NYLON - March 2008 - (Page 148) SHORE THING Winter is an ideal time to visit Baltimore. Low-lying clouds lend empty streetscapes an unreal, washed-out quality. Pedestrians and stray cats seem to exist in equal numbers; mile-long blocks of abandoned 19thcentury brick row houses have their windows boarded with plywood painted pastel colors. There’s something a little sad about it, but it’s strangely beautiful in a way that hardens into memory, like a dream you’ll never quite be able to explain to someone else. The same can be said for the music of Beach House, one of the most talented emissaries of an indie scene currently sprouting like dandelions amid Baltimore’s post-industrial wasteland. The self-titled debut that Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand recorded in two days in Scally’s “totally disgusting” basement became, against all odds, one of the most critically lauded records of 2006. Their woozy, haunted, gorgeously downtempo pop-rock—a brew of weepy slide guitar, shitty synths, and shittier organs simmering in feedback—earned them a record deal, extensive tours, and favorable comparisons to shoegaze legends Slowdive and Mazzy Star (and in the case of Legrand’s sultry, opera-trained alto, Nico). The making of the band’s new album, Devotion, however, was fraught with pressure. Though the duo worked with the same producers, Like an all-too-rare vacation, the lovely music of Baltimore-based duo Beach House is something to savor. By Eviana Hartman. Photographed by Winona Barton-Ballentine recording in a proper studio challenged them to create a new richness without losing the lo-fi, spontaneous charm of their debut. “It was the most intense experience of my life,” says Scally, sipping twig tea in his linoleum-floored kitchen. “We were trying to keep the innocence that we had the first time,” adds Scally. “And to make sure we hadn’t become too self-conscious.” Mission accomplished: Devotion’s 11 ballads of longing, from bluesy lead single “Gila” to a cover of cult folkie Daniel Johnston’s “Some Things Last a Long Time,” could be the work of no other band, but they’re brighter, grander; the sound is still hazy but more radio-ready. If Beach House had the chill of autumn about it, its successor is more like a lazy summer day, albeit one interrupted by periodic thunderstorms. “We titled it Devotion,” says Legrand, “because when you decide something is what you want to do for the rest of your life, you have to work.” To hear the duo tell it, Baltimore is the perfect place to do that, giving them the freedom they need to be creative without distractions. Though the city has been drawing attention for its thriving roster of freaky new bands—namely underground hip-hop artists like Spank Rock, and collective-slash-commune Wham City—“everyone’s doing their own thing,” says Scally.
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