Goldsmith Walks Back Suggestion Grohl Is Suppressing Sunny Day Real Estate LP (But He's Still &q

William Goldsmith Suggests Dave Grohl Is Suppressing Sunny Day Real Estate Album

December 4, 2018 | by James Greene, Jr.

Last night, Sunny Day Real Estate drummer — and one time Foo Fighter — William Goldsmith took to his Facebook page to confirm the existence of a new Sunny Day Real Estate album, offering an instrumental passage from the music and a strange explanation for its non-release. "The greatest Sunny Day Real Estate record ever made remains silenced, abandoned and buried within the murkiest depths of Dave Grohls [sic] sock drawer." Goldsmith refused to elaborate, but he did note that the situation is "both a shocking slap of reality and a swift kick in the balls" and that "the tragedy of it is literally manifesting itself into physical pain."

This afternoon, Goldsmith posted again, clarifying that "Dave's sock drawer was meant to figuratively represent studio 606 [sic]," the facility Grohl owns where Sunny Day Real Estate recorded their fifth album, and that "there are many ingredients that resulted in the abandonment of LP5." For example, singer Jeremy Engik did not "receive the moral support as well as the engineering that he deserved," he continues, "and I hold myself accountable just as much as everyone else involved..."

This newest Sunny Day Real Estate offering was recorded circa 2011, according to Goldsmith's post. "I know Jeremy is gonna be upset with me for speaking out about this again but when I hear those tracks through the ears of people who I respect i.e. Justin Tamminga and my wife Channeary and I see them feeling as devastated as I do over this whole thing it's hard to stay quiet."

This isn't the first time Goldsmith has been at odds with Grohl. Hired as one of the original Foo Fighters along side his Sunny Day Real Estate band mate Nate Mendel in 1995, Goldsmith quit the Foos two years later when he discovered the majority of the drum work he recorded for the group's sophomore effort The Colour And The Shape was being secretly re-done by Grohl himself (only two tracks on the finished album contain Goldsmith's playing). Grohl later admitted he "wish[ed] he would have handled things differently."

Goldsmith seems to reference this incident in his most recent post, writing "if I come across as being a little bit outraged it's simply because I've had the unfortunate experience of hard work being disregarded with no communications or explanations as to why." He also addresses Mendel, who has remained in the Foo Fighters since their inception, directly: "the last time I talked to you was when you guys said to be by the phone the next day to have a conference call about finishing LP5. The phone never rang and I haven't heard from you since then which was 2011 if memory serves. Granted I went into deep solitude after that but where else are you going to go after constantly being disregarded like an old shirt."

Sunny Day Real Estate hasn't released a full album since 2000's The Rising Tide, though they did put out a song on a split 7" with Circa Survive in 2014 and Engik issued a solo album in 2017.

Surely Dave Grohl will soon be confronted with all these accusations. We all look forward to how the most genial man in rock will respond. Maybe he has a good reason. Maybe the new Sunny Day Real Estate album insists a hot dog is a sandwich.