Pullin’ ‘Tubes | Real Estate Talks Backwards

It seems impossible to write about Real Estate without somehow referencing the fact that, yes, one of their members -bassist Alex Bleeker -is a big time jamband fan. Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can move on. The Brooklyn-via-New Jersey band does seemingly inhabit some odd grey area where indie and jam meet that music writers have come to label neo-psychedelic. Meaning they play tight three minute songs that are awash in jangly guitar and sound both loose and dreamy. Influenced by equal parts Pavement, Yo La Tengo, 1960s surf-rock and the movie Garden State a more appropriate term for what this band does might be JamGaze.

For their follow-up to 2011’s excellent Days, the band headed to Chicago, with two new members, to record at Wilco’s famed recording studio The Loft, where they teamed with engineer Tom Schick (Wilco / Ryan Adams) to produce Atlas. Recorded over the course of just two weeks, the ten-track album is being touted as a sonic step forward; with the songs almost all exclusively recorded live-to-tape. The results can be heard on March 4, when Real Estate releases their third studio album via venerable U.K. indie-label Domino Records.

In advance of the release the band has dropped the music video for the record’s lead single, “Talking Backwards,” which was shot during their recording sessions in the Windy City. Let’s check it out: