The Christmas Song

2008
Written by: Mel Tormé, Bob Wells

(2008 Dec 17 / Brian Wilson)

http://www.brianwilson.com/media/christmas_08/

BRIAN WILSON IN CONCERT

NPR.org, December 17, 2008 - It's fair to say that this music, recorded live at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., is the best new material from Brian Wilson in more than 30 years.
That Lucky Old Sun is a song cycle based on a tune with its spiritual roots in slavery.
That song is about hardship, but this semi-autobiographical work is about nostalgia — what life in California means to Wilson and what Wilson means to California.

(2008 Dec 17 / Bob Boilen) 20
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98042111

IMAGES OF INNOCENTS

Photo: Celebrity devotees of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and friends, at his academy in India, high up in the Himalayas, where they are studying transcendental meditation, March 1968. From left to right: Patti Boyd, John Lennon (1940 - 1980), Mike Love of The Beach Boys, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917 - 2008), George Harrison (1943 - 2001), actress Mia Farrow, Donovan, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher (at one time McCartney's fiancé), Cynthia Lennon.
(Photo by Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Canadian photographer and director Paul Saltzman was 23 when he went off to India in 1968 to meditate at the ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
While he was there, the Beatles showed up, along with Mia Farrow, Donovan, Mike Love of the Beach Boys and various consorts. Saltzman connected with the celebrated Liverpudlians, who let him photograph them as they kicked back and made music, attired in white-cotton garb, sandals and flower necklaces.
Years later, Saltzman published the pictures from that fruitful sojourn - during which the Beatles wrote a slew of songs, many of which they recorded on "The White Album" - in his book "The Beatles in India." A bunch of them are on view through the end of the year at the San Francisco Art Exchange, at 458 Geary St.

(2008 Dec 17 / Jesse Hamlin)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/17/DDIP14CTOB.DTL&type=art

More: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14824/the-beach-boys-mike-love-from-good-vibrations-to-transcendental-meditation

Vampire Weekend - A Punk

2008

Written by: Vampire Weekend



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XC2mqcMMGQ&fmt=18


Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on his honor’s finger
Oh oh oh

A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lily white hand
Showed no fear she’d seen the thing
In the young men’s wing at Sloan-Kettering

CHORUS Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh!

His honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the Pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh oh oh

I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half’s at the bottom of the sea

CHORUS Look outside at the raincoats coming, say oh!

THE RUBY SUNS INTERVIEW

With their sophomore album Sea Lion, New Zealand’s The Ruby Suns have left behind the simple Beach Boys-inspired psychedelia of their self-titled debut and vaulted into the 2000s.
Released in January, Sea Lion is a carefully crafted album dense with energetic percussion, reverb-doused atmospherics, big vocals, and healthy doses of 1980s nostalgia.
They certainly aren’t the first band to try and capture the sunny vibes of summer through a psych-pop lens, but it’s rarely been done with such beauty and pathos.

(2008 Oct / Tobias Kahn)
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/The-Ruby-Suns,7441

KIMBERLY CHUN'S "LOOSE CANON"

The Year in Music 2008:
A new set of touchstones for rocky times

Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) not Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol, 1967). For that matter the Plastic Ono Band rather than the Beatles, and Brian Wilson before Paul McCartney. Scott Walker, not Paul Simon. Arthur Russell, not David Byrne — though regards to the Talking Heads.
'Fraid no Bruce Springsteen but plenty of Neil Young. The Band not ... well, Bob Dylan hangs on despite the unfortunate I'm Not There (2007), the seeming party-stopper in a never-ending stream of Dylan books and arcana. Prince, in lieu of Rick James, bitch.
Low-budg bedroom production, not Chinese Democracy (Interscope). Not reggaetón but Krautrock. Not Afro-Cuban but African. Not doo-wop but girl group. Nope to Phil Spector but yes to Lee Hazlewood or, better, Lee "Scratch" Perry. Stock on the Replacements and Hüsker Dü is way down, but Bad Brains and Black Flag shares are up.

Sorry, the Who isn't all right but Zep's song remains the same. Nevermind Nirvana but hello, Sparks — and no, not Jordin Sparks. And oddly enough, not the Tubes or Huey Lewis and the News, but Journey — and specifically "Don't Stop Believin'."
Now repeat, twirl around, pat your head whilst rubbing your stomach, click your heels together twice, and commit the aforementioned to memory: this is your new rock canon.

Just trust me on this. I've read a lot of music stories and CD reviews in '08, and since I'm missing the crucial math gene, I can't quantify the exact number of times the hallowed names of Arthur Russell, Neil Young, or Brian Wilson have been invoked, but believe me, they have, more times than group-think-phobic music writers care to admit.

And that's not to say the artists and recordings these canonical creators have displaced are now worthless: even admitting that a canon (or three or four) exists, let alone articulating one, can be a dicey proposition — whether you're among lit professors or cruising music crit circles.
The very idea evokes exclusivity, hierarchy, neocon grandstanding, worries about exclusion, and allusions to dead white men. "I think most professors would not want to say there's a canon but if you teach a course on American literature there are still things you want to teach," opined one tenured prof pal. "They're critical of a canon but they still are creating a canon. It's very implicit and unconscious in some ways."

Yet anyone who's cared deeply enough about pop to critique it can't help but notice the seismic shift in the '00s — even as the state of criticism seems to wax and wane with the fortunes of a music industry still searching for an uploadable business model; music mags busily folding or scrambling for lifestyle advertising; and newspapers gutting their staffs and substituting arts criticism with reviews wrought by, say, sports copy editors.
Meanwhile blogs generate a still-fluid mixture of earnest criticism, bracing truth-telling, and hands-free promotion. A canon — or the very idea of classics and common musical references that all agree on — presupposes a foundation of critical thought, and who can afford to judge amid the hand-wringing desperation of today's music marketplace?

Who instigated this changing of the guard, this revised rock 'n' roll canon? Tastemakers, tastefakers, marketing minons, and branding blowhards? Writers, DJs, musicians, music store staffers, promoters, and Robert "Dean of American Rock Critics" Christgau? All Tomorrow's Parties, Arthur, Pitchfork, and the Chunklet writers who dreamed up issue 20's music journalist application form ("Would you admit to not actually being that familiar with your frequent points of reference you name-drop [e.g., Captain Beefheart or Gang of Four]?")?

This very humble independently owned, independent-minded rag? We'll never admit it — because the very notion of forging a new pop canon in this fragmented, un-unified, de-centered vortex of music-making, consumption, and collecting seems utterly ridiculous, if not downright moronic.
Yet a generational aesthetic realignment has occurred, and as a wise friend once told me, shift happens.

(2008 Dec 17 / Kimberly Chun)

This & KIMBERLY CHUN'S VITAMIN-FORTIFIED TOP 10-PLUS on:
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=7723&catid=&volume_id=398&issue_id=410&volume_num=43&issue_num=12

MUSICAL REVIVES PIONEER ROCK AND ROLL COMPOSERS' SONGS

(the musical is called Smokey Joe's Café)

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller teamed up in 1950 to write music, and went on the compose some of the biggest rock and roll hits of the 20th century, including Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog."
When rock and roll took the world by storm, Leiber and Stoller were at the center of the storm.

(2008 Dec 9 / Mike O'Sullivan) 17b
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-12-09-voa2.cfm

Hal Blaine on The Beach Boys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w-texf9erw

RIGHTEOUS 'WRECKING CREW' DOCUMENTS ROCK'S REAL HEROES

GROOVING: Studio musicians shine in the background.

"The Wrecking Crew," screened at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center on Friday evening for the Anchorage International Film Festival, is a documentary about a group of Los Angeles musicians that happens to be a love story.
It's about the love that the Wrecking Crew -- the informal name was given to the studio musicians who played during recording sessions of hundreds of rock hits from the 1950s and '60s -- felt for their work

(2008 Dec 13 / Peter Porco)
http://www.adn.com/play/aiff/reviews/story/622484.html
more: http://www.jazzography.com/ http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/ http://www.halblaine.com/

THE WAGE$ OF $PIN (DOCUMENTARY)

Character Driven Productions is now selling director Shawn Swords' documentary "The Wage$ Of $pin," about the Philadelphia music scene between 1952 and 1963 and about "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark's pay-for-play activities from which he emerged unscathed.
The film features interviews with Chubby Checker, Connie Francis, Fabian, Jerry Blavat, Frankie Avalon, Len Barry, Charlie Gracie, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, Danny and The Juniors, The Dovells, Stephen Caldwell and more industry folks from that era.

(2008 Dec / Character Driven Productions) 16a
http://www.characterdrivenfilms.com

THE SOUNDS OF THE '60S: HOW DICK DALE, THE DOORS, AND DYLAN SWAYED TO ARAB MUSIC

When it comes to pop music, the '60s will always be remembered for Hendrix, Dylan, Joplin, and groups like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but the early part of the decade produced a sound that was equally revolutionary in the history of rock 'n' roll.
Surf music was the music of choice from 1960 to early 1964, producing hit after hit.

(2008 Dec 13 / Jonathan Curiel) 15b
http://www.alternet.org/story/109842/the_sounds_of_the_

SONGS REMINISCENT OF MCCARTNEY AND WILSON

Brent Randall & His Pinecones -- We Were Strangers in Paddington Green (Endearing Records, 2008)

I've never heard of Brent Randall, and I consider myself to be pretty informed on Canadian music. Now I'm lamenting what I've been missing.


(2008 Dec 13 / David reed) 15a
http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1344561

CONCERTS LISTING FOR WEEK OF 12.11: RONNIE SPECTOR

Ronnie Spector, Mohegan Sun, 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19

Marrying Phil Spector was the best and worst thing to happen to the former Veronica Bennett. "Be My Baby" is a pop classic, thanks equally to the singer's unique voice and the producer's wall of sound. The producer's erratic behavior, however, sidelined the singer at the height of her powers.

(2008 Dec 11 / Ray Hogan) 14b
http://www.greenwichtime.com/ci_11179012

This Could Be The Night by Tatsuro Yamashita

1978

Written by: Harry Nilsson, Phil Spector
(original 1965 The Modern Folk Quartet)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz-aD-S_Mgo&fmt=18

SUPRESSER CLARIFIES THE RADIO STARS

by Steve Levine, Producer BBC Radio

For almost three years I have been involved with "The Record Producers," an ongoing BBC Radio 2 and 6 music documentary series.
The program features interviews with a range of hit-making producers including Hugh Padgham (Sting, XTC, Phil Collins); Trevor Horn (Seal, Pet Shop Boys), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, The Moody Blues) and Jam & Lewis (Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Usher).

Just recently, I completed the 13th episode, an in-depth interview with Brian Wilson, a dear friend with whom I have worked with on a number of recording projects over the years.

(2008 Dec 11 / Steve Levine)http://www.radioworld.com/article/71292

MUSIC NOTES: TURANGALÎLAPALOOZA

Messiaen's best loved symphony and music for four guitars at Yale.

Turangalîla-Symphonie 8 p.m. Dec. 12. Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. (203) 432-4158. yale.edu/music/messiaen.

"It is as if I were learning to speak a whole new language.”
That’s my friend Wei-Yi Yang, talking about the piano part in Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, one of the biggest, most luscious orchestral pieces written in the past century.

(2008 Dec 11 / Daniel Johnson and Christopher Arnott) 13a
http://www.newhavenadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=10905

FROZEN PICTURES BEGINS PRODUCTION ON CHRIS MONTEZ BIOPIC

Cameras roll on musical doco about versatile Mexican-American artist whose story will "rewrite the history of rock 'n' roll."

(2008 Dec 10 / Frozen Pictures) 12b
http://www.pr-inside.com/frozen-pictures-begins-production-on-r961132.htm

YOU CAN SLIP ON THE NYLONS FOR A SMOOTH HOLIDAY CONCERT

With seven gold and platinum recordings, The Nylons — known for their a cappella sound, dazzling harmonies and smooth arrangements — will perform their holiday concert for the first time in Sheboygan at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts.

(2008 Dec 11 / sheboyganpress.com) 12a
http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20081211/SHE04/812110429/1097

SING A CHORUS OR TWO

On the musical docket: Four Freshmen, Legendary Diamonds, a sold-out Phil concert.

Marketing types are quick to acknowledge the power of a brand name, and it works on the concert stage as well as it does on the grocery store shelf.
Witness the Four Freshmen, who were named the 2007 vocal group of the year by readers of JazzTimes magazine, even though none of the current members were born when the original group was formed 60 years ago.

(2008 Dec 11 / John Chacona) 11b
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081211/ENTERTAINMENT0301/312119933/-1/ENTERTAINMENT03

JASON BREWER AND THE EXPLORERS CLUB ARE NOT THE BEACH BOYS-THEY JUST SOUND LIKE THEM

Quote:

"In addition to being a Diet Coke fan, he's also a darn good songwriter, singer, and guitarist, as well as the clear leader of the Explorers Club. And with his band, Brewer has discovered a pop painkiller for today's modern rock headache — catchy melodies and pitch-perfect harmonies."

(2008 Dec 10 / Chris Haire) 11a
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A56167

GLEN CAMPBELL'S TOP TRACKS REMASTERED FOR NEW 'GREATEST HITS' CD & DIGITAL COLLECTION

Career-Spanning Collection, to be Released February 10 by Capitol/EMI, Includes Campbell's Most Popular Grammy-Winning and Chart-Topping Hits
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.,
-- 16 of Glen Campbell's most popular hits have been remastered by Capitol/EMI for Glen Campbell: Greatest Hits, a new CD and digital collection to be released February 10.

(2008 Dec 9 / PR Newswire)
http://avid.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=602655

CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

Sir Cliff Richard, still wowing the fans after five decades, insists he has no intention of retiring.
The perennial prince of pop chose Belfast's Odyssey Arena for the final concert in a tour celebrating 50 years in show business.

(2008 Dec 3 / BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7762609.stm

ROGER DALTREY TO FRONT DENNIS WILSON DOC

Roger Daltrey, frontman of The Who, will narrate a special one-off documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson for BBC Radio 2.
Pacific Ocean Blues: The Life and Death of Dennis Wilson is a 60-minute documentary by Made in Manchester Productions...


(2008 Dec 9 / Rob Shepherd) 9b
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/12/roger_daltrey_to_front_dennis_wilson_doc.html

FUN, FUN, FUN WITH REVIVED BEACH BOYS

WORCESTER— Surf’s up!
That was the watchword Saturday night at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts on Southbridge Street as The Beach Boys rode a wave of nostalgia into the venue.
It’s hard to believe that the original Beach Boys band was formed in 1961. It’s even harder to believe that internal squabbling over the years has led to at least three different bands playing Beach Boys material.

(2008 Dec 8 / Peter Landsdowne)http://www.telegram.com/article/20081208/NEWS/812080374&template=eworcester

(Photo Dwight McCann / Nov 2007?
http://dwightmccann.blogspot.com/ and http://dwightmccann.com/ )

USC HONORS BEACH BOY

Brian Wilson of the legendary Beach Boys has added yet another award to his long list of accolades.
The multi-award winning artist was presented with the USC Thornton School of Music Legacy Award at its 22nd annual Dickens Dinner on Dec. 5.

(2008 Dec 8 / Pat Diroll)
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_11173266
Also: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2008/12/two-of-the-grea.html

PROMETHEUS TRIO, PLUS HORN, GIVES CONTRASTING CONCERT

Quote:
"The four players returned to the stage with a completely engaging encore of "God Only Knows," music by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, arranged by Tisdel."


(2008 Dec 9 / Elaine Schmidt)
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/35781694.html

THE OXFORD AMERICAN BOOK OF GREAT MUSIC WRITING

Edited by Marc Smirnoff, foreword by Van Dyke Parks

Quote:

"Not only have a breathtaking array of musical giants come from the South—think Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers, to name just obvious examples—but so have a breathtaking array of American music genres. From blues to rock & roll to jazz to country to bluegrass—and areas in between—it all started in the American South.

(2008 Dec 3 / New York Times 2007?)
http://www.uapress.com/titles/fa08/smirnoff.html

NEIL SEDAKA TALKS BEFORE PLAYING STATEN ISLAND

(Photo: Neil Sedaka rehearsing with The Cookies, early 60s)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- Celebrated songwriter and performer Neil Sedaka is a busy dude. Apparently selling 50 million records, charting almost 40 Top 40 hits, and staying in the business for 50 years isn't enough.Sedaka will be performing on Staten Island for the first time ever this weekend, as part of the classy annual St. George Theatre Gala. In anticipation of this historic visit, we spoke to Sedaka about his upcoming children's album, his love for Russian classical composers, and his stand by pre-performance cocktail.

(2008 Dec 4 / Ben Johnson)
http://www.silive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/12/neil_sedaka_talks_before_playi.html

CLASS FITS ‘AN INVITATION’

“An Invitation” (Everloving) is a song cycle of sorts, a collaboration between Inara George and Van Dyke Parks. George is the daughter of Little Feat guitarist Lowell George and one-half of the jazz-pop-electronica duo Bird & The Bee; Parks has contributed production for several decades worth of acclaimed recordings from The Beach Boys “Smile” to his own “Song Cycle.”

(2008 Dec 4 / Jahontan Valley News)
http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20081204/NEWS01/812049942/1047&title=Class%20fits%20‘An%20Invitation’%20and%20‘To%20Survive

DARLENE LOVE’S ANNUAL CLASSIC CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCE MOVES FROM NEW YORK’S LINCOLN CENTER TO BERGENPAC IN ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY

Darlene Love celebrates her new holiday album while bringing her annual show to bergenPAC with some very special guests.
The holiday season doesn’t begin without Darlene performing her hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on the Letterman Show.
Other hits include “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “The Boy I’m Gonna Marry” and “He’s a Rebel.”
(2008 Dec 4 / Mel Fabrikant)
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20081204152420941

THE FILM STRIP: ARTISTS IN 'CADILLAC RECORDS' ARE SUPERHEROES SAY JEFFREY WRIGHT & MOS DEF

Jeffrey Wright can currently be seen in three movies starting Friday.
Having played great characters before, portraying Muddy Waters in “Cadillac Records” is one of Wright’s proudest moments however.
He described the experience of working on “Cadillac Records,” where the lives of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Etta James were illuminated, as remarkable.

(2008 Dec 4 / Marie Moore)
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur49128.cfm

'THAT LUCKY OLD SUN' DVD TO BE RELEASED ON JANUARY 27, 2009

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (Top40 Charts/ Capitol/ EMI) - Capitol/EMI will release a new Brian Wilson DVD entitled That Lucky Old Sun on January 27, 2009.
A companion to Wilson's critically-acclaimed That Lucky Old Sun album, released September 2 on CD, vinyl and digitally, the DVD features more than two and a half hours of content, including a full-length live performance of the album, a new feature-length documentary and additional behind-the-scenes footage from the album's recording sessions, and some of Wilson's recently filmed promotional performances and interviews.

(2008 Dec 3 / top40charts.com)
http://top40-charts.com/news/Oldies/Brian-Wilson-That-Lucky-Old-Sun-DVD-To-Be-Released-On-January-27-2009/44642.html

AN EVENING WITH BRIAN WILSON

(Grammy Museum, LA: Jan. 15, 8 p.m.) Santelli will interview the legendary artist, who will give the first public concert in the museum’s 200-seat theater.
The session promises a Q&A with audience members as well. Admission is $20 for non-members, and on-sale information has not yet been released.

(2008 Dec 2 / Todd Martens)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2008/12/grammy-museum-h.html

CULTURE PLAYS COUNTERMELODY AT NEW GRAMMY MUSEUM

LOS ANGELES — The Pixies, Itzhak Perlman, Ludacris, Brad Paisley, Madonna and Yo-Yo Ma typically wouldn't share a marquee, but they're in perfect harmony under the Grammy Museum roof.

•Wonder how Smokey Robinson came up with Tracks of My Tears? Brian Wilson, Isaac Hayes, Ludacris and Waylon Jennings, among others, explain how they composed famous tunes at the Songwriters' Mezzanine listening stations.

(2008 Dec 3 / Edna Gundersen)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-12-02-grammy-museum_N.htm

WAR CHILD - HEROES CD

War Child are proud to announce the release of their biggest and most ambitious album to date. Heroes, released by EMI's Parlophone label features a unique and unprecedented collaboration between the biggest names in music history and today's hottest artists, working with a concept that mirrors one of the intrinsic aims of War Child's efforts in war zones across the world - to place faith in the next generation.

The concept of Heroes is that the biggest legends in music, including Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Brian Wilson and The Clash, select one of the classic tracks from their own songwriting canon, and nominate an artist from the next generation to create a modern reworking of that classic song.

(2008 Nov / ILikeMusic.com)
http://www.ilikemusic.com/music_news/War_Child_Heroes-6019/1

UPDATE (2009 Jan 12): The album will be released in February.

The tracklisting of the War Child 'Heroes' album will be:
Beck - Bob Dylan's 'Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat'
Scissor Sisters - Roxy Music's 'Do The Strand'
Lily Allen ft Mick Jones - The Clash's 'Straight To Hell'
Duffy - Wings' 'Live And Let Die'
Elbow - U2's 'Running To Stand Still'
TV On The Radio - David Bowie's ''Heroes''
Hot Chip - Joy Division's 'Transmission'
The Kooks - The Kinks' 'Victoria'
Estelle - Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition'
Rufus Wainwright - Brian Wilson's 'Wonderful/Song For Children'
Peaches - Iggy And The Stooges' 'Search And Destroy'
The Hold Steady - Bruce Springsteen's 'Atlantic City'
The Like - Elvis Costello's 'You Belong To Me'
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - The Ramones' 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker'
Franz Ferdinand - Blondie's 'Call Me'

FROM SURF ROCK TO DOO WOP

"Encomium in Memorium" pays tribute to Jan Berry of the 1960s duo Jan and Dean.
Producers Cameron Michael Parkes and Mark A. Moore collected 30 tracks from Berry's personal music archive and reexamined the songs, adding their own vocals and playing, with the help of a few guest artists.
Album includes audio montages of Jan in the studio with Dean, Brian Wilson and more

(2008 Nov 27 / Carla Kucinski Seward)
http://www.gotriad.com/content/2008/11/26/article/local_spins_old_stone_revue

tip: http://www.jananddean-janberry.com/

THE FIREMAN - ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS

Gaze into the colorful canvas of Paul McCartney's side-project's latest album. Be careful, you may not want to look away.

When I first knew about The Fireman, I had no idea that it was actually a side-project by Paul McCartney and producer Youth. And when I knew about the type of music The Fireman made, I was baffled. Paul McCartney making electronic music? I later found out that he already has recorded two albums under The Fireman name: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes (1998). Then I found out that a third album of the same type of music was going to be released: Electric Arguments. Having never listened to the first two albums before, I thought that listening to Electric Arguments would require previous ear-training from the other albums to get used to the fact that this was going to be Paul McCartney playing a type of music I was not used to listening to him play. But after giving Electric Arguments a spin, any previous misconceptions about what Paul McCartney’s music should sound like came tumbling down.

Electric Arguments is a feast for the ears. It’s a brilliant ...

(2008 Nov 11 /Aaron Mayagoitia)
http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/91274

GOOD VIBRATIONS

Beach Boys’ Mike Love has fond memories of Worcester

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were younger? You won’t hear Mike Love singing such a lament, although he does use phrases such as “back in the day” and “those were the days” once in a while. Instead, Love, 67, a founding member of the Beach Boys, looks back with satisfaction at the group’s successes and enjoys the fact that people are still playing Beach Boys songs to this day.

The other day he noted that his daughter, Ambha, had come home from her fourth-grade class where the children had voted the Beach Boys number “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (which continues “if we were older and we wouldn’t have to wait so long”) favorite class song.

(2008 Nov 30 / Richard Duckett)
http://www.telegram.com/article/20081130/NEWS/811300437/1110

Behind The Sounds: Wouldn't It Be Nice

1966

Written by: Brian Wilson,Tony Asher,Mike Love



http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=ofByti7A4uM&fmt=18

POP SURF CULTURE: BOOK REVIEW

West Hollywood, California – “Pop Surf Culture” by Santa Monica Press is most certainly a one-of-a-kind, splendidly crafted full-color book.

The authors hypothesize that “The majesty of the vast Pacific Ocean, from the perspective of the Greater Los Angeles area, is truly the source of all inspiration in pop surf culture.”

(2008 nov 27 / Robert Reincke)

http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=2917

RIVERS CUOMO (WEEZER)

will be releasing a Beach Boys cover song, "Don't Worry Baby" on his new album.

(2008 nov 25)
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1304419,SHO-Sunday-spins30.article

GUY PEELLAERT, A BELGIAN PAINTER DIED

Artist pushed envelop of taste and sensibilities with flamboyant rockers

GUY LOUIS PEELLAERT BELGIAN PAINTER 6-4-1934 — 17-11-2008

Guy Peellaert, a Belgian painter-collagist whose fervid imagination produced surreal album covers for John Lennon, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, as well as images for a seminal book about rock mythology, Rock Dreams, has died of kidney cancer in Paris. He was 74

(2008 nov 26 / Joe Holley and Adam Bernstein)http://www.theage.com.au/world/artist-pushed-envelop-of-taste-and-sensibilities-with-flamboyant-rockers-20081125-6hjp.html?page=-1

*

Google Tip: Guy Peelaart images

WILSON FINDS HIS PLACE IN THE SUN

BRIAN WILSON: Orpheum Theatre, Wednesday night

...

The Brian Wilson diehards were abuzz during intermission. They couldn't believe how great the former Beach Boys mastermind sounded and acted during his first set.
"I haven't seen him engaged like this in a long time," someone marveled in the lobby.
"I know, and he sounds really natural tonight, too," his friend said

(2008 nov 22 / James Reed)

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/11/22/wilson_finds_his_place_in_the_sun/

Aumbop Info

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This is a news blog, put together by a dedicated fan. 90% are short previews, sometimes with quotes, from other news, or music links to YouTube.

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The Beach Boys:

They are an American band that started in 1961 in Hawhtorne, California

Five of the surviving Beach Boys on the rooftop of Capitol Records in Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 13, 2006
(Brian Wilson, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine and Mike Love)
Here's an interesting link: http://thejonstebbins.com/reunion.html

Original members:

Brian Wilson (June 20, 1942) (composer/producer/arranger/keyboards/bass/vocals)
The Beach Boy. Today: The Brian Wilson Band.

†Dennis Wilson (December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983)
(drums/vocals)

†Carl Wilson (December 21, 1946 – February 6, 1998)
(guitar/vocals)

Mike Love (March 15, 1941) (vocals)
Today: member of the touring Beach Boys.

Al Jardine (September 3, 1942) (guitar/vocals)
Today: Al Jardine's Endless Summer Band.

Bruce Johnston (June 27, 1942) (bass/keyboards/vocals)
BB member 1965-1971, 1979-now. Today: member of the touring Beach Boys.

Lesser known parttime members:

David Marks (August 22, 1948) (surf guitar)
BB member (1962-1963, 1998-1999). Today: tours sometimes with the Beach Boys or with Al Jardine's Endless Summer Band.

Ricky Fataar (September 5, 1952) (drums/vocals)
BB member (1970-1974). Did work as producer and drummer for people like Bonnie Raitt, Tim Finn, Crowded House.

Blondie Chaplin (July 7, 1951) (guitar/lead vocals)
BB member (1970-1973). Today: is sometimes backing vocalist and guitarist for the Rolling Stones.

Album selection:
Surfer Girl 1963
Little Deuce Coupe 1963
Today 1965
Pet Sounds 1966 'essential'
Friends 1968
20/20 1969
Sunflower 1970 'essential'
Surf's Up 1971
Holland 1973
Love You 1977

The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson SMiLE records:

'various Smile bootlegs' 1966-1967 'essential'
Smile Smile 1967
Smile tracks on various albums such as:
The Good Vibrations box 1993 'essential'
solo Brian Wilson Presents Smile 2004 (DVD version 2005 is the best) 'essential'
solo Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun 2008

+ http://beachboysguide.smileysmile.net/index.php/Main_Page
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys_discography
+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys