Todd Olmstead

Real Estate w/R. Stevie Moore, Andrew Cedermark
Saturday, August 11
Webster Hall

Better than: The thousand times I have listened to Real Estate's Days.

In front of shifty blue stage lights on Saturday night, Real Estate keyboardist Jonah Mauer squinted at his bandmate, guitarist Matt Mondanile. One of them had cracked a joke, who knows about what, and both couldn't stop laughing, glancing down at the floor, shaking their heads. Before them stood frontman Martin Courtney, singing with his eyes tightly closed, absorbed in his performance, cocking his ivory Telecaster at almost a 45-degree angle. It was just one of the many moments capturing all of the emotions the New Jersey outfit evokes: Lightheartedness, bliss, nostalgia.

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It's a dog-eat-hot-dog world out there.

Presented for your Friday-afternoon viewing pleasure: The canine-centric video for Real Estate's chiming, charming "It's Real," in which an afternoon of looking back on the finest moments in an adorable puppy's life (via home movies that have just the right nostalgically gauzy filter applied to them) turns into a veritable dogapalooza. It's so adorable, it had me typing in "www.petfinder.com" almost immediately after my first view was done. I know, I know, putting adorable animals in your music video is an easy way to reel people in, but come on. Dogs! They're so cute and lovable and dependable and... OK, I could go on, so just watch the video below.

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The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon show at Bushwick's Shea Stadium, right around the time the Blastoids' drummer poured paint on his kit and started splattering away.

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New Year's Eve is next Friday, which means you probably already missed out on Patti Smith tickets. Wait much longer and there won't be much left to choose from. So, in the interests of being servicey, and in honor of the news that 2010's Most Important Singles Artist, Ariel Pink, will be in a 10,000 square foot Brooklyn warehouse when the clock rolls over to 2011, we thought we'd mention a few (read: a manageable amount of) SOTC-sanctioned shows. One of these is indeed Ariel Pink's; tickets for that--it's at 234 Starr Street--can be got here. $20 buys entry; other selling points apparently include a "$300,000 custom built, all-analogue sound system" and a bunch of Altered Zones-type dudes working it. Your flyer:

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This is something that happened within city limits. All photos by Georgia Kral

Todd P's 2010 Unamplified Acoustic BBQ
Raptor Point
Sunday, September 12

Better Than: Being dry.

When two shirtless men playing bongos tell you to clap, you clap--even when the sky is pouring rain, even when you're all the way out in Jamaica Bay, even when you're one of only 25 or so people at the show. Yes, Todd P's second annual unamplified, acoustic BBQ took place in the rain. We all know that Brooklyn's most prolific promoter likes a challenge (MtyMx, anyone?), so his decision yesterday to forge ahead--and say to hell with what was forecast to be a 30 percent chance of rain--was not hugely surprising. But the earth does what it wants: It rained a ton, pretty much all day long.

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Julian Lynch, La Big Vic, Campfires, and Ducktails
Glasslands
Friday, July 30

Julian Lynch played at Glasslands on Friday night on a bill with some old friends. It was a rare New York performance for the Ridgewood, New Jersey-born musician, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin and hates touring. Organized by SOTC-contributor Georgia Kral, the night opened with a set by a band called La Big Vic, which includes Emilie Friedlander, New York editor of Pitchfork's new site Altered Zones and a longtime supporter of Ducktails and Lynch. Also on the bill was Ducktails, helmed by Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile, a guy Lynch has been playing in bands with since high school.

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Same place awhile back. Possibly same outfit.

Real Estate/The Babies
Brooklyn Bowl
Tuesday, January 5

It's not until I explain to someone that tonight I'm going to see a band called Real Estate that I truly reflect on how ludicrous it is that a band called Real Estate exists. That is the anti-band-name to end all anti-band-names, a white flag of meekness, safety, profound boredom. Which suits these Jersey boys well, as they are the best really boring band I've seen in quite a while.

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As sponsored/put on by The Fader. Real Estate were sort of sleepy and affectless the last time we saw them but the Vivian Girls/Woods/Bossy combo project Babies tend to be a more lively affair. Plus it doesn't cost any money. Remember "Meet Me in the City"? Good song!

Tis the season of mixtape-type Christmas presents, it seems. Our own holiday mixtape is still very much available here and now, the lovely DC label Underwater Peoples has released their own Winter Review, featuring Ducktails, Real Estate, Julian Lynch, and the rest of the label's flagship acts. In the waning days of 2009 the Captured Tracks/Woodsist/UP axis already looks like it might well end up in our patented '00s microtrend graveyard, so enjoy it while it lasts. Chocolate Bobka has the tracklisting and the tape, or you can download it directly, right here. [Chocolate Bobka]

"What you want is just outside your reach," Martin Courtney sings at the opening of Real Estate's debut self-titled album. For this young New Jersey band, that's not really the case anymore. After a marathon year of playing nearly every week in New York, the band's been rewarded with both a lovely debut album, out tomorrow on Woodsist, and a countrywide tour. We caught up with Courtney, Real Estate's singer and guitarist, before their show in Toronto with tourmates Girls to talk about house parties, the suburbs, and the term "lo-fi."

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