Pop & Hiss premiere: Yacht's 'Shangri-La' video
Our fair town has been compared to plenty of less-than-complimentary things in pop songs, from a cake left out in the rain to a fantasy world of celluoid heroes and villains. But someone calling it an undisputed heaven on Earth might be a new one, and for that we'd like to thank the transplanted post-punk duo Yacht for the compliment.
The duo of Jona Bechtolt (a Portland, Ore., transplant) and Claire L. Evans (a veteran of L.A. noise punks Weirdo/Begeirdo) has a new video for its sylvan single "Shangri-La," the title track of Yacht's most recent album on DFA Records. Maybe their set at the Hollywood Bowl a while back gave them new inspiration to explain to skeptics why they'd want to live here. The tune's surprisingly Beatles-y chorus of "If I can't go to heaven, let me go to L.A." gets a tableau of soft-focus, SoCal-utopian imagery (backyard oranges, Elysian Park tai-chi, beach party fireworks).
The fact that we can watch this in February and think, "Oh yeah, I really should hit the beach this weekend," is reason enough that Yacht's assessment of L.A. isn't too far off the mark.
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-- August Brown
Photo: Alin Dragulin / Girlie Action
