Posts Tagged ‘beach house’

Now you’ve been through our extensive Essential Listening 2012 series, which includes all our top choices from a past twelve months of albums, gigs and tracks, here some of our frankly super talented band of writers pick out their own favourite album of 2012, each making a convincing argument for the selected records in the process.

Our Essential Listening 2012 series concludes today with The Albums.

From the ‘cohesion through experimentation’ of Tame Impala’s ‘Lonerism, through the ‘muscular power ballads, stirring, keyboard-led harmonies and call-and-response choruses’ that inform The Killers’ return with ‘Battle Born’, to the ‘sheer magnetism and unwavering belief’ which made ‘Blunderbuss’ such a successful solo debut for Jack White, we feel this rundown highlights some of the year’s truly outstanding releases that everyone should make an effort to check out.

And don’t forget, there’s only room for one place each on our Essential Listening Series, so if your favourite artist of the year isn’t included in this particular rundown, make sure you check through our previous lists to see if they’ve made an appearance elsewhere. And after that, if they’re still nowhere to be seen, maybe you should leave a comment below to let us know about it.

Beach House will undertake a busy period of touring next year when they are due to visit Australia, Japan, Europe and the United States during the coming months.

The duo will be in Australia for a series of festival appearances beginning on December 30th, and have gigs booked in Osaka and Tokyo in January 2013. A one-off UK date at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London is later booked for March 25th before the US leg launches in Texas on April 8th.

Beach House are out on the road with their fourth album ‘Bloom’, released in May 2012.

Tour dates:

DECEMBER 2012
Lorne, AU @ Falls Music & Arts Festival (30)

JANUARY 2013
Sydney, AU @ Enmore Festival (3)
Busselton, AU @ Southbound Festival (5)
Melbourne, AU @ Forum Theater (9)
Osaka, JP @ Club Quattro (18)
Tokyo, JP @ Liquid Room (20)

MARCH 2013
Paris, FR @ L’Cigale (22)
London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (25)

APRIL 2013
El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls (8)
Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom (9)
San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore (16)
Big Sur, CA @ Henry Miller Library (17)
Marfa, TX @ Crowley Theater (21)
Oxford, MS @ Lyric Theater (23)
Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s (24)

‘A series of intense, violent, sexual, and sad moments’ – Directed by Johan Reneck

Summer 2012. We’ve just had the wettest June on record, the festival season has been fractured by a series of cancellations, and album sales have fallen in their millions.

And yet, for every music fan, there’ still reasons to be cheerful.

The Stone Roses have just completed – with no major hiccups – the fastest selling weekend of live music in UK history, Blur have deemed us worthy to sample the fruits of their studio labours, some faith in humanity was restored when The Voice had its live tour pulled and, most importantly, for seven months now artists both new and established have been releasing a steady stream of truly impressive albums, proving once again that, if you’re prepared to look hard enough, quality is still out there in abundance.

So, take a look through just some of those releases we’ve pulled together for our latest Essential Listening rundown, and maybe you’ll spot something which will soon occupy a prominent place in your own record collection for the remainder of the year. And when you’ve been through the list, why not do the same for us by leaving a comment below highlighting your own favourites of 2012…so far.

Beach House’s “Lazuli” off of their 4th album Bloom. Director: Allen Cordell

“Sad is happy for deep people.”

So spoke a young woman wandering around an abandoned house in a Doctor Who episode not so very long ago. She might just have a point though.

‘Bloom’ is a record of crushing sadness, and weird as it may seem, there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had from diving right in and immersing yourself in it all.

Beach House have always been Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. Keys and electric guitar. That’s it. They can’t hide behind layers and layers of instrumentation. Their sound is simple by design, but it gathers up vast momentum nonetheless. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you heard ‘Teen Dream’. You know this formula works. But can it evolve?

Acclaimed releases from Paul Weller, Villagers and Beach House all feature in the third part of Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2010 – The Albums.

Once you’ve been through this part of our list, why not do us a favour and recommend your own stand-outs from 2010. Leave us a comment below telling us what has rocked your 2010 to be in with a chance of winning a selection of prizes from acts featured on our own rundown.

There’s something altogether audacious and inspired about staging a rock concert on hallowed ground. Few bands could hope to fill the vast, crooked spaces of a cathedral. The faintest whisper carries up to the rafters; songs refined in clubs and dance halls come out sounding like muddy white noise. It’s not a venue that suits everyone.

Here’s our round-up of the latest UK tour news announced this week, with full ticket details available through our Box Office page.