UMS Artist Highlight: Real Estate

From July 24-27, the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase, or UMS, will take over Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood with four days of live music. 

The UMS will feature over 400 local and national acts across 20 venues. With so many bands playing this upcoming festival chockful of great live music, we'll be helping you out with our UMS Artist Highlights.

In the days leading up to the festival, we'll give you brief bios and some streamable songs to get acquainted with the UMS headliners, along with some great local tastes too. 

(Photo: courtesy of the artist)To kick off our UMS Artist Highlights, we’re focusing on Real Estate. The indie rock five-piece released their third album “Atlas” this year, continuing a winning streak of widespread critical acclaim for their records. It's one of the most melodic and memorable rock albums of 2014, and that's why they're a perfect choice as one of this year's top-billed UMS acts.

Listen to "Atlas" opening track "Had to Hear" below.

Real Estate hail from Ridgewood, N.J., originally, the same neck of the woods as members of Vivian Girls and Titus Andronicus. Their style is a bit more relaxed than those latter two energetic punk groups, but that doesn't mean they can't speed it up a notch when they need to, like on "It's Real," a standout from their 2011 sophomore album "Days."

They also seem to be having plenty of fun via the medium of their music videos. Check out the Funny or Die piece for "Atlas" cut "Crime," which features comedian Andy Daly as a broke, washed-up video director.