Grandaddy Releases 'Derek Spears' Single Digitally For The First Time

Modesto, CA’s influential indie-rock group Grandaddy will release a special digital edition of Sumday: Excess Baggage, a thirteen-track collection of rarities and b-sides from the Sumday-era, August 25 on Dangerbird Records.

The announcement and lead single, “The Town where I’m Livin Now,” garnered excitement spanning NPR, FLOOD, Uproxx, BrooklynVegan and Under The Radar. Today, they have unveiled a new album cut “Derek Spears,” released digitally for the first time ever! Grandaddy leader Jason Lytle shares about the song, “Just a day in the life of a fictional character I imagined. Some of it autobiographical... but mainly the name Derek Spears just sounds so Modesto.”

Grandaddy’s Sumday Twunny limited edition 4-LP boxed set is slated for release on September 1 via Dangerbird Records. The collection includes the remastered original album as well as a complete 4-track demo version titled Sumday: The Cassette Demos, and Sumday: Excess Baggage. 

“After many years of hammering away at writing and recording as Grandaddy, Sumday seems to be the center of it and where it all peaked. To the journalists we were, ‘On the verge of greatness, underrated, overlooked, unsung.’ It was a tumultuous and exciting time for us for sure. Also very exhausting,” Lytle said.

“Revisiting this material and reflecting on those times has been a double edged sword. Bittersweet is an apt word, I suppose. Twenty years after the fact, I'm just grateful to be alive and kicking… celebrating that moment in time by re-releasing the original album, B sides and extras of that era, and even some raw cassette demos of the album itself a sort of sketchbook/rough draft of the LP in cassette form. So be it then. ‘On the verge of greatness, underrated, overlooked, unsung.’ This is what all of that sounds like.  I'll take it.”

Grandaddy formed in 1992 and have released five official LPs, most recently 2017’s Last Place. Grandaddy members include Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Tim Dryden, and the late Kevin Garcia, who passed away in 2017.

Photo Credit: Chugrad McAndrews