Quick Music Jerk 3: Real Estate, New Music Fever, and Your Weekly Album Mandates

Other than being a tough Google search, there's really no reason you shouldn't know about the greatness that is Real Estate.

 

1.  Go ahead and click play.  What you're hearing are the sweet beach guitar grooves and sun shower vocals of a little New Jersey band called Real Estate.  And yet I am sad.  Why, you ask?  Two reasons: 1.  I am shocked/disappointed at how many of my friends who I consider to be "plugged in" to good music drew a complete blank this past week when I asked them if they knew who Real Estate was.  2.  This means they've obviously not been reading my music blog/listening to my playlists as much as they claim or they'd know EXACTLY who Real Estate is.  When are you people going to realize it goes 1. Oxygen 2. Water 3. Food 4. Rob's music blog 5. Everything else?  Their debut album was a 2009 best of selection by the only music source in your life who really counts--me.  Anyway, Real Estate are coming to Dallas' venerable Club Dada on Friday, April 8th (tickets) and I will be there which means that Dallas' cool quotient will get a much needed boost.  Check out this band over the next couple weeks and decide if you'd like to join me.  We'll see a great show, eat some great Tex-Mex at Ojeda's, say hi to my mom--it'll be a great little weekend.

For starters, check out Real Estate's self-titled debut here.

2.  I've got the new music fever.  And the only cure is more and more and more new music.  Or wait, is that a symptom of the disease?  Help?  Anyway, from The Dodos to The Strokes to recent releases by everyone from PJ Harvey and Peter, Bjorn and John to Lupe Fiasco, there's a little something for everyone and no site I care to affiliate myself with does a better job of collecting each week's list of new releases with links to songs and purchases better than Salad Days Music.  You can find the link on the right side of this page (or you're a real genius and already clicked on the hyperlink I just provided).  Bookmark it, add it to your Google Reader, tattoo the URL to your face so you see it staring back at you in the mirror every Tuesday, but either way, use it.  And then come back to my site and find out what's really good, of course.

3.  Three albums I'm listening to this week for a variety of reasons and, therefore, you should be listening to:

What a Pleasure by Beach Fossils: Slightly hazy, dreamy, but still keenly-focused chillwave--this newly-released EP adds some new layers to the band's sound.  A little more synth-y, but a step forward and a really good listen,

Angles by The Strokes: Who isn't listening to this album this week?  Don't let the answer be you.  Still spending time with this album, but my initial impressions are good--a balanced marriage between their classic early sound and a cool step forward which in many ways is a step backward to the 80's with some New Wave electronic beats.  Worth a listen and still Strokes-y enough to make you happy, no matter what all the haters say.

Computers and Blues by The Streets: More wicked raw beat poetry than rap, The Streets is really one man--Mike Skinner.  And this is officially his last album under this moniker.  The first two albums--Original Pirate Material and A Grand Don't Come For Free are classics that measure up to any music I own.  The last two albums have been bloated disappointments.  This seemingly final installment--while not at a classic level--represents ending on a high.  Skinnner's sincerity, vulnerability, and sharp wit are back.  A concept album on love and "romance" in the modern technological/social networking age.  I dig the beats, the words, the whole thing.

So from Cincinnati with love, I wish you a good week, my friends.  Let me know what I need to be listening to and if I like it, I'll be sure to find a way to say I actually found it first.  Haha.  Mostly kidding.  Ha.  Ahem.