Tag Archives: Memoryhouse

Chillwave, glo-fi. Silly names for music that has seriously arrived. And Baltimore, MD’s Beach House are the flag-bearers of the chillwave army. Although I dug their first album, I first fell in love via 2008′s Devotion. “Gila” is a revelation, the chorus bearing down like a gentle, fatal locomotive of oohs and aahs.

Beach House, “Gila” (from Devotion)

Teen Dream is a leap forward, trance-like but direct, tender but terrifying. Beach House dishes this album like a martini up, with an austere English gin in a bone-chilling martini glass, and god damn if it doesn’t taste like a mouthful of winter on an August day. Teen Dream‘s been getting serious best of the year chatter, and with good reason. I’m laying 3:1 odds on it winning Noise Narcs’ Best of 2010 album poll (and 1:1 odds on me winning Noise Narcs’ stupid alcoholic metaphor 2010 poll). No songs are weak enough to allow for standouts, though “Norway” is the obvious single.

Beach House is playing a very, very sold out show (as in, good luck getting tickets on Craigslist for less than $50) at Philly’s First Unitarian’s Sanctuary on Friday, May 7, with the likewise tremendous Washed Out. If, like me, you’re lucky enough to have tickets, sneak a couple of fine 22oz ales from Philly Nosheri in and enjoy the show in seated Unitarian splendor.

Beach House, “Norway” (from Teen Dream)

If Beach House is a searing martini, Onatrio’s Memoryhouse is a well-made gin and tonic (a Dutch-style gin, fine tonic, and for God’s sake don’t forget the tonic ice cubes). Pitchfork, who usually write as if they have a fist full of marbles, is gracefully apt: “At times, The Years plays like a shoegazer record minus the feedback, leaving just the reverbed loops and frostbitten vocals behind.”

Find out if Pitchfork is right, as Memoryhouse has put up their The Years EP for free [link]. On Monday, May 3, they play Kung Fu Necktie with Philly chillwavers Music for Headphones, for a measly $5. A double steal. And quite a Monday-Friday pairing.

Memoryhouse, “Foreground” (Grizzly Bear Cover)
Memoryhouse, “To the Lighthouse”