The Coast With The Most

There’s a war of words going on in Bethany Cosentino’s Twitter feed. Well, more of a minor skirmish. One Jeremy Winter has heard Best Coast’s second record The Only Place, and has an opinion to share: “More like reverse evolution,” he snorts, from a keyboard far, far away. “You should listen to The Muffs self-titled album before making a boring 3rd Best Coast album.”

Undoubtedly, @jawinter28 doesn’t know his onions, and Cosentino, frontwoman for the LA garage duo, doesn’t hesitate to tell him as much: “I’m not trying to make a muffs album dude. Thanks 4 yr opinion but we are proud of the record. Also stop illegally downloading!”
It’s nice to have indie stars unafraid to offer a rebuttal, I tell her the next day. She laughs into an explanation.
“I was quite drunk at the time, so I blame it on that! Drinking and Twitter go together like... drinking and text messaging, it’s a terrible idea! They should put a block on Twitter as soon as you drink too much.”
But that would take all the fun out of it.
“It would for you,” she grins, “but it would be better for people like me!”
Since releasing lo-fi debut Crazy For You in 2010, Cosentino has found herself become something of an inspiration to indie girls the world over. Has her new role – flying the flag for women in rock, essentially – put pressure on her?
“Not really,” she shrugs. “More than anything it’s just very flattering and humbling. It’s very cool to know that there are young – and older – girls out there who look up to me as a role model. That’s the best part of this job.”
Once upon a time (the ‘90s), Courtney Love occupied a similar position, with an added dash of kookiness. Okay, insanity. But she’s a smart, talented woman who has been publicly lambasted in a way that recalls the Salem witch trials. Bethany has stuck up for the Hole singer in recent times. A kindred spirit, minus the crazy?
“Ha, yeah. I think she’s great, I don’t know what everyone’s deal with her is. I mean, she’s obviously crazy! But in a great way – what would the world be without crazy people?”
Indeed. And what would the world be without Twitter? Over at @bestcoast, Cosentino has heard that her boyfriend, Nathan William of Wavves, is considering shaving off a tache she is quite fond of.
“Noooo!” she tweets. “I don’t think he should get rid of it,” she tells me. “It’s been a big source of debate. He’s in New Zealand right now. We’ll see what happens.” Being on another continent, he could do anything. “Exactly, exactly!”
Cosentino and Williams are US indie royalty these days, the first couple of Californian alt. pop. It’s boosted both profiles considerably. In Cosentino’s case, Best Coast (which also features Bobb Bruno) now pop up in video games and have music videos directed by Drew Barrymore. And Bethany is gearing up to roll out her first clothing line with Urban Outfitters. I’m guessing it won’t cater to Irish fellas. “No woolly jumpers, sorry! I would love to do a men’s line at some point. Just because I think in my mind I know what looks good on men. Of course, you never know if I actually know what I’m talking about!”
What she definitely knows is music. That’s what all these satellite projects and distractions float around. During the making of album number two, Cosentino was listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Keen to experiment more, go deeper lyrically, go darker. She wants to lose her reputation as “that stoned cat-lady”.
“People will either love it or they’ll hate it because it’s different from the first. Though we tried to not stray too far away from the first. We just upped it sonically.”
They did so in the illustrious environs of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood.
“It was a wonderful place,” she recalls. “We were in Studio B, Sinatra had recorded in A. Just being in the building was incredible. You’d walk down the hallway and see pictures of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, The Beach Boys...”
Has she heard the new material from the reunited Beach Boys? Pop songs extolling the sunshine virtues of the West Coast – that’s Best Coast territory these days. Are the old-timers stepping on their toes? “Haha! I heard their new single and I wasn’t that impressed by it, I have to be honest with you. The lyrics are very strange. The music’s good but the lyrics are a bit, ‘What’s going on here?’.”
So there’s no war of words with Brian Wilson on the cards?
“If that happened, we’d be weirdly stoked, because we love Brian Wilson! But I don’t think so. As I said before, it’d be good for you... but not me!”

The Only Place is out now.