Best Coast unwraps a tasty sound

July 23, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Before Warren Zevon died in 2003, he famously told David Letterman a year prior “Enjoy every sandwich.”

It’s these words of wisdom that Bobb Bruno, one half of Best Coast, has taken to heart whenever the indie-pop rock act tours. In fact, there’s a certain fast-food restaurant chain, which he can only find traveling through the Midwest, that he must visit wherever and whenever possible.

“I usually go there right after soundcheck,” said Bruno, calling from Boston. “That’s been the ritual. I’ve done it at least four times on this tour, so it’s a good pattern. I buy one sandwich for before the show and one for afterwards.”

The sandwich discussion turns rather unique when he’s asked to describe each of Best Coast’s albums, 2010’s “Crazy for You” and the brand-new “The Only Place” as a type of, well, yeah, sandwich.

“Definitely ‘Crazy for You’ would be like smaller sandwich, like a BLT,” Bruno laughed. “And ‘Only Place’ is like the gargantuan, with a lot more stuff, a lot fuller sandwich.”

Basically adding condiments, er, elements to the band’s sophomore effort was the simple driving force behind Best Coast’s latest album. Multi-instrumentalist Bruno and band visionary Bethany Cosentino (vocals, guitar) sought the guidance of respected indie producer Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Spoon, Of Montreal) to see the project come to fruition.

Bruno said the notion was in response to “Crazy for You,” which was viewed as a dirty, lo-fi sounding album that captured the attention of critics and fans alike.

“We really didn‘t talk about it too much, we knew what we wanted, which was a bigger, cleaner-sounding record,” Bruno said. “We always do what we want, and we don’t care what anybody else says. It’s just bands change. Why do you want to make a record that sounds exactly like your last one? We were recording in Capitol Studios, one of the most legendary studios, so it would be stupid to not take full advantage of that and use everything that’s available to you there.”

The result is “Only Place,” with sounds ranging from the ballad “No One Like You” to the upbeat “Why I Cry.” Though Bruno admits he was channeling the guitar sound of ‘90s punk band X, inspiration-wise the group surprisingly tapped The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. In fact, the duo is playing the latter band’s tune “Storms” on tour. Best Coast comes to Northeast Ohio on Tuesday at The Beachland Ballroom.

If the classic rock band influence seems a bit odd, just hang on. Best Coast in many ways is indicative of the iPod playlist nation we call home nowadays, seamlessly breaking down genre walls one fan at a time. Name another group that would be invited to open for Metallica, which it did a few weeks ago at the metal band’s Orion Music + More Festival, as well as tour as a supporting act for The Decemberists. So with that in mind, what exactly do Best Coast fans look like?

“It’s a lot of young teenage girls,” Bruno said. “Then we get older couples, parents who take their kids and indie rock kids. It’s pretty diverse. But the front is all young teenagers who are really into Bethany and know all of the words to our songs.”

Hmm, it almost sounds like he just described a Taylor Swift concert.

“Oh, we love Taylor Swift,” Bruno said. “We never have tried to be just a band for one type of people. We are not like that. We’re just putting their music out there and are happy to have whoever is into us.”