Beach House - Bloom

so this is really pretty

This is pretty shameless:

http://pitchfork.com/news/46564-beach-house-ripped-off-by-british-car-ad/

I've liked what i've heard of them on WFMU, but I burn out on albums before I hear them.

^i've got sympathy for the musicians who were hired to do that ad. in my imagination the car company execs used the original as a reference and asked them to do something in a similar style, which they did in a non-plagiaristic way, then got asked for revisions because "can you make it sound more like the other song?" seen it happen with friends who do this kind of work.

until they give kendra smith some $ they can stfu

are beach house going to fall forever in the same category as spoon and the national by making lovely, critic friendly and appreciated records without ever changing style in any way?
it's all good and nice, but it just seems like no progression at all here (not always a be all and end all obvs).

I like them and this one is their best but I can't imagine getting excited about them; they're a really good minor band.

VW ad track is better than "Take Care" imo.

^ i've got sympathy for the musicians who were hired to do that ad.

Me, none. If you can't plagiarize gracefully, you should get out of the commercial music racket. It's possible that BH were contacted about a licence, but didn't wish to affiliate one of their more 'personal' songs with a car company. Now, the damage has been done regardless.

To my ears, this commercial "cover" doesn't sound any more like "Take Care" than fifty other proper originals released by blog hype bands. In fact, the VW track actually reminds me more of some subtle Arcade Fire stuff.

Or, even more than that, The Walkmen.

VW ad track is better than "Take Care" imo.

Ouch.

Bloom sounds like Teen Dream only on first listening.
actually,although it resemble it, it's poppier, and more polished.

To my ears, this commercial "cover" doesn't sound any more like "Take Care" than fifty other proper originals released by blog hype bands.

If you're joking, then "lol, right", but otherwise "?" The VW song is a straight-up lift, there's nothing to distinguish it.

The melodies and instrumentation are largely dissimilar. Maybe the "vibe" is the same, but big deal. That vibe is all over the fucking place the last few years.

I mean, there's a closer resemblance between "Ghostbusters" and "I Want a New Drug" than this VW song and "Take Care".

it's only just close enough to avoid litigation (& i'm sure VW did some research into that) to say it's superior is just challops.

to say it's superior is just challops

A challop? Maybe. But an op all the same. (Seriously, if Hamilton Leithauser was singing instead of a nameless vocalist, it would be a great Walkmen song.)

http://pitchfork.com/news/46570-beach-house-respond-to-volkswagen-ad/

So I guess the ad agency DID make a play for the song, but were denied. Indie nerds are totally making a mountain out of a molehill, though.

eh if they wanted the track and made a soundalike that was transparent enough for that many people to notice (i haven't compared) then it's fair game for people to cry foul

Basically, one person thought so and then Pitchfork carried the flag. I still say that if you put "Take Care" in a mix with a bunch of other songs that sound like it, you wouldn't be able to distinguish the VW ad's song from any of the others as "the replica".

the (male) vocalist is very closely copying Legrand's vocal style which is pretty unique sounding even amongst a slew of imitators. the song key lyrics is "i'll watch over you" in place of the almost exact point where Legrand sings "i'll take care of you." you may not like BH or care that they've been ripped off but you're being disingenuous here.

No, I do like a fair amount of Beach House material, but I'm still not hearing enough similarity between these recordings for people's short to get all in a wad.

every time i hear a BH song without actively knowing or thinking about who i'm listening to her voice scans as a male voice to me

this kind of "ripping off" is totally fine, who cares. "that stoner rock band rips off black sabbath!"

same here, i was kinda shocked when i first saw a video. i thought it was a female sounding dude rather than a woman who sounds like a dude who sounds like a woman.

am0n, it's a whole different thing if an ad agency commission a soundalike track after a licensing refusal from a band.

Beach House's response is that they don't care about it too much either but i suspect that they're just being gracious.

not illegal, totally fine. case closed

its all on the up and up

probably those kinds of deliberate soundalikes happen all the time but the case is usually more like this than something undeniably obviously like getting a guy to sing like Tom Waits

Its not illegal, but its a huge dick move.

"Can we use your song?"

"No."

"Fine, we'll just pay some schlubs to craft a subtlely different 'take' on it."

The only reason this is a big deal is because it was used in a tv ad. The same people complaining about this are the people who download Girl Talk albums the first day they're available and champion his straight up unlicensed use of dozens of copyrighted recordings.

dog i don't even care about this but you're bending over backwards with some apples and orange ish

Maybe. I just feel a bit righteous today is all. This is the fight I picked.

ad execs are walking dick moves tho, what do you expect. in truth, i don't rly side one way or the other but i think its lolworthy that there's an indie wrecking crew band

The only reason this is a big deal is because it was used in a tv ad. The same people complaining about this are the people who download Girl Talk albums the first day they're available and champion his straight up unlicensed use of dozens of copyrighted recordings.

this is insane

i don't understand why ppl who were okay with an artist using unlicensed samples to make his collage music are not okay with an advertising agency ripping off a band's song to help sell their merchandise. totally incomprehensible to me!

me too

I don't find one of these to be any worse than the other, but for some reason when a sound(ish)alike song shows up in a commercial, people go apeshit. For that matter, when an original recording of a song shows up in a commercial, people go apeshit.

So, by this metric, it's okay for Greg Gillis to make his bones by ripping off actual recordings, but it's not okay at all for these probably reasonably okay people to use Beach House as a starting point while creating something altogether original. rmde at the whole internet.

people definitely overreact about songs in commercials. bringing up Girl Talk is silly though.

Nah, there's a pretty stark contradiction in attitudes about what kind of theft is kosher in blogger/indie stan circles.

Do you really not see any difference between the two? I think there are some self-evidently obvious reasons why one might be bothered by one of these things and not by another.

Let's say that the commercial actually ripped off the Beach House song explicitly and without any question. Total and complete copyright infringement. Would you claim that there would be no difference between that and Girl Talk? Or is it just that there's no difference between Girl Talk's use of copyrighted materials and this commercials non-infringment? (The former is obviously ridiculous, the second is incoherent.)

Let's say that the commercial actually ripped off the Beach House song explicitly and without any question.

This didn't happen. If it had, I might be more sympathetic to the whiner crowd.

I'm not arguing about whether the complaints are legitimate or not. I just think you haven't clearly thought through your comparison to Girl Talk.

Also, if it was literally copyright infringement you "might" be more sympathetic? I guess you're an anti-copyright hardliner?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mqZrHPGuBo

hey guys this has been happening since the dawn of time, wasn't there just a Mad Men about it?

http://www.monkey.org/~chunk/superchunk/article/spin2.html

Yet the band's members aren't blowhards rigidly standing on principle. Although they're wary of major-label offers (they're happy where they are), that didn't stop them from doing the music for a British Knights commercial. If they didn't do it, the ad agency would've gone and hired studio musicians to ape their sound; Superchunk decided it had nothing to lose. "It helped pay for our new van so I don't feel like we whored ourselves too badly," says the sensible Mac; they got free sneakers, too.

it's 2012 y'all, i thought we had all accepted that doing music for ads/tv/movies is the only way to make money these days (whether by licensing or recording).

that's not at all the convo taking place here though

Probably not an original thought, but Beach House reminds me a lot of these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Ox-lGm-wA

Has anybody seen them tour this record? How is it?

This has not stood the test of time with me sadly as I love Teen Dream and all their back catalog.

The album faded fast for me, too, but they're touring behind a really great show. Good setlist, awesome light show, and they sound heavier and louder than you'd probably expect

I still love the album so I guess I should go see them.

I saw them on Saturday in Toronto. They were terrific. Evan is right. They do sound heavier and louder than expected. They played five or six songs from Teen Dream and a handful from Devotion. And for me, Bloom hasn't faded. Still one of my favourite albums of the year.

I wonder how much of this happens on a strictly regional level? I ask because there is a Gulf Coast casino currently running a TV ad soundtracked by a very faithful copping of the riff from The Black Keys' "Howlin' For You" (it's an even closer cop than the Pizza Hut "Gold On The Ceiling" ad in the above linked article).

― Hare Kinsey (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, June 5, 2012 10:01 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lawyer Up

cool, hope they lose

just threw this on for the first time in over a year and it sounds great. have not been able to get into Depression Cherry at all