Al Jardine has announced on his website that he will be releasing his first solo studio album, Postcards From California. A release date has not been confirmed, but you can sign up for an e-mail list to get further information. Al is the only one of the “classic” Beach Boys line-up to have not released a solo studio album, although his live band did release Live In Las Vegas (pictured above).
Bobby Pickett, the singer of the massive novelty hit, Monster Mash, has passed away. The Beach Boys covered this song on their 1964 live Concert, and it was no small inspiration for Brian’s manic My Solution from the early 1970s (still unreleased, although parts were incorporated into Happy Days from Imagination.)
Via the Pet Sounds and Nearest Faraway Place mailing lists, notice of this story as the Phil Spector trial starts. And another link to my thoughts on Brian and Phil from last September.
I have been informed about a very interesting project aiming to represent Brian’s music in words and in visual art. There is already a book out -Brian Wilson: An Art Book, and there will be two art exhibitions, the first being at Tate St. Ives in Cornwall, England this summer. More info at http://www.fourcornersbooks.co.uk/Brian%20Wilson.html.
Just a few quick notes for the weekend
* We’ll be having another first Sunday of the month chat in our chatroom on 6 May -details on the front chat page at http://www.surfermoon.com/chat/. Please join us!
* Brian has added four West Coast shows in June -remember he is already doing 2 in New Jersey in May. One will feature Al as special guest. Details at http://brianwilson.com/tour/index.html
* Taylor Mills is releasing her solo album on 22 May. Details at http://www.myspace.com/taylormills1.
“Brian’s Hidden Beauties” will always tend towards the slower, introspective songs but, as Brian often says in his shows, there is a time to rock out a bit. And here’s an interesting one, from an interesting period, Funky Pretty from the Holland album. The song demonstrates that Brian has the ability to write a totally compulsive song that gets the feet tapping and the hips shaking. Many of Brian’s songs impact on the heart and emotions, but one of his special abilities is also to write that great pop tune that just wants to make you boogie.
Credit here also needs to go to the Beach Boys, in an era where Brian was contributing little to the group, in making this a great little production. Carl, Al, Mike and Blondie Chaplin all contribute great vocals, and there is an interesting production with effective synthesizer use.
If the Beach Boys haven’t been active as a band in recent years, they have certainly been active as a legal entity in the courtrooms. Recent news of another case that the Beach Boys corporation lost can be found here at Yahoo news.
Break Away is probably on the margins on what I would include in the “Hidden Beauties” section – it was a biggish UK hit (#6) and often features on the second tier compilations like the upcoming Warmth Of The Sun, but it bombed in the USA and isn’t exactly in the top list of songs that the public would associate with the Beach Boys. And I want to talk about the song, and that is really reason enough….
It’s a bizarre song in a way, as it is co-credited to Murray Wilson (under the name Reggie Dunbar), Brian’s dad who was still involved despite all the water under the bridge during the Beach Boys year of success. It is ostensibly a song celebrating a life of joy after someone realised they had the power within to break out of a life of loneliness. But when the song talks about “voices in my head”, there seems a chilling closeness to the mental problems that Brian had.
Musically, it is stunning, with verses that build-up, a catchy chorus and then that harmonic surge at the end. There seems to be so much going on, yet all of it is achieved in less than 3 minutes. It is also an incredibly complicated song, and it was a joy to hear that Brian and his band were attempting in concert. And it was an even greater joy when he pulled it off at the Adelphi show that I saw in London last November. It was actually one of two moments I was almost in tears (the other was Caroline No).
Swan Dive are a Nashville based group who play classic pop music and have been very successful in Japan and Korea, despite little recognition at home. They have released five full albums, two mini-albums plus other bits and pieces and there is a high quality that pervades all their work. My favorite album amongst all their releases is Circle, released in 1998, and featuring a wide variety of styles from the jazzy Moodswinging to the slow, folky Luckiest Girl In The World.
For my money, there are three moments of pop splendor here that make the album so great. The title track is an upbeat love song, with a wonder electric sitar break in the middle that just wants to make you…groove! Rome With Fall evokes both the best of Prefab Sprout as well as Bacharach, but stands on its own as an original song of high quality. And finally, the elegiac Goodbye September, a sad song of things lost, but with a powerful sense of positive change.
If that is all not enough, the album also has some wonderful artwork, some of it shown above. This is a circle that should be part of your live. Swan Dive’s music isn’t always the easiest to get, especially if you don’t live in Japan or Korea, but much of it is now on eMusic, and you can get this album here.
Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of the 67-71 music of the Beach Boys, the “transcendental era“, and no album is more representative of the celebration of beauty in nature and simple things than Friends. Wake The World is a short, simple song reflecting on the passing of day and night, but the joyous harmonies reflect a sense of spirituality in the simple natural cycles of day and night.
At only 94 seconds, the song is over before many current songs have even finished their intro. But in a way, Brian and the Beach Boys have packed a whole day into a song as the music moves from introspection to harmonic joy and back to introspection….