Best Coast

anyone digging this? feel like she's writes much stronger songs than vivian girls (haven't heard dum dum girls) -- "when i'm with you" is pretty much a perfect flippant summer romance song (i guess it's not necessarily about summer romance or w/e but it evokes that musically at least) & this new joint "our deal" sounds like neko case, which might be an indication that she's not as one-note as other lo-fi reverby indie girls

anyway, this is cool stuff. hope she puts out a full length soon.

she can really sing better than the vivian/dum dums - which normally is not the end of the world if it ain't there - but definitely stands out when you're emulating ronnie spector

EAST COAST BITCHES

oh, what? sorry.

I'm surprised there wasn't already a thread on her--I know there are a lot of fans here. But yeah, very promising. I know the new lo-fi has (rightfully) gotten a lot of heat, but she does it right. Any detractors?

I like it. "When I'm with you sounds like Glasvegas with good vocals.

I don't know. They sound like a bad version of Vivian Girls. And Vivian Girls sound like a bad version of something.

hmm had no idea this band was making inroads to the indie pop world, given that at least one of them is ex-Pocahaunted which is serious psych/drone territory.

Dennis Parrotin' (some dude)

cold shot

I dig this band mostly. Better than Dum Dum Girls. Probably not quite as good as Vivian Girls. I'm seeing them live next Tuesday woo.

"When I'm With You" is insanely catchy, and less overshadowed by the "CAN'T YOU SEE I'M LO-FI" production of her other songs... I hope she keeps moving away from the played-out ultra-reverb stuff. (The video is nice too)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sj5_WITMpA

I dig this band mostly. Better than Dum Dum Girls. Probably not quite as good as Vivian Girls.

this, pretty much. i like a couple of her 45s a lot, and the EP is pretty strong, but i wouldn't say everything she's done is great. one of the recent singles that i can't immediately remember the title of was weak, as is some/most of her earlier stuff..

she's great. i am struggling with song titles but 'this is real' & ' gloomy' are dope too. the neko case thing on the new record was surprising more than super-great

oh dear, were i in a band and someone said i wasn't as good as the godawful vivian girls i would be utterly depressed. best coast is great though.

when i'm with you is a blast of sunshine.

video's good too.

evil clowns.

for me it goes dum dum/mayfair set>>>viv gals>>>>>>best coast. i like pocahaunted and all, but this stuff just kinda bums me out.

love 'em. liked "sun was high" just fine, but flipped over "when i'm with you" and really like "our deal."

dum dum girls remain my fav of this particular scene. does grass widow count? them too.

yeah, grass widow is better than all of this other stuff. dunno why i forgot about them!

thanks, mike and jon. i'd never heard of grass widow before, but their debut disc is on emusic, and the samples sound great. i've earmarked it for download.

i wonder why this band -- unlike, say vivian girls or best coast -- have remained so far beneath the radar.

song sounds like a less interesting Vivian Girls w/ in higher fidelity

the holding a cat at the end of the video is cute for sure though

rolling my eyes at everyone who's so off-put by lo-fi, reverb, song titles (wtf). i don't get how that sort of stuff makes people so uncomfortable and hesitant about liking stuff, like as if they're blinded by the trendiness and can't actually tell if they like them or not.

great fan-made video for "sun was high (so was i)": http://vimeo.com/5385161

indie guilt on ILX shocker, film at 11

it's not really that complicated ppl are just sick of fucking reverb and fake lo-fi production that you don't even need to have in 2010

you don't "need" to have any aesthetic

i get what you're saying -- technology has advanced enough that we aren't limited to a lo-fi sound -- but that doesn't mean that sound isn't still available, and that doesn't mean people shouldn't use it. i think it's more interesting to say why that aesthetic does or doesn't work for a particular song or band

what we really need is a back-to-basics movement. maybe just some guys. with beards. and guitars.

acoustic guitars.

of course, i could see why an indie fan would be "sick of" that aesthetic, because it's been a thing in indie for forever. but, like, even you like the Vivan Girls' last record, right? some people still pull it off well. i like the first Vivian Girls' record

Daniel, I think you should join Fleet Foxes

i cannot grow a beard that majestic.

also, i am too old to be in a band. even the fleet foxes.

one is never to old to play acoustic guitar & have a beard, as patchy or unmajestic as it may be

patchy it would be.

anyway, nothing wrong with a lo-fi aesthetic filled with reverb. done well, i still appreciate it. besides, does that really characterize best coast's sound? its more 60s-girl group/surf rock homage, to me.

if you buy an electric instead of an acoustic, you can start a lo-fi band, forgo the beard completely, *and* save money on production costs by using a cassette deck instead of a modern studio

ksh, there are days where, if i could give up my law practice for a gig with a band, i would.

of course, i'd have to be able to play even passably.

not in indie rock you wouldn't -- buy a guitar, learn a handful of chords, and start singing the first thing that comes to mind. send the demo to a blog. you will be featured on Stereogum in a month's time

xxxp yeah that's getting at the problem--a lot of bands are trying to explicitly give themselves a "retro" aesthetic through recording techniques. i think it rarely works well. it's not really a problem with the second vivian girls record because a) the songwriting is going in a completely different direction and b) i'd characterize their production more as just "noisy" than anything

wait, you're saying . . .

I COULD BE FEATURED ON STEREOGUM?!?

within a week's time, if you're very lucky & willing to eventually have your lo-fi tunes featured in a KFC commercial

xpost to cad

sure. one of the problems with indie rock, and with any genre, really, occurs when a band assumes certain signifiers (lo-fi production, a certain guitar sound) w/o its being an "essential" part of their sound. it's the difference between a band's putting on ill-fitting clothes b/c tradition or current trends present those clothes to you as an option & having a certain aesthetic as an inherent, "essential" part of one's aesthetic

things are more nuanced than that, but that's the best way i can think to describe it right now

having a certain aesthetic as an inherent, "essential" part of one's aesthetic

switch that first "aesthetic" for "sound or production choice"

The true test is whether the songs hold up despite the lo-fi aesthetic. I'd argue that "When I'm With You," the stuff on the DDG album, etc. are sturdy enough to withstand any production approach. Same as the Shrimper acts from a decade ago; as we now know, the Mountain Goats' songwriting lends itself to boombox production or lush 4AD-sponsored studio craft.

And I happen to like a minimal, low-tech approach anyway. If I haven't gotten sick of it since playing early Beat Happening on the radio in 1985, it's not going to happen now.

it's just another production option for an artist. there's nothing inherently wrong with it at all.

there's a band called Grass Widow, too? fuck, i've fallen asleep

it's not really that complicated ppl are just sick of fucking reverb and fake lo-fi production that you don't even need to have in 2010

― call all destroyer, Saturday, May 1, 2010 12:45 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

maybe i just like lo fi more than most but it's hard for me to relate to people who are all "i can't tell if i like this song because its LOFI and REVERB and SUMMER and i hate all those things because they're so trendy right now." are people just really picky about production or

i am pretty picky abt production so

this really isn't about trendiness--it's about laziness, and bands choosing production techniques that cover up poor musicianship, singing, and songwriting and then saying it's an aesthetic choice. i'm not saying this is happening intentionally, but i do think it is happening.

since there's no way to judge why an artist is making a particular production choice--unless you ask them, and even then "intentional fallacy" yada yada--i just try to judge them on the final product & whether it sucks or not

ppl are just sick of fucking reverb and fake lo-fi production

by "ppl," i assume you mean ILM posters who still maintain some sort of an interest in indie rock, b/c most indie kids probably don't care & the majority of the population doesn't know that Japandroids or No Age exist

(No Age isn't even a great example -- a lot of the Losing Feeling EP doesn't even sound lo-fi)

it seems some people are pretty sick of lo-fi production at this point, and now any band regardless of how good they are will just get this knee-jerk "I AM SO FED UP WITH THIS SHIT" as if people have lost all ability to discern good from bad and are so repulsed by the ubiquity of the production style it's like their way of rebelling against it by just complaining and shitting on every instance of it. i think best coast's best songs pull it off beautifully, reverb et al all perfectly complementary to the style and overall vibe imo.

lol ksh you accused "ppl" of indie guilt and i am saying it is much more likely that "ppl" are not into this particular aesthetic

the problem with best coast was as soon as the youtube video started i was like "oh, it's this again"--i mean it wasn't offensive as a song or anything, i can't even really remember it atm, and i am NOT saying i hate all or even most of the stuff we're talking about, but like, it just seems like more of the same to me at this point.

but i'm really only arguing this because ksh thought it was a good opportunity to be all lol indie guilt as if he wasn't starting new threads about wilco 6 months ago

i think best coast transcends "oh, it's this again" by not being one of these ppl

this really isn't about trendiness--it's about laziness, and bands choosing production techniques that cover up poor musicianship, singing, and songwriting and then saying it's an aesthetic choice. i'm not saying this is happening intentionally, but i do think it is happening.

― call all destroyer, Saturday, May 1, 2010 2:42 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

i totally get that for someone who actually dislikes and has to, like, overcome the production it would be a nuisance. but if you're already into or unaffected by low fidelity, wouldn't you just listen to the actual song and respond to its melodies/chords/performance isntead of making such a big deal out of the use of reverb?

ksh do you still like indie rock?

i've seen you blaspheme its name in a few threads recently

xxp i respond to all components of the song at once--when i'm with you is a decent song that i would probably like more if it didn't sound the way it did

i totally think some of the hatred for these bands is due to lol indie guilt, but i'm not denying that your reaction, cad, is a legitimate one either

ksh do you still like indie rock?

― passion of the wein (samosa gibreel), Saturday, May 1, 2010 3:12 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i've seen you blaspheme its name in a few threads recently

― passion of the wein (samosa gibreel), Saturday, May 1, 2010 3:13 PM (3 minutes ago)

just bought the new Caribou this week. i am still on board w/ indie rock. when i criticize it, i do it from the perspective of someone who still cares about it a lot

i'm super excited for the new Sleigh Bells

i wouldn't write this in as indie, unless you're just saying indie is all underground rock and pop music, and this trend is more on the 60s garage pop revival axis than actual indie pop. this is pretty distinctly not indie pop, in my mind at least. very possible that i am totally wrong, though.

i'm using indie as the almost impossible to define umbrella term it's become

not sure what difference it makes, but it makes more sense to me to not treat this as indie. like to my mother indie rock is when she asks me "is this david bowie?" and i say no and she says "hm, could've sworn it was david bowie." i play guitar in a 50's pop band, we do mostly covers but recently have written some original material, and i wd probably be really upset if someone called us an indie pop band not because i dislike indie pop (which i don't) but because it's not twee or weird or affected or whatever. same with best coast, the songs are so clear, simple and straightforward, if it weren't for the recording (which still isn't an indie signifier to my mind) you definitely wouldn't id it as indie.

fair enough, but i bet you if your band were to release a record it'd be covered by indie publications & your audience would be primarily indie kids. right?

really, this is all about the definition of the term "indie," which is a whole fuckin can of worms it's probably not a good idea to open. even after reading a million ILM threads & being part of the indie subculture, i still don't feel comfortable putting out a definition

xp praps, or 60+ year olds. hipsters are definitely shifting away from indie (as identifiable to someone who doesn't subscribe to pitchfork rss) but i suppose now if we just call everything indie it's still a big thing? yer right this is all pretty unrelated to best coast though.

hipsters are definitely shifting away from indie

when you say this, do you mean that "hipsters" are focusing on music that isn't clearly influenced by the Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr/Pavement sort of line of bands?

(as a sidenote, i was asking ppl what good indie records have come out this year over here -- A bunch of 2¢: Rolling Indie Thread 2010 -- and i'd be interested in hearing from you, samosa, if you think any good indie records have come out this year that the two ppl who already responded so far didn't list)

i'm not a big indie guy, but this year i like white hinterland and vampire weekend alot.

oh, and titus andronicus.

thanks, i'll look into the White Hinterland.

what do you mostly listen to?

I saw Best Coast on Tuesday night in London. Her voice is really great - it seemed stronger and more varied than on record. They had the drummer from Vivian Girls backing them, who was in a terrible mood and seemed to be having a great deal of trouble. The other guitarist (who I think was in The For Carnation) is a lot of fun to watch - he's got long black hair, was dressed like an 80s metalhead, and somehow manages to shred these little runs on his long necked guitar. I really liked them. If they know what's good for them they'll get an album out in time for Summer, because that's kind of what they're all about.

The opening band was called Yuck and even though they all looked about 18 they played an incredible approximation of Dinosaur Jr./Built to Spill with a dash of Lemonheads. It was an appealing throwback. I would have bought some music if they had some for sale.

wow, one of the chicks from the vivian girls is destructively petulant? i'm shocked

Yuck used to be, the frankly awful, Cajun Dance Party. So yeah, they must be 19ish.

Smirking hard@ J0rdan.

I was at the London gig on Tuesday as well - Yuck were pretty good. I figured them as Dinosaur Jr + Pavement + a bit of shoegaze. There was another band before them, something about Philadelphia something or other. They were very energetic but not all that good.

I thought the drummer looked like the Vivian Girls drummer, which makes sense if it actually was the Vivian Girls drummer. They had to replace the bass drum halfway through although it sounded alright to me. I picked up the 7" but I was hoping to buy When I'm With You cos that song is awesome, I guess it's sold out now.

For what it's worth, the merch guy said the Best Coast 7" they were selling is from a super limited run of a couple hundred that were meant to be giveaways with the purchase of some expensive headphones, so you got a very rare one.

I have one Cajun Dance Party song that was a free iTunes download that doesn't sound anything like Yuck did - is it the same members under a different name? I guess when you're 19 you might change the type of music you want to play all the time. Either way, I thought they did a pretty good approximation of "Alternative Nation."

The first band was called The Philadelphia Grand Jury (maybe "Juries"?) and they indeed had a lot of energy. They kept saying they were from Miami, Florida but they had Australian accents, so I guess that was supposed to be some kind of gag. They looked young except for the drummer, who looked like he might have been in his mid-50s (so it was nice not being the oldest person in the room for once). They played a "wacky" rock cover of "99 Problems" and played the longest set of any of the three bands.

I had never been to that venue before but I liked it. The bands ended by 11 and a DJ kicked in after that.

(venue = Madame Jo Jo's in Soho)

Did you stick around for the club night? Cuz that's a pivotal part of White Heat*

*not just saying this because my friend is one of the resident DJs

The sunken stage set up is quite good for letting a lot of people see properly but could really do with another way in/out, and I automatically hate any venue that has a toilet attendant, but Madame Jo Jos is very convenient for me since I work just down the road.

I've never stayed for the club night, because the few times I've been to White Heat I've gone on my own to see the bands, plus it's mid-week and I have to get up for work/am probably too old to go to club nights!

listening to "When I'm With You" on lol Hype Machine right now, and i really like it -- nothing mindblowing, but it pulls off the whole lo-fi w/ pretty melodies deal really well

Not heard them yet but I love Pocahaunted. I'm guessing this is much poppier? Is it like any of the woodsist label kinda stuff?

Saw them at Primavera...holy christ it was dull. Got no desire to go back to the records now.

Do they even have a record? Just a couple of limited 7"s I thought. Anyway, "When I'm With You" is by far the catchiest thing they've put out (oh, incidentally, Best Coast really doesn't sound anything like Pocahaunted - totally different vibe).

yeah, they recently released an EP on the "emusic selects" label/program. they're supposedly working on a full-length album.

nothing of theirs grabbed me like when i'm with you (which i love).

I want to thank ye posters for turning me on to this! Terrific from what I've heard so far.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2010/06/Best-Coast-Crazy-For-You.jpg

Mexican Summer are elated to announce their latest artist and full length release from California’s Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno, aka Best Coast. Crazy for You is a twelve track, twenty-nine minute collection of genuinely romantic sandy jams. Hazy, dreamy and genre-defining, Crazy for You proves that the impressive amount of press hype for Best Coast is more than warranted, especially coming off of her previous sold out singles on Group Tightener, Atelier Cuseaux, Art Fag, Black Iris, PPM and Eskuche. The band’s much-awaited debut album was recorded at Black Iris, a studio in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood, by Lewis Pesacov of the bands Fool’s Gold and Foreign Born. The result is a collection of maudlin and magical songs that approach relationships with a pure heart, a cloudy mind and pair of gas station sunglasses. None of the songs on Crazy for You were previously released on the earlier 7-inches. For the album’s sessions Cosentino brought in a collection of demos she had never sent to Bruno. “I wanted the record to be something completely fresh and new,” says Cosentino. “I just felt like my first record needed to be really special.”

1. Boyfriend
2. Crazy For You
3. The End
4. Goodbye
5. Summer Mood
6. Our Deal
7. I Want To
8. When the Sun Don't Shine
9. Bratty B
10. Honey
11. Happy
12. Each and Everyday
13. When I'm With You

i'm loving this stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA0GWb3XzF8

i dig that song. melodic, punky girl-group vibe.

i'm going to end up buying this record, aren't I?

man, the lyrics are really corny though and they're kinda impeding my enjoyment of the song

her vocals are also on some lesser Jenny Lewis thing

Kind of like this era's "that dog"

I was hoping it would be aislers set-ish but yeah that dog seems about right. Pretty uninspiring.

Musically I like it though (I am no authority on lyrics).

the right mix of poppy, upbeat summer tunes with a good guitar melodies.
plus the cat with sunglasses on the actual cd is pretty rad.
thumbs up!

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/snaxCD.jpg

her sound reminds me a lot of the concretes first couple albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTdwQG3pGKQ

record isn't anything daring or innovative, but it's enjoyable! Cosentino's vocals remind me of Jenny Lewis's, which isn't a bad thing. also, I love the fact that it's just over a half hour. wish more records were

This is killer. Holy mackerel, I am so down with Best Coast.

this album is really good of course

Its good, but I feel like it works much better in small doses because its all pretty one note.

There's way less variety across the album in terms of the songwriting than there was across her run of singles/EPs over the last year. Or maybe I just like the songs less and it's making the flaws of her approach more apparent to me.

nice review, and i kinda want to hear this disc.

I am now going to go read a P4k review at 1:31 AM

lol, well, before you get too excited about this disc. . .

NO, DUSTED MAGAZINE

I've already heard it!

record isn't anything daring or innovative, but it's enjoyable! Cosentino's vocals remind me of Jenny Lewis's, which isn't a bad thing. also, I love the fact that it's just over a half hour. wish more records were

― ksh, Sunday, July 11, 2010 10:37 PM (2 weeks ago)

Fitzmaurice's review is solid, will go read the Dusted one too

Dusted review is terrible

haha, in general, i kind of like dusted magazine. they review a lot of interesting stuff (lots of soundways discs, for instance).

but yeah, that review, in particular, was unimpressive.

If the difference between Best Coast and hazed-out pop revivalists like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Crystal Stilts, and Vivian Girls is one of degree, not of kind, then Best Coast have gone past pleasant nostalgia into some kind of mega-pointless, post-post-grunge echo chamber.

like, what in the world is this? "post-post-grunge echo chamber"?

OK I haven't heard the album yet, but absolutely nothing I've previously heard by Best Coast sounds anything like Belly!

All I can think about after that Dusted review is my cat talking. It'd probably be pretty awesome at first, but get annoying as hell really quickly.

Turns out that I am not interested in "getting burritos" with Brad LaBonte after all!

<3 this so much

yeah. it's v. good. perfect summer music.

http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/7829-best-coast/

i would totally be best friends with this chick

bong shaped like a cat! c'mon!

as long as we didn't have to listen to drake/kid cudi

i feel like everyone should be able to sum up their interests in life by combining two objects

mine would be "playstation 3 that plays gay porn"

irl lol

surprised at the love this is getting.

(its not v good imo)

http://twitter.com/bestycoastyy/status/20030156250
http://twitter.com/SNACKSTHECAT

are there any intellectually torpid newish buzz bands jordan does not love

wait, which ones do i love?

i don't love this album, for one

http://twitter.com/bestcoast/status/2589351761

anyway, this is cool stuff. hope she puts out a full length soon.

― ibaka flocka flame (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:06 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

love^^^

surprised at the love this is jordaning.

― my stomach is full of anger. and pie. (Hunt3r), Thursday, July 29, 2010 12:51 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^

tru

see ok

http://twitter.com/bestcoast/status/2587101977

Avenged Sevenfold isn't the only SoCal group to post an impressive showing on this week's sales chart. Retro-pop act Best Coast, the indie faves of the moment, enter at No. 36 with "Crazy for You," an album that sold 10,000 copies in its debut week. The buzz on Best Coast's '50's-meets-Ramones-inspired sound began at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, in March, and has only increased in the weeks since.

The 10,000 copies sold is more than respectable, and in line with other hotly tipped indie acts. Joanna Newsom, for instance, who recently performed a critically adored show at the Orpheum, opened with about 7,000 copies sold of her "Have One on Me" earlier this year.

music buyers otm

lol from that same billboard report
Trouble, however, could be in for M.I.A.'s "MAYA." Though the aggressiveness of the effort rewards after repeated listens, it's falling swiftly, resting at No. 66 after just three weeks, and totaling 46,000 copies sold.

http://twitter.com/bestcoast/status/2620358308

Best Coast is the fastest growing auto insurance
agency in California. We are comprised of professional and
experienced insurance agents who have many years in the
business and fully understand what people are looking for
in an insurance agency.
Click the "Instant Quote" button to request your free quote. We'll get you
insured online or over the phone within minutes for as low as $25 a month!

this bodes well for the trailer trash tracys' album.

http://twitter.com/RiversCuomo/status/21533351944

rivers is a troll

http://twitter.com/RiversCuomo/status/21721232765

http://twitter.com/RiversCuomo/status/18169627829

\(O_O)/

love it

http://twitter.com/bestycoastyy/status/21639703290

http://twitter.com/bestycoastyy/status/22666161251
http://twitter.com/RiversCuomo/status/22675860591

<3 the internet

@bestycoastyy amazing! and I'm in California listening to "Boyfriend". about 5 hours ago via web in reply to bestycoastyy Retweeted by 4 people

RiversCuomo
Rivers Cuomo

Fuck this band.

Great summer record.

thought it was boring on the first few listens but it's growing on me

KILL IT WITH FIRE

Fuck this band.

ilxor.

ilxor has very odd vendettas

Washington Post live review captures the good and bad (plus includes references to Tallulah Gosh and Shop Assistants):

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/09/in_concert_best_coast_at_rock.html

excerpt:

Amiable to a fault, Best Coast played its raucous pop at a ladylike volume, and paused now and then for offhand chatter. Cosentino wished the crowd a happy Rosh Hashanah, and talked a bit about her boyfriend. (That would be Wavves' frontman Nathan Williams, Sonny to Cosentino's Cher in today's Cali slacker-pop universe.) As for the songs, they involved a lot of "oohs,'' "las,'' and "whoas,'' and proceeded at one of two tempos: medium or fast. Faster was better, since the velocity somewhat compensated for the thin, sound-alike melodies.

Such tunes as "Boyfriend'' and "Summer Mood'' might have seemed more distinctive if they hadn't been part of a 55-minute set that included almost twice as many numbers as the band's 13-song debut album. The occasional guitar solo wasn't enough to inject variety into a set whose musical style (and psychological profile) never shifted. Rather than leave the crowd wanting more, Best Coast left the lingering sense that it had shown everything it might do in its entire career.

i'm feeling queasy

So I was getting my haircut last night and the guy cutting it was talking to me about music and we had the following exchange:

Him: "Have you ever heard Best Coast?"
Me: "Yeah, I like a couple of her songs."
Him: "Oh man, so you're totally into chillwave then?"
Me: "I don't know if I would say that."

go somewhere else for future haircuts imo

Still never heard a note of this lot yet have been prejudiced against them due to Hipster Runoff slandering

Its a good formula I think, just gets wearying over a full-length.

The thing is, though, that Best Coast isn't chillwave.

Well, yeah, that was kind of my point about posting that exchange.

go somewhere else for future haircuts imo

― markers, Wednesday, October 6, 2010 9:17 AM (20 minutes ago)

Except he did a really good job of cutting my hair. :/

:-)

update from Snacks

http://hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2010/10/op-ed-snacks-cat-tired-vibes-being-harshed.html

i was pretty resistant to this album at first but i have to concede it's won me over

I still grumble about When I'm With You being so bloody rare, I mean £40 on Ebay come on now. I know it's on the CD, but I kinda want to get this on vinyl.

i am listening to this for the first time and loving it. sorry carles.

So I've been roped into seeing these guys tonight. I liked the Vivian Girls first album, but not enough to invest in the follow-ups and all these inter-related bands got too confusing and numerous for me to keep track of (!), so I'm only listening to this for the first time but I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing them now, even if every live review I've seen hasn't been brimming with enthusiasm.

It helps, of course, that it's an absolutely glorious sunshine-filled afternoon here.

I was there at the Arches in Glasgow too tonight...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p906546732-3.jpg

What a brilliant picture! Were you caught up in the crowdsurfing too? Been a while since I've seen that level of it at a gig here.

Thanks! No, I was in the photo pit and then watched from the back of the arch.

'gone again' feels like self parody

complete with cat and dope refs

and OOOOOOOOs.

But still, I like it. Everything she seems to do is good.

want

http://www.bluecollardistro.com/bestcoast/product_info.php?products_id=5562&cPath=1180_1194&store=0

can u hide ur weed in it

Lindstrom remix of "Boyfriend" exists, I did not see that coming.

can u hide ur weed in it

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, July 19, 2011 4:29 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

she does sell a coozie

is it good? xpost

coozie

what a stupid name for a stubbie holder

http://www.gorillavsbear.net/2011/07/19/mp3-lindstrom-remixes-best-coast/
sorry for the gvb link but you can stream the lindstrom remix of 'boyfriend' without having to 'like' something on facebook

you'd better be sorry

*shudders preemptively, clicks links*

I like the remix but to be fair I yield to nobody in my Lindstrom stannery

Ohh, really love the new video, directed by Drew Barrymore, for 'Our Deal'.

yes, i second that.

Donald Glover underutilized.

http://i.imgur.com/Q4sWB.png

look at that fucking snacks

LOOK AT HIM

That is one super pussy

late pass alert: this album is great

http://pitchfork.com/news/45012-best-coast-talks-grown-up-new-album-working-with-jon-brion/

http://pitchfork.com/news/45012-best-coast-talks-grown-up-new-album-working-with-jon-brion/

really late to the game on this one, it's nice, although a little forgettable.

Oh I can't wait to hear Best Coast go "emo," aided by Jon fucking Brion. Jesus fucking christ.

do you really hate jon brion or?

i don't know that "some punk girl sings shangri-la-esque guitar jams with harmonies & ~guitar effects~!" would have sounded so alluring. one of the nicest parts of her record was our deal; i am into some slow jams.

jon brion is totally awful

Maybe I'm just a philistine but I can't tell how this new album is going to sound any different from the previous one

well, if i had to venture a guess, i'd say that it will sound different because jon brion will find a way to put some dorky keyboard bullshit all over it.

Hahaha

He just better not fuck with the OOOOOOOOsss

apparently there are less OOOOOOOOOOOsss on this record

As long as they are OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOs and not the annoying OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWAAAA she was singing live last time I saw them.

If I were her producer, I would do away with the WAAA part of the OOOOOOOOO. Keep it pure, y'know?

I totally didn't recognize that the dude was Brion's longtime tech/roadie. Different haircut, I guess.

as long as the keybs are covered in hiss i'm down

Anticipation for this record is bringing out my inner Mike Love. I don't want them to fuck with the formula. There better be plenty of cat and weed references and at least 8 combined minutes of OOOOOOOOO.

whenever I hear them it only makes me wish that amy linton or linton was not retired or designing houses or whatever.

The title track is now available for free download. The California tourism board will be very pleased. I'm going to have to give it a few more listens, but I'm not happy about no cats/pot/ooooooooos. The production makes it very easy to understand the lyrics, which could be a problem.

look what i found tonight:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Theonlyplace.jpg

The Only Place is the second studio album by duo Best Coast. It is to be released on May 15, 2012 on Mexican Summer Records.

Track listing:

No. Title Length
1. "The Only Place" 2:40
2. "Why I Cry" 2:17
3. "Last Year" 3:33
4. "My Life" 2:12
5. "On One Like You" 3:02
6. "How They Want Me to Be" 3:52
7. "Better Girl" 2:54
8. "Do You Love Me Like You Used To" 3:16
9. "Dreaming My Life Away" 3:22
10. "Let's Go Home" 2:35
11. "Up All Night" 4:37

whenever I hear them it only makes me wish that amy linton or linton was not retired or designing houses or whatever.

I think the band's alright but reading this makes me realize I pretty much have the exact same thought every time I give them a listen.

This is streaming at NPR

thanks

CTRL + F "whiney" = 0 results

what the hell, this is like a gimme for whinehate™

wasn't into the first single, maybe I'll check out the second if they release a video. liked their first few 7" a lot.

Can we talk about this record? All my worst fears are confirmed. No pot, cats or ooooooh.

i really dislike the sound, it's bizarrely muffled and tubby with harsh resonances all at the same time

makes it difficult to focus on the not-bad songs, despite their cat-free qualities

I actually kind of like this new one, I was subjected to it while browsing at a bookstore. Her lyrics are still awful and rhymes painfully obvious, but I think Brion's production kind of fits it. I don't love it or anything, but it wasn't as terrible as everyone is trying to claim.

is this the record that will finally let everyone know how terrible jon brion is?

i mean the songs are no great shakes but my god

no no no it's terrible xp

didn't realise it was a brion thing, i think his ego might have taken over his ears

i don't really have deep evidence to back this up but everything i've ever knowingly heard that he's been involved with has sounded really, really bad

dude has more vintage wank equipment than vincent gallo and this is the sound he gets? he should be drawn and quartered

haha

posts very much in character /\/\/\\/\

Almost afraid to stick my head over the trench here but Bachelor No. 1 was great and that was a Brion joint i think.

bachelor no. 1 is......ok and not because of him

CTRL + F "whiney" = 0 results

what the hell, this is like a gimme for whinehate™

― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 07:54 (1 week ago) Permalink

CTRL + F "best coast" on spin.com = 1 result under "SPIN ESSENTIALS"

The production isn't helping her at all. Plus She has a tendency to draw out the last syllable of every line which makes the banality of her rhymes even more glaring.

yeah i wanna withdraw whatever "maybe it'll be good! jon brion isn't so bad is he?" remarks i made earlier itt. she should do super early-eps fuzzy stuff or should go all out & do the full band fleetwood mac thing that some of these songs want. it sounds so clean and terrible, with its little jaunty indie movie drumming.

some of the songs are okay though.

I was going to pick it up earlier this week, but the shop had the new Sinead on LP so I grabbed that instead, trusting my gut vs my hipster elbow..anyway I think I can safely say I've already clocked more hours with "How About I Be Me (And You Be You)" then I have clocked with any album with the words Coast, Best, Bells or Broken in it...funny thing about Sinead is she can still write a smoking tune despite being obviously mad as shit...I know, this is not a Sinead Mad as Shit or Still Writing Bangers thread, but it is all I got....
NP: Dr Dee

im into this 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujf_aZmOO-U

yeah that's probably the best track

i think this one is pretty fab (previous distorto version of same song notwithstanding):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFhWHkp6lk

http://instagram.com/p/V8SxgZMcBX/

:3

I don't know why
the sun's in the sky
the rain, it falls down
down onto the ground

goodbye cruel world

opening track on the new EP is ace imo. mind you i liked a few tracks on the last album just fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARKm0Ve56E8

so ready

http://pitchfork.com/news/58133-best-coast-announce-new-album-california-nights/

yeah me too, should be fun.

this album fucking rules

I remember overrating the last album at the time so there's a chance that might happen with this, and I am a philistine who prefers studio gloss to lo-fi in the majority of cases, but anything that reminds me simultaneously of Palmdale and Tanya Donelly's _Lovesongs for Underdogs_ (same producer) will always fucking rule

feels underwhelming to me but I shd prob get stoned and listen to it w/ my cat before passing judgment

I mean I also wish I had a talking cat

the production on the songs i've heard is really just right, lovesongs for the underdogs is a great analog. don't know if the songs are there

I've been putting off listening to this new one based on the last one being a bit disappointing but if it sounds like Lovesongs For Underdogs I'm sold already.

(for references that producer is wally gagel, also notable for not being jon brion)

I really like this album.

Like many others I loved the debut but really didn't like the second album at all. I've only heard the title track so far which I thought was great. Looking forward to giving the album a go.

i'd argue that this is the strongest collection of songwriting they've put out to date, especially compared to the last record

lol "songwriting"

also if this is the kind of music you want to listen to when you "get stoned" I think you may need a new dealer

J.D.: Harshing mellows and killing buzzes in 2015

I loved the debut so much. I hated polished follow-up even more. The middle ground EP was a nice rebound.

Where does this fall? Anything even vaguely "mature" is a death knell for this band. She should stay in bed and smoke pot with her cats all day.

I have to agree with myself from 2012...
Anticipation for this record is bringing out my inner Mike Love. I don't want them to fuck with the formula. There better be plenty of cat and weed references and at least 8 combined minutes of OOOOOOOOO.

this falls somewhere around this year's colleen green record (which this also reminds me of)

High praise to compare her to Colleen Green. That's one of my favorites of the year.

And Colleen Green will never stop smoking weed.

I was jamming California Nights while driving around L.A. the other evening. It's really, really good. And super slept on. The thread about Belly reminded of this, bc katherine up yonder compared it to Tanya Donelly, which got me to listen to her solo work.

I was really into the first album for a while, or at least some tracks on it. Never listened to anything else, maybe I should take another look.

https://www.stereogum.com/2245286/bethany-cosentino-is-so-disappointed-with-her-solo-album-launch/news/

That's rough, but at least her ego is in good shape.

I read that story. And the comments. I think the following is true:

- there is a sorta-playbook for "putting out a debut album in your teens/20s and finding success with it", although less than 1% of people who put out albums find any general success at all

- there is not-really a playbook for "putting out your third/fourth album in your late 20s/early 30s and finding success with it", of that aforementioned <1%, a further <1% of artists who got some attention for their debut find that a recording/touring career is tenable once they hit... 28 or so. You kind of have to bottle the lightning twice, and there's less of a roadmap, the second time around.

- there is not-really a playbook for "putting out your sixth/seventh album in your late 30s/early 40s" etc. etc. etc.

I remember speaking to an older-than-me very-established extremely-famous musician about my own "ugh every album release feels like I'm starting from scratch" feelings, and (despite their enormous success and visibility), they said they always felt the same way, that it was always like starting again, having to invent a new magic trick, that it was incredibly daunting, every time.

More than any other creative discipline, music listeners are drawn to "the new", they want new sounds made by new players more than they are interested in third-to-tenth albums made by established artists. One could argue that this is a "youth bias", but I don't think it's just that, I think there is something incredibly attractive about emerging artists. Once an artist has established their voice, it just becomes far less-interesting to hear what they do with it; generally. This just isn't the case with... authors, directors, actors, playwrights, visual artists, etc. Or at least, it applies far-more to musicians. The arc of one's musical career is, in the vast majority of cases, extremely front-loaded.

Artists who can sustain a recording/touring career into even early-middle age are the rarest of rarities; citing individuals like Stephen Malkmus (as certain commenters did), this is a 1 in a million occurrence. Even the flagship biggest-artists-in-the-world (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé) had growing-pains moments as they approached their 30s.

Everything I've typed might be obvious to everyone, but I think it's the most salient reason as to "why nobody gave a shit about Bethany Cosentino's solo album in 2023".

I never liked Best Coast but I will always give full-throated support to this kind of honesty

^ I love you for that post, Whiney

her new album sounds okay tbh. but ditching the best coast brand name (even though it was basically always a solo project?) and pivoting to country-tinged pop rock is an obviously risky (crazy?) career move. i feel like us girls is a decent counterfactual here, in terms of an artist that had some indie cred/buzz in 2008-10 and then evolved to something more pop while keeping momentum building (tho the arc is different since us girls came out of the noise scene which had a lot less buzz than chillwave)

also indie hipsters are the least loyal fan bases of all genres. like a pop punk or metal band with a few popular albums can count on steady touring income no matter the quantity or quality of subsequent output. i was surprised when she said she wasn't even able to tour on the new album

well she got me to listen to it, this is not exceptional in anyway, not unpleasant or anything

I don't think it's about loyalty, it's a general psychological side-effect of why-we-listen-to-music-in-the-first-place. It's about the "potential energy" that is present when artists are emerging, I like to describe it as "the thrill of an unstruck match"

xp

She concedes that ditching the Best Coast name was probably a bad idea, but something she felt she had to do. Which I respect! But which also came with a lot of risks. On the plus side, now she can reunite Best Coast.

The most obvious analog btw, and maybe her goal, was the Jenny Lewis model. But Lewis's own career seems to have ebbed and flowed dramatically, afaict. She's 10 years older than Cosentino, hopefully Cosentino finds better footing of her own in the future.

xp- you don't have to call it loyalty (and tbh it's not a value judgment; i count myself a very disloyal fan to m/l all the artists i listen to) but i do think it varies across genres and scenes so it can't be entirely explained by the universal human instinct to be delighted by new sounds. why don't the middle aged dudes filling nofx concerts at 1k capacity venues in 2023 want new sounds too? at the very least hip indie music somehow selects for people attracted to novelty

I think even the exceptions mentioned so far struggle a lot... Malkmus has given several interviews about Groove Denied where he says the Matador folks were kinda fighting him a lot about it, asking him to not release it. I think there was even a mention of them visiting in Portland out of nowhere and him thinking 'Oh god, they're gonna drop me from the label'.

and I'm not gonna defend Groove Denied. It IS a bad album. but that's not the point

Best Coast had some pleasant tunes but they're a near-perfect example of a band that got fleeting interest before that era of scenester moved on to the next thing. They weren't Spoon or The National or The New Pornographers. Many of them had far less longevity and fan loyalty than the pop artists that indie used to be an alternative to. If there's any nostalgia for that time period I don't think it's come around yet.

this album's songwriting is not near the level of jenny lewis's best songs

well she got me to listen to it, this is not exceptional in anyway, not unpleasant or anything

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, December 14, 2023 1:48 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

A "solid" album of pleasant pop music without a unique approach, by a person from a buzz band from 10+ years ago, using their regular name and image (not a problem just not eye catching amongst the sea of new releases competing for people's attention)... this is unfortunately a recipe for quick transition to bargain bins. Speaking from a marketing perspective here not saying anything about the quality of the music itself.

Cynically one could theorize that her posting the rant on social media with the arguably cliche "So I’ve debated having this conversation with you for a really long time. And you know what? I’ve decided I’m having the conversation. Let’s go." lead-in is her best marketing-in-2023 instinct (especially in hindsight cause people are writing whole articles around it) regardless of any intentions she had to post it in the first place.

i'm not even sure how much of a distinction there is b/w her tik tok post as "content" and her music as "content"

She should strike while the iron is hot, break up her solo career, and form a *new* band. Maybe call it The Cosentinos.

I think an established artist's 30s-60s are much more difficult years to navigate than their 20s or even their 70s. It's like you're a novelty or a living legend and not many people care about what happens in between

I agree this phenomenon does seem to disproportionately affect indie music, though

More than any other creative discipline, music listeners are drawn to "the new"

I'm glad that there are enough listeners who feel this way to support (at least a modicum of) new musicians. I listen to a lot of music that is new to me but I'm mostly drawn to "did I read something intriguing about this act in a dusty library book thirty-five years ago".

I saw Best Coast live 8 years ago and don't remember anything, they certainly didn't go for drama.

Yeah, my observations are in no way a value-judgement. And these observations (mostly) apply to genres of music that exist firmly within the mechanics of "the culture industry"-- pop, rap, r&b, rock, indie, commercial punk. (Jazz, experimental and chamber music composers, it doesn't apply so much). In myself I have observed a distinct lack-of-interest toward pretty much all "culture industry" acts, after their zeitgeist-grab; the number of such artists I would blindly pre-order their fifth or tenth album is limited to... ten, maybe? Erykah Badu is the only one I could name off the top of my head. Any artist who can sustain my attention, have me genuinely excited for every-new-thing-they-put-out, to me it feels like they've hacked my programming.

Insofar as examples like NOFX, these are legacy acts; my experience with legacy artists is that the method of consumption changes, people engage with them in pursuit of a nostalgic experience; or, if you're too young to have been there the first time, a proxy-nostalgia experience. I think of myself watching Fleetwood Mac, or Zombies, or Bryan Ferry, too young to have seen them in their prime but getting a taste of what it might've been like.

As far as Best Coast is concerned, I think it's a testament that the band has any staying power at-all that this article exists, and generated attention. I won't name the twenty-other of Best Coast's contemporaries that have faded more-quickly into obscurity so as to barely exist at all in 2023

haven't heard this new one or the last best coast album, still love Cali Nights. she's been thru the wringer a bit to some extent, def think she caught vv targeted flak from some corners that was perhaps a bit misogynist in retrospect (more than a bit perhaps) and i don't doubt it affected her moving forward. she seems vv resilient however, she's managed to stick around for a long time.

Maybe call it The Cosentinos.

If she were to start a band called The Beffanies I'd buy a ticket

maybe just the Beffs for short

Best Coast had some pleasant tunes but they're a near-perfect example of a band that got fleeting interest before that era of scenester moved on to the next thing. They weren't Spoon or The National or The New Pornographers. Many of them had far less longevity and fan loyalty than the pop artists that indie used to be an alternative to. If there's any nostalgia for that time period I don't think it's come around yet.

― Chris L, Thursday, 14 December 2023 19:17 (one hour ago) link

otm, straight-ahead indie rock that broke around 2010 is almost entirely consigned to the dustbin of history for whatever reason. doesn't necessarily invalidate anything she said but there is very little interest in that era

My only thought on the Best Coast thing is that it’s part of a bigger story about musicians, writers and other industry folks who experienced the Peak Indie era adjusting to a new reality. If you were there and are still trying to do your thing, you can probably empathize.

— Ian Cohen (@en_cohen) December 12, 2023

My interest in Best Coast declined in concert with the amount of background noise in their recordings. Just not a very interesting band without the cassette deck Phil Spector thing happening.

I don’t think any of the recent indie gone pop moves have been good, though.

I liked California Nights, which felt like an interesting move toward a more polished alt-rock sound, but I recall finding Always Tomorrow kind of dull.

I really liked Best Coast when they first came out, but something happened to her singing voice, maybe she got lessons or something, after the first few singles she started enunciating in a really annoying way where every vowel she would sing ooh-wah. I think I gave up them about 10 years ago tbh - yeah just checked I basically only like their first album. California Nights was better than the album before which I thought was dreadful and I haven't listened to anything since then.

Polished is a great word for where I think they go wrong - polish without strong pop sensibilities/songwriting ends up sounding like background music.

i checked out best coast - i'd heard songs here and there but never listened to an album - i guess "slight" is the word i would use.

I love "The Sun Was High (So Was I)" but 'watched the cars go by/The sun was high/So was I' doesn't point to a successful singer-songwriter transition down the road.

then Alvvays came along and kind of did it better anyway

prescient thread starter

anyone digging this? feel like she's writes much stronger songs than vivian girls (haven't heard dum dum girls) -- "when i'm with you" is pretty much a perfect flippant summer romance song (i guess it's not necessarily about summer romance or w/e but it evokes that musically at least) & this new joint "our deal" sounds like neko case, which might be an indication that she's not as one-note as other lo-fi reverby indie girls

anyway, this is cool stuff. hope she puts out a full length soon.

― ibaka flocka flame (J0rdan S.), Thursday, April 29, 2010 7:06 PM (thirteen years ago)

I think it's pretty common to feel that a record release falls a bit flat, apart from very few albums that are part of the hype cycle it's rare to have listeners pay as much attention to your new record as you did

but then Best Coast had the gift and the curse of their debut album being hyped during Peak Indie - how could anything ever live up to that?

ultimately I think it's sad that she would focus so much on the commercial reception - it's the journey, not the destination! she wrote an album and recorded it, had fun, she's happy with it - what more do you want? external validation sucks

I did not get a good price for my autographed Crazy For You LP when I sold it in 2017

I'll go ahead and more firmly stand by my suspicion that despite the rant itself, she "knew what she was doing" by posting it in the way that she did. I'm too cynical about social media to believe any post isn't orchestrated for maximum clicks these days. I'm also bored enough to keep thinking about it apparently.

But I wouldn't just say that about any rant - it's the melodramatic drawn out "i'm ready to have this conversation now" thing that feels designed to make people who get it as a "suggested reel" on insta click through. I also don't know how tiktok works though. uggghh wtf am I talking about I'm so bored, I need to do actual work

TikTok has too many people talking at you with truthbombs and not enough cute cat videos.

xp you're doing fine, keep up the good work procrastination

interesting that ed droste seems to be commenting on the stereogum article, grizzly bear has a pretty big spotify hit with "2 weeks" but I don't hear much talk abt them - they were of course everywhere in ~2009-2012

funny you should mention them, since Nabisco wrote that article 11 years ago titled "Grizzly Bear Members Are Indie-Rock Royalty, But What Does That Buy Them in 2012?"

https://www.vulture.com/2012/09/grizzly-bear-shields.html

enabler!

Grizzly Bear are pretty forgotten for sure. However everything gets rediscovered again eventually, leading to the ultimate achievement any reappraised band of the past can hope for...

...big clunky boxset reissues

is there a thread for a post Peak Indie appraisal of what the hell was going on in those years? it's probably been discussed a million times but interesting to look at from a distance, seemed so natural at the time and now seems so weird

i think there is something going on with peak indie maybe...but this has always happened it's definitely the exception rather the rule to when you leave a successful band to have a solo career that's as successful, like i dunno tommy shaw from styx or steve perry from journey didn't have the same success solo either

if peak indie was still as popular now, i don't think this would have been as successful as best coast

it's also a pretty mediocre record!

What are you finding weird about the "peak indie" era (what is this exactly just the 00s?)? Makes sense thinking back to the heyday of p4k as the epicenter of indie buzz acts breaking and all the resulting fervor.

poor phrasing on my part, probably not too different from what the grunge era would have been like to live through - when you're in the middle of a massive trend like that, it seems... inevitable? as if the current aesthetic is timeless and everlasting and objectively important when really it's very of it's time and soon over

it's definitely the exception rather the rule to when you leave a successful band to have a solo career that's as successful

totally agree, will sheff seems to have ditched the okkervil river moniker and.. tough for streams, I think... conor oberst too... how would a dan bejar album fare?

interesting that boygenius pulled off the reverse model

Supergroup of buzzworthy singer-songwriters is a better investment

Passion Pit called

Also 2010--the year best coast broke--was very much the tail end of this so-called "peak indie" era, whether it felt like it at the time or not. Reading through the new artists on the pitchfork "best of 2010" list is like looking at a graveyard in a way that's not as true of, say, the site's 2005 list.

The "gapdy" thing was really the exclamation point on peak indie; even the next releases from those five bands were substantially less acclaimed/popular.

what does this all mean for the second Wet Leg album

Probably nothing, but if Rhian Teasdale goes solo in 10 years...

wow, I was checked out on indie rock I've never heard any of those GAPDY albums

what does this all mean for the second Wet Leg album

And don't forget the successful memory-holing of 2011 Pazz and Jop winner Tune-Yards

v strange to think that being a buzz band was a career

I remember Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces) saying in an interview that she wished she had started her music career 10 years earlier, to have that much longer runway in building up a fan base... but I'm not sure how much you can really game it out that way, seems like only a select few bands/artists at that level (like those already named) can sustain a career, especially after a "going-solo" move.

her solo stuff has been really great

but yeah overall i mean bands get forgotten about...how many people care about Grand Funk Railroad? Quicksilver Messenger Service? Kix (sorry Chuck)? Orgy? The Grass Roots? Vertical Horizon?

all those bands were way bigger than Best Coast

I wouldn't really lump eleanor friedberger in with this...

that said how many bands had like a single on 99 records in '81 and still tour off it

Grizzly Bear are pretty forgotten for sure

Dan and Chris Bear from that band scored Past Lives this year and we’re all hoping they get a deserved Oscar nod for it (personally rooting for Mica to win it, tho)

grizzly bear may have broken up or whatever, but they are not forgotten.

it's been said many times before, but whatever bands were on some level "cool" ~10 years ago are almost always seen as lame/boring/uncool in current times. that's where grizzly bear is imo

Tune-yards!

Maybe the funny thing about the memory-holing of peak indie/gapdy is that there was a disconnect between the critical discourse and popular music - post poptimist eoy lists may age better wrt reflecting actually popular music (although there's a whole thread for post-poptimist canon building)

These bands are from more like 15 years ago. The year of gapdy was 2009.

There are definitely musicians from that era that I have not lost interest in, but I didn't think anyone considered the MP3 blog bands of the late 00s were viable long term or even medium term at the time. My recollection was that most people would hear a catchy and derivative jingle, look for the band and .rar on Google, download a folder with 12 identical songs, put it on a playlist called 'driving around with Barbara' and forget about it within a month. It's funny that it was an alternative to the mainstream pop of the time because it's whole mode of consumption was so relentlessly about disposability. If this music had any capital in the hipster wars era it was hearing and disposing of a song/band before it your friend with a veterinary surgery haircut decided they were her new favourite band or subsequently you heard it at American apparel.

This is not even a dismissal of the motivations of those actually making the music, who were likely no more or less sincere than any other hype cycle of pop bands. I'm sure plenty of people believed in what they were doing but the vehicles that propelled this stuff did so much to encourage instant amnesia.

I also feel like so many bands had really similar names.

Maybe it's the same or worse now. I imagine that canny big budget stars have just lifted some of the viral marketing ideas from bands/musicians of that era to diversify their portfolio. Taylor swift and Beyonce seem like examples of this in some ways. Billie eilish.

the most curious thing about this whole conversation is that the best of the Best Coast albums is California Nights which came out in 2015 and therefore missed "peak indie"

I don’t personally identify with that post at all, plax!

Ugh the last thing I wanna do this lovely morning is post about Pitchfork but from 2007-2012 the indie music scene was entirely defined by that website’s aesthetic and the musical values it espoused

It’s always been weird to me that “GAPDY” is this thing. Who made that up? Why are Phoenix and YYYs in there? Phoenix are French pop who took off in like what, 2004? and we’re Coppola famous? YYYs were even earlier? They were a Vice Magazine band. Why are they included in this acronym and why not Vampire Weekend instead? Makes no sense to me

Haha “we’re Coppola famous” we certainly are

The origin of "GAPDY" is that albums by those five bands dominated year-end lists in 2009. I think Whiney coined it?

____

How many lists are gonna be fuckin AnCo, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Pro and Phoenix in different orders?

― my adrian langs a ton (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, December 10, 2009 7:35 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

...

i do have to say that grizzly/AnCo/phoenix/dirty pro/yeahyeahyeahs (GAPDY) are all perfectly fine albums, but to call them the BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR really just means that you're not listening to enough records.

― my adrian langs a ton (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, December 10, 2009 2:06 PM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Pazz & Jop top 6 for 2009 was those albums plus Neko Case at #3.

As for tUnE-yArDs I’ve always had the same opinion of that band: the first album bIrD-bRaInS is amazing and it played at every good party in Canada the year before she got famous. It’s a great album. They do amazing film scores now. Also listen to Ruth Garbus.

@ jaymc omg wow!!!

For whatever reason I was sitting here thinking “did Whiney have something to do with it?”

Ha. Here's Rob Harvilla in 2010:

Your friend and mine Chr1st0ph3r R. W31ng4rt3n last year around now spearheaded this thing called GAPDY, wherein he chastised critics for lavishing praise on the same five, indie-centric 2009 albums: Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Phoenix, Dirty Projectors, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Is there any doubt VW shows up on this year’s tortured anagram, alongside Arcade Fire, the National, LCD, Sleigh Bells, etc.? (Can I sneak Dream or Deerhunter into that list so we can make VNDAL?)

since i brougth GAPDY into this discussion, i meant to place it in contrast with the 2010-2012 stuff like best coast. the gapdy bands (and the ones listed in jaymc's post right above mine, and some others) and basically indie/indie-adajcent artist who first got big from 2001-2007 were the actual "legacy acts" of "peak indie".

The indie/indie-adjacent stuff that broke out in 2010 and after--stuff like best coast--didn't have nearly the same cultural footprint. The "moment," whatever it was, was basically done, even if money was still flowing for a few years.

So it’s a critic thing, and not a notion that ppl actually listened to that cluster of bands as, like, a “taste profile”? I don’t know that Dirty Projectors ever had much of a “cultural footprint”…

which is not to necessarily discount anything cosentino said. i do think that whoever said upthread that "trendchasing" is endemic in the type of indie folks who read p4k was otm

the dirty projectors guy wrote songs for solange on a #1 album and worked on that kanye song, they were definitely the least commercially successful of those bands but there is some cultural footprint there

My sense is that Peak Indie was the result of the 2000s boom in blogging and file-sharing, yes, but also a wider media ecosystem that increasingly took cues from what was happening online. Crucially, it was a time when there was a rise in new digital media outlets, and a desire on the part of traditional media to keep up. But it was also a time before poptimism had fully taken root in music criticism, before diversity became a more prominent consideration in decisions about media coverage, and before online pageviews warped media incentives. (These things are all intertwined.) So in the late 2000s you had a lot of white indie fans in the position of being tastemakers, which gave a lot of cultural visibility to the big indie acts of the era.

Didn’t The xx also dominate 2009 EOY lists(?) Guess I don’t remember. I’m sure Whiney knew what he was doing with his zinger, but I’ve also never rarely understood with those bands had to do with each other… now I get the concept anyway.

*really understood (I “rarely” understand anything!)

The xx was #7 on the 2009 P&J (right behind Grizzly Bear). So yeah, we probably could've made it GAPDYX.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090228101636/http://hypem.com//

I argued as early as 2007 iirc that the dominant “problem” with Pitchfork was the decimal ranking system, applied across genres. I intuited that it would be “bad for music” over time. That it would create a musical landscape that would privilege “good recordings” over “interesting creations”. That it would celebrate music that was pacifying rather than music that was revolutionizing. That it would naturally skew white and male and straight and upper-middle class. That Pitchfork’s influence had grown to such a point that prospective collaborators (publicists, for example) would just bluntly ask “what’s your Pitchfork score on your latest release?” when assessing if they should work with an emerging artist.

I furthermore said that bands were going to change the way they made music. They would start making creative decisions that would favour Pitchfork’s metric. I’d seen friends tell me about their next record and I’d feel Pitchfork’s influence in them. I tracked these decisions within myself and my own creation. I mean… Deerhunter’s arc seems to me to be the best example of this, I guess

I know I already invoked Nabisco in this thread, but this 2009 piece by him is an interesting look at the cultural status of indie at that time and how it got to that point:
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/7704-the-decade-in-indie/

Deerhunter is interesting in this context because Cox seems to have basically stopped making music, after being so active for years… (unless he’s doing stuff I haven’t heard about)

was abt to say he did that record with cate le bon but... that was apparently in 2019

looks like he played a solo show for the first time in years a few months ago but deerhunter seem to have quietly broken up. not a band i ever quite understood the hype around

Fading Frontier is all time for me

have seen them live a few times, too noisey for me

there was a time when it seemed like my local venue booked every bnm artist they could (and that was a lot) and... I guess I went to all the shows

p4k was such a monolith

the most important reason GAPDY took off is because it's fun to say

every one of the GAPDY bands are leagues better than Best Coast too

someone mentioned the 10 year cycle of being considered kind of lame about 10 years after the peak which is true (with a nostalgia boost at 20 years) but the one problem they will have, as compared to I don't know disco or hair metal or grunge or pop punk or nu metal, these bands weren't really that popular in real world terms compared to and of those genres, it was more than they dominated the conversations about music in a certain media/Internet/social media niche

sorry for the typos

Cryptograms + Fluorescent Grey is a perfect double vinyl album imo, one of the best of this century

I liked Microcastle (especially) and everything else, sure; the dissonance that I felt around their peak-popularity (Halcyon Digest, great title in retrospect) was that it felt as if some decisions were made to make the music more blog-friendly, and... blogs were friendlier.

I don't exactly understand what nabisco's thesis is in that P4k piece but it is always such a pleasure to read his writing, thanks for the link jaymc

the one problem they will have, as compared to I don't know disco or hair metal or grunge or pop punk or nu metal, these bands weren't really that popular in real world terms compared to and of those genres, it was more than they dominated the conversations about music in a certain media/Internet/social media niche

I think this is exactly right

it really seems like much of that music was specifically based around a scene that was very much of the moment, perhaps even more about the social aspect than other music scenes were. this doesn't NOT describe the scenes swirling around disco, hair metal, etc, but i think a lot of the PFM indie of the time just also doesn't stand up to scrutiny thru the nostalgia lens, a lot of it disappeared into vapor because it was pushed to prominence by that particular niche, and you really had to be there. i didn't have to be there for zeppelin or sabbath or abba, but maybe for the GAPDY groups the subsequent generations aren't going to understand it at all? idk i also know that doesn't strictly describe GAPDY, it happens to all scenes. UMS otm obv.

That is probably true to some extent but to another (larger) extent the opposite is true, in that so much of this was consumed by many through platforms that did nothing to build/maintain scenes or communities. So much of the audience was instantly accessed through content aggregators, mp3 blogs, BNM. A good chunk of the initial enthusiasm for band A could come from an audience with little additional buy in. Next week there would be something else coming out of the hose. Coming in the gap between the end of CDs and the return of vinyl it also meant that even if you played something a lot one week it was so easy to forget it even existed a week later. When I visit my parents house I still find all the CDs i bought when I was a teenager but I'm sure a good chunk of stuff I listened to in my 20s has been totally deleted from my memory when I lost an iPod shuffle in Spain in 2011.

i think that goes hand in hand a bit with the era being ephemeral, something that existed as an in-person scene but which was didn't exist as widely in terms of physical media (not a minor thing; that does lend itself to music not being memory-holed.) so it winds up feeling so much further back in time, maybe.

all my MP3s from that era i downloaded and burned onto a bunch of MP3 CDRs and then lost the whole damn thing. def had some GAPDY-era stuff on there. i think in fact it was primarily all that (plus a decent chunk of revived lost albums posted on MP3 blogspots that have now been properly reissued.)

Something that might not be relevant but still might be interesting: I observed and it’s been confirmed by many others that across the board, sales of physical media at shows have spiked immensely over the past decade. A colleague of mine said he thinks it’s because “people are going to record stores less, seeing a merch table is an exciting thing”

xp It was also right before Spotify destabilized the role of indie music as status symbol for a certain type of educated consumer who knew which blogs to follow. I find it harder to look back on that stuff and see something with an enduring cultural significance when it feels like it was so quickly swallowed up.

the most important reason GAPDY took off is because it's fun to say

This is why I got no support for my acronym YPDGA