Straight West Coastin'

Best Coast

I discovered a new artist through Insound's weekly "free mp3" promotional gag. Looking back at that sentence, I realize how incredibly un-noteworthy such a statement is, considering I rarely have heard of the artist featured in the free song of the week. What I should have said was that I discovered a new artist worth listening to: Best Coast. You're probably thinking that such a name could only be the alias of some fuckoff So-Cal punkster -- true from what I can gather, but in this case it sounds like the brains behind the one-woman operation, Bethany Cosentino, at least spent some time across the prairie in NYC before making such an ultimately superlative declaration (and using it as the title of her musical act no less). So, Respeck.

At any rate, I would describe the music as a combination of the song "Strange" by Built to Spill, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and early-60s feel-good rock 'n' roll. I know that can't be too far off base, since under the "Sounds Like" section of her myspace page youtube videos of The Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys are embedded, but there's definitely a multi-generational feel to this stuff. It's as if the music of those bygone days is being channeled through the jadedness of nineties music and spit out through the contemporary acceptance -- nay, reverence -- of lo-fi noise-pop. Like, the song "Make You Mine," for instance, wouldn't sound too out of place on the soundtrack of American Graffiti. There is a beauty in the repetition of these songs (each contains no more than about six distinct lines of lyrics); in spite of the couldn't-care-less vocal delivery, the lyrics themselves seem heartfelt and paint very accessible impressions of emotional places we've all been. Besides, behind all of that static fuzz and not giving a shit, Bethany actually has a pretty solid voice. I keep hearing sort of a Nancy Sinatra sneer to it. It might not be good in the academic sense, but it is good in any and every other sense because I want to keep hearing it.

Now that I've talked up Best Coast enough for you to run out and pick up the album, I have to tell you that there is no album to pick up -- yet -- unless, that is, you're more authentic than I and own a device capable of playing 7" vinyls (aka 45s). I found this youtube video featuring one of her songs, Sun Was High (So Was I) laid over a portion of some weird French movie. Though it's a song title you might expect from a bunch of high-school juniors who smoked weed for the third time yesterday, it seems to be Bethany's most popular song at this point, judging by the playcount statistics on myspace. It has an attractively warm and dreamy feel to it, and yes, does convey all that which its title suggests. Hope ya can dig on this stuff as much as I am, and definitely check out the myspace page.