Three Imaginary Girls - Beach House

Beach House: Teen dream, indeed

Chelsea Werner — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:36:35 +0000

12 Apr 2010

Before the band came out on stage Monday night, Neumos looked like a high school gym after a dance- lot's of tinsel. Unlike the sad charm of an empty gymnasium, this show was sold out. As the band began and a green light hit the stage, and the reflective nature of tinsel became the perfect set décor for the self-reflection they induce. Beach House is a band that allows the listener to glean their own impressions from their songs and carve out moments of personal meaning.

This being the case, my balcony corner seemed more like a lonely wallflower perch where “Better Times” transformed into a couples-skate-only. Though there weren't any roller skates. Or room enough for a couple to dance for that matter. “Zebra” captured the feeling that came along with the lovely vocal harmonies of the band, the adolescent hope we won't all become separate and lonely beings eventually. Something that Legrand drove home when she introduced “Silver Soul” by saying that touching strangers is great. Something that Beach House's music is adept at. Yet, everyone seemed to want their space, their time to feel like they were the only people in the room being sung to, the only person struggling with not being “the same as they used to be.”

An apocalyptic beginning to “Master of None” was permeated by streams of white light hitting the demure band members, Victoria Legrand's occasional, singular, head bang being the most movement on stage. Perhaps it was the band, paying such rapt attention to their instruments, that somehow I felt left out. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt jealous of Legrand's keyboard, but when it comes down to it, Beach House was not a spectacle. It was more of a time for introspection and for this reason, not to mention the rib shaking waves of drone washing over the audience, Victoria Legrande, guitarist Alex Skully and live drummer, Dan Franz had a powerful hold over the audience.

At the end of the set, as the disco ball began to spin during “Take Care,” that high school dance I never got asked to came back to mind and the song felt full of the youthful naivety that things can last forever, a tragic faithfulness to a blind commitment. In the end, even though I walked home alone, not all was an outcast's imprint on the show. I was saved some runny eyeliner by the epic encore of “10 Mile Stereo” ending a night that I'm sure was an individual experience for ever single body in the fulled-to capacity Crystal Ball Reading Room this Monday.

{Photo: Suzi/Spratt 504}

Teen Dream

Chris Estey — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:14:56 +0000

9.2

http://www.amazon.com/Teen-Dream-DVD-Beach-House/dp/B002ZIAC26/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

Teendream.jpg

New York's chimeric-bopping Beach House's debut on Sub Pop, Teen Dream, came out last week to bold fanfare and acclaim from old fans (and new acolytes like me). They also got hit with some critical flack for not mixing in enough dark flavors with the Scotch-and-butterscotch ice cream float of their sweet, intoxicating sound.

For a third full-length from the formidable duo of vocalist Victoria Legrand (the niece of French chanteuse Christiane Legrand, and awesome composing mastermind Michel Legrand, whose soundtracks for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Band of Outsiders are essential in the OST canon) and young multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally, some scribes were apparently hoping their M.O. of sunny, chilly, melancholic impressionist pop with sweet drum ticks would "evolve" into something else. But what? Something "more substantial"? I have no defense to that behind my immense rating for the record.

For content, the bonus video DVD has some alarming images and stories connected to the songs, and it is almost as fantastic an artwork as the music on the proper record. "Used To Be," a previously released song and probably the apex of Teen Dream, is directed by Sean Pecknold, and is wisely used to kick off the video selection, due to the weary tenderness of the melody of the chorus. But the videos for "Walk In The Park" (directed by Allen Cordell) "Lover Of Mine" (directed by Sean Honey), and new single "Norway" (directed by Showbeast) are all as brilliant as they are a little overwhelming for what this band does: Make a soundtrack for looking at bizarre old photographs from thrift stores with friends, standing near the ruins of torn down tenements and staring into the debris the neglected future has left behind, and not thinking about anything at all.

The most self aware drug addicts admit that they crave oblivion, but in this overflow of light there are no sketchy side effects to the beauty of a Beach House jam. It clicks along by timeless synthetic metronome heartbeats into wide fields of shameless joy and weepy pleasure provided by very well played keyboards and great two and three note riffs extended along the length of a crisply tuned electric guitar or bass. It is a bedroom band chai tea groove, and it is meant for soulful kissing with a mate for a taste in thick sweaters, not a role playing hate fuck dressed up in iconic leathers. There is no era-looped irony to the floating nostalgia it attempts to and succeeds at evoking.

Not that the band isn't aware of the world of freaks and creeps out there, which Legrand herself addresses in "Silver Soul" (and directs her own Lynchian video for it, with painted girls hulu-hooping and the profanity from the previous sentence planted less than subliminally), and various scenarios of relational eruption and rejection occur frequently in other tracks. It doesn't seem like a happy album but it occasionally sounds like a joyful one in spite of loss. For people who need a touchstone for Legrand's vocals, I won't hesitate to compare the quality of her instrument or her songs to those Chris Bell was writing later in Big Star or for his own and only solo album, I Am The Cosmos. The more anthemic tunes in the middle of the album sound very Sister/Lovers era to me. I also like how she reminds me at times of the underrated Marty Balin from the Jefferson Airplane, throwing her beautiful melodies back into 60s territory (not surprising, considering her pedigree).

Teen Dream is one of my favorite albums of the past few months, in a post-album era. And I think anyone who was seduced by the charms of Blue Bell Knoll in the 80s or later will recognize this is an addictive work that is making a major statement in musical terms, not in any lyrics that need to be quoted. We all find meaning in different ways, but I'm glad Teen Dream sounds exactly like what it is. Young, full of potential, and giving more as it ages in your personal player of choice.

Big bad Sasquatch 2009 preview

Imaginary Shrie — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:25:56 +0000

Sasquatch 2009 is a mere two days away. Go see bands all three days, cheer your head off, drink some beer and/or smoke a joint. Get dirty campin' toes and sweat through your forehead bandanna (or brave kilt-lifting style winds like in 2007). Come back harried and skip out on work Tuesday. Recount every last moment, with positive embellishments, to anyone fool enough not to attend. Buy the tshirt and flaunt the shit out of it.

Here is your big bad SASQUATCH 2009 PREVIEW.

Photo Essay: I think the Walkmen broke my face

imaginary victoria — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:08:40 +0000

24 Jan 2009

walkmen09jan.jpg

That's what I tweeted on Saturday (well, Sunday) around one in the morning when I got home from seeing the Walkmen at Neumo's. And I meant it. They were so loud - so unbelieveably loud. But it was loud on a frequency I'd never heard before, not earplugs loud or "I have to get out of here" loud. It was good loud. Blissy loud, amazing loud, that can not be possibly coming from one guitar kind of loud. To the point where I sought out the sound tech after the show and thanked him for it.

I felt the reverb in my molars the same way you can feel bass in the floor at a dance club, which I had never experienced before. And similar to a good DJ's set, the sound made me want to stay there for hours, for as long as my eardrums -- and teeth -- could take it. I swore we were going to come outside to cracked windows on the cars. In short, this band was simply amazing, as many of you know, and their shows don't disappoint. The ambient, second-slot crowd pleasing Beach House set was the perfect warm-up for what was to come; Johnny and The Moon's warm, jangly vibe started the night off right as one of the best opening acts I'd never heard of so far this year.

Also, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the show at the Triple Door, where the band was doing a gold club performance for KEXP. Two songs in, I moved to the back of the room to listen to the forty-minute set, to experience my first listen of live Walkmen. Simply put, they knocked me off my chair. It was as if the sound cracked open my chest, reached in, and pulled out my heart for me so that I could throw it at the stage. I wanted to hear them write love songs; epic, emotive love songs.

I knew immediately I'd have to get to Neumo's early, to insure a spot up front for their set. Here's what it all looked like, I'm amazed these shots even came out -- all three bands played in almost total darkness. Which made the show sound even better, if that makes any sense at all.

I will not take the breadth or space to discuss the details of the girl next to me, crying -- yes, crying: the Beatles are coming, I'm sobbing and clutching my hair kind of crying -- but I will take time to point you over to the flickr set for this show, as well as the sparkly pool of goodness, where you can always see more photos.

See you at the shows!

Blissy loud, amazing loud, "That can not possibly be coming from one guitar" kind of loud.

Beach House at Chop Suey

Imaginary Shrie — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:31:39 +0000

18 Mar 2008

beachhouse6.jpg

I wanted to go see Beach House perform at Chop Suey the second I learned they were coming through town. I wanted to hear, and see, the way that their exquisite brand of pop translated in a live setting. I love Chop Suey as a venue for several reasons, and dislike it for others. It's small, and impactful bands make for great entertainment there. The downside to the size of the venue is that more often than not, the bands that play there draw a crowd large enough to pack it to the gills. A club throbbing with sweaty verbose hipsters isn't exactly my idea of a memorable show experience.

The second opener, Papercuts, played to a pretty large crowd, nearing 85% full. The project of Jason Quever, accompanied by Trevor Montgomery, Alex Scally, and Glenn Donaldson, Papercuts are a rambling pop band, devotedly analog and acutely layered. Upon hearing them perform I wondered if they were the same band that I'd listened to countless times on my iPod, bopping my way to work. Live they felt underwhelming, their tempos stagnant and their sound overtly Thom Yorke-ish. I tried to enjoy their set, but along with the majority of the crowd stacked around me, I took to talking to my show mate instead.

Surprisingly, after Papercuts and in anticipation of the main act, people started filtering out of Chop Suey. The floor cleared a bit and the dull roar died down just as Beach House, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, appeared on stage. Their performance was nothing short of captivating. And if it wouldn't have been for the absolutely wretched sound at Chop Suey, they would have been even more stunning.

Hazy and quixotic, like something out of 1960's underwater ballet, Beach House played. Their songs parlayed into each other, fitting like one solid body of work. They played a lot of songs from their newest LP Devotion, but also several favorites from their previous self-titled, including the haunting "Saltwater" and the cathedral organ charmer "Tokyo Witch." Legrand's hushed coos and their overall eerily loping sound melted into an organ-induced ray of warmth. They kept the stage banter light, preferring to just play their songs, and finished off the set with the enchanting "Master of None."

Legrand's voice is beguiling. It almost escapes comparison. I hear Nancy Sinatra, in those darkly angelic Lee Hazelwood days, or Stevie Nicks when she's belting out in the low register. Between the two of them, there was almost a Carpenters-on-acid vibe that was delectably seventies and shoe-gazer at the same time. Beach House is arid and real, the wrenching sound scape to a desert dream. Their sound fit together seamlessly live, but I still think that this kind of lo-fi lulling is best experienced between a set of high quality headphones. The full effect of Beach House is realized only then, rendering the listener rapt with the sounds of an unpretentiously beautiful wash of wonderment.

Hazy and quixotic, like something out of 1960's underwater ballet....

Free Music Friday!

imaginary ash — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:52:31 +0000

In which we gather up a sampling of free MP3s from the web so you don't have to!

Win tickets to see Beach House and a bunch of other fabulous prizes

three imaginary girls — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:48:41 +0000

Beach House and their pretty pristine pop will be at Chop Suey on March 18th with The Papercuts.

To mark the occassion, we've teamed up with MuseBox to give away a pair of tickets and a whole lot more.

Another Best of '07 list: Chop Suey booker Pete Greenberg's favorite albums

ChrisB — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:46:06 +0000

I'm a huge nerd when it comes to pouring over annual, best of lists (I'm still biting my nails in anticipation of the Idolator critic's poll that should be out soon), and I'm always intrigued by what the favorites of people who work in the business of music but aren't (necessarily) critics or reviewers. So, I asked Chop Suey's brand new booker Pete Greenberg to submit his list of favorite albums with the promise of posting them here - to which he happily complied.

Here's what made his list:

1. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)

2. Future of The Left – Curses (Too Pure)

3. Handsome Furs – Plague Park (Sub Pop)

4. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone Records)

5. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (Merge)

6. Big Business – Here Come The Waterworks (Hydra Head Records)

7. Beach House – Beach House (Carpark Records)

8. Blonde Redhead – 23 (4AD)

9. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)

10. Siberian – With Me (Sonic Boom Recordings)

11. Matthew Dear – Asa Breed (Ghostly International)

12. Lavender Diamond – Imagine Our Love (Matador Records)

13. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block (Almost Gold)

Speaking of Ahead of the Curve: Beach House

fat asian baby — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:55:42 +0000

Fat Asian Baby's looking ahead to 2008 with new hot act Beach House.