breaking: real estate

(photo by mehan)

There were two bands working to establish their reputations at New York’s Bowery Ballroom Friday night. The first, and more prominent, was San Francisco’s Girls, about whom it’s probably best for me to let Sean’s excellent Sound of the City piece do the talking. The other band was the New Jersey group Real Estate, whose forthcoming full-length (It’ll arrive on eMusic on the 17th of this month) is a low-key wonder. The record makes a virtue of shyness: its songs amble and roam, moving not in circles but straight lines. Rather than centering around a single refrain, they seem instead to be constantly drifting, like plank-rafts moving lazily downstream. Combine the lazy noodling of Felt with the late-summer haze of early Yo La Tengo and you’re getting close.

Live, though, Real Estate are another matter entirely. What is loose and laconic becomes electrified, tense coils of guitar springing and retracting. The closest touchstone was American rock of the mid 70s — songs that put a premium on a tangle of guitars over a resounding chorus. There were also glimpses of the moments where those bands inspired into more obstinate outfits, like Pavement and the Clean, bands that channel thrift store LP influences through a decidedly ruddy and imperfect aesthetic. There’s a tendency with bands prone to jamming for members to get lost in a thicket of sixteenth notes, but Real Estate used the long instrumental passages as a way to redraw the boundaries of their songs; every second they were onstage was captivating. Moreover, their songs had a palpable sense of surprise: you never quite knew where their exploration would lead them — and you got the sense that they weren’t quite sure, either — but there was an understanding that the destination was beside the point. Real Estate’s music exulted in the mystery of travel.

(Real Estate’s self-titled LP will be available from Woodsist on 11/17)