Beirut Used To Be The Real People.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (I Guess I'm Floating) earlier today, and came across what can only be described as an early Christmas gift or belated birthday present. Apparently Zach Condon, otherwise known as Beirut, recorded an album of indie/electronic songs back in 2001 called "The Joys Of Losing Weight" under the name The Real People. It has been described as: "...an entire electronic/experimental album in the style of Scenic World with Zach's distinctive vocals and the occasional appearance of his famous brass instrumentation." And it's amazing. Everything I loved about "Gulag Orkestar", replacing the Balkan/gypsy sound with electronica. Not unlike Ben Gibbard with his other outlet, The Postal Service. It was never released or sold, and up until now only a select handful of Zach's "peeps" have ever even heard it. Here's a few tracks from it, you can find more tracks over at IGIF here.

[MP3] The Real People (Zach Condon from Beirut) - Untitled 13 (via Box.net)

[MP3] The Real People (Zach Condon from Beirut) - Untitled 18 (via Box.net)

(You could find the whole album if you just try searching Google, at least that's tha' word on tha' street)