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http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2008/06/beach-boys-wilson-bands-album

The lure of the beach
Jude Rogers

Published 12 June 2008

 A new generation of US bands cites the Beach Boys as a huge inspiration. Why now?

 
Ten years after Oasis soaked up the multicol oured madness of the Beatles and Blur updated the woozy whimsy of the Kinks, a very different kind of psychedelia is on the tip of every cool musician's tongue. Step forward, the harmony-drenched sounds of new American psychedelia, and its own generation of alternative rock groups. This scene, led by bands such as Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective, shares one inspiration: the more experimental sounds of the late-career Beach Boys. But why the Beach Boys and why now?

Robin Pecknold of Seattle's Fleet Foxes, the hirsute, baroque pop quintet that Mojo magazine recently called "America's next great band", has one theory. "The Beach Boys' music soaks up all of America, from the sunny sound of Hawaii to the folk songs of the south to the intelligence of the north-east. In hard times, it's about remembering the romance of the country, and also about the power of the human voice to convey those emotions."

In 1966, the Beach Boys had entered a strange phase in their career. While political and sexual revolutions were empowering the group's contemporaries, Brian Wilson had begun an intense collaboration as a songwriter with the songwriter and arranger Van Dyke Parks. The plan was to make a lush concept album called Smile, one that Wilson described as "a teenage symphony to God", inspired by the band's single "Good Vibrations". Back then, the album never materialised. Under the weight of Wilson's mental illness and drug abuse, and the band's internal wrangling, the recording sessions fell apart, leaving a mysterious trail of songs that would be revisited by Wilson only years later. His version of Smile was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in London in February 2004, and finally released the following September. Not surprisingly, its influence quickly bubbled into the mainstream.

Pecknold, the son of baby boomers who themselves grew up in the late 1960s, remembers hearing bootlegs of Smile long before 2004. As he talks about the effect they had on him, his voice glows with happiness. "They just blew my mind. They were so inventive and committed - the product of a man who just couldn't do anything else. There was also an incredible honesty to it, which we and other bands relate to. Because in American music today, it's almost like there's a trend against irony."

Today, as in the late Sixties, America is a country whose reputation has been battered by an unpopular war. Perhaps this is why bands have been driven towards the innocence and purity of their musical roots. This is certainly the case with Fleet Foxes, who mix Beach Boys-inspired, spiritual harmonies with folk and hymnal flavours that suggest something deeper in their cultural make-up. And it doesn't matter to these bands that such influences were deeply unfashionable until recently.

Other harmony-loving, influential young American groups such as Midlake and Band of Horses take another Beach Boy, Brian's little brother Dennis, as a huge inspiration. Though best known for his early death in 1983 and his brief friendship with Charles Manson, Dennis Wilson was also a cult solo performer. After sharing a tense childhood with his brother in the shadow of their controlling father, Murry, he made his classic debut album, Pacific Ocean Blue, in 1977. It is a long-deleted LP full of heartfelt, psychedelic soul songs. Fans have clamoured in recent years for its re-release, and it at last emerges this month.

The upbringing of Brian and Dennis Wilson has another link with the new generation of psychedelic groups: almost all of them have had intensely musical childhoods. Take the influential Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear, whose electronic take on the Beach Boys' late-Sixties reverb has resulted in two gorgeous albums, Horn of Plenty (2004) and Yellow House (2006). Their frontman, Ed Droste, another huge fan of Brian Wilson, has talked proudly about his late grandfather being a professor of music at Harvard for 40 years, his mother being a music teacher who plays the autoharp, and the constant singing he enjoyed at home as a child.

Elsewhere in New York, the avant-garde Animal Collective are one of the most fashionable groups around, a shifting band of musicians who all met at school in Baltimore and learned classical instruments. To date, they have made eight experimental albums that warp Beach Boys harmonies into unsettling shapes, but only recently have they penetrated the mainstream press.

Animal Collective's biggest related success has been Person Pitch (2007), the third solo album by one of its members, Panda Bear, which the critic Simon Reynolds described as sounding "like the Beach Boys if they'd joined Hare Krishna". It earned five-star ratings in the Observer and the Independent and made the top tens of end-of-year polls, all for a record inspired by the birth of Lennox's daughter, Nadja, and a wealth of deeply spiritual, innocent harmonies.

Perhaps it is a result of the Beach Boys' influence on pop culture that this summer you can't get away from them. Besides the critical adoration being heaped on the Dennis Wilson reissue, it is encouraging that Brian Wilson himself has become as industrious as he was in the mid-Sixties. On 19 May, he announced his return to Capitol Records, where the Beach Boys made their first album, Surfin' Safari, in 1962. On 1 September, he will release his latest solo album, That Lucky Old Sun. Like Smile, it was written and recorded with Van Dyke Parks, who is experiencing a career renaissance of his own after arranging the folk harpist Joanna Newsom's hugely acclaimed Ys and collaborating with the British psychedelic group the Shortwave Set.

"It's a great honour to be here," said Wilson at the press conference to announce That Lucky Old Sun, rocking gently on his feet like a child. Bright yellow banners like party decorations welcomed him home. Then he spoke some words that said everything about his past, his present and the effects of his legacy on the young generation: "It's a very sentimental time in my life."

"Pacific Ocean Blue" by Dennis Wilson (Sony BMG) is released on 16 June

Hey great article - thanks for posting that. Can't wait for the new Fleet Foxes album.

I"m not familiar with these groups - are they really any good, comparable to 66-71 Beach Boys?  Or this just music critic hype?

Music critic hype.

I used to own a Grizzly Bear album. Very good, I must say!

have to agree...

What about this group The Explorers Club that I saw mentioned on the Blueboard?

:lol

I agree that most of these are the typical reference-drop bands. Nothing wrong with them--I'm always glad to see bands working whether I like them or not (The world doesn't need more accountants, lawyers or customer service representatives--it needs more working artists!)--but if you're looking for something anywhere near the quality of the late 60s Beach Boys, these aren't the bands. They're just bands that like that period of music, and in whom you can hear the influence. Personally, I think looking for "today's [old band]" is always a mistake, because you're inherently going backward. I believe in continuing to enjoy what has come before and listening to what comes now for what it is, and letting it become what it becomes as time passes. Maybe they're passing fads, maybe they grow in stature with age, whatever. It's music: enjoy what you enjoy, don't listen to what you don't enjoy.

ooopss I quoted myself...duh!  :)

I dunno ... I see what you're saying (I mean, yeah, the very first cut starts with the "Be My Baby" drumbeat and contains a "Please Let Me Wonder" guitar break), but I absolutely love their album. I find I'm totally willing to forgive them for what you might call their lack of originality, because they do such a good job recreating that '60s Beach Boys sound I love so much. They really have the production and vocal skills to pull it off in my opinion.

And I like the songs they write too, which helps a lot ... I wouldn't want to listen to a note-perfect recreation of the Beach Boys sound if the songs were merda.

I haven't stopped listening to it since I got it. Bought it on both CD and LP too.  8)

I gave this Explorer's club a listen on their Myspace... I think they are so totally ripping the Beach Boys sound that it is hard to listen to. The songwriting is not of very high quality since it sounds like they are just hitting basic chords to harmonise basic harmonies over them. This is a band that sounds like they are straight out from some music academy. The songwriting is so stuck to formula and the melodies have no imagination. Still, I must say the songs are way better than most mainstream music and it makes me annoyed to think this band wont ever make it in the mainstream because MTV would propably never play their songs. Anyway, I'm gonna definitely listen to these songs again. it's cool that there are bands that atleast try to make good music even though it is ripping of someone else.

That's just my opinion and feel free to disagree.

Hey, that's one reason why I like reading posts here ... To get other people's opinions.

You (and others) and I may disagree somewhat on the Explorers Club, and that's fine ... I can actually see where you are coming from. Their record appeals to me strongly but I can imagine the "knockoff" element may get under other people's skin. From my perspective ... it's just nice to have fresh music in that style, with songs I consider to be catchy and memorable. Your mileage may vary, as they say!


Having listened to the whole album many times now, I do have to take specific issue with this statement. Some of the songs do have rather simple harmonic structures, but not all of them.

As soon as I heard the cut "do you love me?"....wow...all I could think was "this is so ripping off "It's Ok."  The underlying horn line, the fat farting shortening bread bass line, the background yip yip yip lines etc...I kind of had a sour taste in my mouth.  It was alright, but kind of like a novelty song.  I was underwhelmed and not too impressed.  something to listen to a few times, but nothing of note.  But each to their own.

Well, I think about this way, if it's having people hear Beach Boys that normally wouldn't because of this music, then it served it's purpose regardless.

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I'll take the risk.

Grizzly Bear is a definite lock for inspiration of this ilk.  Great songs, beautiful arrangements (both music and vocals) and interesting production.  'Yellow House' & 'Veckatimest' are stellar, multiple listening albums, and the 'Friend' EP has some brilliant tracks too especially their cover of "He Hit Me".

The Welsh band Super Furry Animals are big BB fans too.  On "Love Kraft" they have a song "Atomik Lust" which deliberately copies the sound of "Feel Flows" while containing such lyrics as "let's get our sh*t together..."

Then of course there are those we would call "veterans", like the High Llamas or Lindsey Buckingham who, on his solo records, still favors the bright, punchy sound of the "Love You" era when he's not doing the Mac legacy tour thing.  On his new LP he even does the "volume gain" trick Brian used on "Do You Wanna Dance" to make the choruses louder.

(I see the filter still doesn't like "sh*t")

Ditto, babe!

"Music Critic Hype" - Isnt that exactly what they are supposed to do? You guys crack me up.

For what it's worth. I LOVE that Explorer's Club album.
Who cares if it's somewhat derivative. I think most of those songs are picking up where IMO the Beach Boys left off.
The songs on the MySpace aren't the best one. Give the whole album a listen. It's fantastic - and certainly not just "music academy' stuff.

A lot of those chord changes/choices are pure BW. If it was derivative and BAD it wouldn't be getting so much positive attention from reluctant critics looking to tear down a soundalike band.

I  have to come down on the side of the pro-Explorers Club party. They are definitely derivative, and the first time I heard them I felt a bit sick and thought it was all a bit too much, but having listened to the album a lot I really like it. The songs are for the most part good, and the harmonies are just wonderful.

Do give them a chance. I can't wait for a new Explorers Club album.

Oops!  Double post...

It's just BB fans trying to justify their general lack of coolness by saying "such and such indie rock group loves the Beach Boys." Most of us give up on that eventually.

That's quite cynical.  While I agree that a lot of people do look for derivative or "inspired by" acts to justify their taste in music not all comparisons are unwarranted or disingenuous, especially when the bands themselves have admitted the influence.

Absolutely not. Promoters, yes. Music critics? No. If they are doing "hype," they fucking suck.

Of course, most of them fucking suck.

I heard of a lot of people who are into modern- kind've underground- bands cite how some groups sound just like the Beach Boys, and I don't hear it at all. The Beach Boys we know as avid fans are something waaayyy different than anything that ever was or is. We know the backing tracks, counter harmonies, rotating speakers, Johnny Carson, and tracks 3 & 4 of Smiley Smile inside and out. Being such a BB snob I have to sigh when I hear someone say, "so and so sounds just like the Beach Boys..."   :P

But really, it isn't much different than how every band with a pair of guys singing in thirds gets called "Beatlesque," or how anyone even moderately literate on an acoustic guitar is "Dylanesque," or how anyone with pounding drums or a high-tenor singer gets the Zeppelin comparisons, or how electric 12-strings get one immediately called a Byrds-like band, or ... (stereotypes continue ad infinitum).

True Story, but I feel people are much more familiar with the Beatles, Zeppelin, and Dylan compared to the Beach Boys...

Somewhat derivative is the understatement of the century. Their songs are blatant ripoffs on Beach Boys songs.

So sue them. Less of the sour grapes. If you like beautiful, wistful songs, with exquisity-sung harmonies then you'll like the Explrers Club.

Some other modern bands that have been influenced by the BBs: Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, Grandaddy, Pollyphonic Spree, High Llammas and the Sonic Youth. Personally, I love all of these bands. Including the ones mentioned before. In the 1970s through 90s, it seemed there were much more Beatles influenced bands. It seems that there have been more BB influenced bands in recent years which has improved music IMO.

I second your statement!! 8)