The New Old Best Coast

For reference (and because it's great and free), download Best Coast's new song "The Only Place" by clicking here.

When Best Coast frontperson Bethany Cosentino discussed the band's upcoming sophomore album The Only Place a few months ago, she described it as country-influenced, "grown up" and more personal than their first album Crazy For You. Songs they've played live from the new album so far, including "Why I Cry," have certainly delivered introspective maturity but not a trace of country. The latest track from The Only Place to hit the 'Net, however, the new album's title-track, fills that gap.

Right away, opening with lightly strummed, shaker-backed guitars, "The Only Place" sounds like no other Best Coast song I can immediately think of. Also atypical of Best Coast is the fact that "The Only Place" is based on note-picked guitars rather than full chords (any musicians want to throw me a proper term here?). And the production is so clean and tight - unlike the hollow and muddled but punchy Crazy For You - that one can hear a little twang in the guitars. The cleaner, looser production also gives Bethany's vocals and every instrument equal weight, relaxing the drumming (which takes center stage on Crazy For You), giving the song space to breathe and mellowing it out.

Bethany has also stated during the making of The Only Place that she really wants to develop as a singer. Best Coast's seemingly endless touring behind Crazy For You has long served as her opportunity to do exactly that; hear their iTunes Session EP, specifically their cover of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City," where Bethany's voice really shines as the songs' centerpiece. On "The Only Place," she sounds relaxed, no longer belting out lyrics to keep up with the song's poppy pace. And the clean production does nothing but favours in allowing listeners to actually hear her confident new voice.

No question, "The Only Place" signifies both emotional and musical growth in Best Coast. But as "grown up" and musically intricate as the song is for the band, "The Only Place" is still unmistakably Best Coast. The song still boasts most of their typical lyrical fare: sunshine, sitting around, "fun," beaches and West Coast-trumpeting; the only things missing are Bethany's cat Snacks and weed. With one simple question, though, Bethany puts a personal spin on "The Only Place" that shows she takes all of those subjects to heart: "Why would you live anywhere else?" After all, "[w]e've got the ocean, got the babes, got the sun; we've got the waves. This is the only place for me," she declares. So, "[l]eave your cold behind. We're gonna make it to the beach on time."

Neverminding the obvious fact that "The Only Place" is the new album's title-track, one can consider this song the record's thesis statement. Bethany has discussed her West Coast pride before, bolstered by her travels abroad (particularly in touring in support of Crazy For You), and "The Only Place" seems to sum up her previously expressed feelings. And not only does "The Only Place" sum up who Bethany Cosentino currently is as a person, but it sums up who Best Coast currently are as a band as well: a band that is growing but remaining true to who they are. If "The Only Place" is any indication of the rest of the album to come, Best Coast fans are in for a real treat, and the band is bound to make some new ones along the way.

How much of this am I going to regurgitate when I inevitably review the new album?

And They Say I Like EVERYTHING Jack White Does

We've heard the live version of "Sixteen Saltines" from Jack White's upcoming debut solo album Blunderbuss on Saturday Night Live. Now, here's the studio version:



It sounds good, Jack's scratchy opening "woo!" and the dirty, pounding drums recalling many of the White Stripes' early firecracker singles. But then, Jack starts singing, and his voice sounds oddly processed; maybe it's the slightly delayed vocal double-tracking. Whatever it is, it also doesn't help that Jack sings much more dully than usual, even though we know, based on his SNL performance, he can still sing like his usual firebrand self.

"Sixteen Saltines" continues to get a little dicey at its first break, at which point the cymbals sound looser than the rest of the drumming. They sound even worse with that weird after-clap sound that is especially pronounced at 1:35; I don't know if it's the way they're attached to the kit, the way they're played, they way they've been touched up in the studio or a combination of all three, but they sound too rattly for this otherwise tight-fisted wrecking ball rocker.

I don't know if the audio here is poor quality (it is a radio-rip) or if this is just how the song sounds, but much of this version sounds pretty weak to me, especially Jack's vocals and the weird warbly effects on the guitar solo beginning at 2:01.

I would definitely like the album version of "Sixteen Saltines" more if it lost at least most of its reverb, such as the ringing in the opening chords, and instead sounded tighter and "drier" like most of the material Jack has produced for other artists. Take Wanda Jackson's bombastic album The Party Ain’t Over for example which sounds big in how cohesive and clear all of its details are but doesn't sound loud unless listeners turn up the volume.

Overall, the majority of the album version of "Sixteen Saltines" sounds like a demo to me, obtusely recorded as a placeholder for underdeveloped ideas. But I'm aware that like with all White Stripes songs (I'm citing the White Stripes because they are whom "Sixteen Saltines" most recalls), the live version has spoiled me. I rarely listen to the White Stripes' albums compared to their live sessions because those sessions just make the band sound so muted on record, and I got to hear "Sixteen Saltines" in all of its explosive live glory before I heard the studio version. Most importantly though, I realize that all of my complaints here concern the album version's technical aspects; "Sixteen Saltines" is still a wicked, wicked song in essence. And despite having hated "Blue Orchid" and "Icky Thump" the first times I heard them, I came to love them like any other White Stripes song, and I already love "Sixteen Saltines" (again, in essence), so there's hope for me and the album version yet.

New Feist Song: "How Come You Never Go There"

Listen to "How Come You Never Go There," the first track from Feist's upcoming fourth album Metals (out October 4 in Canada on Arts & Crafts) here.

Well, I'm stoked. "How Come You Never Go There" teeters between sombre and lullingly warm, its gentle pulsation complemented by extremely careful drum-work. The restraint shown in the compressed drumming, sharp guitar solo and even the song's brevity is the sort that always leaves me wanting more; the song is over before I know it. I've always been a sucker for brass too, especially when, like in "How Come You Never Go There," it isn't an airy whisper in the wind but not overpowering either. Likewise, Feist's voice is mostly a perfect medium here - and every bit as good as it has ever been. Ahhh, everything about this song just makes me melt.

I'm so happy Feist is trying something new and actually pulling it off. I was always kind of scared she'd repeat herself, mainly because I didn't really know where she would (or could) go after The Reminder (Arts & Crafts, 2007). On a more personal level, I'm also just so happy that I'm actually excited for her new album - really excited. I kind of lost my fire for Feist a few years ago: I had (and still have) 1.75 GB of music by her, and for a while, I even thought I might have liked her more than the White Stripes, but I was hardly excited to see her in Halifax, and while that was a good show, it was still the most disappointing show I'd ever seen. Hell, I haven't even been bothered to watch her DVD Look at What the Light Did Now. Now, however, I'm quite crushed I don't have a ticket to her show here in November, even though tickets ranged between fifty and seventy dollars. I'm still going to search Craig's List for as long as I can.

Regardless of nostalgia, it feels so great to remember why I loved Feist. Maybe it's finally time I try to find a copy of Look at What the Light Did Now.

Free Download: Best Coast - "So Gone" (Mexican Summer, 2011)

Between releasing one of the best albums of 2010, collaborating with Weezer, Wavves, Kid Cudi, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and the Go! Team and releasing a split-7" single with JEFF the Brotherhood and, most recently, releasing an iTunes session EP, California surf-poppers Best Coast is quickly becoming one of the most prolific bands today. Last week, via Adult Swim's "2011 Singles Program," Best Coast released yet another new song into the world.

Beginning last week with Ford & Lopatin's "Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me)," Adult Swim is releasing ten free songs a week for ten weeks straight on the network's website. This week's download is a brand new track by Best Coast called "Gone Again"; up until yesterday, the song was only available for streaming.

"Gone Again" is typical Best Coast fare in every imaginable way: simple, chill, catchy-as-all-hell riff; lyrics about feeling low, getting high, her guy being gone, her missing her guy and her being "insane"; the lyric "gone"; and of course, a shout-out to her cat. That is to say, I fucking LOVE and can't get enough of "Gone Again."

Best Coast is one of those bands that can be repetitive as HELL both musically and lyrically, and I'll still love them more than ninety-five percent of everything I've heard or ever will hear. Yes, there are a million fuzzy, poppy, lo-fi-turned-hi-fi bands that sing vapid songs about puppy-love, sunshine and getting high, but only Best Coast puts all of those elements together the way they do, and how Best Coast puts all of those elements together is the x-factor - the intangible - that sets apart Best Coast from every other band in which you can find the same aforementioned elements.

*The pie-face is a screencap from the official video for "Gone Again."

Kings of Leon - "Radioactive" (single) (RCA Records, 2010)

Have Kings of Leon become the new U2 or Coldplay? "Radioactive," the surprisingly catchy and overall good first single from their upcoming fifth album Come Around Sundown is not totally redeeming. Like U2 and Coldplay, Kings of Leon still seem capable of creating a good hook but slather on arena-sized amounts of reverb to make the song sound unnecessarily huge. But regardless of that minor fault, "Radioactive" is still good enough to make me want to check out Kings of Leon's new album. I also still rather enjoy their album titles and quite dig their svelte new motif:

Interpol - "Lights" (Capitol Records, 2010)

As I’d mentioned in my previous post, Interpol recently finished recording its fourth album. That album doesn’t have a title yet, but the band has already released one song, the brooding, deliberate “Lights.” While “Lights” doesn’t exhibit the orchestral approach that the band has alluded to in interviews (not a surprising approach, considering frontman Paul Banks’ string-laden solo album and Carlos D.’s increasing forays into film scores, likely the sort of work he left the band to further pursue), “Lights” does revisit the band’s Bright Lights-era subtlety and attention to song-craft which the band has promised in even earlier interviews.

Despite these allusions/promises, I remain wary of the hope that “Lights” provides. After all, “Pioneer to the Falls,” which opens Our Love to Admire, is one of the best post-Bright Lights songs Interpol has written, yet the rest of Our Love to Admire displays Interpol at its worst (so far).

Addendum: Interpol's new logo is fucking rad.

Download "Lights" for free here.

Atlas Sound ft. Panda Bear - "Walkabout" (single) (Kranky Records; 4AD, 2009)

I'm not a fan of Bradford Cox, whether it be his psychedelic shoegaze group Deerhunter or solo bedroom-ambience project Atlas Sound. Nor am I a huge fan of current Animal Collective (sorry, Merriweather Post Pavilion lovers). But I am a fan of the recent Panda Bear and Atlas Sound collaboration "Walkabout" (Panda Bear is Animal Collective's Noah Lennox whose own solo album Person Pitch was released to rave reviews in 2007). In fact, for me, "Walkabout" leaves nothing to be desired.

While on tour with Animal Collective in Europe, the band inspired Cox to learn more about "sampling and matching up beats." Fortunately for Cox (and fans), Lennox was more than happy to teach. Their song of choice, which also inspired the tutorial, was "What Am I Going to Do?" by mid-60s American garage rock-poppers The Dovers. The result is a great, catchy little summer psych jam. It's nothing over-thought or too experimental, as one might otherwise expect from a collaboration between any AC and Deerhunter members. Rather, the track's simplicity reflects the collaboration as a learning experience for Bradford, although he's not completely unfamiliar with samples (hear the spoken word bit on "A Ghost Story" from his debut solo album Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel).

"Walkabout" will appear on Atlas Sound's forthcoming album Logos.