Uncanny

EXPRESS NIGHT OUT

THE INDEPENDENT "But perhaps the greatest lost LP of all also became the most successful when it was finally released. Brian Wilson had a breakdown while writing and recording Smile, the follow-up to The Beach Boys' masterpiece, Pet Sounds, in 1967. Smile, his "teenage symphony to God" (which included "Good Vibrations"), was eventually completed with the help of Wilson's new backing band, The Wondermints, in 2004, and rapturously received. McCartney must have been listening; in 1967, Wilson's sceptical bandmates told him it was risky to tinker with their hit-making formula. Smile, they told him, sounded "too adventurous". And what did they know?"

Red Barn Recording Studio, Big Sur

PITCHFORK "Robin Pecknold: Also, we went to Al Jardine's house in Big Sur.

Josh Tillman: Oh Jesus. That was immediate gratification.

RP: He had Brian Wilson's white piano. He had Beach Boys road cases from a 1970s tour with the Brother Records logo on them, the Indian on the cover of Surf's Up. He was amazing. A really sweet guy.

JT: We got to hear a tune that he recorded with Neil Young, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills that no one's ever heard before. It was incredible. Being able to bear witness to something that exclusive and that mind-blowing, you're an asshole if you don't realize in that moment that this is fucking amazing."

I don't know if Fleet Foxes actually visited the fabled Red Barn, but, if they didn't, they probably did get pretty close. Here's some information about the Red Barn:

"Red Barn Recording Studio is an exquisite recording environment located in a very quiet and isolated canyon in Big Sur, California. Red Barn is one of the best kept secrets in the recording industry and has been held as a private recording studio by Al Jardine of the Beach Boys, until now. Red Barn Recording Studio was originally built by Al Jardine so that the Beach Boys could have an isolated and creative space to hang out and create music. In a labor of love Jardine dismantled an existing barn from one of the original Big Sur homestead families, the Pfeiffers, and then built the studio with an eye for comfort. Re-using the original barn lumber, Jardine re-created the rustic, original look that you see today. Al Jardine has owned the ranch where this studio is located for 25 years and Red Barn Recording Studio was completed in 1989."

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

JEFF'S FANCY BLOG

VILLAGE VOICE

CHICAGO TRIBUNE "I think he picked me because I play all the instruments, and I’m quick. So I was just bouncing it off between the little trigger drum thing I have and throwing a bass on, and he’d put down a piano pass and put down a vocal. He’s got the patience of a five-year-old, so not only was I playing everything, I was engineering at such a furious pace, and it’s amazing that a lot of the vocals that made it to the record are from those demos in my bedroom, just because he was in this really pure zone, and I just thought it’s tricky to recapture that."

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE "Brian Wilson reclaimed his legacy and pushed it forward Thursday night at the Morris Performing Arts Center with a glorious performance by him and his band."

CITY PAGES Gimme Noise: After finally completing SMiLE, were you intimidated to begin work on another concept album?
Brian Wilson: No, actually, I got right into it.
GN: What inspired the concept for the album?
BW: I just love that song “Lucky Old Sun.”
GN: Who’s the original composer?
BW: I don’t know. I bought the Louis Armstrong version, learned it, changed the chords around and tossed it to my band.
GN: Did that single inspire the entire album?
BW: No. I wrote the songs separately.
GN: Your music has remained so bright and positive despite having survived such hardship in your life. How do you maintain such musical positivity?
BW: I just sit down and write the songs.
GN: Is there a space for the darker parts of you in your music?
BW: Not really, no. I like to look for the sunny parts.
GN: You mention that you don’t like to listen much to music being made today.
BW: That’s true.
GN: Is it because you don’t like it?
BW: I don’t like it. I don’t like the music being made these days.
GN: What don’t you like about it?
BW: I don’t know. I just don’t like it.
GN: How has pop music changed since your youth?
BW: It’s taken a decline.
GN: You’ve had so much influence on pop musicians in every genre. Who are you proudest to have influenced?
BW: The Beatles.
GN: After so much celebration of your career and so much critical analysis devoted to your music, is it ever difficult to live up to your own praise when you start to write new songs?
BW: No. I just write from my heart. I don’t try to outdo myself. I just write from my heart.
GN: Your music is so complex. And yet your process, as evidenced in this interview, seems so simple. But when you create these challenging harmonies and time signatures, are you trying to challenge the ear?
BW: No. It just comes naturally. When it comes naturally, it happens.
GN: Does it come to you in dreams?
BW: No (laughs).
GN: What do you dream about?
BW: My friends.

THE ANN ARBOR NEWS "Lost innocence, lost love and lost family - [Brian] Wilson is the sole remaining of the three brothers who founded the Beach Boys in the early 1960s. Yet on Wednesday, all that bittersweet emotion was leavened by Wilson and his 10-piece live band, which provided the stacked harmonies, impeccable accompaniment and just the right amount of reverence to keep things lively."

UNCUT “[Al Jardine] played us a couple of songs off a record he’d recently made, he had a duet between him and Neil Young recorded last summer that no-one had heard. It was going to be on his next record. He had a lot of good advice. Carl and Dennis are passed, and if I were to meet Brian I don’t know how substantive the discussion would be, but Al told us how they did this thing, that we should hold on to our publishing. That was a definite glowing moment.”

GUY WEBSTER took some of the most iconic photographs of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Several of these images can be viewed at Webster's web site.

POTTSTOWN MERCURY Brian Wilson says, “I’m real proud to be on Capitol Records again. They had the Beatles, you know.” Uh, and a little band called the Beach Boys, too.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "Releasing new music can be scary, Wilson says, but at 66, he's making his latest grab at pop glory: ''That Lucky Old Sun,'' his fifth album of new solo material, is an unabashed celebration of Southern California life, its warm songs citing familiar L.A. locales and interspersed with narrative bits in which Wilson speaks as the sun."