Why would you live anywhere else?

I'm loving the new Best Coast single. It sounds a lot cleaner that the previous album, but who cares because it's so damn catchy. This is a song that should blasted in the car, windows and top down, as you drive along Highway 1 on a bright, sunny day.

The Only Place is the title track from the upcoming album (out May 15) and is Bethany Cosentino's love letter to California and really, why would you live anywhere else?

Best Coast - The Only Place

West Coast Offense

25 songs about California. A couple of them may be tenuous, but they all work in my mind. The title is a nod to the great San Francisco 49ers teams of the 1980s. My buddy Dave had season tickets and I went along to a shitload of games with him. We even got to go to the Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins. Pretty cool stuff.

You can listen here through the 8tracks media player, just click the giant play button down there. Click on to check the tracklist, or stay right here and let it come to you, one by one.

Get yourself a new tattoo

I had forgotten how much I liked Cracker's Big Dipper. I have no idea why it popped into my head tonight, I don't think I've listened to it since before GWB took office. I love the imagery and the feelings of longing the song conjures. It's weird, it's sort of lazy, romantic and yet intense at the same time. The Big Dipper (the actual name is the Giant Dipper) is a roller coaster on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. He mentions being able to see Monterey, and possibly San Jose, from the top of the roller coaster. This definitely fits into my informal "Songs About California" series. I love this line:

And, hey, June, why'd you have to come
Why'd you have to come around so soon?
I wasn't ready for all this nature
The terrible green, green grass
And violent blooms of flowered dresses
And afternoons that make me sleepy

It reminds of a summer with no plans; when the world was wide open and you could point yourself in any direction and it would be the right way to go.

Cracker > Big Dipper

California Love #10: Public Enemy > Burn Hollywood Burn

Time for another song about California. This time, it's Public Enemy taking on the Hollywood machine, with a little help from Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane. Chuck D isn't exactly the smoothest rapper, but man, that dude has got fire and conviction in his voice. Listening to him on this track makes me wanna grab a torch, some gasoline, a few molotov cocktails and head on south. BURN, HOLLYWOOD, BURN!

My favorite part is Flavor Flav's reaction when asked to play the part of a "servant who chuckles a little bit and sings". Yo man, WHAT?? What if someone really did burn it down? Would it start up again as it was before, or would a new power rise? Would there be more movies featuring heroes of color? I think it's getting better, albeit very slowly. I guess there's always the chance for an earthquake, as well. This song paired up with the floods from Tool's Aenima (which I've written about previously), would make for a pretty fucked up disaster.

In any case, you can find this song on PE's most excellent album, Fear of a Black Planet. If you haven't heard it, do yourself a favor. Buy it, borrow it, download it. Something. Srsly.

Public Enemy > Burn Hollywood Burn

California Love #9: Tool > Aenima

I'm off to Los Angeles this weekend, heading down with a friend to go check out the new Largo location. Jon Brion is playing, it should be pretty cool.

In any case, the LA trip brings me to another song about California, Tool's Aenima. From what I know, this song is based on part of a Bill Hicks routine about how he hates Los Angeles. Part of the song refers to Arizona Bay, which is what might be left if California fell into the ocean. Arizona Bay is also the title of an album by Bill Hicks.

The singer calls LA a "great big neon distraction" and warns listeners that they'd best "learn to swim", as he is hoping for the big one to hit. My favorite part is his rant about the Los Angeles inhabitants.

Fuck L Ron Hubbard and Fuck all his clones. Fuck all those gun-toting Hip gangster wannabes. Learn to swim. Fuck retro anything. Fuck your tattoos. Fuck all you junkies and Fuck your short memory. Learn to swim. Fuck smiley glad-hands With hidden agendas. Fuck these dysfunctional, Insecure actresses. Learn to swim. Cuz I'm praying for rain and I'm praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down.

I don't know. I joke about hating LA quite a bit, but I really don't care in all honesty. I wouldn't want to see it obliterated like in the song, LA has its charms, and I suspect that Tool might be being a bit cheeky since they are still based there. It's still a great song, though, so check it out if you're unfamiliar with it.

Tool > Aenima

California Love #8: The Ramones > California Sun

It's been a while since I rocked a California song, so here I am. Originally performed in 1961 by a dude called Joe Jones, California Sun hit the charts a few years later when a band called The Rivieras covered it. I discovered it by way of the Ramones.

Way back when, I was friends with this guy who was into the Ramones. A bunch of us used to hang out after school and watch Rock n' Roll High School, which is still one of my favorite movies, and that was how I came to know this song. The weather has been really warm this week, and I overheard somebody say something about the "California sun" while going to get my lunch today. Voila.

The Ramones > California Sun

California Love #7: R.E.M. > I Remember California

Once again, it's time for my ongoing saga featuring songs about California. In a nod to R.E.M. releasing a new album, Accelerate, next month (on April 1st, no less), we're going to listen to the track, I Remember California.

So this song is apparently being sung after a major earthquake devastates the west coast and California falls into the ocean. The music is sort of plodding and ominous as Michael Stipe reels off a list of characteristics that are supposed to be unique to (or simply define) California. Some of them are stereotypes (traffic jams, girls with tans) and others aren't (lemons, limes and tangerines; isn't that a Florida stereotype?). But hey, it's all in good fun until somebody's state crumbles and dissolves in the Pacific. I like the end when he keeps repeating "at the edge of a continent" and the song fades out, it sounds pretty cool.

If you are interested, you can find this on the Green album. This was their first album for Warner, and the one that turned them into the arena band they are now, but don't let that fool you because it's actually a pretty good album. We could probably go back and forth debating the Warner stuff vs. the IRS stuff, but some other time, perhaps.

R.E.M. > I Remember California

California Love #6: American Music Club > California Dreamin'

It's been a while, so time for another California type song. I like American Music Club; Mark Eitzel's lyrics are filled with self-loathing and he always makes everything sound so maudlin and melancholy. He also has a sarcastic sense of humor, which comes out when he plays live. So yeah, this cover is a good fit. It's a fine rendition, no surprises and pretty straight ahead. It's an unlisted track, I believe, on their San Francisco album.

American Music Club > California Dreamin'

California Love #5: Death Cab For Cutie > Why You'd Want To Live Here

For the second time in about a month, I went to Los Angeles. I had a good time (we got to check out a Dodgers game!), it was a little get-together for a friend who's being married off (hopefully for a sizable dowry) in a couple months. Anyways, LA, man. It's cool to visit and hang out for a while, but I don't think I can handle more than a week of it at once.

Death Cab For Cutie > Why You'd Want To Live Here

California Love #4: The Decemberists > Los Angeles, I'm Yours

Hey hey, kids! I'm off to beautiful LA this weekend. I leave you with this gem, It's an ode to the City of Angels, which pretty much speaks for itself. See you later...

There is a city by the sea
A gentle company
I don't suppose you want to?

And as it tells its sorry tale
In harrowing detail
Its hollowness will haunt you

Its streets and boulevards,
Orphans, and oligarchs
And here's a plaintive melody
A truncated symphony
An ocean's garbled vomit on the shore:
Los Angeles, I'm yours

O ladies, pleasant and demure
Sallow cheek'd and sure
(I can see your undies)
And all the boys you drag about
An empty, fallow fount
From Saturdays to Mondays

You hill and valley crowd
Hanging your trousers down at heel
This is the realest thing
As anchient choirs sing
A dozen blushing cherubs wheel above
Los Angeles, my love

O, what a rush of ripe elan!
Languor on divans
Dalliance and dainty!

But the smell of burnt cocaine,
The dolour and decay
It only makes me cranky

O, great calamity
Dish of inequity and tears
How I abhor this place!
Its sweet and bitter taste
Has left me wretched, retching on all fours

Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours

The Decemberists > Los Angeles, I'm Yours

California Love #3: 2pac featuring Dr. Dre > California Love

There really wasn't any stopping this one from coming up, it probably should have been the first post of this series. I guess California Love was part of the whole West Coast/East Coast rivalry thing, maybe even a response to another song. Someone please feel free to step in. Also, that cover is really bad. They really could have done better. In any case, I like the whole roll call thing, naming off some of the cities in California, and the beat is fucking great. It's just an excellent song.

Whenever I think of Tupac, the Chris Rock's dialogue on rap music inevitably pops into my head, always makes me laugh. Check it out...



So yeah, I like this track, it's rockin'.

2pac featuring Dr. Dre > California Love

California Love #2: Billy Bragg & Wilco > California Stars

California Stars comes to us from Billy Bragg & Wilco, by way of Woody Guthrie. The story goes like this; Woody had left behind something like a thousand songs, just lyrics without music. His daughter had approached Billy Bragg and asked him to pick out some of the songs and set them to music. Bragg then asked Wilco to join him. The resulting album was the excellent Mermaid Avenue, which is named after one of Woody's songs and also the name of the street in Coney Island, where Guthrie had lived.

The song, to me, is just about the peacefulness of being outside. Maybe he's hiking across the state and sleeping outdoors at night, dreaming of someone he loves, wishing she were there. It just feels like a really nice sentiment, to me, especially the line:

So, I'd give this world
Just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California Stars

Pick up the album if you're even half interested, it's very much worth it.

Billy Bragg & Wilco > California Stars

California Love #1: Neko Case > In California

I've been toying with the idea of posting a series of songs that are specifically about San Francisco or even songs that just briefly mention San Francisco. Mostly because I this is my home and I think it might be fun to dig out tracks like that. I think, however, that I will expand it slightly and go for mentions of either San Francisco or California. One of the best compliments I've ever received was from a girl, Stephanie, with whom I had a major falling out. It was a very ugly and very public shouting match at the courthouse downtown, of all places (don't ask). That was in the mid-nineties, and I haven't seen or spoken to her since. In any case, the compliment she paid me was obviously before our little brouhaha. I don't really remember the context in which she said it, but it was pleasant (I do remember that much!) and she said, "You're a real Californian." She was (is) from Sweden, so it gave me an odd sense of pride, although I think she was mostly commenting on the laid back nature of my personality. Which is fine, I suppose, and here we are.

So, I think I'll start with Neko Case's In California, which was originally written by Lisa Marr of The Lisa Marr Experiment. I'm gonna roll with Neko's version, as that's the one with which I was first acquainted and with which am more familiar. This particular version is from Neko's Live from Austin, TX album, which was recorded for Austin City Limits in 2003 but released early this year. It also appears on her Canadian Amp EP, from way back in 2001.

I like the slow pace and the feeling of heartache that her voice conveys. It's bittersweet story of leaving home and trying to make it big in LA, with lines like now I'm livin' in Korea town/waking to the sound of car alarms; and in the land where the sun's always shinin'/I'm cryin alone/palm trees are laughin' at me.

I think my favorite line has to be another fool playin' songs that don't matter/to people who chatter/endlessly. You can almost feel the frustration dripping onto the words as she sings them. The song ends on a sorta hopeful note, they tell me LA is beautiful/when it rains, but I'm not sure if the rain is supposed to be her tears or not. Either way, I guess.....

Neko Case > In California