DISCOSALT’S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2010
At the end of yet another great year in music, team discosalt has sat back, reflected and squared in with 2010’s “top 10” best albums of the year. Check out the official discosalt list and see what our friends and contributors locked in with to see which albums you are missing from your quiver. Click HERE to view.
BEACH HOUSE: TEEN DREAM
[rating:5]
Beach House: Teen Dream
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: January 26, 2010
For their third album, Beach House’s Victoria Legrand continues upon a grand sonic theme, building narcotic, intoxicating songs for a cloudy day and to “gather medicine for a heartache,” as she croons on “Silver Soul.” Mostly, Beach House songs exhibit this sort of rainy day, sleepy-eyed charm, but on Teen Dream, they let a few rays of sunshine come through the clouds. Not a full on summer day, but just a few rays of brightness in an otherwise cool landscape.
Beach House songs still have a singular quality of seeming to float, the atmospherics of the organ and the heavily reverb-ed guitar making these songs both atmospheric but still grounded by the deep and sonorous quality of the vocals. On Teen Dream, the drums have begun to do some of the work of the songs, elevating them to previously unforeseen tempos and actual energy. On “10 Mile Stereo,” a song that starts softly and builds to a seriously triumphant crescendo, both the steady increase in the energy from the drums and the energy in which Ms. Legrand belts out the chorus make what is without a doubt their brightest song to date. “Lover of Mine” uses the drums to craft what sounds like a charming document from the days of Rhythm & Soul, Vol. 1, something akin to a Beach House song that you could dance to.
The casual distance that makes Beach House both important and accessible, i.e., the strength of the melodies from both the guitar & the vocals, is all still here, as this record is not far from what one might expect the new Beach House album to sound like. It’s both a baby step forward from their stellar 2007 album Devotion and a slight slide step sideways from a sound that has thus far defined this band. Songs like the album’s 1st single “Zebra” and “Norway” still owe a debt to progenitors of the sound like the Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star. Teen Dream manages to further these comparisons while making the statement that Beach House no longer needs to be compared to the bands that came before them, but compared with these bands.
-John Whitaker
BEACH HOUSE: SILVER SOUL
New Video from the much talked about new Beach House album Teen Dream. The Maryland indie dream pop duo officially releases Teen Dream on Sub Pop this week with a DVD containing videos for each song on the album. Check out the fifth video released through gorillavsbear for the song “Silver Soul” below directed by Beach House’s singer, Victoria Legrand:
Beach House “Silver Soul” from Sub Pop Records on Vimeo.
Need some more Beach House? Stream their new album “Teen Dream” in full on NPR HERE.
WHO’S @ THE POOL ON SUNDAY?
What: GRIZZLY BEAR, Beachhouse @ Sunday “Pool Party”
When: Sunday August 30th 2PM
Where: The Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn, NY
Damage: Free
Last show of the summer! And what a better headlining band to close this years summer concert series than Brooklyn-based indie rockers Grizzly Bear. Using both traditional and electronic instruments, their sound is often categorized as psychedelic pop or folk rock, dominated by the use of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. The band is one of the few non-electronic artists signed to Warp Records and a personal fav. You can check out Discosalt’s review of Grizzly Bear’s most recent album “Veckatimest” HERE and a great show review with some sweet pics from Backseatsandbar.com HERE. As always, check back with Discosalt next week for a review and pics of the show.
JELLY NYC: POOL PARTY SCHEDULE 2009
What: Sunday “Pool Parties”
When: Sundays July 12-Aug 30 2PM
Where: The Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn, NY
Damage: Free
JellyNYC has officially announced the “Pool Party” band lineup for this summer on the Williamsburg Waterfront (the 6,000 capacity waterfront strip along the East River between North 8th and 9th Streets) and Discosalt is more excited than Jessie Spano to check out the free shows. There may not be an actual “pool” this year, but JellyNYC has promised the return of the infamous slip-n-slide, so you will still get a chance to see some bathing suits slip-n-slide off. Dodgeball is back and looks like there will be basketball? A-holes bring your A-game.
Here’s the official Schedule:
Sunday, July 12 -Mission of Burma, Fucked up, Ponytail and Jemina Pearl
Sunday, July 26 -Health, Grupo Fantasma, Trail of Dead and Black Lips
Sunday, Aug 02 -Dan Deacon, No Age and Deerhunter
Sunday, Aug 09 -Simian Mobile Disco DJ set, Fiery Furnaces, Dark Meat, The Netherlands and Finger on the Pulse
Sunday, Aug 16 – Del the Funky Homosapien & Gravy Train! & DD/MM/YY & Kenan Bell
Sunday, Aug 23 -Girl Talk, Max Tundra and Wiz Khalifa
Sunday, Aug 30 –Grizzly Bear and Beach House
SUNDAY “POOL PARTY” IS BACK
What: Sunday “Pool Parties”
When: Sundays July 12-Aug 30
Where: The Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn, NY
Damage: Free
McCarren Pool might be dead but JellyNYC, the first-rate folks responsible for the free Sunday “Pool Parties” have just pulled a bait and switch, moving the shows to the Williamsburg Waterfront. Starting July 12th, the shows will run for eight Sundays and the lineup includes: Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, No Age, Deerhunter and others.
While nothing is official, here is the tentative schedule:
July 12: Mission of Burma, Fucked Up & Ponytail
July 19: Magnolia Electric Co. ,Dirty Projectors
July 26: Health
Aug 02: Dan Deacon, No Age & Deerhunter
Aug 09: Simian Mobile Disco DJ set
Aug 16 : TBA
Aug 23: Girl Talk, Max Tundra and Wiz Khalifa
Aug 30: Beach House, Grizzly Bear
BEACH HOUSE: DEVOTION
Label: Carpark Records
Release Date: February 26, 2008
Pop music from a haunted house? Beach House plys in the labor pool of the lazy, meandering melody that seems to have no obvious beginning or end, but is anchored and steered by the certain vocals and harmonic vocal resonance formerly held by the long forgotten Cocteau Twins, but there’s a real difference. These songs have actual lyrics. The songs on Devotion aren’t so enamored with their own moodiness or atmospherics. This lack of self-aware fascination is in part by the space left between the music and the listener. Devotion doesn’t jump out of the speakers at you; if anything, it takes a step backwards.
Buoyed by drum machines, lazy electric guitars & keyboards that fill most open space and yet remain sounding reserved, songs like “Some Things Last A Long Time” and “Turtle Island” bring a cold atmospheric feeling to Devotion, while a full and obvious melody thankfully avoids sharp turns on “All These Years,” a melancholy ode to the title of the album, devotion. “Gila” provides the most singular moment on the album, a guitar melody that anchors the song, one that adheres to the cool reservation of a Blonde Redhead-esque atmopheric and strikes it’s own singular chord as well. Beach House’s second album broadens the scope of their domain, and also cements them to the ground laid in their debut, the self titled Beach House. No better or memorable part on a song this year than that guitar on “Gila,” and no better record will come out this year to take a boat ride on a cloudy day, or to listen to the ghosts kick a jam at the old abandoned orphanage. Creepy and cool
John Whitaker
