No Filler Music Podcast - 21st Century Dream Pop: Beach House - Teen Dream

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

After signing to Sub Pop, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand decided it was time to take Beach House's lo-fi signature sound and make everything "bigger". They kept the core ingredients (jangly guitars, organ drones, and Victoria's distinct low, Nico-esque vocals), but added more approachable, hooks and more pop-leaning choruses. You could say they put the "pop" in dream pop more so than any of their predecessors, garnering mainstream success. The band is now synonymous with the genre, and helped to define and shape it for the next generation. Tracklist: Silver Soul Used To Be (single version 2008) Used To Be (Teen Dream version) 10 Mile Stereo Take Care Grizzly Bear feat. Victoria Legrand - Slow Life Visit tiestatea.com and use promo code NOFILLER15 for 15% off at checkout. A bold tea for a bold you. This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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92% stick with it. So can you. Try Peloton bikes, tread or row, risk-free with a 30-day home trial. New members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at one peloton.com slash home-dash trial. Yeah, for me, it's one of the many things about my relationship with Victoria that just feels like an incredibly lucky stroke of fate. The kind of the organs that we used, I had tons of them. I was really into the sound of them, and I've been sort of starting to collect them for a few years and making recordings with them. I think it's really just like this lucky natural thing,

the sound of her voice, the way she plays, the way we worked together, it just was like this instant sound. It just had to do with sounds we liked and natural tendencies we already had and it was just like a perfect blend. And it really satisfied everything, all of our musical desire.

We found out later that we had shared so many of the same obsessions, like Bob Marley, So much, so much 90s music. You know, it was like really a lot of things. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gems that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis.

I got my brother Quentin with me as always. And this is our first episode of 2022. Q. We made it to another year around the sun. Those are some good jams we brought for the last four. weeks, man. Definitely some albums that I'm going to revisit that I wasn't aware of that you shine some light on for me. I hope so. I hope everybody liked it. You know, because we, we dedicated the entire month of December to it. Right. And dude, I mean, this happened last year, too,

but like, now I've been sitting on what you heard, James, for going on like five, six weeks, you know? We're not going to do another what you heard episode for a couple more weeks. So, No. No. I'm just so anxious to share some more discoveries with you. Yeah. So if you're a new listener and you've tuned in to the last few episodes, obviously counting down our favorite tracks of the years on our typical format, right?

So like, usually it follows kind of the format that this episode is going to fall under, which is, you know, we pick a record and we play specifically the non-singles on the record. Sometimes we make exceptions, you know, if there's a good reason to do it. But for the most part, the whole purpose of this podcast is to sort of, you know, showcase songs that you may have ignored or missed if you only tuned in to the singles on on records that you're familiar with, right? But then we also have this format, which is what Quentin just alluded to, which is called What You Heard, which is a monthly episode that we do where we each just bring five

tracks. Any track could be from any decade, any genre of just stuff we've been listening to. for the past month. So the last few weeks have sort of been that exact format, five tracks each, but it was specifically songs from 2021 that we really liked. So we'll be doing that again, you know, in a few weeks. But anyway, this episode is all about Beach House. And we alluded to this last week, because I brought one of their new singles as one of my top records from 2021, because they are gearing up to release, I think, their eighth studio album in 2022. I think it's coming out soon, like in a few weeks, I want to say.

And it is interesting that they are splitting them up like chapters. So there's a few chapters that have been released already, right? Yeah, that's right. So chapters one and two came out in November and December, respectively. So all of their tracks will be, I guess the album as a whole will be released February 18. The third chapter will come out in a couple weeks. So yeah. interesting way to release music, right?

Because you're going to hear the majority of the record before the thing even gets released, right? It is interesting. Like, I wonder if they're really approaching what songs to release for each chapter, right? I mean, I think it's just the natural flow of the record. So they may have purposely broke the record into like these four distinct sections. You know, I haven't really paid attention too much to chapters one and two to see if like, oh, I see chapter one has got kind of this theme. and vibe to it. Chapter 2 is this theme, right? Because like, you think of chapters, you think of

these different movements in a story. Right, right. And, like, usually it builds up to like a climax in the middle or something or the, you know, the third, third of the book or whatever. So, yeah, we'll see. I'm not too familiar with, with the new stuff, um, besides once twice melody song that you brought last week. Yeah. I mean, they've, they've put out a lot of records, but we're specifically focusing today on teen dream, which came out in 2010. And, and, and, and, sort of the record that, you know, put them on the map and sort of solidified them with the, the dream pop style, you know, the new sound of dream pop in the 2010s. They've, essentially, they're synonymous with, with that term now, right? Yeah, they're like the, the OG dream pop band of,

you know, it's kind of like the garage rock revival. Yeah. If you want to label the 2010s as the dream pop revival, I mean, they're at the forefront. There's that video cue that you told me about that. I went back and watched it. And the guy, this is a, the channel is called Middle Eight. Not sure what the creator's name is, but he showed this chart of like Google search trends, right? And every time since Teen Dream that Beach House put out a record, searches for the term Dream Pop like Spike, right? So that's, it's really interesting to think about, right? That's pretty telling. So Teen Dream was my introduction to Beach House. I think it was yours as well, right? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And this was right, you know, we had our music blog at the time. So obviously we talked about it. We featured songs from it. We went and saw them perform during this tour. Like we said last week, we saw washed out open for them. And yeah, I mean, they were just kind of right there at the beginning of that resurgence of Dream Pop, you know, and they were sort of the forebearers of it.

Yeah. So should we play a song and then kind of get into all the reasons why they changed Dream Pop and kind of what those characteristics are? Well, yeah, Key, before we get into the tunes here, we got to talk about TSTT. We got to. You know what I mean? Got to. You don't have to pull our leg to talk about TSTT. We love talking about TSTT. And you, Q, have been sipping on their Earl Grey. Yeah, dude, they've got this Victorian Earl Grey, which is like this. really floral, you know, Bergamont heavy,

real gray. And I'm, man, it's without a doubt my favorite old gray. That's one of my favorite teas. Well, I, I gifted my wife some TSTs to T for Christmas,

dude, because she, there's this, you know, I don't know how, if this is a national chain or not, but if you live in Texas, you're familiar with this,

this burger place called, Twisted Root. Oh, yeah. Kier, you probably remember that. Oh, yeah. Are there any in Washington? Not that I'm aware of, dude, but yeah, they make some tasty burgers. So it might be kind of regional.

Anyway, they have this watermelon tea that she's obsessed with, but nobody sells watermelon tea. You can't find watermelon tea at like the grocery store. Most restaurants don't have it. So like we're always on this quest to find watermelon tea. And of course, TSTAT has a watermelon tea called chunky watermelon. Of course they do. And so I bought it for it. It's got apple pieces, carrot bits, melon pieces, beetroot.

Carrot bits, huh? Interesting. Yeah, right. Interesting. So this is loose leaf tea, as we have mentioned before, so you can see all the ingredients and stuff right there, right? So we're going to try that out, and it smells delightful. I haven't made it yet. I'm going to make it later tonight, but yeah, it smells amazing. It was so aromatic that I had to put the container that it came in, I had to, like, double zip lock bag it and hide it in my office so that she wouldn't smell it for the entire month of December. Wow. Because it was so, like it just smells so good. That's crazy, dude.

And I didn't want her to be like, it smells like watermelon in here, you know? I wonder if I'm getting any watermelon gifts for Christmas. But anyway, I'll report back on how delicious it is after we make it. But if it tastes like it smells, dude, it's going to be something. Well, if you've been searching for watermelon tea yourself, hop on TSTT, grab that watermelon chunk, and throw in the no filler 15 code at checkout to get 15.

percent off your purchase. So tsatat.com promo code no filler 15. TST a T, a bold tea for a bold you. All right, Q. Let's dive right into a tune, dude. Let's, yeah, let's let them paint the picture. So just real quick, though, that introduction clip, that interview clip that played us in was Alex Scali, which is one half of the duo, the singer being Victoria LeGrand. He was just talking about how it was sort of like this musical fate that sort of makes their sound work so well together. Because I like how he said, yeah, you know, the organs that we use, I just had a bunch of them laying around or whatever. So I guess he collected organs, you know, when they got together and started making music.

A collector of organs. But yeah, as we're going to hear from their music and stuff, they don't really have any shoegate like traditional shoegays elements to them right no wall of noise and i think an organ is one of those like an organ is pretty unique right it really gives it like a baroque pop kind of sound to it you know yeah but when you think of like shoegaze you certainly don't think of an organ you know what i mean you think of you know a pedal effects board with you know 20 effects to really amp up the reverb and the, you know, warbly like glide guitar notes that Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine created. That's, that to me is shoegaze. Yeah. Classic shoegaze. Right. Well,

so they made it their own and sort of reintroduced it to everybody. You know, they've got some, some uniqueness to them, which is, I think, the organ. I think her voice is not your traditional sort of like ethereal shoegaze or dream pop sound either. Like, I think her voice is pretty pretty unique as well. But I think there's just something about like the pacing or the vibe, the overall like feeling that you get when you listen to a beach house song that I guess makes a dream pop, right? It's one of those things where it's like we all decided to call them a dream pop band for some reason. Yeah, it is interesting. All the all the blog writers at the time, maybe including us, decided, hey, this is a dream pop. And I think it's just the vibe. I think it's the aesthetic. I think it's the,

you know, at first they had kind of a lofi sound to them and it changed on this. record. We'll talk about that a little bit later too. But yeah, you know what, let's just, let's listen to it, and then that'll maybe help us talk about it a little bit more here. So I'm going to start with track number two off of Teen Dream. This song is called Silver Soul. So I'm always drawn to simplicity and music, you know, and they're very good at that, you know, keeping it simple. And did they even have a real drummer in this album? Was it one of them or? Yeah, so they did have a guy. I had a couple of guys actually. Dan Franz and Graham Hill were the drummers and percussion in the studio. And then I think, I think they toured with another guy. May have been one of

these two dudes. But so yeah, that is actual drums that you're hearing. May not have been drums on their earlier records, you know, because like I said, I think it was an electronic, like just drum beats that they made. Yeah, their first two records were devotion. 2008 before that a self-titled in 2006. But yeah, so like from a, if we were to try to figure out or pinpoint dream pop elements in a track like that, right? I think it really just comes down to like the pace of the song, you know, because like you said, it's very simple and very like hypnotic almost, like very, very, I don't want to say dreamlike

because that's too easy. But yeah, but it's true. I think part of that is the hypnotic kind of elements of it. And I think that has to do a little bit with the repetition of the melody, you know. And that, yeah, anytime I'm trying to describe even proper shoegaze to someone, hypnotic or drone-like, you know, is the kind of words that I used to describe it. And I think her voice kind of, like you said, it's not ethereal kind of like, coctaw twins or my bloody valentine but i think dreamy works dude you know i mean it's it's it's a cop out but

it's true i mean that's that's where the term dream pop came from right well but beach house like truly separated those two terms right because they used to be the same thing not anymore yeah i know but i mean they they have always had i know we've talked about this before but like they they're synonymous but but the dream pop has certain characteristics to it. And I don't think Beach House is what is what separated the two into two separate camps. You know what I mean? No, but I think when people think of Dream Pop now, yeah, they think of Beach House. That was why we were so shocked to find out the Shugase and Dream Pop was the same thing. And that's because our introduction to Dreampop was Beach House. Yeah, I think you're right. You're right about that.

But yeah, they, you know, there's the term like Newgays, right? Which predates Beach House a little bit, but those are, you know, the next evolution of shoegaze. Beach House is like the next evolution of Dream Pop, you know. And when I think of that genre, I feel like it makes so much more sense for it to be tied to a band like Beach House than it is to be tied to a band like My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and Mary Chain or Cocktown Twins or any of the other bands that were getting that label back in the late 80s, early 90s. Yeah, and that's probably just because that was our intro to it, you know. that's like people saying like hey man Pierce Brosnan that's the only bond

that I need you know what I mean versus people like in our dad's generation are like you kidding me have you seen Sean Conner Roger Moore motherfucker Roger Moore yeah anyway okay so very simple straightforward song

you know you heard her voice I've always liked her voice because she's got this like this roughness to it It's a raspy voice. Yeah, and I think that's also what makes it so different than your traditional dream pop or shoegaze vocal, you know. And it's not a perfect singing voice.

You know, there's some quivers in it sometimes. She's not always right in tune. But that's what's interesting about their later stuff. It definitely becomes more polished. Yeah. The Once Twice melody, the two chapters that are out so far, the song we played last week, it comes off as a more, to me, more traditional sounding, cleaner sounding dream pop vocal.

Well, and we've learned over the years as we've, you know, dove into recording processes and stuff like that more with this podcast that. So much of that has to do with the recording space and the producer, you know. Yeah. So I love the way Teen Dream sounds. I always have. And it's a step above in terms of like how big it sounds. Yeah. From the two albums that came before it.

Yeah. That's a perfect dude. What a perfect segue to what we're going to talk about next. So, you know, like you said, it sounds bigger, right? That, in large part, is due to the fact that this was the record, the first record they put out under subpop. So they were signed to a larger label and they were given a lot more money to record. this, they actually went into a recording space, like an actual proper recording studio, right, versus their first two records were like more indie and DIY and like recorded in

basements and stuff. They recorded in this like abandoned, converted church. It used to be a church. It was converted into like a studio. That's perfect, man. That's perfect. I think it's called like Dreamland or something like that, which I mean, come on. That's freaking perfect. Yeah, the studio is literally called Dreamland. They're making Dreamland. They're making Dreamland. dream pop and they're putting on a record called Teen Dream. Like, it's just funny, right? Anyway. I wonder if, you know, I wonder if the album name came about from just, you know, feeling

inspired during the recording process, recording it in Dreamland. Yeah, here's a quote here. From Victoria, she says, Teen Dream is not necessarily a literal ode to our teenage past. It's an invitation, an exclamation of the forces and energies that consumed us as people. we're 28 we're not teenagers anymore but there's going to always be some force inside us that compels us to be irrational and i think that's what keeps people creative totally they were asked that a lot like is this about being a teenager and they're like not necessarily you know it's about like those

irrational decisions and stuff like that that you make when you're a teenager but like you know sort of the the youthful um energies and creativities or whatever that you get that sort of get quelled at the older you get, you know? You really want to find a way to, you know, hold on to those feelings of youthfulness. Yeah. Yeah. But they also said in another interview that I read from this website

called Impose magazine, uh, she was talking about how they wanted sex to be associated with this record, like sexuality and stuff like that. She said, she used the term, and I think this works here. Dark passion.

And I think that her voice has that maybe like dark kind of vibe to it sometimes. Very sensual. I mean, you know what? Having a name like Teen Dream, that does kind of evoke some sexuality, right? Because you're just exploding with hormones in your teenage years. Right, right, right. Well, here we go, dude. The song that we just play is Silver Soul.

Here's Legrand talking about that song. She says, it's a song of dark forces and habitual past. patterns. And in that sense, it touches on the limits of something that can be sexual and something that is brooding. And so like when you go back to some of the lyrics, we feel it move through our skin. It's a sickness, a manic weakness. It's happening again. So some sexual undertones maybe there. I mean, she even says it right there. Anyway, they're, like we said, they signed to subpop. This was a, this record had a more polished and like bigger sound because of that. they were in a proper studio.

So one thing I wanted to do, and this is what we were saying in the, in the, in the intro, that, you know, sometimes it feels like the right thing to do to play a single, even though we try not to play singles, because this is a good example of like what happened to Beach House when they got access to the larger record label, like machine and the studio and stuff like that. There's a song that came out as a single on this record called Used to Be. they released it. I think they wrote it on tour when they were touring for devotion. And they went back home after the tour and then they threw it on a record, like put it out as a single, basically.

And I'm going to play an audio clip here from Alex who's talking about sort of how they kind of became, I don't know, displeased with the single and wanted to re-record it because of how different they sounded and how much bigger this Teen Dream record sounded. that like it just didn't work anymore. So here we go. Here's Alex Scali talking about used to be. Yeah, I don't think that was really the sound of that single is not really the beginning of the sound that ended up being Teen Dream. That didn't come until the beginning of the year and we started to put that sound together.

That's why we had to redo used to be because it didn't fit with all the new energy we were channeling. The whole album we see is kind of multicolored and songs are huge. They're not one-dimensional. They're not monotone. And I find that single to be kind of monotone. It's kind of overly, it's just so simple. To me, a bit underwhelming.

So the reason we recorded is because we needed to make it as three-dimensional and as multifaceted and as colorful as the rest of the songs on the album. So there you go. So let's listen to both versions here because basically to me, what this does is puts like in like perfect contrast like Beach House from their first two records. And then you sign to a major label, you get a proper studio space. You get a bunch of money and you can, as he said, make it more, make your music more like multifaceted and colorful and big. You know what I mean? So here you go.

Here is the first version of the song used to be. that actually came out on their B-sides and Rarities record, which was released in 2017. But yeah, this originally came out in 2008. Here we go. This is used to be. All right, I think you get the idea. Very simple, like you said.

Yeah, very simple. And there's this thing that happens right there at the end of that clip, at least. You know, they's got some, like, fudge. Some, like, fuzz distortion. Uh-huh. That kind of happens there. And it doesn't work. Very out of place.

And so when you hear this version of it from Teen Dream, you'll see that they totally, obviously, I mean, they couldn't, basically it's, it's re-recorded for Teen Dream or don't put it on Teen Dream. Because that would not have worked. Yeah, definitely. And so they made the right call for sure. And like he said, you know, it just comes off as kind of like monotone and not very interesting. So I had never heard that until today when I was preparing for this episode. So I've only ever heard this version that I'm about to play.

But yeah, here's what happens when you have a. proper studio space and, you know, probably some credit goes to the producer, Chris Cody, and we can talk about him in a little bit too. But yeah, here we go. Let's listen to the version that showed up on Teen Dream. Again, this song is called Used to Be. So it's been a long time since I've listened to that song, and I was kind of surprised at how similar it was to the original single. Yeah. But you can, can see how like, this is the final polished version like this song. You know what I mean? Right. But that's actually what I, I actually appreciated how, how similar it sounded as far as,

yeah, they took away stuff. Yeah. They took away the fuzz, right? Because it wasn't necessary at all. It almost sounded like the same exact kick drum, like click track kind of thing, just the, the bass kick that leads the song in. I thought for sure they would change that because it did sound like, like that demo or the single version sounded like some kind of drum machine click track. It's interesting how similar it sounded. Yeah. I mean, technically that is Dan Fran's on the drums there in the studio. But dude, one of my favorite parts on the record, it's so minor.

But like at the second verse, they add this like shaker or something like that. It just comes in and like, man, I anticipate and look forward to that moment every time I hear the song because I know it's coming. And like, I love really simple additions like that. Me too. Same with like a tambourine clap. Yeah. Especially when it's added mid-verse or something like that, you know, where it's not there and then suddenly it's there.

And it's sort of like, I don't know, it changes the whole feeling of the song, you know, because now you've got this other element added to it. And it feels like there's more momentum or something like that happening or more energy. I really think we have Jamino and Britt Daniel to think. for I love of shakers and tambourines. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably true because we grew up on Spoon, man. They're masters at that.

Yeah, totally. All right, well, there you go. That is a perfect example of what can happen to a small little indie band when they signed a record, right? They get more time, more money, more, you know, access to equipment and a studio space to really make things feel like they said, bigger and just more colorful and more, like, expansive and stuff like that. It's also kind of depressing to think about that so many great bands that don't have the resources might fall short in their ability to share their idea in the way that they want to.

You know, it might fall short a lot of times. And you'll never hear exactly what they were going for, what they were hoping to achieve. Well, yeah, I mean, that's just it, right? Yeah. But, I mean, how many records have we heard produced in a bedroom? that sound amazing, right? So, I mean, people can do a lot with not much. Very true.

I was going to say just, I wanted to point out a few, a few more items in the producers discography, just because it's always interesting. And this guy, so his name is Chris Cody, like I said, he's a producer, but he also, you know, he, he's a mixer. Like, he started out like mastering and mixing before he did proper, like producing. and I just wanted to name drop some stuff. Cass McCombs, he's worked on some of his records as a mixer. Massive Attack, right?

So like a pretty varied list there. Grizzly Bear, TV on the radio, Foles Antidotes, Q. Oh, hello. He did tracking on that record, which is another subpop record. And then also he did Slow Dives, 2017 self-titles. So there you go Shugay's gods, right? Dude, I love that album. So he did mixing for that.

So anyway, for this record, Teen Dream, not only did he produce, but he also mixed and engineered. So he was kind of, you know. His fingerprints are all over. Yeah. And something that Alex Scali had mentioned in an interview is that for the first time,

because, you know, it's the first time they're working with people at this, like, level, he would push them to retake something or redo something to get it at the level that it needed to be at. So he would say that, like, you know, they would lay down a track and they'd be like, all right, cool, let's go to the next thing. And he'd be like, nope, it's not there yet. Like, this is not as good as it can be.

You know what I mean? That sounds like Sonic Youth. They were always just like, all right, cool, we got it. Let's move on. Yeah, right, good enough. Yep. Anyway, all right, let's move on to the next track here, Q. And this is one of my favorites on the record.

It always has been. I think we either are going to have to split it into two tracks or just play a really long clip because I think this has some different like moments in it that happen. But anyway, we're going to jump down to track 8. The song is called 10 Mile Stereo. Great song. I love the drums, the way the drums just kind of ease in in the background. And I like the like relentless guitar strumming and guitar picking, you know, it just goes on in the background the whole time. Yeah, I mean, this song just has, it just feels like there's this like steady climb on this song, like this trajectory, like you're climbing up or something like that,

like a roller coaster, I don't know. It feels like you're preparing for takeoff cue. Because like, you know, there's just this like buildup in this song. And again, dude, I feel like all of these songs are pretty simple. You know what I mean? Yes, they are. And I think that's maybe what gets the term, like how, why they get the term dream pop. I don't know.

I think that's it, man. And I think it's the like the tone, overall tone of the song, not just of the guitar or her vocals, right? It's just very, it is very dreamy there. I'm going to say it again. And I know that's a simple, that's a simple way to just wrap a bow up on this. But it's true. It's dreamy. And I think it's got a really nice like 60s pop kind of sound. All right, cute. Let's just let Alex Scali talk about this. Because there's actually, there's some quotes and stuff from them on like, you know, they don't really necessarily love the label Dream Pop that gets thrown on them. But like, like, there's actually, they're not, they don't resent it.

But yeah, here's Alex Scali again. You're telling me that you had the answer all along and you've just been sitting on it. Well, you know, this isn't necessarily going to be the answer. But here's Alex's perspective on the term dream pop. So this is an interview with vulture.com that they did back in 2010. Here's the question from the interviewer. There are certain phrases that are almost always brought up when you're written about, specifically Dream Pop. Are you okay with that? Here's what Alex had to say. I think before we played

hundreds and hundreds of shows, we were more uptight. At this point, we're really happy to have attention. We'd much rather have people interviewing us and ask the same questions a million times than not care at all. Things like Dream Pop, I think it's awesome when journalists go outside the realm of expected things, but human beings have a need to put things in categories. It's a natural human instinct for someone turning on the radio. I think dream is for the tone of our instruments, and pop is because we make pop songs. We love pop songs, songs that have powerful anthemic quality. We don't resent it. It's possible that Alex Kelly isn't aware, or at least at the time of this interview, that Dream Pop and Shugays are synonymous, because I would have liked to hear his perspective

on it almost sounds like he thinks the term dream pop is a new term being used to describe their band because he did you know he breaks it down into the word dream and pop without any sort of reference to shoegays and stuff like that and like earlier dream pop bands i think we've established now dude i mean we've pretty much run this into the ground shoe gaze and dream pop should have never been tied together uh let's blame the journalists from the UK in the 80s sure I'm okay with that. Most people don't even realize it. I don't care with that.

But I mean, you know, the funny thing is he's even seeing it right here, dude. He's like, you know, people just like to categorize things. Yeah. So here we are trying to figure it out and dissect it, right? And be like, why is this dream pop? We got to where we couldn't stand trying to figure out what genre to slap on a band that we were writing about on our music blog. But it felt like we needed to. Yeah, because as he said, we found ourselves having to throw it into, you know, it's just what we,

It's what we, when we listen to music, we want to listen. Yeah, we want to call it something, you know what I mean? Yeah. Anyway, they are a dream pop band. They sure are, dude. But are they shoegays? No. Not at all, dude.

Anyway, let's, okay, let's pick back up, though. Yes. Now, here's the, here's an interesting part that I like about what he said. He said, we love pop songs. We like songs with an anthemic quality. And I think 10-mile stereo, maybe even, used to be. These are so simple, simple songs that you can just sing along with them, you know, in a music festival or something like that. By the time this record comes out, they are starting to

play larger and larger venues and stuff like that. They even talked about that in some of their interviews, how like the bigger sound that they were able to make because of the studio space, because of the label, was a natural progression because they started to play bigger venues. And so, like, he even talked about, like, I'm glad that we're playing these bigger, venues because they have better sound systems and like this sound from this record needs to be big you know what I mean and so like it's a great natural progression our crowd sizes are bigger our sound is bigger the venues are bigger like it's perfect right it's a natural progression I like them so anyway I think this 10 mile stereo song is a good example of like this like soaring anthem you know what I mean like

I was saying it it's got this nice build to it there's some crescendo moments yeah and there's there's more to that climb that I'm talking about here. So let's pick it up where we left off. Again, this is 10-mile stereo. I mean, there is a wall of symbols there, man. They definitely reach a crescendo. And yeah, I love how that simple drumbeat just opens up and he starts hitting symbols. The snare drum gets louder.

I mean, I feel like they, I think they're producing must have just handed them all a pair of sticks. Maybe with, you know, five or six symbols just all in a row and they all just went to town. that is a song that you look forward to at the live show. You know what I mean? That's the like the peak. Yeah, that's like the climax, right? In that moment in the song, right? When it all opens up, it's just a great song.

It's probably my favorite on the record. And I love how the last word in the song is forever. And she kind of holds the note. You know, it just kind of like fades out. That's good stuff. Just like the word, right? forever. And I love she gave a shout out to our podcast network. Yeah. The last verse, she says the word pantheon. Pantheon podcast.com. Anyway, I've always loved that song, and that's a good example of, like,

simple, relentless, you know? Yeah. Very repetitive. But like, it's this constant build, and that's what I love about it. Like, you're just going up and up and up with this song, you know, and this got such a great payoff. And yeah, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I like also like when the symbols get added and they open up, they have this like angelic sort of like backing vocals that happen. I don't know if you heard it. Oh no, I didn't notice. It's like, oh, oh, you know, that's staying in, brother. That's fine. That's beautiful. That's, that's exactly what it sounds like. Basically, you know, they could have used me in the studio. Lovely. But yeah, you didn't catch that. How did it go? Let me play it for you. Oh, man. I wanted you to say it again.

Sorry. No, listen right here. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, very ethereal. I wonder who that was. Was that hurt? Dude, that might have been Alex. He's listed as harmony vocals.

Oh, I sure hope it was. Yeah, I bet you it was. But yeah, no, I feel like they really took advantage of the acoustics in that church for that. Yeah. Maybe they just brought in the choir that used to sing there or something like that. Yeah, maybe they recorded that one on a Sunday. Yeah. I'm sure it's not a church that's still in use.

Not an actual church. Yeah. He actually, Alex has a quote about that because, like, one of the interviewers, there was like, did you guys record this in a church, huh? He's like, well, yeah, we mentioned that in our one sheet. I guess the, you know, what they send out to the one sheets. Yeah, we used to get those. Yeah, yeah.

For our music blog, he says, every time we make a great mistake on our press releases and then we realize it later, he's like, it's a converted church. There's nothing churchy about it. Because, yeah, from that point on, they were asked that every interview. He says it's more like a bar. a nice big wooden area. Yeah. So it's not actually a church.

It was a church. Now it's a studio. But everybody asked them like, oh, so this was recorded in a church, huh? Cool. He's like, no, it's not a church. Like in between sermons? Yeah. But, hey man, they would have had a good use for the choir on this track.

You know, they could have, like you say, gone in on Sunday. Well, Alex was sounding beautiful on that. Yeah. Probably Alex and Victoria. harmonizing there. All right, we got one more track, which is interesting because I don't think I get down to this track very often when I listen to this record, and we always preach about listening to records all the way through. That's what we preach, brother. But this is a really interesting track, and of the tracks on this record, it has the most plays, on Spotify, at least, and it's not a single.

So that's something. It probably doesn't happen very often. So my guess is it must have been featured on something, right? A compilation. TV show, maybe. Yeah, maybe. That's my guess. Yeah. But here we go.

This is the very last track. And it's interesting, man. I gotta be honest with you. I may not have ever heard this song up until today. So here you go. This song is called Take Care. Great track. Great track.

Yeah, it has more of a poppiness to it with kind of like that kind of sing-songy thing in the course. I will say there's definitely a formula. to a lot of the songs on this album. Not in a bad way. Yeah, I mean, his guitar, he has a very, very distinct guitar technique and sound that he has. It's kind of like a slide guitar.

Yeah, not a glide guitar as. Right. Not a loveless. Yeah, not a loveless glide guitar. But he's got this slide technique that he uses, which adds to the dreaminess, you know, it really does. But yeah, so Q, when we were listening to the song,

you said that it was featured on a new girl episode. Yeah, I recognized. I realized it right away, yeah. It was on an episode called Injured. That's one of my favorite episodes, dude. Season 1, episode 15. That episode is hilarious.

So there you go. As we suspected, that's just kind of the way it is, right? Like, if a non-single becomes more popular than the singles, usually it's because of another reason, right? Like that. Okay.

Well, that was it, cute. That's a great, great song to wrap it up. And that's a great song to wrap up an album, too. Yeah, I was going to say that's the record that closes it. What do we keep saying, dude? Listen to the album from start to finish. Are you going to miss out on gyms like this one? Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah, this is the record that sort of put them on the map and brought the term Dream Pop into the mainstream, probably more so than it did when the term was first coined. You know what I mean? Because, you know, I would say Beach House is probably the most well-known dream pop band of all time, right? Like, they broke into the mainstream in ways that 90s dream pop stuff didn't, you know? It comes to mind immediately when you hear the genre name. Right.

And, you know, they've been making this kind of music ever since. And they've basically got their sound figured out, and they haven't really strayed from it. Alex actually seems to be almost defensive about it even when asked about, like, their sound and how consistent it is. And this is interesting. I want to get your check on this quote, Q. This was a quote that showed up on that YouTube video that you shared with me, again, from this YouTube channel called Middle Eight.

But they put up a quote from Alex on there that said, this is just what we do. This is Victoria's voice. These are the organs that we like. This is our band. We are not making some sort of conscious choice like, hey, let's stay the same. I hate when bands change between records.

they're thinking before they make music. What? I don't know how I feel about that last part. They're thinking before they make music. So what's he trying to say? Implying that they don't think? I mean, I think what he was trying to say was like they're not being true to themselves.

They're thinking, hey, we need to change. Yeah, I think that's, yeah, that is what he means. But like, I don't agree with him. I don't agree with it at all. I do agree with him that sometimes I hate it when bands change between records. But that's just because I'm selfish and I want them to say. stay the same. Right, exactly. It's like, give me more of the same from the last record, right, because I liked it. But, hey, I always think back to what, um, Jannis. Yeah, yeah, Janus,

Philip, Philopacus is that how he says, something like that, yeah. Yeah, he says, you know, wondering why a band sounds different five years later is equivalent to looking at a picture of your friend from five years ago and wondering why their hairlines receding or whatever, why their haircuts different. Well, because they've changed. It's been years and they're, they're evolving, their growing. Yeah, exactly. So Alex, you know, I guess is maybe getting a little bit defensive as to why they haven't grown or changed. And I understand him going on the defensive, right? Sure, but I mean, but when you listen to some of their newer stuff, they have changed. It's just a natural evolution of their sound, you know, and like we were saying when we listened to, you know, one of their

new singles last week, once twice melody, it sounds like a band that's confident and mature. and like have been doing it for over a decade, which is what they've been doing. Like they're comfortable with this sound that they perfected. Yeah, and it doesn't sound anything like Teen Dream. But it's like it's 100% Beach House, right? Because like they're just so unique, like he said. Because it's the organs that they like to use and that's Victoria's voice. Exactly.

That's what makes them them. Well, where do we go from here, dude? I don't know if you've got an album or a band picked out for a. next week. Well, I think what we decided to do was stick in this decade, 2010, and talk about some of the bands that we sort of fell in love with and wrote about for our music blog. I think it might be fun to actually dive into a beach fossils album. Hey, dude, let's just do all the beaches. Let's get all the beaches out of the way. We could do beach fossils. And if we do beach fossils, I would want to do the record that we hit on a little bit on our 200th episode with Josh Stewart.

Is it self-titled? I don't even fucking remember. Yeah, self-titled, the 2010 self-titled record Beach Fossils. We could do that. And you want to talk about like lo-fi, like indie. Like it was just him. Him being Dustin Pazier, got very Dave girl of him, right? Sure.

So we could do that. Let's do it. All right, cool. So next week, we're going to do another band that starts with Beach. Beach Fossils. And his debut record, self-titled record, came out the same year, 2010, him and his drum machine and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, that'll be fun. All right.

So I'm going to play, I've got an interesting outro for SQ because I didn't realize this. Victoria, the singer of Beach House, was asked to record a song for the Twilight New Moon. soundtrack. Oh, no. And I've never seen any of those movies. Me neither. But it's,

it's Grizzly Bear featuring Victoria LeGrand on vocals. And it's actually pretty interesting. Yeah, I gotta hear that. And they talk about how like, she literally like went down and like laid the track down in like an hour and then left.

And Alex was kind of given her props. Like this just speaks to like her talent and stuff like that. Like she just like, you know, went in there, knocked it out and then just left. And like, can I get my page? check things. Exactly. So anyway, we'll close out with that because that's interesting.

It came out the year before 2009. So like we mentioned earlier, we are part of the Pantheon podcast network. It's pantheonpodcast.com, home of many great music-centric podcasts, including our own. You can get, again, 15% off your order at ts.t.com if you use promo code no filler 15 at checkout. And then follow us on Instagram at no filler podcast. send us a message or something. We like hearing from you. That's kind of what this is all about, connecting with our listeners. So drop us a line. Tell us what you want to hear us talk about. Tell us a band that you've been listening to lately or a song that you've had on repeat. Maybe we'll feature that track on our next What You Heard episode.

Yes, I would love that. Please. Send us tunes. Yeah, please talk to us. We would love to hear from you. All right, Q. Well, that's it, man. Our first episode of 2022, starting things off proper with one of the most, iconic records of 2010, Beach House's Teen Dream. Next week we'll do Beach Fossils. We're going to close out with a song off of the Twilight New Moon soundtrack, Grizzly Bear featuring Victoria LaGrand. The song is going to be called Slow Life.

My name is Travis. And I'm Quentin. Thank you, as always, for listening. Y'all take care. Most percent of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later. 92% because of a bike? Not just bikes. We also make treadmills and roars.

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