CoCo B's

From Fullerton, CA, the Coco B's strike a balance between the aggressive tunefulness of '90s alternative rock bands like Guided by Voices and the Replacements and the noisy drift of Archers of Loaf and the shoegazer movement. The Coco B's were formed by vocalist and guitarist Kevin Castillo and drummer Bob Penn, who had gone to high school together and spent five years working in a band called Retriever. After Retriever petered out, Castillo and Penn took a year off during which they started writing fresh material, and in 2002 they began recording their new songs as the Coco B's. After recording an acoustic EP, the band recruited bassist Jeff Randall and lead guitarist Joe Rivera, two other longtime friends who had played with Retriever near the end of that band's run. The Coco B's began making the rounds of California rock clubs, a split album with Eskimohunter followed in 2003, and an EP of remixes by the British electronic act Half Tiger appeared after the two acts became friends through MySpace. The Coco B's released their self-titled debut album through K Double Records in the summer of 2007.