Reunited Sunny Day Real Estate touring again

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Seattle rock band Sunny Day Real Estate will return to the road with its four original members this fall, and will reissue its first two Sub Pop albums on September 15. These will be the band's first shows of any kind since November 2000, and the first with its classic lineup since 1998.

The trek begins September 17 in Vancouver and run through October 16 in Seattle. The reissues of 1994's "Diary" and the following year's untitled follow-up (commonly known as "LP2" or "The Pink Album") will include as-yet-unspecified bonus tracks and new liner notes.

Sunny Day Real Estate's bracing blend of emotionally resonant hardcore struck an immediate chord with listeners on "Diary," which was produced by Brad Wood. A second full-length record with Wood arrived in 1995, but internal tensions, including frontman Jeremy Enigk's conversion to Christianity, had already broken up the group by the time the disc was released.

A three-year hiatus followed, during which time Enigk released a heavily orchestrated, pop-leaning solo album, "Return of the Frog Queen," while drummer William Goldsmith and guitarist Nate Mendel joined Foo Fighters. But in 1998, the band suddenly regrouped -- minus Mendel, who remained with Foo Fighters and was replaced in SDRE by a succession of bassists -- to record the acclaimed album "How It Feels to Be Something On."

That set was supported with several tours, as well as the 1999 concert document "Live." But Sunny Day imploded again following the release of the 2000 album "The Rising Tide," although Enigk, Mendel and Goldsmith regrouped shortly thereafter minus SDRE guitarist Dan Hoerner in a similar sounding new band, the Fire Theft. That group released a lone self-titled album in 2003 on Rykodisc.

Enigk has since released two solo albums and an EP, the latest of which, "OK Bear," came out May 12 on his own Lewis Hollow label and features a return to a heavier, Sunny Day-ish rock sound.

The band reconvened in March for rehearsals, and decided to give a full tour a go. The set lists will largely stick to material from the first two albums that were written and recorded by the original lineup.

(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)