This past Tuesday Best Coast played to a sold out crowd at the Knitting Factory’s new home in Brooklyn.  This was her second of three New York City appearances with in a week, and I’m really happy that I was able to get tickets in time.

Before I get to Best Coast’s performance I would like to give the Knitting Factory some respect for making their new Brooklyn home a wonderful place to see live music.  It’s not a huge space, even smaller than their former Tribeca home, and is actually pretty intimate .  The staff was friendly, and even included some familiar faces from the former location.  The layout of the venue is logically set up, which is not saying a whole but it seems that is something difficult to do when it comes to venues in this city. Drinks are reasonably priced, and for the person who loves Lost and Best Coast they got to watch Lost in the bar and then head to the back room to see Best Coast kill it.  Pretty much a perfect Tuesday.  Thanks Knitting Factory…I look forward to coming back it was a great first experience.

While klk and Leah were catching Lost in the bar I went into the back room, and got to catch the Bitters set.  Ben Cook is someone who I respect quite a bit.  He is an extremely talented musician, and was responsible for one of my favorite singles (Young Governor’s Virgina Creeper) and EP’s (The Bitter’s Wooden Glove) of last year.  The Bitters’ sound has changed from that initial EP, but Ben, Aerin Fogel, and their live band were really a pleasure to watch.  Aerin is a great front woman, and Ben’s talent as a guitarist just shines.   I’m looking forward to hearing their debut LP on Mexican Summer, but deep in side I know that it won’t live up to the expectations that Wooden Glove has already set.

Next up was Best Coast.  On this tour Bethany and Bobb have Ali Koehler of Vivian Girls fame backing them up.  Last time I saw Best Coast was back during CMJ when they made an appearance at the Group Tightener Records showcase at Monster Island.  At that point Best Coast was just using a drum machine, and Bethany and Bobb were banging out the songs (for a taste of that show check out my videos here), but I feel like with the addition of Ali on drums the band is really coming into their own and the new songs are sounding better than I could have imagined.

For those familiar with Best Coasts’ California fuzz laden recorded pop the live show is something much different, and in my opinion even more special.  When you see Best Coast live there are two things that you notice right away…Bethany’s voice doesn’t stand out on the recordings as much as it should.  Her voice is beautiful, and when you hear her live it almost makes me feel that the recordings are doing her an injustice.  The second thing you notice is how essential Bobb Bruno is to the band.  Most people just  talk about Bethany when they refer to this band (i was guilty of this in the past too), but watching Bobb play is interesting and essential to the band, and live if you keep one of your eyes on him you realize that really quickly.

This show makes me more than excited to hear Best Coast’s to be released full length.  They are already one of my favorite live bands of 2010 (and 2009 for that matter), and the live show just makes me dream of how good their first album can be.  At this point I’m thinking that Best Coast is going to have what I’m refering to as Dum Dum Girls syndrome…where they released a whole bunch of great, yet fuzzed out, recordings….and then when the full length album comes out it totally blows people away. I hope so.  At this point Best Coast seem to dominate hits on the Great Pumpkin being by far the most popular band I post about.  On that note I present these to you Best Coast live at the Knitting Factory Brooklyn:

[mp3] Best Coast- “Something In The Way”

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• photo by Rachel Carr via BV
• Buy Best Coast’s EPs here, or here, or here.
• more on Best Coast here.
• more gprecs video here.

Bethany Constentino and Bobb Bruno are bringing Best Coast back to New York City for three shows in the very near future.  Best Coast is a band that I’ve had my eye on for sometime now. They have been getting the press they deserve all over the internet, and even recently NPR has taken notice putting a totally amazing live set recorded by KEXP up on their website.

Constentino and Bruno have released five 7″s, a tape, and the full length LP has been recorded and will see the light of day sometime this year.  While Constentino is drawing comparisons to Liz Phair from some music critics, as far as I’m concerned the handful of songs that Best Coast has put out have moved me much more than Liz Phair’s entire catalog.  While many of the Best Coast releases are currently out of print Art Fag and Post Present Medium are repressing two of these 7″ again in limited quantities.

It is an extremely exciting time for this band from playing in Bloomingdales to 16 year olds birthday parties it seems like they are doing it right, having fun, and staying true to themselves.  As far as girl rock goes these days Best Coast is near the top for me, and if they keep up what they have been doing they probably will be for you too.

Best Coast recently did a stunning rendition of Lesley Gore’s classic 1964 chart topping song “That’s the Way Boys Are.”  Constentino and Bruno add their own signature California sunny fuzz to the track making it completely their own.  I love covers of classic songs.

[mp3] Best Coast- “That’s The Way Boys Are”

While Best Coast releases are scarce right now…you can buy what is available here.

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Listen to Best Coasts fabulous KEXP session for NPR:

[stream] Best Coast live at SXSW 2010

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If you know what is good for you you should catch Best Coast on their upcoming US/European tour:

• Thu 04/01/10 @ Bowery Ballroom- New York NY w/Japandroids
• Fri 04/02/10 @ Clementine  (MACRoCK)- Harrisonberg, VA (show at 4:30)
• Sat 04/03/10 @ The Barbery- Philadelphia PA w/Reading Rainbow, Creepoid
• Mon 04/05/10 @ Meat Locker-Montclair NJ
• Tue 04/06/10 @ Knitting Factory – Brooklyn NY w/ The Bitters
• Wed 04/07/10 @ Mercury Lounge- New York NY w/The Bitters
• Sat 04/10/10 @ Chum’s Coffeehouse @ Brandeis University- Waltham MA
• Sun 04/11/10 @ The Crane Room-Medford MA
• Mon 04/12/10 @ The Friendship Cove- Montreal QC w/ No Joy
• Tue 04/13/10 @ The Garrison- Toronto ON w/ Memoryhouse
• Wed 04/14/10 @ Magic Stick- Detroit MI
• Thu 04/15/10 @ Dionysus Disco- Oberlin OH
• Fri 04/16/10 @ Schubas Tavern- Chicago IL w/ Light Pollution
• Sat 04/17/10 @ WIUX Culture Shock- Bloomington IN
• MORE TOUR DATES CAN BE FOUND HERE!

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More on Best Coast can be found here.

Best Coast made one of their very few East Coast appearances last night at the Group Tightener Party in the Monster Island Basement.  Bethany Consentino noted that the shows in New York were Best Coast’s first appearances outside of Southern California.  It was a late night, and by time Alex Bleeker, Fluffy Lumbers, Coasting, and Highlife finished it was already midnight….and the show still had Best Coast, Ducktails, and surprise guest Small Black to go (for links check and mp3s by most of the bands check out the post from yesterday).

When Best Coast took the stage Bethany was very personable and welcoming to the New York crowd, both talking about enjoying being back in the city as well as talking about why she left. Her cohort Bobb Bruno quietly set up his equipment, a large set of pedals and a couple of guitars.  Bethany mentioned that Best Coast now has a drummer…but on this jaunt out to the East Coast they had to bring the mini-discs.

In all honestly I have started going into lo-fi garage pop and/or psych/shit-gaze shows with low expectations. Bands like Eat Skull, Sic Alps, and occasionally Vivian Girls have all been less than exciting live (all of whom records I enjoy).

But when Best Coast started playing I was instantly intrigued.  It was a combination of Bethany’s personality, Bruno’s reserved manner, and the fact not only did the songs sound as they should…they transferred extremely well to the live setting.  I personally find something extremely comforting about the drum machine/mini-disc player, and felt like it suited the night.  Their set was about 35 minutes long, and the heat in Monster Island provided the atmosphere that Best Coast’s music goes best with…hot and sweaty.  The only thing that could have made it better was if the sun was shining down on us generating the heat rather than the lighting and massive amount of bodies in the basement of the island.   Best Coast played to a packed crowded, and seem to be very well received.  When they joked about an encore the crowd even seemed disappointed.  They were charming as a two piece, and were able to stand out among the fuzzy and reverb… I look forward to seeing them as a full band.  The night was well documented as well, you can tell from these videos that there were plenty of cameras present.

Best Coast- “Sun Was High (So Was I)” live at the Group Tightener Party

[mp3] Best Coast- “Sun Was High (So Was I)”

Best Coast- ” So Gone” live at the Group Tightener Party

Best Coast is on a role right now…with two appearances during CMJ (I say during, because the party last night was not an official CMJ event), and a New York Times write up.

Their first 7″ and tape are sold out, but Group Tightener will be releasing the Make You Mine 7″ this month…the packaging was designed by the always wonderful Drew Heffron.  Rumor has it these are going pretty darn fast…and there might even be a repress already in the works.  Get yours before it’s too late.

Pre-Order the Make You Mine 7″ here.

Links:

• more on Best Coast here.
• more on Group Tightener here.
• Group Tightener’s Website, myspace, twitter
• Best Coasts’ myspace, blog, twitter
• more gprecs video here.