WXPN Rings In the New Year With Beach House As Its 85th XPN Artist To Watch

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Created on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 11:31

PHILADELPHIA, PA – WXPN, the nationally-recognized leader in Triple A music and non-commercial radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, names Beach House as its January Artist To Watch. WXPN Music Director and Host Dan Reed will present the first of the month’s on-air segments on Monday, January 4 in the 6 p.m. hour. January marks the seventh year for the XPN Artist to Watch series.

Baltimore duo Beach House has long been a favorite of diehard indie music lovers. Since their eponymous debut in 2005, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally’s dreamy lo-fi sound has won over fans and critics to make them one of the most buzzed names in indie, but with their third album coming in January, they’re poised to break amongst a much larger audience. Teen Dream, the band’s first album on Sub Pop Records, has their ethereal psych pop expanding to reach far greater depths, with additional layers of instrumentation creating more complex sonic textures than their first two albums achieved. And with fans in MGMT, Grizzly Bear, and The Strokes citing the duo as one of their favorite bands, along with Legrand’s vocals garnering comparison to the legendary Nico, it’s no surprise Teen Dream is already one of the most anxiously awaited releases of 2010.

“This is the album that is going to put Beach House on a much wider map and for good reason,” says Bruce Warren, Assistant General Manager of Programming for WXPN. “The band has a lush, electric, ambient, ethereal, and sometimes twisted psychedelic/pop sound, and excellent songs to go with it.”

Dan Reed says, “Beach House craft moody, atmospheric pop songs that don’t forget the all-important melody. Indeed, there seems to be something pretty timeless about the duo’s music…a timelessness with nods to their many excellent influences, but also with a real sense of progress and an ambition to create something all their own.”

For more on the XPN Artists To Watch series and this month’s featured artist, click here.

Since 2003, the XPN Artists To Watch series has been a reflection of WXPN’s commitment to nurturing fresh, new talent and exposing listeners to the best new music. Each month, the XPN Artists To Watch series spotlights a different up-and-coming performer who has produced an album or body of work that demonstrates outstanding vision, creativity and songwriting ability. Month-long on-air promotion is combined with online features to help audiences discover each artist.

WXPN, the nationally recognized leader in Triple A radio and the premier guide for discovering new and significant artists in rock, blues, roots, and folk, is the non-commercial, member-supported radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. WXPN produces World Cafe®, public radio's most popular program of popular music hosted by David Dye and syndicated by NPR, and the Peabody Award winning Kids Corner hosted by Kathy O'Connell. WXPN also produces the alternative rock service, Y-Rock On XPN as its secondary radio channel in HD that is also available online. WXPN serves the greater Philadelphia area at 88.5 FM, the Lehigh Valley at 104.9, Worton/Baltimore at 90.5 FM, Lancaster/York at 88.7 FM, Harrisburg at 99.7 FM, and the world via online streaming at XPN.org.