Because of my George Washington-esque ability to not tell I lie, I must profess that part of my reason for attending the Real Estate show this past Thursday was so that I could cop their limited release tour-only 12” called Live on the Radio. I’ve been excited about getting this since I saw the release pop up on the Underwater Peoples blog.
Both sides are composed of in-studio performances at two different college radio stations (A: WMUA at UMass-Amherst, B: WVKR at Vasser College) taking place in early September. If the turn around from live recording to wax seems a bit rushed, it is; the front cover itself is just a printed out piece of paper pasted to a generic LP sleeve. Regardless, the stripped down performances and the inclusion of some hard to releases and unreleased material made it worth buying.
The reverb and echoed guitar by Martin Courtney is replaced by a cleaner acoustic while the electric of Matt Mondanile is still present but highly tamed. As for the percussion, Etienne Duguay only has a set of bongo drums, a cymbal, and some miscellaneous toys to drive the beat. This more intimate instrumentation sheds the intricate layers and leaves each song solely at its infectious poppy core.
As mentioned, three of the ten songs are “new” (i.e. I don’t have them in my assumed complete collection of Real Estate tunes). On Side A, “Younger than Yesterday” is as straightforward of a song as you can get. Certainly a throw away track, it has very few changes structurally and musically (the same four chords on acoustic repeated over and over again) and absolutely no surprises. The B-side houses two new additions with “Basement” and the “The Mall”. “The Mall”, clocking in at under two minutes, is definitely the shortest and the oddest on the LP. Featuring some modest scatting and “whoo-whoo”-ing by Courtney as well as some uncomplimentary rhythms, it is easy to see why this one was left on the cutting room floor. However, “The Basement” is a rather standard Real Estate track with Mondanile’s twangy guitar effortlessly floating over Alex Bleeker’s constant subterranean bass line. Lines like “See me in the classroom / watching the seconds tick by … I was on a stony beach / watching the sea birds fly” certainly epitomizes the summertime vibe that Real Estate is so good at harnessing.
As soon as I get a vinyl rip, I’ll be sure to post some mp3s.