MetaFilter posts tagged with brianwilson

Fan of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea? Check out Licorice Root Orchestra.

old_growler — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:33:34 -0800

Their debut album is a weird, hypnotic masterpiece. Licorice Root Orchestra was an obscure band out of Newark, DE. They echo shades of Neutral Milk Hotel, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Spacemen 3 and Marc Bolan. Melody Maker said “This, their divine debut, works as an ensemble piece. These 13 dream-dipped delights provide the perfect soundtrack to some sepia-tinted silent movie and manage to pull off the near-impossible: they are appealingly gauche but never gormless, naive but never nerdy. Most are under three minutes, their wealth of tiny details strung on a delicate, twittering frame. ‘September in the Night’ and ‘Cloud Symphonies’ are pop songs like you've never heard them, impressionistic, hazy things that throb with wobbly, sub-aquatic strings and a piano that sounds like it's floating up from the cellar. You can thank Shimmy's chief kook, Kramer, for that, of course. There's a general air of uneasiness beneath the charm, though, of Something Nasty never far away. " They were, inexplicably, featured in the “Cute Band Alert” column of Sassy magazine. I scored my CD for less than a buck a few months ago, though it’s north of $9 on Amazon now. But you can hear them free on Spotify. Here’s the trippy “September in the Night,” and “Cloud Symphonies.”

Better late than never

anazgnos — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:37:21 -0800

After 44 years, The Beach Boys' SMiLE, the most famous unreleased album of all time, has finally been released. Even at its most remorselessly upbeat, the Beach Boys' music was marked by an ineffable sadness – you can hear it in the cascading tune played by the woodwind during Good Vibrations's verses – but on Smile, the sadness turned into something far weirder. All the talk of Wilson writing teenage symphonies to God – and indeed the sheer sumptuousness of the end results – tends to obscure what a thoroughly eerie album Smile is. Until LSD's psychological wreckage began washing up in rock via Skip Spence's Oar and Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, artists tactfully ignored the dark side of the psychedelic experience. But it's there on Smile...
The first of a ten-part web series on the making of the album and the new reissue has been posted on youtube, featuring new interviews and rare archival footage. The full-length 2-CD version is streaming at AOL.

pet the sounds

Brian B. — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:46:50 -0800

Behind the Sounds is a sampling of images and recordings from the studio sessions of Pet Sounds, the 1966 Beach Boys album masterminded by Brian Wilson. Named in honor of Phil Spector, inspired by The Beatles' Rubber Soul LP, Pet Sounds became one of the most influential pop recordings of all time. The Beatles' response in kind was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which pioneered the technique of automatic double tracking now associated with psychedelic rock.

Mr. Leonard Bernstein Explains It All For You

overeducated_alligator — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:30:14 -0800

Inside Pop - The Rock Revolution is a CBS News special, broadcast in April 1967. The show was hosted by Leonard Bernstein and is probably one of the first examples of pop music being examined as a 'serious' art form. The film features many scenes shot in Los Angeles in late 1966, including interviews with Frank Zappa and Graham Nash, as well as the now legendary Brian Wilson solo performance of "Surf's Up." (MLYT) Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

mmmm Bop Bop

timsteil — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:18:10 -0800

Today in 1966, Brian Wilson starting laying down instrumental tracks for "#1 Untitled." Eight months, 90 hours of tape, and $50,000 later, he released his "pocket symphony." There are a lot of different cover versions out there, some incredibly faithful. You can read about both the song and arrangement. Hear about it from the BBC, NPR, and Brian himself. Brian plays it, the Beach Boys play it, but perhaps the best way to experience it, is the original mono mix, 3:35 of pop perfection. Forty five years later, it still gives you a buzz.

You Could Have a Steam Train

rollbiz — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:10:51 -0800

Gavin Castleton does a pretty cool one-man cover of Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". Some of his other covers- Eyes in the Back of my Head (Kelli Shaefer) Somebody That I Used to Know (Elliot Smith) 'Til I Die (Brian Wilson) Come to Me (Bjork) Some original music- Hope is a Drug Hibernatal Skypiece (original)

Live performances at AOL Sessions

Kattullus — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:49:06 -0800

AOL Sessions has live videos from more than 150 different artists specially recorded for the series. Here are just a few of the artists on offer: Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige, Modest Mouse, Tori Amos, Robyn, Tom Petty, Rhymefest, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Natasha Bedingfield, Cat Power, Toby Keith, Lil' Wayne, Robert Plant, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kelly Rowland, Weezer and Brian Wilson. To the left of the videos there's a Q&A link that has short interview videos with the artists as well as behind the scenes footage and longer interviews.

Hang on to Your Ego

ibmcginty — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:23:47 -0800

Entertainment NewsFilter: the surviving Beach Boys, including Mike Love and Brian Wilson, appeared together in public today, for the first time in ten years, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Pet Sounds. Mike Love recently sued Brian Wilson for royalties and co-writing credits, again, after Brian released SMiLE, a mere 38 years after originally starting on it. The strife between the two has been ongoing for decades. As Brian grew more musically ambitious in the Pet Sounds and SMiLE era, Mike legendarily admonished Brian not to "fuck with the formula." [m.i.]

Smile!

Quartermass — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 07:21:10 -0800

Brian Wilson performed “Smile” last Friday, in its entirety. One of the most anticipated “lost” albums of all time (a great deal of the material was released on other Beach Boys Albums, as well as the “Good Vibrations” Box set). Smile was Brian Wilson’s answer to the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The now legendary tale speaks of Brian’s slow decent into madness and drug abuse during the recording of “Smile,” (for example, when he was recording “Mrs. O'Leary's Cow,” otherwise known as the “Fire” element to Smile, he and the orchestra all had to wear plastic firefighters helmets. When he got home from recording, there were news reports of a huge fire in the area he was recording in, causing him to believe the “vibes” from the music started the fire. Needless to say, he freaked out a bit.) The album was shelved at the last minute, and for decades, Brian either told people that the Smile sessions had been destroyed, or flat out refused to speak of it at all.

Now, after 37 years of wondering, Smile is finally going to be released!!!

"Smile,"

bingbangbong — Fri, 04 Oct 2002 13:23:28 -0800

"Smile," he said. I'd asked what record the music was from, but I knew as soon as I heard it. The tapes of the Smile sessions, long considered Brian Wilson's lost masterpiece, may never be released; peer-to-peer, however, can put us in touch with the album that some call the ultimate pop record, and that Wilson called his "teenage symphony to God".

The son of a rock god interviews a rock genius...

greengrl — Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:33:46 -0800

The son of a rock god interviews a rock genius... (Scroll down to "Audio") Sean Lennon's 48-minute interview with Brian Wilson covers all aspects of music, from the genesis of a great song, to the competition between artists in the late 1960's. (The interview is in four parts, in RealAudio format.)