talking with

Carsen Codel

Dr. Iler

Argumentation 312

Fatherhood in a Municipality: Real Estate’s Days and a Conception of “Dad Music”

The smell of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls wafting up the stairs and the muted hum of the subwoofers through my bedroom floor gently pull my eyes open on a beautifully autumnal Saturday morning. I meander down to the kitchen to meet a plate set out on the table by my father, who is washing the dishes and nodding quietly to the music on the stereo. Grateful Dead and Steely Dan CDs are on shuffle, the psychedelic guitars of Jerry Garcia and company, and the tight, jazz-adjacent arrangements of Aja filling the room. It’s a quintessential morning, the perfect Dad breakfast paired with the standard music in my household when my father is in control of the playlist.

Now that I’m in college, I don’t have those Saturday mornings, nor the various CDs and vinyl records my dad put on after I come back from sports practices. But the music has stayed with me. Whether the Grateful Dead, Steely Dan, Electric Light Orchestra, the Beatles, Chicago, or the Pernice Brothers, certain artists have situated themselves in my listening habits, and something about them seems to stand out as separate or distinguishing from many of the other artists I listen to. When I’m on aux at a party or a gathering of friends, and an artist of that liking comes on, one that my dad would play, some of my friends nod in approval and say something like, “nice Dad Music.” I chuckle and thank them, telling them I indeed found the song thanks to my father.

As my musical tastes and Apple Music library grow, I find that I am pulled to certain artists that share a liking towards the music of my dad. But what is it about these artists and the music they make that potentially qualifies as “Dad Music?” In 2009, a new indie rock band, Real Estate, cropped up onto the music scene. Their breezy, languid, and reverb-rich music fits well within the indie rock genre, but I’ll use their sophomore album, Days, released in 2011, to define Dad Music and demonstrate how the band can also be qualified into that subgenre.

In order to qualify as Dad Music, the work must contain at least one guitarist – though bands will often have one lead guitar and one rhythm guitar – a bassist, and a drummer. Vocals are quite common, but certain jam bands that fit into the Dad Music subgenre may not have any singers or feature vocalists in a prominent manner. Auxiliary instruments like keys, woodwinds, brass, or strings may be present but are not required. Real Estate’s Days meets these requirements. With Martin Courtney on rhythm guitar and vocals, Alex Beeker on bass guitar, Matthew Mondanile on lead guitar, and Jackson Pollis on drums, Real Estate’s lineup for the LP passes the instrumentation qualifications for Dad Music (Real Estate).

But instrumentation is not enough. Many groups across all genres have this composition of players on their roster, while not qualifying as Dad Music. Math rock groups like American Football or pop rock bands like Imagine Dragons have similar lineups, yet something distinguishes them as separate genres.

Perhaps there is something in the composition of the music that makes an album Dad Music. Many of the tracks on Days operate within familiar song structures of popular music, with triads (more simple chords) and a few seventh chords (more complicated chords that may sound jazzy or complex to the untrained ear) comprising most of the choices for songs. Progressions move in predictable ways within the confines of Western popular music. For example, the song “Municipality” sticks around on an A Major chord for most of the song, with the rhythm guitar part doing a walkdown line, a common feature in popular music (Real Estate). The chorus alternates between A Major, F sharp minor, B dominant 7, and D Major 71. As a music student, I can assert that Real Estate isn’t breaking any new ground here in their chord choices, aligning the quality of the composition with much of the rock paradigm. In terms of vocals, Martin’s melodies follow the instrumentation predictably and sound proper for indie rock music. Actual composition, then, doesn’t distinguish Days from other forms of rock to put it into the category of Dad Music. On top of that, Dad Music can range from a simple, single-chord song to the complex jazz construction of the music of Steely Dan. So, while certainly necessary that the music fits somewhere into the world of Western popular music, composition alone isn’t sufficient to qualify Days as Dad Music.

Musical content contributes partially to defining Dad Music. But, given the subgenre’s name, identifying who listens to Dad Music, and why, also plays an important role in creating its definition. The audience component for Dad Music is two-pronged. Not only does most Dad Music often have fathers as a non-neglible component of their audience2 (or those around that age, I would say anywhere between those in their 30s-70s), but there needs to be someone on the receiving end in order for those listeners to be described as fathers. After all, when my Dad was following the Grateful Dead on tour during his collegiate years, he wasn’t a father, and he wouldn’t have referred to the Dead as Dad Music then – it was just music. However, now that I, as his son, observe him listening to the Grateful Dead, I begin associating that music with my dad, and with fathers more generally. What was “cool” music at the time, or popular among the demographic that now represents white, generally suburban fathers, has now become something they use to identify with their past, their sense of self, or just with their general music tastes. Dad Music becomes a sort of aesthetic component or an aspect of one’s identity. A work of Dad Music, then, must have some major component of it that aligns with the identity of fatherhood in some way, as well connect somehow to the possibility of a relationship or transference between father and child. In my own life, that transference occurred through my dad playing music on weekend mornings or during family game night, making a mix CD for a road trip, or loading up my brand-new iPod shuffle in 5th grade with songs by the Beatles, Jack Johnson, and Pete Townshend. My dad shared his favorite music with me and my brother, tying in stories of when he heard a certain group in concert, or what he was doing in college when he first heard a specific song. A deeper relationship with my father was then built around our collective conception of the music of his earlier years and the events that are tied around it – collegiate tomfoolery for him; golden, sunny picnics and contentious games of Settlers of Catan for me.

1. You don’t need to understand what any of these chord names mean. Just know that from Bach to Mozart to the Beatles to Harry Styles, everybody in the Western music paradigm uses them, sometimes even in this very order.

Real Estate’s Days doesn’t seem to fit into this scheme at first. After all, Days was released in 2011 and, while no demographics are readily available, I would surmise that their listeners are spread across age groups; I know many people my age who listen to Real Estate, and a few my father’s age that do as well (including my own Dad, who found the band before I did). Overall, then, one’s discovery of Real Estate isn’t necessarily predisposed to be vis-à-vis a fatherto-child transmission, compared to music that was released further in the past.

However, when looking into the lyricism, themes, overall mood, or even just the album cover of Days, one sees Courtney and his bandmates begin to

2. And, I should add, we’re mostly talking white, mostly middle to upper-middle class and working fathers. At least, this is the conception I have in mind.

Album cover for Days (Real Estate) construct a world full of the tangled relationships between post-collegiate life, suburbia, nostalgia, and fatherhood. On the opening track, “Easy,” Courtney sings surrounded by a deceptively upbeat haze of guitars, “Around the fields we’d run, with love for everyone, dreams we saw with eyes open, until that dream was done” (Real Estate). From the first moments of the album, there’s a careful play between the buoyant rhythms of the band and the melancholy theme of the lyrics. Courtney’s story here feels akin to the ache that blossoms in my chest when I think back on my favorite autumn days in high school, running through the woods and the backyards of suburban Iowa, oblivious to the pressures of adult life. These themes crop up again throughout the album as Courtney reflects on his life in the past and ponders his future life, perhaps of marrying and starting a family, of which Courtney did right as the tour for Days wrapped up (Deville). In “Green Aisles,” Courtney sings to someone, reminding them of “aimless drives through green aisles,” a reference to an endless sprawl of suburban streets (Real Estate). He yearns, perhaps a bit earnestly, to go back to those days, “Our careless lifestyle, it was not so unwise, no,” (Real Estate). As one is confronted with a post-collegiate world and the responsibilities it holds, who wouldn’t occasionally reminisce in this way?

It is in “Municipality,” though, that the band’s vision is the most telling. The title of the song itself speaks of a level of adult domesticity that a word like “town,” “city,” or “neighborhood” just wouldn’t own up to. Of all the songs on the album, it’s perhaps the most forward looking, letting us peer into how Courtney views his upcoming future as he copes with a breakup:

Driving past hotels

In the night

Your words don’t sit well

How can I feel free?

When all I want to be

Is by your side in that municipality

Up in that farmland

Past the houses and gardens

Dozens of shade trees

Are waiting there for me

That’s not anything like my reality

To be by your side in that municipality

That’s not anything like my reality (Real Estate)

The narrator in “Municipality,” has an ideal future in their mind, one of being with somebody in a suburban municipality, depicted by the imagery of shade trees, houses, hotels, and farmland. However, a breakup prevents them from realizing the reality they’ve been conceptualizing in their head for so long. It’s Courtney’s way of sharing with the listener his desires to settle down, to make a new home in a place not too dissimilar from one you just can’t shake from your memories. As in “Municipality” and throughout the whole album, the themes in Days reflect a conception of incoming fatherhood that is pensive, reflective, and yearning, but that also emphasizes security and a sense of home. It’s one that many heading into the world of fatherhood might experience, or those that are fathers looking back on that liminal period between finishing school and starting a life for oneself could reflect upon. As someone who is still in college myself, but already thinking about such subjects as I contemplate my future, it is relieving to hear my thoughts echoed in Courtney’s gentle voice.

By strolling through the suburban streets of Real Estate’s Days and comparing its components to my conception of Dad Music, one can start to see how it fits into the Dad Music subgenre, despite its more recent release. The band’s lineup consists of two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer, along with one of the guitarists on vocals. The musical content of the songs, by way of chords and melodies alike, fits in well with the Western music and rock paradigms. The audience consists of adults as well as adolescents, though its relation to fatherhood stems more from its lyrical and thematic content as opposed to the environment of listeners around the music. And the album’s pensive and nostalgic elements, showcased both musically and lyrically, depict a young man contemplating the potentialities of fatherhood along with their earlier years, allowing for a listener, father or child, to engage deeply with its themes.

This past weekend I was invited to play at the “JamBCue,” a neighborhood barbecue and band jam party put on by my friend Spencer’s neighbor at his house out in a suburb of St. Louis. Spencer and I both write our own music, and he and I, along with two of his band members, put together a setlist of some of our originals, as well as a cover of “Municipality.” Spencer picked me up on a beautiful Saturday afternoon that teetered on the edge between crisp and warm, and we got the other band members as we drove out into the winding streets filled with golden leaves and Halloween decorations.

Upon arriving at the JamBCue, we headed into the backyard, where we were greeted by the host and his fellow Dad friends, along with a full set of amps, drums, keyboards, and microphones that spilled out of the garage. We did a brief soundcheck with help from the dads, and soon played our set, the opening act for the day. Our original music is pretty indie and jazz adjacent, and while fun to perform, it wasn’t until we closed with “Municipality” that I really felt in the right groove.

After we packed up our instruments, the next band, a group of dads called “Kelly’s Heroes,” (I believe half of the people in the band were named Kelly, either first or last name, I don’t quite remember) took the stand and opened with a Grateful Dead song, followed by a few 70s rock tunes. As people trickled in and the barbecue buffet was set out, I sat back and let the music soak in. It just felt so right, in the same way that “Municipality” did during our set. Maybe Dad Music is the type of music that feels proper for a Dad Band to play at a local family barbecue out in the suburbs.

As we listened, one of the dads from another band came up to us, a flannel on his back and a can of Busch Light in his hand. He smiled at us, looking towards the bandstand.

“Like it or not, this is probably gonna be you in 20 years,” he said with a chuckle. I wasn’t opposed to the idea.

As I think back to those Saturday mornings at home with my Dad, mornings of Steely Dan and cinnamon rolls, the music always comes to mind. As I sat at the JamBCue, the same feeling washed over me, a feeling of home, of place and purpose. As I think of my future and the possibility of one day starting my own family, I hope music will play the same role, and I’m sure Real Estate’s Days will be a part of that. Perhaps I’ll be in my own Dad band one day, playing Real Estate covers out of a garage, a beer resting on the guitar amp and a canopy of autumn leaves hanging high over my head.

Dad Music is, most of all, a potential aspect of one’s personal conception of what it means to be a father. What was cool or hip music back in the day is now something that one associates with barbecues and beer, with the suburbs and starting a family, with fatherhood as a whole. Sometimes the music is amazing and still holds up. Sometimes it’s a bit cheesy and dated. But it all reminds me of home, of family, of the connection I’ve built with my dad through music. And, in the case of Real Estate’s Days, it points towards a future home, waiting for me, in that municipality.

Deville, C. (2014, March 4). Q&A: Martin Courtney on marital contentment, guitar tabs, and Real Estate’s signature sound. Stereogum. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://www.stereogum.com/1666854/qamartin-courtney-on-marital-contentment-guitar-tabs-and-real-estates-signature-sound/interviews/

Real Estate. (2011). Days. Kevin McMahon, Jarvis Taveniere. “Real estate (band).” Wikipedia. Last modified 7 March 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2022, from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Estate_(band)

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