Best Coast
Crazy For You

I already see myself projected into my next summer, on the sand of some American desert, maybe the Mojave, with a surfboard under my feet and the conviction of being able to ride desolate dusty dunes at the mercy of a mild breeze.

I'm writing from the chilly garage of an echoing basement and as I do so, I realize I don't know much about this Los Angeles band, but let's be honest, who cares?

I know they've been around for a couple of years, if that, and that they only have this debut album to their name, "Crazy for You" (2010, Mexican Summer). Stunning, fresh, and it goes down like a shot of rum and pear.
Its release anticipated last summer and although, for one reason or another, I've only been aware of it for a short time, I made it mine in even less.

And well, who cares. In the end, what matters is how the record in question sounds, what taste it has. And at least this, I can say for sure, maybe referring back to the first paragraph and closing everything with a "ZOT!"


In recent years, revival was reigning (Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Vivian Girls, etc.), or more likely the continuous post-"boom" emulation, of those sounds coming from the hinterland of early nineties noise-pop (Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl, etc.) which, pleasant and finely crafted, in turn found their roots in the (sonic) anti-quality of Beat Happening, in the guitars of Jesus & Mary Chain or even, going much further back in years, in the devastating "revelations" of Velvet Underground. However, this revival was starting to systematically produce the same record, the carbon copy of the cutest among the previous ones.

There you have it, Best Coast have smoothed out, or perhaps better concealed, that clumsiness, a factor that had become common in those productions, by mixing it again in an original and almost lighthearted way with the more "athletic" Beach Boys... but not only.

The blonde winking from the microphone is named Bethany Cosentino and she's really something.

In 1994, Federico Fiumani sang: "I feel summer in everything I have and so time is an appearance that changes with me, just a mirage of which I don't know the reason".

So to hell with this winter that never comes. Today is summer, this is garage surf pop and that blonde is winking right at me. I'm already in the garage, and if I close my eyes, I can even feel the board under my feet. Even I who can barely stay afloat and go to the sea in a raincoat to avoid getting wet.