Everybody's favourite pot smoking, cat loving, California garage pop star Bethany Cosentino and her band Best Coast are back with new music, the first since the RSD releases of "Fear of My Identity" and "Who Have I Become." Miss Cosentino and her partner Bob Bruno have compiled these two songs, plus the brand new single "I Don't Know How" on to the new EP and will make it available for purchase on October 22nd via the singer's new label Jewel City. Listen to the new track below:
This is a little bit ill timed because of the death of former member Justin Benoit, but Cold Cave has shared the title track from his new Oceans With No End EP. Life goes on......
Cold Cave front man Wesley Eisold played all of the instruments on the mini album which results in his now familiar sound of sparkling synth and distorted guitars. Listen below:
Oceans With No End will be out very, very soon via Deathwish.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs seem to shooting for the stars with "Sacrilege", the epic first track taken from their upcoming new album Mosquito. The blues rock number even makes use of a gospel choir. Listen below:
Mosquito will be available April 16th via Interscope.
Psychic Twin have dropped the B Side to their great new 7" inch for "Strangers". And guess what? The flip side song " Dream State" is every bit as good as the A side. Listen below:
Diplo's crazy dancehall reggae project Major Lazer have finally announced a release date for their new LP. The group recently signed to Secretly Canadian and that afforded them to finally ready the album, Free The Universe,"for an April 15th release. Listen to the first track "Watch Out for This (Bumaye)" [ft. Busy Signal, the Flexican & FS Green]
Best Coast have released a teaser for their special Record Store release single "Fear Of My Identity". RSD is on 4/20 this year so light up a spliff and enjoy:
The Academy Awards got it right when they selected "Searching For Sugar Man" for best documentary. Rodriguez is a brilliant musician with a very interesting back story. The movie is out on DVD now. Go watch it!!!
Toronto music festival NXNE has announced an initial list of bands playing this year's instalment which takes place June 10th to the 16th. They always get one major band to play the Saturday free showcase at Yonge/Dundas Square and this year is no exception. Following in the footsteps of Iggy & The Stooges, Devo and The Flaming Lips, The National will do the honour of playing a free gig on Saturday June 15th.
Other cool artists that have been announced so far are Iceage, Milk Music, Mikal Cronin and Merchandise. Check out the list here and look for over 600+ more acts to be added.
And how could I forget about David Bowie. The Thin White Duke has come out with another track, with accompanying video, from his upcoming new album The Next Day. The clip for "The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” is directed by Toronto girl Floria Sigismondi, and features a perfectly cast Tilda Swinton who's thinness and ginger hair make her the perfect choice to play Bowie not only in this video but also in a biopic of the singer. Watch below:
On Saturday afternoon Bethany Cosentino of the band Best Coast sent out a tweet stating "Toronto tonight at The Phoenix! Doors open at 8, come sweat with us." Voila!!! I had my plans for the night.
I arrived at The Phoenix at 9 o'clock just in time to see openers Those Darlins. Those Darlins are a garage band from Nashville Tennessee and are made up of two guys and two girls. The band played a raucous 45 minute set of garage and punk songs. A favourite among their set was a fun song called Pussy Party....you can imagine what that song was about. I was sold on this band and was wondering why they have not worked with Jack White's Third Man Records. They seem like a perfect fit to work with Jack.
After a half and hour break, Best Coast came on stage promptly at 10:15. Against a backdrop of a mural that contained the album artwork from their latest LP (see above) they started the concert with the songs The End, Crazy For You and Goodbye from their debut album Crazy For You. Having seen Best Coast twice before I knew that singer Bethany Cosentino likes to be very engaged with the crowd. It didn't take her long to berate the audience for being quiet and inactive, wondering why there were not more people dancing. She then backtracked on her statement saying that she was a lousy dancer and probably wouldn't be moving much either. The rest of the first set consisted of their trademark lo-fi sunshine pop and angst driven love ballads- a mixture of songs from both Crazy For You and their new album The Only Place. Bethany apologized for playing a couple of ballads but I don't think the audience minded. Later Bethany had to check on the status of her partner, the ever popular guitarist Bob Bruno, as he seemed to working up a good sweat. She then gave a shout out to Bob which resulted in a huge roar from the appreciative crowd. The rapport between Bethany and Bob was fun to watch as Bethany took several playful jabs at Bob. Also she had to introduce their touring bass player who is from Toronto. She donned his baseball cap for a couple of seconds to more thunderous applause. I believe the hat may have been a Blue Jays cap but I was too far back from the stage to confirm.
After a thirteen song opening set the band were ready for an encore. The encore started with the song I Want To from their album Crazy For You. Near the end of the song a long haired dude jumped on the stage and started dancing to which Bethany exclaimed "That was fucking awesome." The encore included a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Storms from the forthcoming tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me. Even though the band have played it several times over the last couple of weeks, including on the Jimmy Fallon show, Bethany forgot some of the lyrics. Oops!! The last two songs of the night were the popular When I'm With You and Boyfriend. The former included a spirited shambolic guitar solo by the aforementioned Mr. Bruno which resulted in another deafening cheer from the audience.
As mentioned earlier I have seen Best Coast twice before and this is by far their best concert. The first concert I saw them play was at The Great Hall during NXNE a couple of years ago and Bethany got pissed after a heckler told them they sucked. They played awesome but Bethany was not very talkative after the incident. Also the sound wasn't very good and Bethany kept asking for updates on the L.A. Laker game who were in the NBA Finals at the time. The second time I same them was also at The Phoenix. That concert was an all ages affair and most of the people were 17 year old skate kids who were there to see indie pop punk band Wavves. Not my scene. I left happier on this night.
There is no song list from the Toronto concert posted yet so I took their set list from the concert in Montreal on Friday night. It looks like it is the same. Set List: The End Crazy For You Goodbye Last Year Summer Mood The Only Place No One Like You How They Want Me To Be Why I Cry Dreaming My Life Away Our Deal When the Sun Don't Shine Do You Love Me Like You Used To Encore: I Want To Sun Was High (So Was I) Mean Girls Storms (Fleetwood Mac cover) When I'm With You Boyfriend
