Martin Courtney
“Vestiges”
Digital Single
I remember a scene in Journey’s Behind the Music where guitarist Neal Schon claimed that vocalist Steve Perry’s solo side project led to their decision to fire him. Schon’s issue wasn’t with Perry making music outside the band — Schon and key songwriter Jonathan Cain were both in other bands. Rather, his solo work sounded too much like Journey, which for some reason, infuriated the frizzy haired axeman.
Now, something tells me that the internal politics of the seemingly affable Real Estate are quite different than the terminally bickering San Franciscans, but singer-songwriter Martin Courtney’s debut single is very Perry-ish. “Vestiges” shares the languid beauty and jangly riffs of the New Jersey nice guys’ best work, and when you throw in Courtney’s perma-chill vocals on top, it’s nearly unrecognizable from a new Real Estate tune. Luckily, Real Estate tunes are almost always great, and this is no exception. Hopefully, Alex Bleeker and Matt Mondanile don’t pull a Schon and fuck this up for all of us.
