The Beach Boys long-lost album SMiLE is finally seeing the light of day in an official release, and Plaza Records is throwing a listening party tonight to celebrate. While we're definitely fans, we're no experts on this topic, so we checked in with our favorite Plaza employee (and Secondary Modern guitarist) David Brown, and this is what he had to say about it: When I was a kid I didn't like the Beach Boys. Well, that's unfair. Every 5 year old likes "Kokomo". Every single one of them. When I was 17 I listened to Pet Sounds in its entirety for the first time. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" was on the same compilation that every home in the Midwest seemed to be required to have. It dawned on me there in my 17th year that I had never actually paid attention to its musicality. Is that an accordion? Those drums! Who plays bass like that? Suddenly I couldn't envision this band on the beach, innocently flirting with blondes while wearing striped shirts and chino pants. Why the hell didn't anybody tell me? The more I dug into this band the more I realized that this was not a sudden leap into deeper composition. Those surf songs had it too. Just who IS this Brian Wilson? I couldn't help but wonder.
I started looking for more and found bootlegs of the unfinished SMiLE sessions, the album meant to follow Pet Sounds which was abandoned in an extended fit of mental illness. There's not much I can say about it in a concise way. I have, without even noticing it happening, cornered people to rattle off my impressions of this recording too many times. Let's just put it this way: there are very few bands who can make me sit and stare at the wall in wonder while i listen to their unmixed, unfinished session tapes. The official release of this album--edited together to make the best version of the SMiLE album available--is more than just a little exciting to me.
This album is dense, but it is not just heavy. It is heavy and light and dark and absolutely silly. There is nothing like it and there will never be anything like it. If it had been released as planned in 1967 everything about pop music would be different. Here we are though. It's 2011. No matter. The historical context of this album melts away as soon as it begins. This is modern music.
I started looking for more and found bootlegs of the unfinished SMiLE sessions, the album meant to follow Pet Sounds which was abandoned in an extended fit of mental illness. There's not much I can say about it in a concise way. I have, without even noticing it happening, cornered people to rattle off my impressions of this recording too many times. Let's just put it this way: there are very few bands who can make me sit and stare at the wall in wonder while i listen to their unmixed, unfinished session tapes. The official release of this album--edited together to make the best version of the SMiLE album available--is more than just a little exciting to me.
This album is dense, but it is not just heavy. It is heavy and light and dark and absolutely silly. There is nothing like it and there will never be anything like it. If it had been released as planned in 1967 everything about pop music would be different. Here we are though. It's 2011. No matter. The historical context of this album melts away as soon as it begins. This is modern music.
Saturday Nov. 5th
SMiLE LISTENING PARTY
@ Plaza Records
Free, All-ages, 7p
No comments:
Post a Comment