#BESTTHINGS2011 // REAL ESTATE - Days (Domino)
American indie rock is a genre pretty much made by and for the (mostly) white middle class of this country. It’s stuff born of private liberal arts colleges, access to subcultural resources like independently owned record stores and independent records (often found in private liberal arts college towns) and comfort in general. This is why it strikes me as odd when bands like Vampire Weekend get so much grief for acknowledging their own privilege (even within a critical context) whereas bands like Grizzly Bear that just exude cushy upbringings skate by pretty much unscathed.
Real Estate has been a band literally obsessed with there suburban New Jersey background. When the band was invited to play to the opening day concert at guitarist Matt Mondanile’s particular private liberal arts alma mater Hampshire College in Amherst, MA last year (full disclosure: this is the same institution that offers me employ), his advice for the wide-eyed audience of first year students was to “move back in with your parents after you graduate, if that’s possible” because that’s what he did and it was working out really well for him. In anecdotes like this, as well as in the band’s name itself and the suburban nostalgia that floods singer Martin Courtney’s lyrics, there suggests a real reverence for the economic, social and physical infrastructures that largely determined their lives. With Days, the band’s second album, Real Estate’s jangly guitars, understated percussion and glassy-eyed sentimentality continue to their homage to their suburban hometowns. The fuller production on this record serves the band well. The lo-fi aesthetic of their self-titled debut (Woodsist, 2009) never really did their songs must justice. Here the brightness of the guitar melodies combined with the subtle melancholy of Courtney’s vocal delivery allows the push and pull of the band’s sound to come into full focus. For Real Estate, Days is both the full realization of their sound as well as a honest annunciation of middle class culture.
Real Estate - “Green Aisles” from Days http://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/real-estate-green-aisles
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#BESTTHINGS2011 is a series focusing on the “best things” released in 2011. Bucking arbitrary numerical distinction, these postings will appear in no particular order with no particular concern for whether they are original releases or reissues from this year. I’m hoping to post one a day for the remainder of the calendar year or until I run out of best things to write about. Not sure which will come first.
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