Alex Bleeker And The Freaks - Alex Bleeker And The Freaks

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5...according to our Brett on Thu 24 Jun, 2010.

So this guy's in Real Estate (who largely appear on the record - albeit in different instrumental roles - along with Julian Lynch and the fella from Ducktails) who've grown on me quite a bit over the last few months. I guess their super easy-going style isn't exactly the sort of thing that's gonna cut through our general office turmoil so it was only when I really kicked back and listened that I fully got into it. This solo debut is along similar lines to his parent project's unique brand of what sounds to me like a sort of sunbathing slowcore, albeit with a hefty dollop of 70s Neil Young mixed in for good measure.. Plus a little Crazy Horse when the odd wailing, distorted solo kicks in. You'll be able to hear myriad classic rock and classic country rock influences at work in this excellent selection of largely instrumental jams but in the end he's really got his own sound going here - quite an achievement for a traditional rock band format in this day and age and one for which he fully deserves the props he's getting! Surely this must be the perfect foil for a muggy summer day's relaxin' so its appearance is as timely as can be.

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New York label Underwater Peoples: first up is the Alex Bleeker (Real Estate ) debut: heres what Pitchfork said: " The men of Real Estate are very generous about backing one another's likeminded creative adventures. Bassist Alex Bleeker's first solo EP is in front of the Freaks, a gang that's more Crazy Horse than Galaxie 500, and one that happens to include Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney and guitarist Matthew Mondanile. (The former has taken over bass duty, while the latter bangs drums.) The sonics are similarly submerged, but the pop format is much different: this is Strumming Country, tone trumps texture. Bleeker's got a fantastic ear for steering his crew's floating-mattress sensibility toward the classic rock side of things. As instrumental (duh) opener "Summer" winds its way into "Epilogue", Bleeker signals the shift with some chord-slamming. When the volume jumps, Bleeker begins to whinny in a register as Neil Young-like as the crispy guitar Julian Lynch jabs throughout. That said, the guitar interplay clearly comes from the gut in a way that allows for the kind of total freedom that these dudes and their many stripes of song seem to hold so dear. Lyrically, Bleeker keeps his songs in familiar territory. There's summer and there's spring, and everybody's either hanging out or remembering times when they did. On "Prisoner of the Past", Bleeker gets old-timey as he sings about a friendship that's run its course. It's a really short verse before the guitar starts squaking, but in a few lines he (probably inadvertently) bottles up the hypernostalgic vibes that bleed into all of bandmates work, together or alone. It's hard not to notice all the fun that's being had messing around with the rock grid here, the ways in which you can make a trusted blueprint your own simply by stamping it so. When Real Estate jam, they do so in a way that's flush with Courtney's indie rock vision. When Mondanile runs off on his hypnogogic spirit journeys as Ducktails, he solos his way to infinity. Even though each of Bleeker's songs here are ultimately interchangeable in layout, their warmth is not. On "Animal Tracks", a blistering cover of a song by Vermont's Mountain Man, the Freaks sing in unison of sipping Barq's root beer and hanging out on a set of backstairs. It quickly recalls Real Estate's "Suburban Beverage", a song most easily identified by the chant, "Budweiser, Sprite, do you feel alright?" The drink may be different, but the buzz comes from the very same place."

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