Day 1 - "In Circles" by Sunny Day Real Estate

"In Circles" by Sunny Day Real Estate

I don't know what it is about having clouds and rain 48 weeks a year that turns a city into an independent music factory (or causes so many musicians to be strung out on heroin), but there is just something about Seattle. My mom is from this area. I spent most of my summer and Christmas vacations in this area. And many of my favorite bands from my teenage years until today have been from this sun-deprived musical Mecca. Wheteher it was Nirvana (although Seatllites are quick to point out that Kurt Cobain was actually from Aberdeen), Pearl Jam (although Seatllites are quick to point out that Eddie Vedder was actually from So Cal), Alice in Chains, Pedro the Lion, or Death Cab for Cutie, the music of my teenage years carried with it musty tinge of this rain drenched City on the Sound (Puget, that is).

Signed to Sub Pop Records, (yes, the label that introduced us to Nirvana) Sunny Day Real Estate distinguished themselves from their grungy peers by focusing on melody. Emo is characterized by melody -- haunting, beautiful melody. Sunny Day Real Estate had melody is spades. While it wasn't the first band to be called emo, they were certainly the first to make it commercially viable. Their biggest LP, Diary, sold over 200,000 copies.

Hopefully you've listened to the song linked above. It's just about perfect. It starts with two piercing notes alternating like a siren and then crashes like a wave on top of you. Just as you're able to get your head above water after being pummled by the intro, Jeremy Enigk's haunting voice starts moaning these very sparse lyrics. It really is about the droning melody in this song. Don't bother reading the lyrics; you'll be disappointed. They obviously mean something to Enigk, and that's good enough because he's going to let you in to every rise and fall of passion in his soul. That crazy scream you hear right before the chorus tells the story of emo. It's usually sadness swelling to anger and back to melancholy again. The chorus is the real thrill of the song. Scream. Sing. Scream. "In Circles" isn't SDRE's most popular song, but it is the archetype for the emo that would follow it. When Emery moved to Seattle from South Carolina and were playing little clubs in Tacoma, it was "In Circles" they were playing to let the crowd know their cred. (At least that's what keyboardist/screaming banshee Josh told me at a Starbucks in the Mandalay Bay in Vegas told me once. Yeah, I'm a name dropper.) The drumming on this song is also exquisite. The unique sounding cymbals would be picked up by melodic hardcore and straight hardcore metal bands to follow.

The band broke up before it conquered the world, but not before leaving a legacy for countless bands to follow. The story goes that the band disbanded after lead singer, Jeremy Enigk, converted to Chrisitaninty. Two of the members went on to round out Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's solo project Foo Fighters after he recorded the first album playing all the instruments himself. SDRE has since reunited of and on for a couple of records. I've even heard there should be a new album coming out this year. We'll see. But for my money, it doesn't get much better than this emo standard. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I have.

I would be remiss If I failed to start out this journey by saying that were it not for the influence of my dear friend, college roommate, and musical counterpart, Bret Forrest Martin (ff you've met my son, I named my him after this guy), I don't know where I'd be musically. We shared similar taste in music when we met nearly fourteen years ago, but he introduced me to a world of underground, independent music that shook me to the core. I've turned him on to a bunch good stuff myself, but I don't think I'll ever be able to repay him for the way his unique musical tastes changed the course of my musical journey. He's a living legend, and, ladies, he's single. But seriously, thanks, Bret.

Next time, we will dive into some familiar territory and I will expose it's emo heart. You may be surprised by the emo that was walking around in front of our very eyes and accepted by the mainstream. Keep one eye open!