Beach House
Beach House is an American dream pop band formed in Baltimore in 2004, composed of current members Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, who first met through Baltimore's indie scene. Their work is characterized by a hypnotic dream pop style. The band first gained recognition in 2006, after their song "Apple Orchard" was featured on a Pitchfork MP3 mixtape, subsequently releasing their self-titled debut album on October of that year, through Carpark Records.
They released their second studio album Devotion in 2008. In 2009, they were offered a contract signing to Sub Pop, which allowed them to release their third studio album Teen Dream in 2010, which was released to critical acclaim. It was followed by their fourth studio album Bloom, which was also praised by critics and commercially successful, peaking at number 7 on the US Billboard 200. In 2015, the band released two albums, Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, which was described by the band as "not a companion to , or a surprise, or b-sides." Their seventh and eighth respective studio albums, 7, and Once Twice Melody, have also received acclaim by critics.
History
2004–2008: Formation, ''Beach House'' and ''Devotion''
In 2004, lead vocalist Victoria Legrand moved from her birthplace of Paris to Baltimore after being dissatisfied with theater school. She had also moved there because a colleague who went to Vassar College, where she graduated from in 2003, was also living there. She later met guitarist Alex Scally, who graduated from Oberlin College in 2004, through a mutual friend later that year. At around this time, they were both in a band named Daggerhearts, which would end up disbanding later, in 2005, due to dysfunctionality. Both of them would instead end up creating music together, wanting to form a band. He invited Legrand to his house to try a variety of organs he had used on 4-track recordings, kept in storage, and both of them got along well. Aside creating music at the time, Scally worked with his father as a carpenter, while Legrand worked as a waiter at a Mexican restaurant.The duo began recording their first album in 2005 in Scally's basement, which was recorded on a 4-track recording tape over a two-day period. The budget for recording the album was reportedly about $1,000. The duo had various talks on what their band would be named; they would confirm Beach House as their band name, which came from "House on the Hill," one of the songs they recorded had written at the time. Scally also talked about the origin of the band's name saying, "We'd been writing music, and we had all these songs, and then there was that moment where you say 'what do we call ourselves?' We tried to intellectualize it, and it didn't work. There were different plant-names, Wisteria, that kind of thing. Stupid stuff. But, once we stopped trying, it just came out, it just happened. And it just seemed perfect." In an interview with Pitchfork, Legrand addressed their being a two-member status thus: "t's a way to challenge ourselves: What do you do when it's just the two of you?... ne of the reasons this has been such a fulfilling experience for me is that with two people, it's so much easier to achieve things that feel exciting and new." In August 2006, their song "Apple Orchard" was featured on a Pitchfork MP3 mixtape. On October 3, 2006, the band released their self-titled debut album, Beach House, through Carpark Records, and was ranked 16th on Pitchfork's Best Albums of that year.
On January 2007, the band released a music video for "Master of None." They released another video for the track on July 2007, which conincided with an official release of their self-titled album in the United Kingdom. In June 2007, Beach House revealed, in an interview with Pitchfork, that they were working on their second studio album, adding that they were again working with Rob Girardi at the newly-established Lord Baltimore Recording studio. In October of that year, they officially announced the album and its title as Devotion. Beach House's second album, Devotion, was released on February 26, 2008. It was received with similar acclaim as the first album and was included in Pitchfork's Best Albums of 2008 list. The duo began writing the album within the first half of the year, starting the recording process in July 2007, with the usage of an old Yamaha keyboard that became the "main instrument of the band", according to lead vocalist Victoria Legrand. In August 2008, the band announced that they would release their debut single "Used to Be" on October 21 of that year as a 7-inch vinyl release, along with a 4-track demo of "Apple Orchard" as its B-side. Recorded over the summer of 2008, "Used to Be" was streamed online early on September 22, 2008.
2009–2010: ''Teen Dream'' and breakthrough
In February 2009, Beach House recorded a cover of Queen's "Play the Game", which was only released on the iTunes Store version of the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Dark Was The Night. That same year, the band began writing their third studio album. Aside, Legrand provided backing vocals on the song "Two Weeks" by the indie rock band Grizzly Bear. She later collaborated with the band again by providing vocals to "Slow Life", the band's contribution to the soundtrack for the film Twilight: New Moon. In September of that year, it was announced that the duo had signed onto independent record label Sub Pop, marking their departure from Carpark, where they released their first two albums, along with a confirmation that the duo were recording their third studio album. In October of that same year, the duo announced their third studio album, Teen Dream. With the record deal, they were able to produce a DVD version of the album, meeting its expectations, as well as hire a producer, Chris Coady. The album was recorded at Dreamland Studios in Hurley, New York. On November 17, the band released "Norway", the lead single from Teen Dream, on their website as a free download. The song was originally written while on a train in Norway in 2008.Despite Teen Dream being leaked on the Internet at the near-end of 2009, it was later officially released through Sub Pop on January 26, 2010, becoming their first album release through the label, and was met with critical acclaim upon release. It contains a re-recorded version of their 2008 single "Used to Be". The album's unitedly positive reception garnered the band a larger fan base, with Jay-Z and Beyoncé being spotted at the band's Coachella 2010 set. On February 1, 2010, the band released their Daytrotter Session EP, which features live renditions of four songs from Teen Dream. Of the success of the album and it being dubbed the group's "breakout" record by numerous publications, Legrand stated: "I see this as just another step in a direction. I would not want to say that 2010 will be our year, necessarily, I hope it’s just another year in which we do good work. I don’t want to be defined by this year, I want it to just be a beginning." The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. On August 24, 2010, the band released their six-track iTunes Session EP, featuring a new previously unreleased song, "White Moon", along with five renditions of songs from Teen Dream and "Gila". In October 2010, the band contributed a charity T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project to raise money for the House of Ruth women's shelter in Maryland for victims of domestic violence. On December 16, 2010, the band released "I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun" on their website for free. The song was written and recorded in 2010 during a break between tours after they felt "incredibly grateful" to their fans.
2011–2014: ''Bloom''
In 2011, the band revealed that they were planning on working on their fourth album, with Scally stating that, as soon as they finish going on tour for Teen Dream, they were going to "wait for the writing process to be really exciting and inspired". That same year, they revealed that they have already written a few songs for it while touring. In January 2012, a photo of the band was published on the Electric Lady Studios Facebook page with the caption "Just wrapped the new Beach House record in Studio A... such a rad record // band," raising speculation that their fourth studio album was completed there. The photo was later taken down, with Chris Cantalini of Gorilla vs. Bear revealing on Twitter that Sub Pop told them that Electric Lady "jumped the gun" when publishing the photo. The following month, it was reported that the duo's fourth studio album would drop in May 15, of the same year; its alleged tracklist was revealed and the album was reportedly titled Bloom. On March 7, 2012, the band streamed a new song, "Myth", on their website, confirmed as the lead single from Bloom. On May 8, the next day, the band officially confirmed the release of Bloom and its tracklist, also announcing tour dates in support. The album was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, and features production by Chris Coady for the second time. The second single from the album, "Lazuli", was released on April 13, 2012, and was released as a 7-inch single, with "Equal Mind" as its B-side, as a Record Store Day exclusive release.Bloom was released on May 15, 2012, by Sub Pop, and was met with praise from contemporary music critics upon release. The album debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200, selling 41,000 copies in its first week; it became the duo's best selling album on the chart. Supporting US tour dates for the album were also announced, with its start date being on May 4, 2012, at Charlottesville, and its end date on July 23, 2012, in New York City. Soon after touring, dates for a supporting international fall tour, marketed as the Frightened Eyes tour, were announced, commencing on September 13, 2012, in Richmond, Virginia, and concluding on November 19, 2012, in Amsterdam. At around this month, a British advert for automobile manufacturing company Volkswagen was published, which features a song that was referred to as a rip-off of the band's song "Take Care", from their previous album Teen Dream. The band responded, stating that the advertising agency had attempted to license the song from them, politely declining. The band also stated that fans should not direct their comments to the company, but to the advertising agency instead. In June 2012, Beach House was featured on the cover of Issue #80 of the Fader. A music video for "Lazuli" was released on June 6, 2012, and was directed by Allen Cordell, who also directed the video for "Walk in the Park" from Teen Dream. On November 14, 2012, the duo released the accompanying music video for "Wild", featuring video direction from Johan Renck and a series of violent and sexual scenes.
On January 1, 2013, Beach House released the official video for "New Year", which features time-lapse video recordings, which were filmed by Manuel Calderon, of the album's recording sessions at Sonic Ranch. The duo explained its concept, "It's more of a home video thing, not a music video... we just thought these moments and the memories they involve fit this song". The band released a short film, Forever Still, on February 4, 2013. The film, directed by the band and Max Goldman, was inspired by Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii and features the band performing songs from Bloom at various sites around Tornillo, Texas, where the album was recorded. The idea for the film came from the band's desire to make quality promotional content they could control artistically: "We had previously been involved in too many live sessions, radio tapings, photoshoots, etc., where the outcome was far below our personal artistic standards. We also felt a need to distance ourselves from the 'content' culture of the internet that rewards quantity over quality and shock over nuance." A music video for "Wishes" directed by Eric Wareheim and starring Ray Wise was released on March 7, 2013. In March 2014, the band released the song "Saturn Song", which exclusively appeared on the Lefse Records compilation album The Space Project. In July 2014, the band announced the Northern Exposure Tour, with concert dates taking place in Alaska and Canada.