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Condensed matter physics is just the physics of liquids and solids, usually between a few kelvins and ordinary terrestrial temperatures. Solid state physics is a smaller subset of it. As opposed to plasma physics, cosmology, particle physics, ... I would venture a guess that about 80% of the physicists in the world are working in condensed matter. Maybe higher. I couldn't find any numbers from APS.

It seems mundane, but there is a lot of interesting work in it: Bose condensates like liquid Helium, superconductivity, phonons. Phase transitions. Sometimes it's called "low-energy physics."

Not many people know it because the high energy guys [particle physicists and cosmologists] get all the girls [not really, but they do capture the public imagination] but a number of very important concepts were first developed by low-energy physicists and the particle guys stole the credit. For example, fractal dimensions and the renormalization group, which explain away some problems that the particles guys were seeing for decades originated in condensed matter theory. Another one that all low-energy guys know is Philip Anderson. He's the person who actually came up with the "Higgs Mechanism" [in a completely different area from particle physics] which really should be called the "Anderson Mechanism." He has a Noble Prize, so he probably doesn't mind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Warren_Anderson.