Sea, Hear: Beach House At Bottom Of The Hill

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What has been washing up on Beach House’s shores? Plans for a new baby, according to the band grapevine, as well as a bouncing new album. Duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have been working on the latter this year in upstate New York at Dreamland Studios, a church-turned-recoding-studio, alongside producer-engineer Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, !!!).


After the rapturous reception that accompanied the pair’s second long-player, **Devotion** (Carpark), one can easily accept the word from Seattle -- home of Beach House’s new label, Sub Pop -- that the twosome’s third full-length is going to be a beaut.

And judging from Beach House’s performance at the bucolic Fernwood campground in Big Sur at last year’s Festival in the Forest firefighter fund-raiser, the outfit’s upcoming shows will be just as enthralling.

Under a sky spinning with stars, the group plied the chilled crowd clustered on the grass with a dark strain of dream pop, a sound that swung gently along to the dark breeze of Legrand’s throaty croon. Could this be the second coming of the Velvet Underground fronted by Nico? I wondered. Or the indie-rock incarnation of Legrand’s uncle Michel’s film scores? Even better, it was the sound of Beach House finding its own smoldering voice – burning it down and building, at the same time, a seemingly lasting outpost on the shifting sands of pop.

Beach House plays Monday, Oct. 19, 9 p.m., at Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. Papercuts and DJ Andy Cabic also appear. $14. (415) 621-4455, www.bottomofthehill.com. Beach House also performs Friday, Oct. 23, 8:30 p.m., at Fernwood Resort, Highway 1, Big Sur. The Fresh and Only’s, Ganglians and Inner Beauty also play. (831) 667-2422, fernwoodbigsur.com, folkyeah.com

 

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