Coastal sound
Bethany Cosentino, front woman of the surf rock band Best Coast, will perform in Kerckhoff Grand Salon on Thursday along with Young the Giants and Dominant Legs. (WINDISH AGENCY)
Best Coast, Young the Giant, Dominant Legs
Thursday, 8:30 p.m.
Kerckhoff Grand Salon, FREE
By Arit John
Nov. 10, 2010 12:56 a.m.
The members of Best Coast aren’t a very wild bunch. While on tour, a night on the town for the group ““ lead singer and guitarist Bethany Cosentino, bassist and drummer Bobb Bruno and drummer Ali Koehler ““ consists of things like going to T.G.I. Friday’s and ordering crazy cocktails.
“We’re not really a party band. We play and go to our rooms and watch TV,” Cosentino said.
The beachy, lo-fi band is performing in Kerckhoff Grand Salon Thursday, along with supporting acts Young the Giant and Dominant Legs.
The concert is part of the Campus Events Commission’s attempt to bring about more concept, or genre-based, shows. In this case, Best Coast falls under Southern California surf rock.
“We wanted to capture the surf rock trend that’s going on,” said Vanessa Szeto, a third-year Chinese and communication studies student. Szeto is the Campus Events Commission’s concert director.
“With Best Coast music specifically, it has that effect where you feel like you’re in the middle of summer,” she said.
Best Coast cites The Beatles and The Beach Boys as its inspirations, as well as music from the ’50s and ’60s and pop rock in general.
Cosentino doesn’t focus much on the lyrics of her songs, so much as how they fit with the music.
“I focus more on melody. I think it’s obvious, since a lot of the lyrics I write are simple and sort of repetitive,” Cosentino said. “I don’t overthink things, I just let them happen naturally.”
At the same time, her lyrics allude to her life. Cosentino dropped out of college in New York once she realized school wasn’t where she was meant to be. She refers to this in “Boyfriend” with the lyrics: “She has a college degree / I dropped out when I was 17.”
After returning to California from New York, Cosentino said she began working in a cosmetic and soap store.
“I was working in Lush … and I was writing these songs, and then I just didn’t want to work there,” Cosentino said.
She quit her job to begin focusing on music full time, first with Pocahaunted, then with Best Coast.
Best Coast began when Cosentino met Bruno through mutual friends in Mika Miko. Cosentino said she could tell that he had a similar idea of what music should be, so she asked him if he wanted work with her.
“He said, “˜Sure, send me a couple of songs.’ After that we worked together,” Cosentino said.
The band has since released several EPs, singles and “Crazy for You,” its 2010 album.
Emily Feeley, a third-year geography/environmental studies student, described Best Coast’s music as happy, dreamy and easy to enjoy.
“She sings about her life and living in L.A. … and smoking weed and boys,” Feeley said.
Feeley first heard Cosentino perform two years ago at the Smell, a music venue in downtown Los Angeles where similar bands such as Wavves and the Vivian Girls perform. Feeley said she enjoys Best Coast more live.
“Their concerts are actually really different from their music … because it’s a lot less lo-fi sounding,” Feeley said. “Her singing is a lot clearer (than on her records), and her voice is actually really beautiful. Once I saw them live … that was when I liked them a lot.”
Feeley isn’t the only fan of the group. Best Coast announced on its blog that the band will open for Weezer at the Gibson Amphitheatre on Nov. 26 and 27 in a post titled “Dreams Do Come True.” For Cosentino, this is the sort of break she’s been hoping for.
“I know that music is something that I was always meant to be doing,” Cosentino said. “I’ll be doing this for as long as I can, and when it’s done, I’ll do something else.”
