Sarah and the Sundays

One Liner: Danceable and fun indie rock from our own backyard!

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is pop rock, indie rock, dance party jam rock
Home: Austin!

Poster Position: 24
Weekend One Only.  Friday.  (how are they not on Sunday?)

Thoughts:   I know that most of you likely don't recall The Sundays, but there was a time when I thought their album Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic was about as good as music could be.  This is, however, not that band.  I enjoy doing this sort of thing when I am searching for a new artist I don't know, to see when Spotify considers them more popular than other similar things.  Here is what auto-fill thought I was saying with each letter:

S - Smartless (a podcast with Jason Bateman)

Sa - Santana

Sar - Sara Bareilles

Sara - same

Sarah - Sarah McLachlan (I for sure would have included a "u" in that last name)

Sarah a - same?

Sarah an - hey!  Sarah and the Sundays!

Huh.  If someone told you the name of this band, what would you expect to hear?  For me, I'd definitely expect a female lead singer.  Probably named Sarah.  Instead, this is a band of dudes.  Interesting.  The lead singer is kind of singing in italics sometimes though, which is a different sound to me.  An investigation into the band name has taught me that it is just as random as it seems.  Here is what they said: "When we were first starting out, we practiced every Sunday. So, we decided to call ourselves “The Sundays.” Unfortunately, we did not do enough research and quickly realized there was already a band of the same name. After some angry emails from some hardcore Sundays fans, we decided we had to change our name. We took a picture at our first show with Miles’ sister, Sarah, and captioned it “Sarah and the Sundays”. We thought that had a nice ring, and the rest is history."  I love the idea of a hardcore Sundays fan scaring these guys into changing their name.  And deeply weird that there is no Sarah in the band...  Feels like they need to change their name before the blow up!

They originally came from New England, and a few years ago they packed up and moved to Austin.  They sort of grew up together - two were friends since birth, and then the other two came on board during high school.  They all went off to respective colleges, but then all dropped out to make the music thing happen.  But they claim to have gotten P. Terry's burgers every day for the first three months they lived in Austin, so they're real for that.

The first album was 2019's So You're Mad About the Cups (great title), which boasts their top track for streams.  "Moving On" has 14.1 million streams.

Has some of those same dreamy, woozy guitars that I was just talking about with the band Vacations (another band in need of a better band name!).  I was hoping to recognize Austin landmarks in that video, but it looks like they filmed it elsewhere.  Solid tune though, I like the surf-rock tones in the guitar solo.  The remix/rap at the end is interesting too.

After that, you get 2021's The Living End.  The top track here is "I'm So Bored."  Just over 3 million streams.

I feel like my kids would sing this every day of the summer.  Nerds.  I'd love to be freaking bored.  Also, the big redbeard in the band is giving me Andy in Parks and Rec vibes.  Another band that kind of makes me think of Two Door Cinema Club.  Danceable rock with catchy melodies and fun riffs.  "Vices" does a breakdown near the end that reminds me of the part if Guns N Roses' version of "Civil War" where they do a funky little breakdown.  They also cover "Losing My Religion" in a stark way that is nice.  A deluxe version of that same album came out in 2022, but otherwise no new music.

It's a really fun sound.  I've fully enjoyed listening to them all day.  Glad they are weekend one, hopefully they get a good spot and I can go check it out!