In my head, I know better than to be so excited about the news that Sunny Day Real Estate is reuniting for a 20-date tour, which includes a stop at Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Oct. 9. It couldn’t ever mean the same as it did 10-plus years ago, but wistful nostalgia wins out every time, doesn’t it?

After so many SDRE breakups, false starts of possible reunions and near reunions (remember The Fire Theft?), I feel like I should definitely embrace this for all it’s worth.

In addition to the reunion, Sub Pop is reissuing remastered versions of Diary and the self-titled second album (or “LP2” or “The Pink Album”) with bonus tracks and new liner notes on Sept. 15 on both CD and LP. (That probably would make a great present for anyone whose birthday falls on or around Sept. 7 … just sayin’.)

Though I’m always suspicious and mostly sour on the double-dipping sales tactics of reissues, I can get behind this one for a couple reasons. For starters, Diary (1994) and LP2 (1995) were released some 15 years ago, so they probably deserve the remastering treatment that technology didn’t allow for back then. And it’s not like they’re asking fans to re-purchase the same album a year later (ahem). Also, if the reissues open up SDRE’s music to a new/younger generation, then what’s the harm in that?

But the best reason for the reissue? I can buy a playable vinyl copy of LP2. My copy – a gift from my brother back in the day – is slightly warped. If I recall correctly, my bro bought it in San Diego, put it in the car trunk and drove it home across the brutal desert heat. Needless to say, it was left a tad misshapen (“melted,” you might say).

• Sunny Day Real Estate | 8 (from LP2)

I’ll have to do some digging to find the clip, but I interviewed guitarist Dan Hoerner some time ago for a story when I was working at The Arizona Republic during college (I might even have the audio of the interview).

In any event, the reissues will be available at Sub Pop and www.sunnydayrealestate.fm (which also has presale information on tickets).

Related:
New Jeremy Enigk: Life’s Too Short
New Jeremy Enigk: Mind Idea

Full Sunny Day Real Estate tour dates:
September 17th Vancouver, BC/Commodore Ballroom
September 18th Portland/Crystal Ballroom (Musicfest NW)
September 20th Salt Lake City/Murray Theater
September 21st Denver/Ogden Theater
September 23rd Minneapolis/First Avenue
September 24th Chicago/Metro
September 25th Detroit/St Andrews Hall
September 27th New York/Terminal 5
September 28th Boston/House of Blues
September 30th Washington DC/930 Club
October 1st Philadelphia/Trocadero
October 3rd Atlanta/CW Center Stage
October 5th Dallas/Granada Theater
October 6th Houston/Warehouse Live
October 7th Austin/La Zona Rosa
October 9th Tempe/Marquee Theatre
October 10th Anaheim/House of Blues
October 11th Los Angeles/Henry Fonda Theater
October 13th San Francisco/Fillmore
October 15th Spokane/Knitting Factory
October 16th Seattle/Paramount Theatre

If Fat Cat Records is going to send three great bands from Scotland to the U.S., might as well do it all in one fell swoop. That’s how Plush in Tucson is ending up with what looks to be one of the most promising shows of the year so far on Sept. 22: Frightened Rabbit with the Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks. (Thanks to Catfish Vegas for the heads up.)

I also find it eerily coincidental that I’ve posted about each of these bands in the past two months. I’ll take that as a little bit of karma coming my way and gladly cash it in for another road trip to Tucson.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 day of show. It’s a 21-and-over night brought to you by Stateside Presents.

This reminds me that I still have video from Frightened Rabbit’s in-store at Stinkweeds in October that I have yet to cut and post. In the meantime, here’s a clip I took of the band performing Keep Yourself Warm in June in Phoenix.

• Frightened Rabbit | The Modern Leper
• The Twilight Sad | Reflection of the Television
• We Were Promised Jetpacks | Quiet Little Voices

Related:
Frightened Rabbit: Swim Until You Can’t See Land
The Twilight Sad: Reflection of the Television
We Were Promised Jetpacks: Quiet Little Voices

In March 2007, I wrote a post with this title: “New Brendan Benson?: Feel Like Taking You Home.” More than two years later, you can take off the question mark. A new album, called My Old, Familiar Friend, is due for release Aug. 18 on ATO. If you’re scoring at home, that’s four-plus years since we last heard a Brendan Benson solo project, 2005’s The Alternative to Love. (Of course, Benson has been busy with the Raconteurs, a worthwhile excuse for such a wide gap between solo releases.)

If I recall correctly, the version of Feel Like Taking You Home that I posted in 2007 was a demo/rough edit that he posted to his MySpace page. (You know, the good ol’ days when songs were downloadable off that site.) Stereogum debuted the proper studio version – a finished product that very closely resembles the demo cut – and I’ve reposted below. (If you really want that rough cut, drop me an e-mail .)

• Brendan Benson | Feel Like Taking You Home

Here’s the tracklisting for My Old, Familiar Friend (album artwork shown above), which was produced by Gil Norton:

1. A Whole Lot Better
2. Eyes on The Horizon
3. Garbage Day
4. Gonowhere
5. Feel Like Taking You Home
6. You Make a Fool Out of Me
7. Poised and Ready
8. Don’t Want to Talk
9. Misery
10. Lesson Learned
11. Borrow

The 43rd installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from Nick Andre, a Bay Area DJ/producer and co-founder of Slept On Records who has worked with, among others, artists from Quannum and Living Legends. His newest project is City Light, which recently toured with and recorded a split covers EP with Her Space Holiday.

• City Light | All You Demons

The Pharcyde
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
(Delicious Vinyl, 1992)

I got Bizarre Ride on cassette tape during a summer trip in seventh grade to my cousin’s house in S.D. This was the first “underground” hip-hop album I owned. That summer my cousin and I got really into smoking weed so Pack the Pipe was kind of an anthem for us that summer. Bizarre Ride had such a unique sound to me from the different vocal tones of Fat Lip, Tre, Brown and Imani to the simple but extremely catchy hooks. They even manage to make a entire song out of Ya Mama jokes.

As I got older I got obsessed with going to as many hip-hop shows as possible and began to find out about similar artists such as Hieroglyphics, Living Legends, Project Blowed, etc. Right after high school, I saved up my money and purchased an MPC 2000XL and decided to take a shot at making beats. This became my new obsession. As I progressed and became more confident about what I was making, I started giving beat tapes to local MCs in the Bay Area. This led to being able to work and tour as a DJ with some of the artists I had grown up listening to such as Medusa (Project Blowed), OMNI (BLX), Bicasso (Living Legends) and more. About 10 years after I had purchased Bizarre Ride, I found myself backstage at a Pharcyde show we were main support for, drinking Hennessy with Jern Eye and getting so drunk that we ended up on stage singing the chorus to Passin’ Me By … doesnt get much better than that.

• The Pharcyde | Passin’ Me By
• The Pharcyde | Ya Mama

Cleveland production duo the Kickdrums — Alex Fitts and Matt Penttila — have remixed and produced some hip-hop heavies (Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Talib Kweli), and they just released their debut, Just a Game, on Tuesday. I haven’t heard the whole album – I’m downloading it now – but this single, Things Work Out, has a delicious Motown-meets-modern-day-production vibe.

You can check out the album at imeem. Also, I’ve asked the guys if they’re interested in writing an I Used to Love H.E.R. entry and they are down to do it. Expect that in the near future.

• The Kickdrums | Things Work Out