I, myself, am neither a surfer nor a girl. I think I've only actually been in the ocean three times since moving to California. However, whilst working in Huntington Beach (a.k.a. "Surf City"), the music of 50's and 60's surf culture has been pumped into my brain 5 days a week for 2 years. I've gotta say, it really mellows you out, bro. You don't have to drive down the PCH to get a taste of that great Surf sound. You don't even have to go near the ocean. The recent resurgence of psychedelic garage rock, sun-bleached songs and swingin' 60's-inspired beach blanket bands has been gaining momentum and will be playing at a theater/FYF Fest near you very soon. However, this new go-round is much less of a sausage party than the surf music heyday of the 50's and 60's. Girls are taking the lead this time around, and adding new layers of longing and heartache to their sounds of endless summer.
With Best Coast being recently anointed as the spokesband for Converse, and their new album "Crazy For You" in heavy rotation at Urban Outfitters across the nation, they are becoming the face of this new beach bum bonanza. As evidence of their commercial and crossover appeal (for better or worse), here is Best Coast's collaboration with Kid Cudi (what?) and Rostam Batmanglij, in which they lounge about with giant papier-mâché heads:
Best Coast will be playing FYF Fest on Sept. 4th at Los Angeles State Historic Park. They recently played an amazingly sparse and intimate show with HEALTH on June 8th at the Echoplex. They played their new album almost in its entirety, along with older fan favorites. Here's the much-blogged video for "When I'm With You", in which Bethany cavorts on a beach with Ronald McDonald and, presumably, a giant bag of weed:
On the dreamier side of the surfer soundscape, former San Diegans Madeline
Follin and Brian Oblivion of Cults have only released a few songs, but what
delightful songs they are! While they haven't released an official video
yet, they recently played the Bootleg Theatre on July 22, and will also be
playing FYF Fest on Sept. 4th. Here is a bootleg clip from the Bootleg
show of perhaps their catchiest number "Go Outside".
Cults "Go Outside" live 7/22 Bootleg Theatre:
The latest Dum Dum Girls video for their catchy-as-herpes
song "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout" features an explosively technicolor
trip to the beach... in full Dum Dum drag. It reminds me very much
of a recent sunset walk along a path at Venice beach. The ocean was calm
and peaceful as seagulls picked at hidden treasures in the sand. Then, as
if they were the horsemen of the apocalypse, four goth-for-life kids walked
past me, blaring Siouxsie & The Banshees "Christine" from their
car stereo when they arrived at their vehicle. I relived that moment as I
watched this video and I dreamed of the second coming of the Go-Go's... an
edgier and cooler Go-Go's with more irony and fewer water-skiing stunts.
Here is the video for "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout":
Perhaps more Bangles than Go-Go's, LA band The Like have teamed up with DJ-cum-producer Mark Ronson for their new swingin' 60's-inspired album of pop
perfection "Release Me". The B&W clip for first single
"He's Not a Boy" is overflowing with mod madness and moped mystique.
It comes off like an out-take dance sequence from the 1965 Elvis spring
break classic "Girl Happy" with lead singer Elizabeth "Z"
Berg a perfect counterpoint to the King's bachelor-on-the-prowl.
Hopefully, the media attention on all of these modern-day
surfer girls will not become so grossly overblown and over-hyped as to incite
atrocities such as this little gem being committed upon the public again:
Do YOU know how to Jamaica Ska? Do you really want to? Ah, what the hell. Cha cha cha.
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