Photo taken by filmmaker Pete Ohs, who also directed the Best Coast Video for "When I'm With You." (see below)
BEST COAST @ WIUX Culture Shock. Saturday April 17 @ Dunn Meadow. FREE.
These are the Top 5 things you will read about Best Coast in any given feature. Check out my phone interview with the band after the jump.
1. A little over a year ago, 23-year-old Bethany Cosentino left Los Angeles for college life in New York City. She suffered from severe homesickness and could be spotted listening to the Beach Boys in a crowded subway during the dead of winter.
2. Upon BC's return to Cali, she recruited Bobb Bruno, who also played a heavy role in her previous group Pocohaunted, to start a new project.
3. The result: a batch of love songs to California that reflected the sound of lo-fi poppy goodness we all know and love. No surprise the band just toured with Vivian Girls. No East Coast/West Coast beef included.
Make You Mine EP cover. Released in February.
4. Bruno was never Cosentino's babysitter! It was a joke that should have been obvious for a NYLON interview during CMJ.
5. At 16, Consentino wrote a bunch of songs about getting her heart broken, to which she was offered a major label deal and subsequent chance at teen pop stardom. She declined.
I spoke to Best Coast as they were sitting in their tour van in New York, just a block away from the apartment Cosentino used to live in. If they didn't form the band, she'd probably "still be depressed in New York with an awful retail job" and spend time in a "shitty bedroom making music by myself."
They spent their day doing a photo shoot for Spin magazine and conducting interviews. The two joke around that they're in the No Doubt video for "Don't Speak," in which Gwen Stefani gets all the attention for a magazine cover while the other bros in the band get really frustrated.
"Maybe he secretly hates me!" she says. Luckily, there isn't a whole lot of ego tripping in the Best Coast crew. Bruno admits he's not really into getting his picture taken. But its important to remember he's been an integral part of the band since its beginning. He's a talented dude who should get his props.
He's also got a crush on Michelle Trachtenberg (Harriet the Spy! Georgina on Gossip Girl!), which is why she's #2 on Best Coast's Myspace Top 8.
#1? Robert Pattinson, Cosentino's crush. During a recent gig in L.A., somebody came up to her claiming to be Pattinson's personal assistant, and that Mr. Edward Cullen himself loves her band. She gushed and texted her bandmate, who was selling merch at the time. l thought all Robby talks about is Bon Iver.
In mid March they were playing two or three shows at South by Southwest a day, totaling to around 10 sets in 4 days. They spent the rest of their time watching TV in their hotel room, most notably Locked Up.
It can be hard for a band to feed off audience reactions when most shows nowadays involve participators standing around trying to look cool. Cosentino was a little nervous nobody was going to like "I Want You," and she was even more nervous because its so personal.
About halfway through the two minute and 30 second song, BC revs things up and the crowd starts to MOSH.
"People don't usually move around a lot," she said.
The lyrics might be very personal, but her fans seem to find them more than relatable. Teenage girls at all-ages shows come up to Cosentino and tell her she's an inspiration. She acknowledges its kind of cool, but is hesitant to consider herself a role model.
"I write about smoking weed, being lazy and trying to get a boy to like you," she laughs.
They just finished recording BC's first full-length LP, but chose to let their manager handle finding a record label to call home. The group previously released their odes to Cali via EP, 7 inch and single format on labels like Art Fag and Black Iris.
No matter what is to come of Best Coast, it's safe to say they will be having fun doing it.
When I told the band a little about the nature of Culture Shock, it was the first time they found out its an outdoor fest. In awesome California fashion, Cosentino asks if it will be cold. If the weather keeps things up, Saturday is going to be a glorious day in the sun.
Best Coast's twitter
xoxo,
Stefania
