Real Estate released their sophomore album and Domino Records debut, Days, ten years ago, setting the stage for the band to become a touring machine and a rightfully revered indie act ever since. The charming melodies and warm, inviting guitars of songs like “It’s Real” and “Out Of Tune,” instantly channeled the nostalgic days of our youth and were damn near universally appreciated.
Starting next month, the band will go out on tour to commemorate the album’s 10th anniversary and today, have released a cover of Television’s song “Days.” The version is equal parts a worthy homage to the late 70’s art rockers, as much as it feels like it could easily be mistaken for a Real Estate original (albeit with a slightly deadlier guitar.) The always-affable Alex Bleeker of Real Estate explained in a statement that the song was 100 percent an inspiration for the album’s sound and obviously, the title:
“The shrewd, completist bootlegger will always remember 6/30/2011 as the day that we debuted the album Days live in its entirety at 285 Kent in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Back then Domino Park, across the street, was still a dilapidated sugar warehouse, and our unreleased sophomore album didn’t yet have a name. Real heads (or as we like to call them, ‘agents’) might also recall that this show was a release party for the new 33 1/3 book recounting the history of Television’s Marquee Moon. Somewhere in the introduction to that volume author Bryan Waterman declared that even though the song ‘Days’ was on Television’s often overlooked second record, it provided a blueprint for all of the melodic guitar-based indie rock that would soon follow in its wake.
We were of course huge fans of that tune, this was in fact our second record, and we saw ourselves humbly as the torchbearers of that tradition. So the story goes like this – we were on tour, sitting in our fire engine red Dodge Ram 2500 somewhere along the I-95 when someone in the band read that sentence aloud, and said, ‘why don’t we call the album Days?’ As I recall, nobody loved it, but more importantly, nobody hated it and it stuck. It’s true, this now decade-old album is named after this fantastic, under-appreciated Television tune, which was a joy for us to cover and record for you after all these years.”
Listen to Real Estate’s cover of “Days” above, check out the dates for the Days anniversary tour dates below, and get tickets here.
11/03 — Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall at Babeville
11/04 — Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
11/05 — Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch
11/06 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
11/07 — Madison, WI @ High Noon
11/09 — Bloomington, IL @ Castle Theatre
11/10 — Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
11/11 — Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
11/12 — Lexington, KY @ The Burl (outdoor show)
11/13 — Columbus, OH @ Skully’s Music Diner
11/14 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
11/16 — Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
11/17 — Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace
11/18 — Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
11/19 — Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
11/20 — Atlantic City, NJ @ Anchor Rock Club
11/22-23 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
12/15 — San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
