Best Coast are big fans of California. If their name wasn’t enough of a give away, they wrote “The Only Place.” The song asks, “why would you live anywhere else? / we’ve got the ocean, got the babes / got the sun, we’ve got the waves / this is the only place for me.” Still not convinced? Watch their video for the song. It features the band running around in the Californian sun, drinking smoothies, playing in the sand and smashing instruments. If that argument doesn’t convince you to drop everything and move out to the west coast, I’m not sure what will.
wavves, best coast collab on a christmas tune
That’s right kids, Wavves and Best Coast, both summery-sounding west coast bands, have come together for an original Christmas duet, “Got Something For You.” For a compilation put out by Target (the retail chain) no less. Not surprisingly, it is probably the most summery Christmas tune I’ve ever heard (except for those sleigh bells) — but hey, it’s an escape from the chilly weather and it makes for a nice change of pace from the endless reworkings of “White Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman” that usually accompany the holidays. At the very least, it adds a twist of the unexpected to this holiday season…
Read more and see tour dates here: http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/11-18-2010/wavves,-best-coast-collab-on-a-christmas-tune.html
Out and About: Best Coast and Male Bonding
Best Coast and Male Bonding occupy two very different aesthetics, despite being somewhat similar in the reverberated vocals department. Despite some seriously artsy (read: dark) lighting, we have some pictures from last night’s show at Music Hall Of Williamburg.
Male Bonding, a trio, elicit memories of early Blink 182 with British accents… loud, rambunctious, and completely illiterate. This is a great thing. The songs are kind of effervescent, letting their distortion evaporate with a flick of the wrist and a turn of the hair. It’s a live show. The fun factor on these guys was pretty high, they energizer-bunny’ed the sh*t out of the place. They have an album out now on Sub Pop called Nothing Hurts.
Then Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno took the stage, with their new ex-Vivian Girl drummer Ali Khoeler. Bruno, who looks like he should be playing Slayer covers, is hysterical as the mute sidekick to Cosentino’s drug-addled surf-rock, but it was clear that an extended knowledge of the tunes fueled most of the insane dancing of Best Coast’s generally static live sound…
For the rest of the live review and photos from the show, go here: http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/10-1-2010/outandabout:bestcoastandmalebonding
Disclaimer: I’m having a really difficult time being objective with this review because, honestly, I love everything about this band. I love their sound, their name (best of the year, IMO), their branding (lotsa cats), lead-singer Bethany Consentinos familiar-but-not-too-familiar voice, the fact that their “official” website is a quickly thrown together dot Blogspot; everything. But I’ll try my best. Click here to read more.
pitchfork ‘10 recap: the up and comers
A few years back the purveyors of Indie du jour at Pitchfork started doing something that makes a whole lot of sense, curating an annual summer festival held in what is inevitably a blazing, sweaty mess of a park just to the west of downtown Chicago. Derived from the ashes of the Intonation Festival, the evolution of the Pitchfork Music Festival has progressed in step with the website that gave it its name, expanding year after year to meet increasing demand. More stages, bigger bands, and various offerings of diverse lifestyle vendors drive thousands to Union Park year after year, to which of course the 2010 edition was no exception. Click here for some sweet pics!
t.g.i. mixtape 68 curated by tyler grisham of pitchfork
This week we pay tribute to the Pitchfork Music Festival— happening right now in Chicago— with a mixtape populated with bands playing this weekend’s sun soaked festivities, curated by Pitchfork editor Tyler Grisham…Click here to hear the tunes. PLUS, you can embed the mp3 player!
I didn’t mean the attacks to be personal in last week’s Takedown, especially considering I’m so fond of each of the artists involved (perhaps further fueling my disappointment). Bethany Cosentino’s contribution to the project was perhaps my favorite part, and now I know why: Best Coast’s new album Crazy for You is quite excellent, even upon first listen. You can hear the whole thing right now.
Grab a stream at Urban Outfitters, who will also probably tell you what to wear for the occasion.
Crazy for You is out July 27 on Mexican Summer.
tracking: an analysis of “all summer”
It is totally understandable to use artists as a utility to make an already too-cool-for-school sneaker company seem more cool, but I was kind of hoping that after last year’s hurricane “My Drive Thru” disaster, the Three Artists project would realize the inherent flaws in the grand design. This time around, after the initial announcement, it seemed doable. Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast), and Kid Cudi, seems like a slightly more even assortment of artists to create a single song. This time they realized three voices on one track, especially three strong voices, wouldn’t work as a triple feature. But once again, they seem to fail spectacularly, more tragically so in my opinion, even managing to repeat my biggest criticism of the original project. Let’s analyze!
best coast, kid cudi, rostam batmanglij collaborate for converse
Converse (of canvas sneaker fame) has put together an original collaboration called “Three Artists. One Song” (a sequel to their previous series, “Two Girls. One Cup” (kidding)) featuring West Coast-repping Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, controlled substance enthusiast Kid Cudi, and Vampire Weekend multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij.
