Top 3 Best California Girl Summer Rock Albums
Summer is here! And to celebrate, I had a musical marathon of my favorite California Girl Summer Rock Albums. Basically, this is what Katy Perry wishes she could sound like if she wasn’t so busy shooting firecrackers from her boobs. It’s Beach Boys-infused, California-Girl Pop-Rock at it’s finest, best enjoyed poolside in an 310 area code with pink ipod speakers and a chilled diet coke.
1. Best Coast - “Crazy For You”
Look at this freaking album cover! If this doesn’t spell the perfect California Girl Summer album, I don’t know what will. I saw Best Coast open for Weezer in November 2010 during their Memories Tour, which mostly just made you wish that Weezer still sounded like they did in 1997. Thanks for charging me $50 for that realization, Rivers. Needless to say, Best Coast was reminiscent of another girl pop band that used to open for Weezer during their songwriting heyday and who’s also featured on this list - That Dog. And for as big of a That Dog fan as I am, I wasn’t filled with the sappy 90’s nostalgia of wishing That Dog was playing instead of Best Coast. It’s 2011. Weezer has been selling out and producing craptastic music for over a decade. Best Coast, however, is seriously worth your while. The lead singer, Bethany Cosentino, is also the best thing that happened to twitter since Charlie Sheen.
Best Songs for the Summer: “Boyfriend”, “Summer Mood”, “When I’m With You”
2. The Breeders - “Last Splash”
The Breeders don’t hail from Los Angeles like the other two bands on this list. Instead, they hail from the mystical land of Kim Deal’s Pixies’ side-project turned full-time gig, completed with the addition of Deal’s twin sister Kelley. The Breeders basically invented surf rock for the girl masses, laying the foundation for a plethora of other bands to follow with “Last Splash” being their signature opus. Their debut album “Pod” is also a great listen. It includes a cover of “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” which has the distinction of being the only Beatles cover I prefer to the original. The band was derailed in 1995 because of the Deal Twins’ heroin addiction to which I can only say “How freaking 90’s of them?”. Since then, they’ve sobered up, and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them live in September 2009 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles when they opened for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but honestly, it was a decade too late. If you have no clue what the 90’s were like, watch the music video links below. Their horrifically 90’s, yet brilliantly Spike Jonze all at the same time. “Summer is ready when you are.”
Best Songs for the Summer: “Cannonball”, “Invisible Man”, “Divine Hammer”
3. That Dog - “Retreat From The Sun”
That Dog is seriously one of the most under-rated and over-looked girl pop acts that nobody has ever heard of. The lead singer, Anna Waronker, is mostly remembered for writing the music for the 2001 “Josie and the Pussycats” movie… which pretty much means that nobody except for me remembers her musical contributions. Rachel Haden will ring a bell to most old-school Weezer fans for snatching the lead vocals away from Rivers’s bare hands on the Weezer track “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams”. If you haven’t heard that song, download it immediately. “Retreat From the Sun” is girl pop perfection. It’s basically the girl version of “Pinkerton” or “The Blue Album” without Rivers Cuomo’s underage Japanese-girl obsession. That being said, That Dog polished up the pop from what the Breeders were doing, and then Best Coast garaged it back up again. Thus is the circle of life. Woah, I’m a cheeseball.
Best Songs for the Summer: “Minneapolis”, “Retreat From The Sun”, “Long Island”
