Beach House
I’m in love with this new Beach House album. Their sound remains closer to Winter wonderland than Summer day at the beach, but this new one is a little less chilly by comparison. It’s built from the same materials as their excellent debut: woozy organs, reverbed guitar twang, and lovely female vocals. But there is a refinement of that sound on display here. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Victoria Legrand (vocals, organs) has definitely gotten a little more confident. Her ability to craft a vocal hook from a one-word chorus, for example, is just magic. Also I think they’ve just become better song writers. Whatever it is, it’s working for me. Though it’s too early to say, I think it will easily make into my favorite records of 2008.
From the Carpark site:
Feeling lonely tonight? Turn off the TV and lower the lights. Baltimore duo Beach House have returned with their sophomore full length entitled Devotion. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have written eleven delicate pop tunes about love, feeling, and, of course, devotion. Their new album is a surefire antidote to the winter blues.
Here’s one of my favorites from Devotion (due out Feburary 26th on Carpark), “Holy Dances”
Beach House: “Holy Dances”
Kiwi Rock Doc
Just found this cool documentary about Flying Nun Records. Anyone into the label (or its many awesome bands, e.g. the Clean, the Chills, Verlaines, etc.) should check it out.
Flying Nun Heavenly Pop Hits Documentary - Part 1
Scooter Music
I bought a scooter recently. Just a 49cc deal, but it’s pretty damn cool not having to take the bus everywhere. It’s silver and pretty and the first brand new vehicle I’ve ever owned. And with the appropriate soundtrack, it sometimes makes me feel like a badass.
Yep–as fun as it is to ride (when it’s not raining, at least), I still gots to have my music. I’ve been honing a little road mix playlist lately and aim to share with you some of my favorite scooter music here. I recommend taking these tracks on the road with you (you can listen in a car if you have to).
Guitar Girls
It’s true–my parents have terrible taste in music. It’s something I suffered through as a child. I found myself listening to either the oldies stations (i.e. the same 20 songs over and over), my dad’s classical stuff (boring!), or Mom’s…*shudder*…Julio Iglesias. There were no classic gems in their record collection–just a bunch of watered-down crap. And if it hadn’t been for the guidance my brother provide me, who knows what might have become of me.
Even if they had been hip to good music, there’s little chance my parents would have been into the Pacific Northwest’s folkstress Linda Perhacs. Her only LP, Paralellograms (1970), was recently rediscovered after being buried in obscurity through a few reissues, starting with a bootleg CD of the original vinyl released in 2003. An expanded edition, with demos and such (five previously unreleased tracks), was more recently remastered and reissued by Brooklyn’s The Wild Places label in 2005. Her gentle, flowers-in-the-hair folk is liberally enriched with psychedelia. There is a somewhat ominous/sinister tone to some of the songs, and except in cases of the few upbeat numbers like “Paper Mountain Man,” calling her material “trippy” is neither an exaggeration nor a cop-out. It’s beautiful, strange and manages not to verge too close on hippy-dippy.
Recent Listening
-
The Midnight Organ Fight
Frightened Rabbit -
Birds Make Good Neighbors
The Rosebuds -
Look at Who You`re Talking To
Human Television -
Billie`s Blues
Billie Holiday -
Devotion
Beach House
-