Best Coast

Hailing from Los Angeles, the duo Best Coast delivers punk rock marked by bold guitar lines, straightforward words, and an easygoing spirit that draws on sixties pop and nineties alternative sounds shaped by the city’s bright climate. Guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino joined forces with guitarist Bobb Bruno to launch the project through scattered singles that quickly sparked online buzz. Their catalog moves from the spare Ramones-inspired approach heard on the 2010 debut Crazy for You to the expansive, arena-scale arrangements of 2015’s California Nights. Steady growth as a concert draw has left the creative partnership between Cosentino and Bruno intact. The 2020 album Always Tomorrow finds the pair still devoted to the catchy bubblegum-punk style that defined their start while venturing into fresh territory such as mainstream radio pop.

Cosentino, who once worked as a child actress, began composing songs during her teenage years and built a sizable internet following by age 17 through several upbeat tracks posted on MySpace under the name Bethany Sharayah. She soon shifted away from teen-pop ambitions to join the atmospheric experimental pop outfit Pocahaunted. After relocating to New York for studies, she returned to Los Angeles in 2009 and began recording early Best Coast demos alongside Bruno.

The band’s gritty lo-fi aesthetic drew from sixties surf and girl-group traditions, refracted through Cosentino’s languid singing and punk outlook. Their opening year produced a rapid series of limited releases: the self-titled 7-inch on Art Fag, the cassette Where the Boys Are issued by U.K. label Blackest Rainbow, a split 7-inch with Jeans Wilder on Atelier Ciseaux, the EP Make You Mine via Group Tightener, and another self-titled 7-inch on Black Iris. Media outlets including Nylon took notice, and Make You Mine landed on several year-end best-of lists. Early the next year the group embarked on its first U.S. tour, appearing alongside the Vivian Girls. Visibility climbed further in 2010 after the single “When I’m with You” appeared. The duo then signed with Mexican Summer Records and prepared its debut full-length. At the same time Cosentino released a summer single for Converse in collaboration with Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij and rapper Kid Cudi, while Best Coast added permanent drummer Ali Koehler, formerly of the Vivian Girls. Crazy for You, whose cover featured Cosentino’s cat Snacks, arrived that July. Extensive touring, festival slots, and a video directed by Drew Barrymore followed, after which Koehler departed at year’s end.

The pair reconvened at Capitol Records Studio B to work with producer Jon Brion, Bruno’s former employer, on the next album. The Only Place offered a more polished production, larger sonic footprint, and broader instrumental palette than prior work; Mexican Summer released it in May 2012. Their subsequent outing, the Fade Away EP, marked the first appearance on Cosentino’s new label Jewel City. With drummer Brady Miller now on board, the EP blended the raw punch of the debut with the refined finish of The Only Place and surfaced in fall 2013.

Around this period the band briefly collaborated with producer Butch Walker before those sessions dissolved. Recording continued with Wally Gagel, whose résumé spans Superchunk to Rihanna and who had already contributed to Fade Away. The group next signed to Harvest, a Capitol subsidiary. California Nights, steeped in nineties alt-rock textures, emerged in May 2015 and reached the top ten on Billboard’s independent, alternative, and rock albums charts. Heavy touring ensued, first with Wavves and later as support for Paramore. Best Kids, a children’s collection mixing classics and new material, followed in mid-2018. Concurrently the duo appeared as themselves on the Fox talk-show parody What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage, which premiered in 2019. Work soon began on another album with producers Carlos de la Garza and Justin Mendal-Johnson. Always Tomorrow moved beyond the nineties focus of the previous release toward a broader, more commercial direction while chronicling Cosentino’s recent personal shifts; Concord Records issued the set in early 2020.