Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Best Coast on Group Tightener / Art Fag Records


Pocahaunted has split (?, I'm pretty sure) and Bethany has moved on to her Best Coast project with Bob Bruno of Goliath Bird Eater...they have a drummer too, but played recent NYC shows with some recorded rhythm accompanyment. Monster Island, The Cake Shop...I missed them all...what a jerk.
Based on the myspace tracks, (still haven't picked any of these up yet, and that's gong to change) it's distorted vocal heavy and melodic. Slow droning guitar, great....well pop songs really...I'm a little surprised. I'm not hearing much of Pocahaunted here...I would never think it's related. Every track seems to be about literal relationships, 'When I'm with you, 'Wish he was you.'. 'ooooooo, baby.' It's that Shangri-La's full harmony and hand claps filter on an old mono speaker that can't handle the new sound. That's going around a lot. The ooooooo's are sung through bad mic's with the old MXR distortion...it's not even a voice anymore. That's a great sound, the blurring of the source into something else. It's right alongside Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Christmas Island, Wavves...you're going to get into this.

This Group Tightener single is really a mini-EP with four tracks, one of them a cover of the Beach Boys 'In My Room', which I have to hear. They are such an influence on everything lately, I guess always...so I'm forced to listen to Pet Sounds again and try to get it this time....or just stick with the Best Coast and all the ways it's reinterpreted. It's better.
No, I have to appreciate what came before all this, it just feels like work...and Brian Wilsons autobiography was terrible.
Did you record music? Oh I forgot because ALL I READ ABOUT WAS YOUR STUPID PATHETIC DRUG HABITS AND DOUCHEBAG THERAPIST!


Artist: BEST COAST
Title: Make You Mine
Format: 7"
Label: Group Tightener
Country: USA
Price: $6.50
"Former POCAHAUNTED member BETHANY COSENTINO (aka BEST COAST) embodies California. Her songs are effortlessly ramshackle, layers of fuzzed guitar and a voice with enough heft and soul that it brings to mind 1950s girl soul groups or even a female-centric Beach Boys. Theres also a sense of permanent longing, an inescapable melancholy that can only come from living near the beach, perpetually sunny but a little sad too. Her four-song Make you Mine 7-inch was recorded with longtime friend BOBB BRUNO, and is packed with enough hooks and gorgeous melodies to fill an entire album. It is Group Tighteners first release." - GroupTightener - fusetron



Artist: BEST COAST
Title: Sun Was High (So Was I)
Format: 7"
Label: Art Fag
Country: USA
Price: $6.50 - fusetron

Fusetron has got the Art Fag single still...

1 comment:

  1. Saw them/her at cakeshop during CMJ, was totally underwhelmed, and ive really enjoyed everything ive heard recorded so far. thought bobb was way too low in the mix for what he was doing. thought it was a bit muddy, and while i understand these things are layered in reverb, after all these bands doing basically the same thing, some manage to pull it off live and some dont, i dont think she did.

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