Beach House

With a knack for languid, ambient pop songs, Beach House quickly received national attention after forming officially in Baltimore in 2005. But French-born vocalist and keyboard player Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scully knew each other long before that; they had played and played music together as kids while growing up in Baltimore, Philadelphia and France. For a short time they were members of a Baltimore electro outfit called the Daggerhearts, but the duo soon began writing and recording on their own. They received a boost by having their song "Apple Orchard" included on a Pitchfork compilation, which catapulted their Nico-esqe sensibility into the hearts of music bloggers around the globe.