Best Coast
Hometown: LOS ANGELES, California
Tags: indie, female vocalists, lo-fi, garage pop, beach rock
The Only Place is Best Coast’s follow-up to their 2010’s acclaimed album Crazy For You, and it finds the proudly Southern Californian duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno maturing in both their sound and perspective. While Crazy For You was a nostalgic tribute to teenage feelings, The Only Place finds front woman Cosentino starting a transition into adulthood. “I’m trying really hard to grow up,” she says. “I’m trying to let go of my bad habits and the immature things I still drag around with me.”
Of course this adjusting comes with uncertainty and self-doubt, two feelings at the emotional center of the album. The Only Place also celebrates Los Angeles, the one place where Cosentino believes she can be the woman she wants to be. Taken all together, it evocatively captures a turbulent era in one person’s life. “This record was therapeutic for me to write,” Cosentino says. “But a lot of the issues I was facing will be relatable to anybody.”
As with all of Best Coast’s previous recordings, on The Only Place Cosentino handles all songwriting, lyrics, vocals and rhythm guitar, while multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno plays lead guitar, bass and drums. What’s new this time is their decision to work with producer and composer Jon Brion. A revered figure in the music world, Brion has collaborated with artists including Fiona Apple and Kanye West and created the scores for such films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Punch-Drunk Love. Recorded at Capitol Records’ famed Studio B, The Only Place features a cleaner and richer sound than other Best Coast releases. Many of the songs’ arrangements are detailed with subtle percussion and unexpected instrumentation. Intricate but never overworked, the biggest change from previous releases is how it showcases Cosentino’s voice, this time letting it ring clear, unhidden by distortion and reverb.
The Only Place is full of heartbreakers and kiss-offs. But the true heart of The Only Place, and everything that Best Coast does, is the collaboration between Cosentino and Bruno. For this album the pair continued to work with the system they developed during the band’s unassuming beginnings: Cosentino creates a rough demo of each song on her own with vocals and a basic guitar part, then sends it to Bruno who fleshes out the instrumentation and structure. The only time they work on the song together is when they are in the studio. Bruno is a music veteran and has recorded, producer and engineered with a wide variety of artists. “Best Coast is the easiest thing I’ve ever done musically,” he says. “We don’t really argue. I told Beth from day one, ‘If you ever don’t like something I’m doing or you want to change something, just tell me. I know it’s not personal. My feeling aren’t going to get hurt.’ Having established that before we even played a single note together, we’ve always had clear communication.” Cosentino adds, “This record would not have been anywhere near what it is without Bobb Bruno. I owe so much to him. I am so thankful have him in my life and having him turn these things I write in my bedroom into epic songs.”
Since the album’s release, Best Coast has toured concert halls and festival stages around the world, appeared on David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and the cover of Spin Magazine, featured in a Microsoft television commercial and in campaigns for Bushmills, Clarks and Rdio, created a fashion line for Urban Outfitters, dueted with Iggy Pop and Kendrick Lamar, had music featured on Girls and The New Girl, and will be opening the entire Green Day arena tour in 2013.
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Best Coast + Lovely Bad Things
Sun. 05/26 | 6:30PM @ Mohawk Austin (map)
The Only Place is Best Coast’s follow-up to their 2010’s acclaimed album Crazy For You, and it finds the proudly Southern Californian duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Brun…more»
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SPIN on Best Coast
3 months ago#48 "What a year this day has been / What a day this year has been." Wherein songwriter Bethany Cosentino grapples with life as an especially prominent HRO tag, seeding love songs to both California and that one guy in that other band with Nicks/Buckingham-style confectionary bile...full article here
TheOwlMag on Best Coast
4 months agoBest Coast The Only Place [Mexican Summer]
Just in time for summer, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno remind us why the West Coast is the best coast with their second effort, The Only Place. Best Coast stays true to their sunny beach pop roots that quickly amassed a following in the summer of 2010 with the release of Crazy for You. However, The Only Place finds the band making a slight divergence in sound from the fuzzy to the refined with assistance from producer Jon Brion. There are definite hints of old-timey tributes to the 1950s with Bruno’s rambling rockabilly-esque guitar lines (“Why I Cry” and “Let’s Go Home”) and a nod to the girl groups of the 1960s in the rise-and-fall dynamic of Cosentino’s vocals (“Last Year”) and topical references to quagmire of relationships.
The simplicity of Cosentino’s songwriting can be a bit maddening because of its predictability and repetitiveness. At times you feel like she is singing to you from the pages of an anonymous person’s journal as the lyrics lack any traces of personalization and real emotion. The Only Place is not an album that captures you deep in thought, but it is a fun album to rotate into your summer playlist for backyard barbeques or road trips down Highway 101.
more at theowlmag.comSPIN Magazine's Best Albums Of 2012 on Best Coast
6 months ago#48 "What a year this day has been / What a day this year has been." Wherein songwriter Bethany Cosentino grapples with life as an especially prominent HRO tag, seeding love songs to both California and that one guy in that other band with Nicks/Buckingham-style confectionary bile. She made a hash of "Rhiannon," but this works great ... more here
PASTE's Best of What's Next on Best Coast
7 months agoBefore singer/guitarist Bethany Cosentino was crafting... more at pastemagazine.com
Pitchfork Best New Tracks on Best Coast
7 months agoBest Coast: "When I'm With You"
Even among the rich beach-pop/chillwave choices this summer, Bethany Cosentino, aka California's Best Coast, stood head-and-shoulders above most of the fuzzed-out records with "Sun Was High (So Was I)" . It was a certifiable monster, but perhaps because "Sun Was High" was so mercilessly genre-entangled, Best Coast weren't automatically guaranteed a callback, and one-bloghit wonderdom seemed to be Cosentino's lot after her kinda meh follow-up. But now she returns with ..... [from the "When I'm With You" 7"; out now on Black Iris ]
more at pitchfork.comBuzz Bands LA on Best Coast
7 months agoThe new material from Best Coast — whose sophomore album "The Only Place" arrives May 15 — seems soaked in "woe-is-me" and "I-don't-know," but there was no lack of certitude Friday at Stubb's BBQ in Austin, where the L.A. quartet was second-billed at the annual SPIN party during South by Southwest. "Play the hits!" somebody called out halfway through the set. "Suck my dick," frontwoman Bethany Cosentino barked back in between pops of Jim Beam out of a bottle, noting that, after all, this was a day party at SXSW, more here
Buzz Bands LA on Best Coast
7 months agoDecisions, decisions, decisions ... your Friday night is full of 'em: ► Best Coast kicks off a three-month tour by headlining the Wiltern behind its new album "The Only Place." Jeff The Brotherhood and Abe Vigoda set the table. ► Dum Dum Girls launch a busy L.A. weekend (they're at the Getty on Saturday) with a show at the Echoplex along with Tamaryn, Young Prisms and Sisu. ► Canadian folk-rockers Great Lake Swimmers headline the Troubadour behind their new album "New Wild Everywhere" (that's the video for more here
Buzz Bands LA on Best Coast
7 months agoHappy first day of August: ► The U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach kicks off three consecutive days of music with a late afternoon/early evening beach bash featuring Best Coast and Walk the Moon. ► It's music New Orleans-style at the Hollywood Bowl, where the Neville Brothers bring their farewell tour, and Trombone Shorty and Roddie Romero kick things off. ► Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes , whose wicked lines have made him a star in the hip-hop and funk worlds, kicks off a Wednewday night residency at the more here
Buzz Bands LA on Best Coast
7 months agoHere's your big Thursday: ► Best Coast and NO close out the Twilight Summer Series with a free show at the Santa Monica Pier. ► Legendary sound collagists Negativland hold forth at the Echoplex — the Bay Area provocateurs have a show titled "My Favorite Things" opening Friday at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Feliz. ► Something a little special at the Viva Cantina in Burbank: Rosie Flores will do a show performing songs from the final album by rockabilly legend Janis more here
Pitchfork Best Albums on Best Coast
9 months agoAlbum "Crazy For You" scored 8.4
California's Bethany Cosentino delivers on the promise of her noisy early singles with a richer-sounding album that highlights the power of her voice. While retaining her knack for pining pop hooks an...
more at pitchfork.commySpoonful on Best Coast
over 2 years agoTheir full-length debut Crazy For You combines the singalong melodies of the Crystals and Ronettes with a rough-hewn indie sound. more at myspoonful.com