live: Real Estate/Woods at Cameo Gallery

"What Can I Do?"
(photo: ryan muir, via real estate's myspace)

A couple of notes and observations on last evening's Mexican Summer/InSound showcase at Cameo Gallery, featuring Golden Triangle, Real Estate and Woods.

1. Golden Triangle slay. I am dissappointed in myself for neglecting them due to the inclusion of 'Golden' in their name. I apologize.
2. I've said this before, but Real Estate keep getting better. I think the NJ comrades may have played everything in their repertoire, including a new instrumental (new to me, at least). Real Estate ended with Grateful Dead-esque segue from "Green River" into "Suburban Beverage." I'm going to name this pairing the "Green Beverage."
   
3. Matt Mondanile's playing is getting a bit out of hand. His licks are so languid its as if his axe cuts songs out of lazy days. Like he's a widdler shaping a stump into a Mickey Mouse mailbox.
4. Woods are harnessing some otherwordly power and channeling it through god knows what, just as solar panels harness the strength of the sun. Spacial jams, Mississippi auto-mechanic freakouts, whispered relics. I have strange feeling Woods may be aliens.
5. Said Aliens have also released a live bootleg LP dubbed Acoustic Family Creeps, a collection of acoustic tracks recorded in the woods in France. The one-sided affair includes "Rain On," "Twisted Tongue," "To Clean," and "The Hold." After one spin, I can highly rec'd getting your hands on one of these gems.

Both Real Estate and Woods have new releases out on Britain's Half Machine Records. Real Estate's UK version of the "Fake Blues" 7" includes the rocking suburban trip "Green River," while the b-side Woods "To Clean" 7" is an acoustic version of "Rain On" recorded live on the radio. Peep both b-sides below. Buy 'em here.

Woods- Rain on Radio
Real Estate-Green River

mp3: Beach Fossils "Vacation", "Daydream"

"Leave The City Behind"
Waking up all foggy on a hazy morning with peanut butter on my breath, espresso penetrating my nasal passage, and Beach Fossils "Vacation" radiating through my ear drums felt like a moment of semi-cosmic clarity. My senses were a buzz, yet, despite the undeniable strength of Stumptown's Hairbender, I still felt like I was drifting through Maya Lin's Wave Field at Storm King, the landscape undulating like an ancient oscillating synthesizer– a rippled world. Beach Fossils, a dreamy bliss pop act from Brooklyn, whose associations with Woodsist, Captured Tracks and Underwater People's places him as part of the neo-Urban sylvan-beach psyche community (Woods, Ganglians, Real Estate, Ducktails), is the sound of escaping into a sun washed Polaroid from Rockaway Beach– the Atlantic to your east, Queens to the west. Beach Fossils have a number of upcoming shows in NYC, including one, appropriately, this Sunday at Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach. That show, aka Todd P's annual Unamplified BBQ, also features Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, Shilpa Ray, Real Estate (& Ducktails), Teengirl Fantasy, and, literally, like a hundred more bands. Oh yeah, and it's free. So yeah, you should probably get there if you can. If you can't make it Sunday, do your best to catch Beach Fossils with Real Estate and San Francisco's Girls at the Monster Island Basement on Friday June 26th, which is sure to be one for the ages.

Beach Fossils- Vacation
Beach Fossils- Daydream