May 29
Best Coast w/ JEFF the Brotherhood
The Slowdown, 729 North 14th St.
9 p.m., $15 in advance/$17 day-of-show, onepercentproductions.com
Best Coast’s debut Crazy For You gained a heap of buzz on the simple, fuzzy, buzzy pop songs that bore Bethany Cosentino’s plainspoken lyrics about love, heartbreak and wishing you could confide in your kitty. The challenge then became how to do follow-up an album built on such a basic foundation that had already been deemed an classic by Best Coast’s fans. So Cosentino and co-hort Bobb Bruno turned to reknowned producer Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann) to help evolve their fuzzy, hooky indie-pop. The result is Best Coast’s sophomore album, The Only Place, which came out earlier this May. Brion’s sophisticated pop sheen serves a maturing batch of songs well, as Cosentino relies less on heartache and more on capturing her feelings on various experiences at this point in her life. It’s a whip smart step from the guyville that inhabited the band’s first album.