didn't realise it was a brion thing, i think his ego might have taken over his ears
― mexican sumner (electricsound), Friday, 18 May 2012 03:10 (eleven years ago) link
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
― call all destroyer, Friday, 18 May 2012 03:11 (eleven years ago) link
dude has more vintage wank equipment than vincent gallo and this is the sound he gets? he should be drawn and quartered
― mexican sumner (electricsound), Friday, 18 May 2012 03:12 (eleven years ago) link
haha
posts very much in character /\/\/\\/\
― www.gbokchoymail.com (admrl), Friday, 18 May 2012 03:29 (eleven years ago) link
Almost afraid to stick my head over the trench here but Bachelor No. 1 was great and that was a Brion joint i think.
― calstars, Friday, 18 May 2012 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
bachelor no. 1 is......ok and not because of him
― call all destroyer, Friday, 18 May 2012 03:53 (eleven years ago) link
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"
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Friday, 18 May 2012 04:22 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 18 May 2012 09:55 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― blossom smulch (schlump), Friday, 18 May 2012 10:34 (eleven years ago) link
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
― Napo, Friday, 18 May 2012 12:10 (eleven years ago) link
im into this 1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujf_aZmOO-U
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 3 June 2012 19:13 (eleven years ago) link
yeah that's probably the best track
― molly olsen (electricsound), Sunday, 3 June 2012 22:40 (eleven years ago) link
i think this one is pretty fab (previous distorto version of same song notwithstanding):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFhWHkp6lk
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 6 June 2012 19:37 (eleven years ago) link
http://instagram.com/p/V8SxgZMcBX/
― markers, Saturday, 23 February 2013 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
:3
― rave revue (electricsound), Saturday, 23 February 2013 21:25 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know why the sun's in the sky the rain, it falls down down onto the ground
goodbye cruel world
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Wednesday, 30 October 2013 14:25 (ten years ago) link
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
― piscesx, Wednesday, 30 October 2013 14:33 (ten years ago) link
so ready
http://pitchfork.com/news/58133-best-coast-announce-new-album-california-nights/
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 18 February 2015 17:59 (nine years ago) link
yeah me too, should be fun.
― Bee OK, Friday, 20 February 2015 03:18 (nine years ago) link
this album fucking rules
― katherine, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:55 (nine years ago) link
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
― katherine, Friday, 1 May 2015 15:39 (nine years ago) link
feels underwhelming to me but I shd prob get stoned and listen to it w/ my cat before passing judgment
― johnny crunch, Friday, 1 May 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
I mean I also wish I had a talking cat
― katherine, Friday, 1 May 2015 16:01 (nine years ago) link
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
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Friday, 1 May 2015 16:35 (nine years ago) link
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.
― boxedjoy, Friday, 1 May 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
(for references that producer is wally gagel, also notable for not being jon brion)
― katherine, Friday, 1 May 2015 17:09 (nine years ago) link
I really like this album.
― Greer, Friday, 1 May 2015 17:47 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Kitchen Person, Friday, 1 May 2015 18:10 (nine years ago) link
i'd argue that this is the strongest collection of songwriting they've put out to date, especially compared to the last record
― j. winters (josh), Friday, 1 May 2015 18:14 (nine years ago) link
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
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Friday, 1 May 2015 20:57 (nine years ago) link
J.D.: Harshing mellows and killing buzzes in 2015
― Walter Galt, Saturday, 2 May 2015 12:31 (nine years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 2 May 2015 12:57 (nine years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 2 May 2015 13:02 (nine years ago) link
this falls somewhere around this year's colleen green record (which this also reminds me of)
― katherine, Saturday, 2 May 2015 21:16 (nine years ago) link
High praise to compare her to Colleen Green. That's one of my favorites of the year.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 3 May 2015 00:37 (nine years ago) link
And Colleen Green will never stop smoking weed.
― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 3 May 2015 00:39 (nine years ago) link
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.
― omar little, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 22:12 (six years ago) link
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.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 1 January 2023 20:15 (one year ago) link
https://www.stereogum.com/2245286/bethany-cosentino-is-so-disappointed-with-her-solo-album-launch/news/
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:29 (four months ago) link
That's rough, but at least her ego is in good shape.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 December 2023 17:42 (four months ago) link
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 do, what’s wrong with that? so? what now? (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:24 (four months ago) link
I never liked Best Coast but I will always give full-throated support to this kind of honesty
― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:27 (four months ago) link
^ I love you for that post, Whiney
― i do, what’s wrong with that? so? what now? (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:28 (four months ago) link
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)
― flopson, Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:37 (four months ago) link
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
― flopson, Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:40 (four months ago) link
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, 14 December 2023 18:48 (four months ago) link
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
― i do, what’s wrong with that? so? what now? (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 14 December 2023 18:50 (four months ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 December 2023 19:00 (four months ago) link
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
― flopson, Thursday, 14 December 2023 19:07 (four months ago) link
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'.
― fpsa, Thursday, 14 December 2023 19:16 (four months ago) link