Uncanny

SCOTTYDUDE BLOG "I treated myself to a special event at UCLA last Wednesday. Brian Wilson, the legendary creative force behind the Beach Boys, celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the classic Pet Sounds album by performing the entire work live in concert. It was so much fun! The band were awesome. They sang great and almost everybody played a multitude of instruments during the show, including keyboards, guitar, banjo, percussion of all sorts, trumpet, horn, and saxophone, and so on. It was fantastic to hear such beautiful music performed by talented musicians in an elegant concert hall where hundreds of great artists have performed over the decades."

OBSERVER UK "The best records often arrive mystifying but complete, as though gestated under physical laws different from our own. Ys is one; initially alien-seeming, but the more ferociously excellent for it. Named for the mythical drowned city of the Bretons, Ys is a five-track song-poem strung around a harp, with orchestral arrangements dancing attendance. Joanna Newsom's classical playing borrows rhythms and tunings from African kora music, making hers a more individual sound still."

PASTE MAGAZINE "These forms are closer to what I was exploring in school, back when I thought I was going to be, like, a ‘composer.' In those times, I certainly thought there were particular music-making conventions and parameters which differed between ‘compositions’ and ‘songs.’ And when I was studying composition, formally, I really expanded my songs to Wt what I thought was a permissible shape and size. And when I decided to work more on ‘songs,’ I cut and cut and cut. People who have the earliest versions of some of the songs that later made it onto my first Drag City release can attest: they started out longer than they ended up."

THE TIME MACHINE RADIO BLOG

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "There simply aren't enough superlatives to describe Brian Wilson's performance Wednesday night at Royce Hall."

CALANDAR LIVE "As it turned out, there was more than enough love for the Beach Boys leader circulating through UCLA's Royce Hall on Wednesday as he and his endlessly resourceful band crafted a musicologically spot-on, emotionally resonant 40th anniversary performance of the quintessential California band's 1966 watershed album, "Pet Sounds." It's a work that still obviously touches him and fans deeply with its insistent yearning to find safe harbor for a gentle soul in a harsh world."

LA DAILY NEWS "Brian Wilson reunited with original Beach Boy Al Jardine - together for the first time in, well, almost forever - in fronting a crack 11-piece band to perform "Pet Sounds" in its entirety Wednesday night at UCLA's Royce Hall on the occasion of its 40th birthday. After a long time wandering in the wilderness, Wilson - "Pet Sounds"' mastermind - has in recent years emerged hearteningly strong and can even feed off his fans' adulation: At several times during Wednesday's show, the house lights went up so he could see the crowd's rabid approval."

Sibylle Baier COLOUR GREEN (Orange Twin Records)
Robbie Basho VENUS IN CANCER (Tompkins Square)
Sandy Bull STILL VALENTINE’S DAY 1969 (Water)
Vashti Bunyan LOOKAFTERING (DiCristina)
Karen Dalton IN MY OWN TIME (Light In The Attic)
Espers II (Drag City)
Espers THE WEED TREE (Locust)
John Fahey THE YELLOW PRINCESS (Vanguard)
Cyrus Faryar CYRUS (Collectors’ Choice)
Cyrus Faryar ISLANDS (Collectors’ Choice)
Ruthann Freidman CONSTANT COMPANION (Water)
Mark Fosson THE LOST TAKOMA TAPES (Drag City)
Allen Ginsberg FIRST BLUES (Water)
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester FAREWELL ALDEBARAN (Radioactive)
Diane Hildebrand EARLY MORNING BLUES AND GREENS (Collectors’ Choice)
Bert Jansch BLACK SWAN (Drag City)
Wizz Jones LEGENDARY ME (Sunbeam)
Steve Mann ALIVE AND PICKIN’ (Bella Roma Music)
Joanna Newsom Ys (Drag City)
John Phillips JOHN PHILLIPS (JOHN THE WOLFKING OF L.A.) (Varese Sarabande)
Sailcat MOTORCYCYCLE MAMA (Collectors’ Choice)
Six Organs Of Admittance THE SUN AWAKENS (Drag City)
Various Artists AMERICAN PRIMITIVE VOL. II (Revenant)
Various Artists FRIENDS OF FAHEY TRIBUTE (Slackertone)
Various Artists I AM THE RESURRECTION: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN FAHEY (Vanguard)
Various Artists IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM VOLS. 1 & 2 (Tompkins Square)
Various Artists ROGUE’S GALLERY PIRATE BALLADS, SEA SONGS & CHANTEYS (ANTI)

MR. TRICK

NY POST "HW: Have you thought about inviting the Beach Boys for a reunion on the show [ER]?"

"John Stamos: I saw the other day The Beach Boys have been on like every show that I’ve been on, but now they’re getting to the age where I think we have them on ER, they’ve got to play cadavers. Wheeling the Beach Boys on a gurney."

INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

I recently obtained an advance copy of New Magnetic Wonder, APPLES IN STEREO'S first new album in five years. I can thankfully report that it shows the band in as fine a form as ever. It contains 14 “proper” songs and 12 mini-musical segue-ways. Band honcho Robert Schneider refers to these tiny tunes as “link tracks.” Hmmm. Wonder where he got that idea from? According to the press release, “This is perfect music for Jeff Lynne and Brian Wilson to make-out to.”

On this album, Apples mainstay Robert Schneider is joined by musicians Eric Allen, bass, and John Hill, guitar. Hilarie Sidney plays drums on the album, although after its recording she left the band. The new drummer is John Dufilho. Nearly 20 other musicians participate in various and sundry other music making on the album. Engineer Bryce Goggin provides his well pedigreed production skills. The final, commercial version of the album will have some multi-media bonuses (including digital files for MIDI usage) which feature Schneider’s Non-Pythagoren scale.

I’ve noted the “proper” tracks below with an (*). It almost goes without saying that these full-fledged tracks are the best songs on the album. If you’ve liked Apples in Stereo’s previous beautiful and powerful studio sheen applied to perfect pop tunes, than you’ll definitely fall hard for “New Magnetic Wonder.” The only real comparisons are Big Star’s first album, ELO, Beach Boys, Beatles and Pavement. I saw Apples in Stereo in a small club about 4 years ago, and it remains one of the best rock shows I’ve seen. I’d love to see them perform this album’s songs live. Most of the best songs here are firmly planted in my brain; I can replay them at will like a loop on a Mellotron. Unfortunately for most of you, you’ll have to wait until Feb. 2007 to hear this remarkable power pop album.

*1. Can You Feel It?
*2. Skyway
3. Mellotron 1
*4. Energy
*5. Same Old Drag
6. Joanie Don't U Worry
*7. Sunndal Song**
8. Droplet
*9. Play Tough
*10. Sun is Out
11. Non-Pythagorean Composition 1
12. Hello Lola
*13. 7 Stars
14. Mellotron 2
*15. Sunday Sounds**
*16. Open Eyes
17. Crimson
18. Pre-Crimson
19. Vocoder Ba Ba
*20. Radiation
*21. Beautiful Machine Parts 1-2
*22. Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4
23. My Pretend
24. Non-Pythagorean Composition 3
**Composed by Hilarie Sidney

New Magnetic Wonder is released by YEP ROCK.
Another review of NEW MAGNETIC WONDER.
Short article on NEW DRUMMER.

BLOG CRITICS

YORK PRESS UK "One charge related to Steven Alexander Allan...taking them both to a one-bedroom flat with a bed and a record player, playing a Beach Boys track, and indecently assaulting them."