always on. It's just so weird. It just always comes up. Now. Did you stay a Sunny Day fan throughout their tenure? Because I think I think they got like three and a half albums, I have to say. The first two I loved. Then, like I said, they took a little break, they've released some stuff, they've gotten back together a few times. I've listened to those records. I can't say that they don't speak to me in the same way as this does. I think Diary is just something I respect them for, what they are, those records, and I think they're great and worth listening to. And again, to me, LP Two is the more sort of complete record, but Diary to me is just that visceral feeling that it gives me. So I'm blabbering, but a longer way to say that I've been kept up with them the way that I have with other bands. But that was also because they were taking intermittent releases and they were taking breaks and on again, off again and that sort of stuff. Yeah, without the consistency of being a fully collaborative band over the years, it'd be hard to stay up to date with them because you never really know what their current status is or if they're going to put something else out. And like I said, the one guy is stolen, the Foo Fighter, so that's a hard gig to give up there. It almost feels like lightning in a bottle kind of a moment. This album with the way they came together, the music they put out, and you've got on an indie label, Sub Pop, almost like a hard to repeat sort of instance. Yeah, I could see that again. It's very I'm pausing, I'm cautious with it just because to me and I think at the time this was like Sub Pops, like second biggest record behind Nirvanas when it first came out. And I think at one point it was like their 7th still a decade or two later, it was still their 7th selling record of all time. And you're talking about like the Postal Service and Fleet Foxes and some of the huge names that still pop its head on their roster and continue to put out. So it is a massive record that gets its due again, I think that second record is fantastic, but you're right, I think whatever it is, and it's like any band trying to stay together and trying to keep things going and it just seems like they were in completely different places. Jeremy becomes a born again Christian, which I imagine causes strife between himself and the lifestyle and who knows? This is conjecture on my point, but it just seems and by the time now you're getting into the late 90s, mid to late ninety s and early two thousand s, and the landscape has completely changed in terms of what's popular and what's not popular. Who knows? It came out in the right time for me and for a lot of folks, but I don't know if they had it come out a few years earlier or a few years later, if it would have made a difference, if they would have stayed together or what. Before we go on to the short list, what are your favorite tracks on this album? It's Cliche, but the first two, Seven and In Circles are fantastic to me. If you want to get across what Sunny Day is about in two songs, play somebody those two songs or listen to those two songs. I can see that round, like you mentioned, is I've got it highlighted in my notes here and I think we touched on it here, but I wanted to make sure I talked about that. Those three, for sure. I do love songs about an Angel Shadows. I think it's fantastic. But if I had to choose only one or two songs off the record, I would say In Circles and then Seven. I thought the album ended really strong with Sometimes and I wanted to make a note about that. It's a unique song on the album, but the full band kicks in midway through the song. I started out thinking, this is the ending. Okay, all right. Yeah. But then the full band kicks in and I changed my feeling on the song and it really is a strong finale on the album. That's a great point. Yeah.

Participant #1:

When I think, too, we were talking about the waltz in some of those moments on it where you're like, what is happening? And then when the band kicks in or something, to think that this was the debut record and sort of this shift in I keep talking about the Seattle sound, but the shift in that and what I was talking about before is almost that I don't know if it's a generational divide, but between those big records coming out of Seattle right before and then this record is think of all the different genres that are on this record and putting a waltz on are having those quiet moments and it's not like loud quiet Loud or the Nirvana formula or the Pixies formula. It's just done in such a different way and different time signatures. And I think there's a lot going on in this record that the more in fact, I was just listening to it before we got on again, just been playing it over and over again, but I was listening to it on Headphones and I was sharing parts of Nate's Bass parts on some songs again for the first time, if you will. And I think there's just a lot of great musicianship again on this and it's a record that you can spend time with. I've spent 30 plus years with it and still I'm hearing something new. So I think it is a great record for diving into being able to get something new out of it every time you listen to it. And that speaks to sort of those things that the band was, I guess, the chances they were willing to take. And like you mentioned, this is the way you're going to end an album and then the full band kicks in. You're like, Oh my brings you back. Yeah, exactly. If you have it on repeat, it brings you right back into the jumpstart, the fire away. They kick off the record. I think a lot of that credit can also go to Brad Wood who produced it totally. And that's the guy who worked with like, Liz Fair and the Pumpkins. And this record was recorded in Chicago because of that reason, because of the bands you just mentioned and their sounds and success. So maybe that's why I love it, because it's a Chicago record. Chicago record with a Seattle lineup. That's the perfect marriage right there. Yeah, but you mentioned Liz Fare and the scene in the Pumpkins and the scene that's going on in Chicago and Brad at the time and just fantastic. And I think you can hear that in this record as well. So Diary made your top spot. What was on your shortlist? I'm showing you for the listeners. I've got a list of like 50 and I won't go through them all, but I mentioned Injustice for all that really changed. It was the first sort of me record, if you will, the first record that I had of my own that wasn't my parents music. And I don't mean that like in a bad way, but it wasn't something they had shown me, or like everyone was listening to at the time, I would listen to it in Headphones, and it would scare me and excite me, and I'm like eight or nine. And that's a pretty heavy record. The Cure Disintegration, I think, is an absolute masterpiece, which I could go on and on about that band. I think it's fantastic. They've got something new in the works coming out, too, so I can't wait to hear that. Never Mind, of course, was a game changer and something I still listen to a lot. There's some great record, The Hold Steady. I don't know if you listen to The Hold Steady at all. Great banana Boys, my wife turned me on to them. They are fantastic. I think Boys and Girls in America is a masterpiece by them, one that I was really close to scrapping, sunny Day, not Scrapping, but changing, was Wall Flowers by Tom Petty. I think just oh, that's a good one. It's just unbelievable in the way released in 94, and you're thinking, all of this is going on, and here Tom is making this record with Rick Rubin, and does he still have it in him? And he's going through it's, a solo record, even though most of the band is on. Heartbreakers are on it, and it's his divorce record, but he's the only one who knows he's getting a divorce at the time. And the songwriting I got the chance to see Tom Petty the year before he died. Oh, fantastic. It was a fluke. Just some friends of ours like, hey, we got two extra ticks to Tom Petty. Yeah, sure we'll go. And it was a great show, really good. I had to go out and buy his anthology because there is a twelve minute version of it's. Good to Be King. Yeah, fantastic. And that version is just it has yet to leave my main playlist. Fantastic. Yeah, just that whole there's a great documentary about the recording of that album. I forget the title of it now, but Worth the Watch. I mean, you can't go wrong with Petty. He's an American rock icon. Obviously, other albums have changed. I mean, really, like The Replacement, Let It Be. We were talking about the record stores and stuff. I actually got that at a record store in La Salle. I don't know if you ever remember hearing their records in La Cell. It was sort of down by downtown La Salle, not too far from the uptown, maybe a little bit further down the block. Okay. From there. And when I was like 13 yes, I was 13 and started doing community theater at Stage 212, which is the theater there, and started acting and stuff. And that was another great way to hear music from, because being 13 and you're in plays with men and women in college or high school who are listening to stuff. But I must have I walked in there, somebody was like, Hey, we're going to the store. Walked in there and I had no idea. I'm 13 years old or something. And the guy behind the counter was asking me what I was listening to and stuff. And he's like, well, you have to hear this record. And it didn't even have a cover. It was just like somebody had it, just said, Let it be in Penn. It was like $3 or something. And it was obviously used and it was all worn off. It didn't have song titles, and I played that until it broke. It's still a masterpiece to me. There's some newer records that Neil Young Crazy Horse, Duma is on my short list, I think that's an unbelievable record. Yeah, there's some newer bands that I absolutely called Japan Droids out of Canada. They have a great record called Celebration Rock, if you're into the whole study, even Spring, I'm going to say Springsteen, not in the way that they sound, but in the context of the lyrics. And that working class and Passion highly recommend that record. And then there's a band out of it's, actually one guy, but a band out of Indiana called Strand of Oaks. He's putting out his name is Tim Showwalter and he's been putting out fantastic records for a long time. But sort of the record that got him a wider audience, a record called Heal is I cannot recommend it enough. Jay Mask from Dinosaur Junior plays guitar on one song, so that's sort of the genre. But it's just a beautiful songwriter. If you love the Pumpkins, if you love Diary after you hear it, or Siamese Dream especially, but it goes off from there. He's a very great songwriter. If you think of bands like maybe the War on Drugs, who I love. Their new record is fantastic. Kurt Vile, he's got sort of interplays of that going on. So I love that record. But, yeah, there's just so many County Crows, August and everything after from start to finish. I have a friend who wants to bring that one in next season. It's fantastic. It is a good album. Yes. And I didn't realize so that was one of the cassettes that I saw growing up with the cassette players and you could bring stuff in. It started with big one for me was Bon Jovi's, New Jersey, which come on. It's fantastic record. It is, yeah. John can write songs, man. I'll be there for you. Come on. These five words, that's one that I have to unfortunately give credit to my sister who's two years older than me. So in the blasting in our house from her room, my first band T shirt ever, which I still have, is my dad bought me a Bon Jovi T shirt. It's about a size child small or something, but just a fantastic songwriter. There's just so many but going back to County Crows, it's one of those records where even listening to it now, I didn't realize or where I was going with it anyway. It was one of those cassettes that I could play in the van. And my parents really dug it, too. My parents are giving credit. My dad loves Never Mind loves Nirvana and they love the counting pros and stuff. And growing up and heard it was just great rock music. But then as I got older, just the lyrics and how Adam riding through his depression and all that sort of stuff. And it reminds me of the same way, listening back to it now with hindsight and sort of life experience. It reminds me of listening to Soulson Grape Dancers Union. And I say that because everybody knows Runaway Train and the video. But if you sit down and listen to the lyrics of that song and Dave is riding through his depression and calls you up in the middle of the night like a firefly looking for a light I was a little out of touch, little insane it's just easier than dealing with the pain and it's the same way. It's just fantastic songwriting is, I guess, what I'm trying to say. But it's cool to have those records growing up and you're listening to them and then being able to revisit them now and getting so much more out of them, which is a gigantic bonus of this project. Fantastic. And I do have to mention at all, there is one record that I absolutely love growing up, jim Blossom's New Visorable Experience. Yeah, Hey Jealousy. And so if you don't know the backstory of that band, I highly recommend Looking it up from Arizona. What I didn't know about the time is that the main guy in that band, Doug Hopkins, who wrote all the lyrics, he ends up getting booted from the band. He's a pretty bad alcoholic. Gets end up booting from the band right as they make it big. But he wrote some of those earlier songs. And if you go through and listen to that record, you can tell it's very much a darker record than you can think about. It like Hey, Jealousy. One of the things that he was bummed about is when they released it, they re worded his lyrics, but it was like the way it's released is you can trust me not to think and not to sleep around from Hey Jealousy. But he actually wrote, you can trust me not to drink and not to sleep around. And it's all about you can see I'm no shape for driving in any way I've got no place to go but when you hear it's, that poppy. You're going back to today, right? And Smashing Pumpkins and it's joyful and you're getting a kick out of it, especially when you're a kid and you have no life experience. And then you're like, Oh, my God, this guy was dealing with

Participant #1:

there are a lot of songs from our teenage years that you rock out to but then you go back and you look at the lyrics like, wow, maybe that's why we're singing that. Maybe that's why our generation is doing so well. Exactly. Our therapists think of the pop artists from our generation. The Killer and me is the killer. And you send a smile over to you. Yeah, there's so many good records, Steve. Like I said, it was not hyperbole. When you had asked me to be on, I automatically got touch on that. But then you go back and you listen to a lot of, like, Beatles. Oh, yeah, same thing. These are some great snappy radio hits and just everyone can tap your foot. But then when you dive into the lyrics, you're either thinking, what are they on? What are they talking about? Or There are so many interpretations, but at the time, it's just kind of a great song and then move on to the next. I remember singing along like Maxwell Silver Hammer as a three and a four year old. It was almost like a lullaby. And then you're like, Oh, wait, this is literally about a serial killer killing people with this hammer. What are we doing? I think I actually have it on. I made a Beatles for baby Playlist when my daughter was born just to have it playing. I have that. Nice. I've got it. Yes. Both my kids. Those are all advice. Yeah. And I think that might be on it. And I was like, Oh, my God, I hope they don't earn hearing the lyrics. Yeah. One of my more favorite tunes growing up from the White Album was Happiness Is a Warm Gun. Unbelievable. And I would know, I sing every word, and then later on, I was singing that at what age? Oh, wow. Yeah. Isn't it crazy? It's such a great thing that's not even getting into the 90s. Hip hop, that walled out. Everyone had that. Yeah, that's another world. I remember getting in trouble because I'm a big lyrics guy and I would write down lyrics to my favorite song. When you're in high school, you're supposed to be taking notes. I would write down lyrics to my favorite song, see if I could remember them and stuff. Well, I started doing that with, like, hip hop songs, and my parents would find, like, gin and juice lyrics, and I had no idea. I'm just writing stuff down. You're shooting what? What is this, iced tea? Well, my mom was real big into show tunes. Okay. So all the classic musicals and Sound of Music, Oklahoma, et cetera. But Greece was very popular. She loved it with the movie. Grease was on quite a bit. Yeah. And I knew every word of that particular one. And then it was years later. I think I was in the army at the time. I remember seeing it, the song Grease Lightning with subtitles on. And you start seeing all the Chicks are Creaming and stuff, like, oh, yeah. And never noticed these lyrics. I was like, Wow, did she put up a fight? Tell me more. Tell me more. What? Yes. Then you get into that area of it. What are we doing here? Yeah. And you're singing it like crazy. It would be at every dance. You're singing at the top of your lungs. And it's a cute song, I think the 7th grader. Yeah. Okay. Different times. Different times. It's about the 50s. Apparently that was okay in the 50s when you watch the movie. Apparently it was okay for 30 year olds to be in high school in the 50s because there's no way those are high school students. I think Rizzo might be I think she might be, like, 40 or 50. The actress in that movie. Yeah. The stocker chanting. She has been, like, the same age ever since Greece, it seems like. Well, once you hit your mid 30s, if you take care of yourself. Yeah. They're singing Summer Nights. They've got almost full beards, a couple of them, and just white unreal. It is amazing that when you go back and listen to the songs of the day, we're talking about Prince Little Red Corvette. Well, Prince lyrics. Cool. That's a whole other podcast. There got a pocket full of horses. Some of them are used there's. A Little Red Corvette is playing at the Spring Valley pool and we're all singing along to it. What is it? Pocketful horses? Trojans. And some of them were used, I think, is the lyric. Or just the little Nikki or Nikki darling, something like that. Darling Nikki. Yeah. Darling Nicky. That's it. Yeah. There's some crazy Prince lyrics. Yeah. But we're singing along to them. We have no idea. I was probably six or seven singing Billy Jean. Oh, yeah. Weren't we all? Not having a clue what I'm saying? I think it's so funny, too, because as a parent now, and you're doing all those things you swore you would never do, but then a song will come on. I'm like, what are they saying? That's filthy. And they have no idea. We do, like, the kids BOP version of song, so they edit it and stuff. And then I make the mistake of they want to listen to it, so I just put it on. What's the name of the song you want to hear? And you're like, Oh, wait, this is not the edited version. And they have no idea. But it's like, what are we singing about? Yeah, there's a lot of those. We have the same kids about Revelation now and then when they hear the actual song. Yeah. And I didn't think anything about it. When they tell people that their favorite song is by Megan the Stallion because they've heard the kids BOP version. And then you get those weird side glances, and I'm like, I don't think but I can die happy if I never hear Old Town Road again, either version. God, that's a horrible song, honestly. For me, the breaking point was took my daughter to Jojo Siwa a couple of summers ago, if you haven't had the joy of Jojo. And they started playing that song on the loudspeaker before she came on, and the place just went crazy. Like, kids were going, like, screaming and crazy, and it was just the culmination of everything that was going on and what I was about to endure, and God bless her, Jo Joe and her fans, and she's a very talented young lady, but I'm a middle aged man, and it was just a culmination of all that where I'm like, so now I just equate that song with my discomfort. It's a great song, though. Little Nas has got it going on. Then I feel that I'm doing something right because I'm trying to pull my kids away and my five year old daughter will repeatedly ask me for the Bad Teacher song and I'll put on the whole of another Brick in the Wall one, Happy Days of Our Lives and part two, she loves the whole thing. She sings along to it, doesn't know what she's singing, and I'm okay with that to any people critiquing my parenting. It's Pink Floyd and she's going to listen to it. Fantastic. Yeah. We've constantly got stuff going on here. And that makes you so happy, doesn't it? It truly does. To hear her singing along just, hey, teacher, this is so cute. Yeah. As long as she doesn't do that at school. At school, right. You got to reel that in. Although there would be a sense of pride if you got called in and had to sit down and your little ones yelling, leave those kids alone to your teacher. You might be okay with that. I would have pride anyway. Yeah. I might have to kind of smile reprimand or don't do that again. We'll talk when we get home. High five on the way out. No, it's great. It's funny that you I haven't played or anything else from that album that might be a bit too much. She doesn't need to sing any other lyrics from the Wall that might trauma her. Probably not. It is so great that when they're listening to something or like, I'll have something on and they're like, oh, what is that? Or they'll catch something and it's just like, oh, okay, we're doing okay. I've got an opening. Let me play you something. I know we're going to rebel and you're going to have your own thing and that's fantastic, but we've got to get this foundation in. You've got to have a jumping off point. There's a few that they'll request went through a big Dead phase not too long ago. I got into the Dead later in life, but my kids call them the Teddy Bear Band, so they want to listen to the Teddy Bear Band sometimes, and I'm like, all right. My kids have oddly zeroed in on Good Charlotte recently. Okay. Because their debut album was one that I was considering. I really liked that album. Got you, so I was listened to it all the way through and that's what's one that they'll request and I'm happy to oblige. That's a great album. It's pretty tame, lyrically, and it's Bobby. They can move their heads. It's not kids BOP. It's actually a nice pop punk from the early two thousand s. And I'm all for it. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, you got to get them into their own stuff. But a lot of the Beatles stuff the kids listen to. My daughter got into,

Participant #1:

all the Parents is out there. This is when the comments come in. But the Hamilton soundtrack. And so my wife got her the Hamilton for Kids sort of book, and they read along with it and what the songs meant and then the history of it. So it was a history lesson and listening to it at the same time. But she just loved it. So then that started a whole other she wanted to hear more music that sounded like that, so she wanted to hear more, like, rap music, but then it got into, like, show tune. So I would play her some of my Broadway favorite songs and so it was sort of a jumping off point of sort sit her down and make her watch 1776. Yeah. There you go. That's coming up. Yeah, dad is watching the History Chat, one of my favorites. Yeah, we haven't quite gotten there yet. They won't let me man the TV. I'm trying, but the history channels where they tune out. All right, well, before we wrap this up, please tell our listeners what you're working on if they can find you anywhere or anything you'd like to pitch. I got nothing, Steve. I don't really. Perfectly fine. No, I've got nothing to pitch, really. I would just say, like we were talking about before to any listeners out there, if you haven't heard a record before that's on this episode or anything to mention either from this episode or other episodes, go back and listen to it. Give it a listen for the first time for the 500 time. And just I think that's what's so great about music is you can keep going back and listening to it and discovering new bands and new things, and whether it came out 20 years ago or whether it came out 20 minutes ago to discover something new and to go back, I would just implore your listeners to do that, which I'm sure they are, since they're listening to this podcast. Excellent point. I will take your pitch time, though, and just let everybody know out there that future episodes are up on our patreon. So feel free to support the show if you want to hear the episodes before everybody else. And also check out our other podcast, which is Cinema Decon, where we talk about old movies from the it's a pretty good time. Wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts and like subscribe do all that good stuff that podcasters are supposed to say. Would we supposed to say smash the subscribe button or is that YouTube? My influencers are kind of off. Smash that like button. Smash that like button, bro. Yeah. Is that what the kids are saying? Did we get that one right? Something like that. I try to avoid the cliches as much as I can, but I'm just trying to fit in, trying to get the younger demographic. Just talked about a 30 year old record, so I figured we'd

Participant #1:

yes, the 90s were great.

Participant #1:

Well, Danny, I'd like to thank you for your time today. It was a pleasure to sit and talk with you about Diary from Sunny Day Real Estate. Thanks for having me, Steve. This is fantastic. Good catching up and I'm looking forward to future episodes, man. Like I said, I've been listening to them a lot and hearing stuff again for the first time. Hearing stuff for the first time as well. And love what you're doing and keep up the good work, man. Again, thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. Thanks. I appreciate that. Thank you for listening to music. Rewind a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. And as I always say, listen to the full album. Until next time,

Participant #1:

a podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. Back to you. Anchors.

https://musicrewind.podbean.com/e/sunny-day-real-estate-diary-with-danny-prokup/