Beach front Real Estate emerging on the market

By Aitor Zabalegui

Real Estate, a little-known band from New Jersey, may have a highly un-Google-able name, but thanks to free music on the Internet -- which has conceived and born life to more bands than record labels would ever be able to discover and promote -- Real Estate can be heard by aspiring part-time music journalists all the way out here in California.

This quartet, who have opened for the likes of Titus Andronicus and Vivian Girls, have been amusingly referred to as "a sunsetting, less ethereal Galaxie 500, but before it gets too dark," by music blog Stereogum, which pegged them with their "Band to Watch" label.

Accordingly, a free MP3 from the band's soon-to-be-released debut album was included on the site to prove the claim.

The track in question, called "Fake Blues," evokes all the right feelings of a lazy summer day on the shore of your favorite body of water -- even if the band may have written the song with the Jersey Shore in mind.

A wistful guitar and timpani drumming weave around lead singer Martin Courtney's swooning vocal harmonies, effortlessly imitating the motions of a breaking swell.

Of late, it was getting more difficult to find good guitar-centric bands with staying power that would resort to anything other than radio-friendly riffage.

But thanks to that whole "music goes in cycles" thing, the airy melodies of '60s guitar pop are coming back to the forefront of indie music.

Real Estate is not to be confused with The Beach Boys, however, as their sound is more noticeably reminiscent to the stoned, surf pop of Crystal Stilts.

For those curious enough, the band's first seven-inch is available for purchase on their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/letsrockthebeach, and it turns out to be quite the complementary package.

Not only is the album pressed on swanky white vinyl, but it also includes a nonsensical little Sharpie-drawn illustration from the band on an accompanying burned disc of the record's three tracks.

The album's A-side, "Suburban Beverage," basks in the sun with a rocking-chair bass line before tidal guitars wash in, shortly followed by cymbal crashes which echo far off into a vast, fuzzy recess that's as warm as the beach the band seems to be playing on.

The continued over-use of ocean references to describe the record in this review can be justified by the image of a poignant beach landscape on the back of the single. But a track like the grandiose "Black Lake" is more highly emotive of the record's aquatic theme than anything illustrated through writing or pictures.

Finally, "Old Folks" is a charming number with frolicking, full-on surf guitar licks and jangling drums led proudly by a zealous tambourine.

"Fun in the sun" automatically, albeit begrudgingly, comes to mind, but, just like the summer, this track ends too soon.

Thanks to the opportunistic power of the Internet, this band has generated some worthy buzz. You can look for their anticipated debut album later this year out on Underwater Peoples Records.

Contact Aitor Zabalegui at (408) 551-1918 or azabalegui@scu.edu.