DOWNLOAD: Real Estate - Beach Comber (MP3)

Real Estate @ Brooklyn Bowl in August (more by Oren Loloi)

Real Estate have only been around short time, but it seems like hardly a week goes by without a show from the band or one of its member's solo projects (Ducktails, Predator Vision, etc.). They'll finally get around to releasing their debut LP, a self-titled record, on November 17th on the Woodsist label. The first track from that is posted above and two other "album versions" are up on their Myspace.

Real Estate play a tour send-off/Showpaper benefit on October 14th at Monster Island Basement with Big Troubles and Honeydos. The tour in question is a short jaunt down South, before they return for a slew of CMJ-related shows. The first of those happen October 21st at Pianos and Santos (the later of which is an Oh My Rockness party with The Drums and others). Their other CMJ gigs include an Underwater Peoples showcase at The Delancey, a Death & Taxes show at Glasslands on October 22nd with Japandroids (one of many CMJ gigs for that band) and a Mexican Summer/Kemado Showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 24th. Joining them at MHOW will be Farmer Dave Scher (his first in NYC since opening for Jenny Lewis in June), Young Prisms, The Smith Westerns who have other CMJ shows TBA), and The Amazing, a Swedish group with members of the Kemado-signed Dungen, Anna Jarvinen and Sagor & Swing (streaming tracks at their MySpace). Tickets for that Music Hall show are on sale.

One artist who's not playing that show or any CMJ shows at all is Washed Out (Georgia's Ernest Greene). He'll play just one NYC show (his second live show ever) one day before CMJ at Santos Party House on October 19th with Restless People. Tickets are on sale. I tried to get him to open the BrooklynVegan CMJ show at Music Hall on October 20th (one day later), but he said he can't even stay in town that long due to personal commitments back home.

Restless People features members of Professor Murder (and Tanlines). Listen to their first single "Victimless Crime", HERE. The Santos show will be their first show.

Rising, Breaking, Band to Watch vs Bear, Washed Out (the next Neon Indian even), though fairly new to the scene, already appears on a free Outfitters compilation that also includes tracks by Girls, Vivian Girls, A Place to Bury Strangers, No Age, Le Loup, Rain Machine, The xx, The Very Best, Kurt Vile and The Dodos (who have two NYC shows this week). Washed Out's "Life of Leisure" 12" is out on Mexican Summer now.

One day after CMJ (10/25), Real Estate play a 1:00PM NYC show just for kids (Kidrockers) at The Living Room with... Neon Indian. Tickets are on sale ("Adults must be accompanied by a kid and vice versa").

Real Estate will follow up their CMJ with a November tour with Girls. That hits Maxwell's on November 2nd and Bowery Ballroom on November 6th. Real Estate album, tour dates and flyers below...

Continue reading "Washed Out's NYC debut (& 2nd show ever), Real Estate's LP, tour dates & CMJ (Mexican Summer showcase, Kidrockers) "

photos by Tim Griffin

The fantastic lineup of Jenny Lewis, Deer Tick, and Farmer Dave hit the stage of Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn last night (6/9). If you missed it, Jenny will be back soon, Deer Tick will be back soon, and you can look at a bunch more pictures, including one of Jenny's setlist, below...

Continue reading "Jenny Lewis, Deer Tick, Farmer Dave @ MHOW - pics, setlist"

Dave Scher was a DJ at Los Angeles station KXLU when Jimi Hey would make numerous calls requesting Six Finger Satellite and Ready for the World. The two became friends, and Hey eventually got his own show on the station. Later on, Scher and Hey helped found the celebrated cosmic-country outfit the Beachwood Sparks. Since leaving the Sparks in 2001, the duo has spent the better part of [2003-2004] tuning and tweaking All Night Radio.

[Scher explains All Night Radio's inspiration further,] "It's something a little extra, a little more supernatural coming out of your radio. It would involve a blending of sound sources and time periods, even the imaginary things," says Scher. According to him, this energy is all around us, broadcasting in a steady stream 24 hours a day; it is up to the listener to tune in and harness the energy.

"We're going off of a different paradigm than most groups," Scher says. "We wanted to make a sound coming through that would pick up a bit of everything. It would come through us. Jimi and I try to dial it in."

Hearing Scher talk about the band's inspiration, one might think he and Hey are mere vessels of sound, automatons acting on executive orders. But, Scher explains, "It's an act of creation. We are weaving from the fabric of this romantic space and time. It's an idea that we record." [Riverfront Times - March, 2004]

Since that interview, Scher's Sub Pop-signed All Night Radio broke up, in 2004, and Scher's kept busy with numerous guest appearances and back-up band stints. Those include playing with Jenny Lewis, Interpol, Elvis Costello, Jonathan Rice and Vetiver. In 2008 Beachwood Sparks got back together for some shows including Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary Festival and NYC-area gigs at Bowery Ballroom and Maxwell's.

Now, "Farmer" Dave Scher will put out his first solo record, Flash Forward To The Good Times, August 18th on Kemado Records. Guests on that disc include "members of Entrance, VietNam, Jonathan Wilson, and Devendra Banhart producer Thom Monahan."

In 2008, Farmer Dave collabed with Jenny Lewis on her latest disc, Acid Tongue, and toured with the singer as part of her band. This year he'll be opening a portion of Lewis's summer tour dates , as she treks across the US into July. Scher (and Deer Tick) will open Lewis's sold out Music Hall of Williamburg show on June 9th.

That conveniently segues into a reminder that Jenny Lewis is playing a free July 4th show at Battery Park with Conor Oberst.

All Farmer Dave tour dates, with a video of Scher singing backup on Lewis's "Acid Tongue" live, below...

Continue reading "Farmer Dave Scher releasing album, touring w/ Jenny Lewis "