Hear now: Best Coast releases new 'I Don't Know How,' teases EP

Hear now: Best Coast releases new ‘I Don’t Know How,’ teases EP

By Randall Roberts

Sept. 17, 2013 11:22 AM PT

Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Here’s a bouncy way to start a Tuesday: Los Angeles duo Best Coast have released a new song, “I Don’t Know How,” have announced the impending release of a new EP, “Fade Away,” and have confirmed that they’ll begin recording a new album in the fall.

“I Don’t Know How” begins as a slow waltz, one that highlights singer Bethany Cosentino’s increasingly confident voice and her ability to tap into girl-group suggestive melodies without being derivative. Almost exactly halfway through, though, as the singer expresses increasing bafflement at her inability to express her feelings, the song fades, then jumps into double-timed rhythm and punk-fueled aggression.

“I’ve seen a million things / I’ve been around town,” sings Cosentino while multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno backs her. “But what I know now since you’ve been around?” The song climaxes when Best Coast moves to a head-walluping hook, and her confusion turns to anger. The object of her affection, it turns out, spies her all over the place, and ... nothing. “You see me everywhere, you walk around without a care,” she sings, fuming and frustrated while electric guitars strum and a snare drum double snaps insistently.

Best Coast’s “Fade Away” EP arrives on Oct. 22, and will be the first release on Cosentino’s new label, Jewel City. The track listing is below.

1. “This Lonely Morning”
2. “I Wanna Know”
3. “Who Have I Become”
4. “Fear of My Identity”
5. “Fade Away”
6. “Baby I’m Crying”
7. “I Don’t Know How”

When announcing the pending release of “Fade Away,” Cosentino and Bruno also confirmed that they’ll begin work on the follow-up to their acclaimed 2012 album “Crazy for You.” Production begins in November, with the goal of releasing the full length in spring 2014. (Just in time for Coachella?)