Uncanny

THE ROCK RADIO "Well, people have said the same thing about Pet Sounds, that I didn't like Pet Sounds. That's a bunch of crap, because I went with Brian to play Pet Sounds for the A&R guy at Capitol Records. We played it for him, I named the album (laughs). Because at the end of the record, he didn't know what to call the record. And at the end of the record you have this dog barking at the sound of this train going by. And I said, 'Well, why don't we call it Pet Sounds?' Double entendre, of course."

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE "During a recent Capitol Records event that celebrated double-platinum sales for our 'Sounds of Summer' compilation, Brian must have asked me a dozen times if we're going to get back together," Mike Love says. "I'm very open to doing that with Brian. There are still some legal issues with Al, though, and he's focused on a solo career."

During a performance last week in the Hamptons on Long Island, N.Y., that featured a fashion show for his wife's "Jacqueline Love" clothing line, Love says "there were 100 kids, teens and preteens dancing on the runway while we played. My daughter, Ambha, who's 10, told me her fourth-grade class's favorite song is 'Wouldn't It Be Nice.' To see that your songs are appreciated four decades after you began writing them is a really good thing."

Love says his latest tune, "Cool Head and Warm Heart," encourages people "not to get all stressed out, especially when there are things you can do nothing about." Reciting a portion of the lyrics, he adds, "You need a cool head and a warm heart to get you through the day without coming apart. You need a cool head and a warm heart and that's how every day should start."

He says the song is based on a phrase he heard Maharishi Mahesh Yogi say a decade ago at a transcendental meditation gathering in The Netherlands.

Love meditates every day. "It gives me energy and clarity," he says. "As long as I'm healthy and still have a fan base, there's no reason for quitting."

CITIZENS' VOICE Jim Della Croce has been the publicist for The Beach Boys for the last six years. He owns a public relations firm called The Press Office.

The Beach Boys are touring 150 days this year and are “through the roof” with concert sales, said Della Croce.

“The Beach Boys are pretty hardy. They’re not ones to cancel shows if the shows can be played. From a performance standpoint, they’re pros,” Della Croce said.

He recently joined the founding members of The Beach Boys, including Mike Love, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, on rooftop of the landmark Capitol Records building in Hollywood for a ceremony celebrating the double-platinum designation for sales of more than 2 million units of “Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys.”

“The album is on route to triple platinum and we believe it’s going to get there,” Della Croce said. “That’s huge in this day and age for their record to be on the charts as long as it has. It really marks a comeback for the band.”

Love is the only original member of The Beach Boys. Bruce Johnston has been with the band for more than 40 years. Other band members include Randell Kirsch, John Cowsill, Tim Bonhomme, Chris Farmer, Scott Totten and Mike Kowalski.

Della Croce considers himself lucky that he gets to interact with the people “who really shaped my interest in pursuing a career in the music business.”

“They deserve to be Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. They hop around the country and the world like we would our neighborhood,” Della Croce said. “It’s absolutely a full year and always a great adventure.”

In addition to The Beach Boys, Della Croce’s public relations firm also has represented a number of other famous artists, including Bad Finger, John Anderson, Vince Gill, Martina McBride, Bad Company, Grand Funk Railroad and Waylon Jennings.

Southern California natives The Tyde have released one of the best albums of the summer of '06. Swathed in sunshine, cool waves and warm sand, The Tyde's third album, Three's Co., is filled with wonderful sunshine pop tunes, "Do It Again Again" and "Too Many Kims," as well as flashes of country rock, "Country Line" and "Aloha Breeze." However, the sunny trappings are, on tunes like "Glassbottom Lights," at odds with the seriousness of the lyrics. If you listen to the lyrics of "Glassbottom Lights" closely, it becomes apparent that the song is about chrystal meth addiction. Heavy stuff.

The Tyde's take on early '70s soft rock & pop is filtered through the folk/country rock stylings of The Band as well as British indie rock of the early '80s, think bands like THE FELT. Some reviewers have reflexively dismissed The Tyde as mere imitators of Brian Wilson and/or the Beach Boys. While there is a distinctive Wilson flavor here and there, The Tyde are much more than imitators. They've clearly staked out their own, unique take on the Southern Callfornia singer-songwriter genre. The Tyde's primary participant is Darren Rademaker, he's joined by his keyboardist wife Ann Do Rademaker and his brother Brent Rademaker, of Beachwood Sparks fame. (NELSON BRAGG, of Brian Wilson's band, also contributes percussion and background vocals.) Great stuff, highly recommended.

THE TYDE the band's homepage
MYSPACE the band's Myspace page
ROUGH TRADE AMERICA the band's record label

HYBRID MAGAZINE reviews "Three's Co.", The Tyde's great, new album
GUARDIAN UK reviews "Three's Co."
PREFIX MAGAZINE reviews "Three's Co."
MUSIC OHM reviews "Three's Co."

SOUNDS XP interviews The Tyde's Darren Rademaker
AUTOPIA MUSIC interviews The Tyde's Darren Rademaker

PITCHFORK does what they do

NOW PUBLIC

THE ONION's A.V. CLUB: It's been 40 years since Pet Sounds was released, and we're still discussing it. At the time, did you know that you were creating a masterpiece?

Brian Wilson: I knew when we were recording it. I knew it was going to be a milestone in musical history. And I knew we were on to something very, very good. The love vibes in Pet Sounds were very good.

AVC: You've said that just as Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles' response to Pet Sounds, Pet Sounds was your response to Rubber Soul.

BW: It really was. I heard Rubber Soul one night in my house here in L.A., and I was so blown out that I said, "I have to record an album as good or better than Rubber Soul. If I ever do anything in my life, I'm going to make that good an album." And so we did.

AVC: You and Paul McCartney seemed to have a competition going on.

BW: It wasn't really competition so much as it was mutual inspiration.

AVC: At the same time, Pet Sounds doesn't really sound like Rubber Soul, or anything before it. What inspired you to write those songs, and what guided you in the studio while you recorded them?

BW: Well, the gist of it was that Carl [Wilson, Beach Boys guitarist and co-vocalist] and I wanted to bring some love to people, you know? 'Cause we figured the missing ingredient in life was love. So we said, "We want to create an album that has a lot of love-vibes in it, to make people feel loved." That's all we wanted to do. We weren't trying to prove anything musically. We just wanted to bring some love to people.

AVC: Getting into the nitty-gritty of that record, there are so many revolutionary things. Paul McCartney has said he was blown away by the way you scored the bass tracks, because they didn't revolve around the root note. They really milked those transition notes.

BW: Right. Motown was responsible for some of that, too. I learned from Motown's bass players.

AVC: Where did you get the idea for the layers and layers of things? Phil Spector? Classical music?

BW: Well, the arrangements came from the concept of a Phil Spector-type of a vibration. Coupled with the loving voices of The Beach Boys, it gives you an album called Pet Sounds.

AVC: You're deaf in one ear…

BW: Yeah. I'm deaf in my right ear.

AVC: So when you originally mixed Pet Sounds, you did a mono mix.

BW: Right.

AVC: So what do you get out of the new stereo and surround-sound mixes?

BW: What do I get? I don't get to hear it! I only have one ear, so I don't get to enjoy the stereophonic thing.

AVC: It's initially hard to interpret Pet Sounds in mono. There's so much going on. But the stereo mix...

BW: Quite a sound, huh? The listeners are in for a real treat with the stereo mix, you know? It should be great. And I hope they all enjoy it with their two ears.

BULLZ EYE
CLICKY CLICKY
CULTURE BULLY
KING BLIND
MUSIC OMH

RGJ BLOG "Al who?, you say? Al Jardine. He was a founding member of the Beach Boys, but hasn't been with the band for some time, and he's since been banned from using any form of the Beach Boys name in his concerts of Beach Boys music. But in this rather unusual concert-news development, Jardine and his Endless Summer Band is playing a show Sept. 2 at the Resort at Red Hawk on Wingfield Parkway in Sparks."

INTUITIVE MUSIC has an excellent post, with embedded video, on the Beach Boys' use of a Theremin:

"It has been often said that the Beach Boys where responsible for introducing the famous Theremin (father of all the modern synthesizers) to the big audience with their legendary song 'Good Vibrations' This is not quite true. The single 'Good Vibrations' was released in October 1966 and it has been considered the colophon of pop songs. For the song, Brian Wilson was looking forward using a Theremin, but he soon realized that the instrument, which is played with one hand in the air and need years of training, was too difficult to control onstage. This way, Wilson looked for an alternative and he kept in touch with musician Paul Tanner, who was at the time using an instrument based on the Theremin but it was easier to play: the Electro-Theremin...For the live shows, the Beach Boys had to deal with the inconvenience of not having Paul Tanner to play the Polk Tannerin. As an alternative option, they ended up replacing it by a Moog Ribbon-Controller, a new device from that Robert Moog made custom for the band that would allow to play a synthesis tone all along a ribbon."

THE SPACELAB "Drag City has announced the details behind the upcoming Joanna Newsom release, titled Ys (pronounced ‘eees’). At just 5 songs, it will be a short release, but quality has been stressed by the announcement. Quality over quantity, perhaps? The album does run for 55 minutes. Recorded by Steve Albini, mixed by Jim O' Rourke, and all the work was done at Abby Road Studios. They went all analogue for this one, so we can expect rich sounds. The album will feature arrangements from Beach Boys partner in crime Van Dyke Parks. Ys will be released on November 14th."

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

YAHOO UK NEWS "Mick Jagger has been using an auto-cue during the band's "Bigger Bang" world tour, it has been claimed. The device, which reminds The Rolling Stones frontman of the lyrics to the rock legend's songs, even informs him which city he's in. Jagger, 63, is understood to have mirrored the actions of Brian Wilson, from the Beach Boys, who uses an auto-cue when he plays live after years of mental health problems."

THE EGOIST
ARTICLE DASHBOARD
HUFFINGTON POST

LA TIMES "The most scintillating new element of Capitol Records' 40th anniversary reissue of the Beach Boys' watershed "Pet Sounds" album is on the DVD part of a deluxe CD-DVD package. [The DVD includes] an excerpt from "Rhythm of Life," a previously unreleased BBC-TV interview that brings together two of the most innovative and celebrated producers of the rock era: the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Beatles producer George Martin. The musicological gold is the portion in which Martin sits next to Wilson in a recording studio while they roll the master tapes of "Pet Sounds," which represented a quantum leap forward in 1966 for the Beach Boys, both in terms of the intensely autobiographical bent of the songs Wilson wrote primarily with lyricist Tony Asher as well as Wilson's revolutionary approach to recording it."