Checking In

Soundcheck: Weezer, Matt Costa, James Fletcher

By Arrissia Owen Turner | Riviera magazine | October 4, 2010

Matt Costa ready to ride

BOY OF SUMMER Matt Costa recorded Mobile Chateau in O.C. | Photo of Matt Costa by Neal Casal.

> > When Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and San Juan Capistrano’s Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) met backstage at Lopez Tonight, it was perfectly random. The intro came after their gig at the U.S. Open of Surfing, just in time for the launch of Hurley’s limited-edition fall collab with Weezer, and after the new CD Hurley (partially recorded at Hurley’s Costa Mesa HQ) hit the streets. Cuomo’s claiming serendipity, but come on. A good marketing ploy isn’t, er, lost on us.
> > > Last time we saw Riviera’s favorite troubadour, Matt Costa, he was strumming on a street corner outside a Sea Shepherd fundraiser (the vegans with a vengeance from the TV show Whale Wars). He was playing sweetly psychedelic songs that didn’t ring a bell, which made us feel unhip around the tatted activist types. Turns out the songs were yet to be released, fresh from Costa’s brand-new album Mobile Chateau. It brings an au courant sound with a new backing band: Fullerton folksters Mothers Sons.

> > > Guess who that left with time on his hands? James Fletcher, Costa’s former drummer, known around O.C. as the sticks behind the Women, Smile, Satisfaction, mPhase and Zee Avi. Now we have the dashing The Booze and Clocks, the Brit expat’s first solo CD, extolling the virtues of one’s own volition.