Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 06/14/2012 at 1:12 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: best coast, music videos, the only place

Best Coast’s “The Only Place” is a song-length advertisement for California, so it makes perfect sense that the video’s the same way–so much sense, in fact, that nothing else would make sense. Could you see a plain performance video for this? Something abstract and arty? No. It must be California pride, every detail of it. For instance, everything has been shot and edited to look as sun-dappled as possible.

Photo: courtesy of Wichita Recordings via YouTube

It helps to have beach access.

They have fun. Some of the fun is solo: smashing watermelons and tourist souvenirs, doing that photo-perspective trick where it looks like you’re cupping your friend, who’s in the distance, with your hand. Some of it involves a crowd.

Photo: courtesy of Wichita Recordings via YouTube

With instruments; this is still a music video.

Because it’s a Best Coast promo video, a couple copies of their album show up. And because it’s a California video, not just a generic outdoors video, we’ve got Best Coast driving around with a California flag, showing off postcards illustrating the lyrics’ ocean, babes (“babes,” in this case, is gender-neutral), sun and waves, and we’ve got multiple instances of “Best Coast Was Here.”

Photo: courtesy of Wichita Recordings via YouTube

It's not vandalism if it's mustard.

The whole thing ends up seeming weirdly like California vacation footage, rather than something about actually living there, but those lines tend to blur fairly easily anyway. Watch the video below.