The Smiley Smile Message Board

Did Brian ever comment or show awareness for the indie/ grunge groups that liked the BBs music?

Well, he was at least aware of the indy-type acts that played at his legendary 1994 tribute show where he first met the Wondermints.
https://variety.com/1994/legit/reviews/tribute-to-brian-wilson-1200439383/

With that said, Brian has never struck me as the sort who knew or particularly cared that, say, Sonic Youth did a dynamite cover of "I Know There's an Answer."

FWIW here's Brian's set from that night:


Brian Wilson - Live in Santa Monica, California (November 3, 1994)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXXe-8czxoY

In his book he mentioned something along the lines of “Some guy named Frank Black covered I Know There’s An Answer with the original lyrics”.

I think Brian stopped paying much attention to whatever was modern (whether indie or otherwise) many many decades ago.

I recall a Facebook thing from like 2014 where someone asked him if he liked any modern/recent stuff, and he named the 80s tune "Take My Breath Away."

 :bw
Thanks for that link. I'd never heard that set before, though I do remember hearing about the event at the time.

Brian's singing style there is pretty typical of that period (cf. the IJWMFTT documentary).

A couple interesing comments by Brian in there... (1) the dedication to Marilyn & her boyfriend... sweet gesture... but a little odd.   This was what 6 months before the Melinda wedding?  I assume Melinda was in the audience, too.  Interesting... Awkward?  Who knows... Give her credit, I guess, for obviously not holding a grudge.

(2) Also interesting that Brian was curious how many "war babies" (approx. born 1941-46) were in the audience... and it was just 3 out of >400?!   Keep in mind that, at the time, he was asking about 48-53 year olds present.  So everyone else was younger?  If so, the median age of Brian's typical audience most definitely aged with him over the next 3 decades.  
*Side note with D-Day anniversary a couple days a way... another reminder of how much time has passed.  D-Day was  50 years in the past when Brian did that show... while it's 80 years in the past now (and they have trouble scraping up a few centenarian or near-centenarian vets for the commemorations).