Uncanny

http://uncanny1.blogspot.com/2005/10/unreleased-mike-love-album-should-stay.html

WNDU Beach Boys Play South Bend.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE How did you hook up with a living legend like Van Dyke Parks?

"I knew and loved Song Cycle, but I didn’t understand what a big deal it was to approach him to do this. He had the grace to not unburden me of that ignorance. When I met with him, I thought I was hallucinating. I felt like I was in a Lewis Carroll book or something. The business card he gives you is a truly classic piece of Van Dyke methodology. It’s in beautiful Edwardian script and reads something like, 'Van Dyke Parks sincerely apologizes for any offense he might have caused on the date of …' I played the five songs that would end up on the record for him and his wife. When I was done, he said, 'Okay, that sounds great. I’ll do it.'"

Was there champagne?

"No, but when we did start working, there were Bloody Marys aplenty. He’s a southern gentleman, so he managed to offer me a Bloody Mary whenever we had a break. It was really a joy. It will be among the things that I will tell my kids about when I have them. I think he’s a national treasure. He represents everything that is rad about being American."

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE Regarding his long talked-about solo album, Mike Love says:

"I've got 14 songs. Since I spoke to you, I've done a couple more songs. I hope it'll come out in the spring."

At the moment, Love says, he has an independent distribution deal available to him and he hopes to "be able to work something out through them."

He also needs to settle on a title. Two other contenders [besides "Mike Love, Not War"] are "Only One Earth" and "Unleash the Love," both titles of songs on the album.

"('Only One Earth') has to do with appreciating the world and not destroying it," he says. " 'Unleash the Love' has to do with appreciating the differences among people and not killing each other. What a concept, huh?"

More of Mike's Thoughts:

"We learned a long time ago to take it easy and to do as good a job as we can for people who came to listen to the music and for people who came to socialize. We've done every conceivable kind of venue, from Washington, D.C., on the mall to clubs, so we learned a long time ago not to get upset about that unless somebody's being rude."

"The theaters and performing arts centers are great because they're designed for musical performances. We can do a two-hour show with all different types of music, from a cappella to our up-tempo stuff and everything in between. We get to stretch a little more artistically than we can in an amphitheater or fairgrounds or baseball stadium. If you do 'In My Room' in a baseball stadium, the subtlety of it is lost."

"I'm able to sing in the same range, and being the lead singer on the original recordings, it sounds pretty similar. What I do to take care of my voice is to not destroy it with smoking and drinking. If I have a late night, it's probably with the channel changer."

"Using the voice actually helps keep it strong. If I don't sing for a month or two and then we go out on tour, the first night is OK, I can get through it, but if we have two shows, halfway through the second show my voice starts to go out. I've found that the amount of singing we do helps."

"There's a reason things are unreleased, because you felt what you came up with was better than what was in vault, so all this scavenging to me is a little bit desperate, desperation from a record company. Once in a while, you find something that could be redone, worked up a little."

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "No one combines smartly deconstructed lyrical grace, heavenly harmonies and caramel-coated choruses like [Scritti Politti's Green]Gartside. No one fuses such wordy romanticism with a blend of soul, reggae, and California pop and angular punk, either."

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GUARDIAN UK "It was a moment of musical history. I removed a Korg M1 synthesizer from its flight case - that's not the moment I'm referring to, obviously - while, 10 feet away, former Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine brushed up their vocal harmonies for that night's concert to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of Pet Sounds. I tried to stay calm and composed, but couldn't help indulging in some unsubtle, open-mouthed rubbernecking.

'I once had a dream that I packed up and split for the city," sang Al. 'Is that right?' he asked Brian, his brow furrowed slightly.

'Yeah!' came the reply. Green Gartside, my bandmate in Scritti Politti - the lucky support act for the night - looked over at me, and mouthed: 'This is unbelievable.'"

Also see LA CITY BEAT for more on Brian's tour with Al.

PASTE MAGAZINE, PITCHFORK

Link: http://www.smileysmile.net/index.php/SMiLE/smile_an_american_cantata_by_peter_reum

SMILEYSMILE DOT NET

VILLAGE VOICE "So here's the story behind the record: Somewhere around '04 Joanna broke up with her boyfriend of six years, a good man and talented producer named Noah G. who's currently working with Banhart and the rest of the freak squad. She'd lived with Noah for five of those six years, had moved from Nevada City to San Francisco with him, had basically learned much of what she knows about playing music for a living from him. And the relationship eventually buckled under what I assume to be the pressures of her emerging career, although I really don't know, and don't feel like asking, and what I've just told you is pretty much all I feel like knowing or relating on the subject."

"Same goes for her other personal travails from '03 to '05, wherein that dark cloud descended over her family and friends. It was not easy. But somewhere in there she met the Smog guy, Callahan, and they're in love now. Also somewhere in there she heard Van Dyke Parks's Song Cycle, and she got tired of the freak-whatever scene and tried to distance herself from it (no hard feelings). And when it all quieted down she decided it was time to start dealing with that intersection of her Real Life and Public Life, which meant sitting down to write songs about those lovers and these friends and that family and this world her head is all but sewn to: Nevada City, a place that truly does operate at about .03 mph, a place where she says most of her friends don't really register what she does for a living. And these songs she was writing, well, she knew they'd have to be long."