Nights and Days

Guitarist and singer Rob Vasquez spent the late 1970s playing with two Seattle garage-punk outfits, the Feelings and Look, both of which drew steady notice throughout the Northwest from 1976 through 1979. By 1985 he felt ready to assemble a fresh project. A lifelong collector who had come of age in the 1960s, Vasquez remained devoted to the concise three-minute garage sound that routinely featured hand percussion such as maracas and tambourines. His first recruit was Jerrat O’Bryan, a complete novice whom Vasquez trained on bass; although Vasquez himself had played that instrument in earlier groups, his real preference was always guitar, which he had picked up in junior high and used to write numerous originals while still in high school. He therefore claimed the lead-guitar and vocal spots for the new band. Drummer Matthew Jones, formerly of the Body Bags, completed the initial trio; the three musicians already knew one another through overlapping circles of mod enthusiasts. Vasquez sensed that something extra was needed to set the group apart from the mid-’80s grunge wave then rising in Seattle, so he added a second percussionist. Jesse Sunval accepted the role, and the two immediately bonded over a shared enthusiasm for 1960s music, art, clothing, toys, and television. After briefly weighing other possibilities, including the Wrong Box, Vasquez settled on the name Nights and Days. The songs he had written years earlier in high school became the band’s first set list. By the following year, however, Sunval’s friends had begun teasing him about playing tambourine, convincing him the position lacked value; he left. While performing at house parties and low-rent bar shows in 1987, the remaining members encountered Brendan Shriane and brought him in on percussion. Around the same time, acquaintance Mike Goodall was rumored to be launching a label; guitarist Tim Hayes of the Kings of Rock urged Goodall to consider Nights and Days, and Goodall did approach Vasquez, who also recommended the Fall-Outs. No release materialized. Instead the band struck a verbal deal with Regal Select Records and issued the 1988 seven-inch Garbage Can. That same year Sub Pop co-owner Jonathan Poneman invited the group to contribute to the Sub Pop 200 compilation; they recorded “Split,” which appeared alongside tracks by Nirvana, Tad, Mudhoney, Catbutt, and Swallow. Nights and Days performed at the album’s release party with several of those acts. A second Regal Select single, 1989’s These Days, followed, along with a track on the label’s 1990 Puget Power compilation. Poneman expressed interest in further material, so the band tracked an album with producer Jack Endino. When Poneman urged touring, Jones declined because he had taken a bank-teller position he was unwilling to leave; Vasquez asked him to locate a temporary replacement, but the conversation erupted into an argument that ended with both Jones and Vasquez quitting. The Endino recordings therefore remained unreleased. “Nobody had any idea things were going to happen the way they did for Sub Pop,” Vasquez later reflected. “If I wouldn’t have been such a hot head, I would have just found somebody to replace Matt and did the best we could.” The group formally disbanded in 1991, though the posthumous EP Live Above the Steel Room surfaced shortly afterward on the Rekkids label. Jones subsequently drummed for Monkey Business, while Vasquez recorded with Gorls, the Man Tee Mans, Chintz Devils, Ape Lost, and Night Kings, the last of which also featured O’Bryan.