I'm very excited about the Best Coast show this week at The Casbah. Best Coast is essentially Bethany Consentino and a rhythm section. Yay! A real band.
Although I've been saying I can't listen to love songs anymore, I think the directness of her delivery and the noisiness of her guitar get past the basic "I love you baby" style of her lyrics. Kind of like the Jesus and Mary Chain and there's nothing wrong with that.
She also uses a lot of reverb/echo on her recently released "Crazy For You" album that harkens back to the girl groups of the early sixties.
But is that fair? Should we consider Best Coast in the whole pantheon of rock or should we see how it fits into the trail of girl groups from The Ronettes (has she heard of The Ronettes?) through female-led bands like Blondie, Pretenders, Veruca Salt, etc.
Or should we consider it as a continuation of Beatlesque pop (along with just about everything else)? The music definitely skews towards pop; short, catchy songs with lots of "oohs" an "aahs" in the background, but with a heavier drum sound than most pop. Again The Jesus and Mary Chain seems to be an apt comparison.
Who would you compare Best Coast to? Do you like them? Think they're awful? Tell us why in the comments section.
Since most rock bands are better live than on record, I think this has the potential to be a really rockin' show. There is a lot of good guitar on "Crazy For You" and I'd much rather hear some noise than somebody singing about their baby!
Best Coast plays The Casbah in Little Italy this Wednesday.
