The Vivian Girls

Vivian Girls started in Brooklyn, NY in March 2007 as the trio of Cassie Ramone, Kickball Katy and Frankie Rose. While only a band for a short while, they recorded a demo CD-R which included five original songs and a Wipers cover, and began to play locally in Brooklyn and Katy and Cassie’s home state of New Jersey. Within the first couple of months they had already developed a strong local following and the band is still very much connected to their home scene. In March 2008 they released the “Wild Eyes” single, with very little promotion and distribution the single became an underground indie hit. Recorded in the same session, their debut self-titled LP was released by the Mauled by Tigers label, whose initial pressing of the LP sold out in ten days. During this time, the group signed with In The Red Records who released a new single in August 2008. In The Red re-released the record on LP and CD formats in October 2008. In July 2008 the band underwent a lineup change with new drummer Ali Koehler replacing Frankie Rose. The band then went on an extensive tour that saw them visit the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Puerto Rico in two months.
Their second album, Everything Goes Wrong was released by In The Red in September 2009.
 
Released almost exactly a year after In The Red’s reissue of their self-titled debut, the new album, Everything Goes Wrong promises to be slightly longer than the 22 mins their debut clocked in at with the band having taken their time and recorded it in six days - rather than the three their debut took though many of the songs were still recorded in single takes. Whilst the band have again captured their raw, fun edge - as the influence of ’60s girl groups, The Ramones as well as surf and indie pop, still ring true, Everything Goes Wrong is without a doubt a darker, moodier album than its predecessor; a trait which arguably makes the band an even more appealing proposition this time round. Over the last year, the Vivian Girls have toured the US and Europe extensively, received a considerable amount of national and international press, and, perhaps most significant of all, become the subject of a question on Jeopardy.

Best Coast

Combine the sophisticated chill of a New York City winter with the girlish, laid back romance of California in the summertime and what to you get? The answer is Best Coast, the latest musical endeavor by perennially cool, self-described “weird girl” Bethany Cosentino. Best Coast was born when Cosentino decided to come home to LA after a time in New York City, to get a fresh start at living in the place she knows best—California. Quickly garnering praise from critics and listeners with the single “Sun Was High (So Was I),” Cosentino was approached by UK-based label Blackest Rainbow, who released her now sold-out tape Where the Boys Are. Also in the works are two new 7-inch’s, one being released by San Diego-based Art Fag Recordings and the other, the debut release from brand-new Brooklyn label Group Tightener.

A Los Angeles native, Cosentino grew tired of what she had grown up with and did what so many have done before—she picked up and left for the East Coast, specifically Brooklyn, with the intention of going to art school for Creative Writing. “I was like, I hate the beach, I hate flip flops. I want to go to New York.” But Brooklyn quickly turned out to be far different from what she had envisioned. “I realized that I actually liked all those things, they reminded me of home,” and life in New York was too cold, both literally and figuratively, with too many people trying way too hard, “it’s like, there are people in New York who look like they’re at the beach sometimes but it’s not real, it’s not the same.”

Looking for a way to get a taste of her native land all the way in Brooklyn, Cosentino was drawn to the ‘50’s and ‘60’s aesthetic of The Beach Boys and The Everly Brothers, which, she says, “made me happy.” Creating her own little Southern California in her bedroom wasn’t enough, however, and one weekend Cosentino decided enough was enough. “One weekend I just decided to leave New York. Two days later I was back in LA,” Cosentino says matter-of-factly. She started making music almost immediately, having been “inspired by the music I was listening to in New York,” Cosentino “wanted to be making the music I wanted to listen to.” Because of this, the project’s aesthetic is intended and natural, a combination of Cosentino’s influences and her inherent Californian-ness.

Although Best Coast began in her bedroom, with Cosentino recording demo’s all on her own, she soon realized that she could use a little bit of help getting the vibe exactly right. For this she enlisted Bobb Bruno, a staple of the LA music scene who has previously recoded bands like Mika Miko and Abe Vigoda, played with the likes of Nels Cline, and opened for PJ Harvey and Wilco. Cosentino and Bruno have been friends since Cosentino was a teenager, and she knew right away that he was someone she could trust with her project; “Bobb’s from California, he grew up here, he understands,” Cosentino says, adding that “he really, totally just gets it.”

Best Coast sounds the way music sounds when it comes over the beach from the parking lot, where the cutest boy in school is getting out of his car.

Roundabout

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