2011/07/30

Brian Wilson delivers Beach Boys hits at Meijer Gardens with big boost from polished band

July 29, 2011 -> mlive.com
The Beach Boys' Mike Love revealed on Billboard.com this week that plans are afoot for a full-fledged Beach Boys reunion on a new album to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary.

Of course, group mastermind Brian Wilson never mentioned that possibility in a recent Press interview, so it's anybody's guess whether these iconic artists can actually patch things up and work together again on new Beach Boys material.

Anyway, if Wilson's performance Friday night at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is any indication, the enigmatic singer has grown plenty comfortable flying solo and unfurling Beach Boys classics without his former bandmates.

2011/07/27

Brian Wilson returns to St. Charles to perform, record.

27/7/2011 -> dailyherald.com

When Brian Wilson arrives in St. Charles this weekend for a Saturday show at the Arcada, it will be something of a homecoming for the former Beach Boy, who recorded his 1998 album “Imagination” in a house just a few miles from where he'll be playing.

But what really should have his Illinois fans excited is the fact the legendary songwriter liked recording here so much, he plans to do it again.

2011/07/18

DVD REVIEW - WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

The story of Dewey Cox, a fictional US rock musician, is a close parallel of 2005's Walk the Line, a biography of Johnny Cash, but it is also a parody of the biopic genre as a whole.

(2008 Dec 5 / Vladimir Kozlov)http://www.mnweekly.ru/dvdrev/20081205/55359832.html

+ Black Sheep Music Video (Van Dyke Parks / Brian Wilson style)

2011/07/13

The legendary photographer Guy Webster

One of the early innovators of rock-and-roll photography, renowned photographer Guy Webster has spanned the worlds of music, films and politics in a stellar 40-year career. While shooting album covers and billboards for groups that included The Rolling Stones, The Mamas and the Papas, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel and Chicago, he also photographed such film legends as Rita Hayworth, Dean Martin and Natalie Wood.

about Guy Webster

+ interview from pipeline-operaglass.moonfruit.com

+ SweetThingBlog from daughter Jessie Webster

The photographs from the 1967 SMiLE booklet were by Guy Webster. Jessie Webster is now also involved with the release of The SMiLE Sessions 2011. Design, artwork, photo..? It's top secret!

2011/07/12

THE PUZZLE OF BRIAN WILSON’S SMILE

IN A RADIO PROGRAM broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in the early 1990s, Beach Boys band member Bruce Johnston was asked about the status of Brian Wilson’s legendary unfinished album Smile. This is what he said:

"It’s not far from completion. That could be completed if he wanted to put the energy into it. I don’t think I’d attempt to do it. ’Cause it’s not my work, you know. I’d rather he did it. It’s in fragments. It’s just a bunch of fragments. And they’re really good, really superb . . . fragments."

2005 Nov 11 - Rob C. Wegman
http://www.princeton.edu/~rwegman/lectures/smile.htm

Wrecking Crew Movie Still Unreleased

07.06.2011 -> gibson.com
The collective of Los Angeles studio musicians dubbed “The Wrecking Crew” have earned tons of respect in the music community – and yet most of the music-loving public has no idea who most of these people were.
Sure, they know the songs by Frank Sinatra or The Beach Boys, but they’re not nearly as familiar with Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye or guitarist Tommy Tedesco. And that’s something Tommy’s son Denny wanted to change

MADNESS AND GENIUS ARE CLOSE RELATIONS IN THE CREATIVE ARTS

It's often said that there is a fine line between lunacy and brilliance, but mental illness can actually be an artist's inspiration.

May 31, 2010 David Porter
http://personalitymooddisorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/madness-and-genius-are-close-relations-in-the-creative-arts