Brian to discuss 'Pleasure Island' this Saturday.

[The Heartical Don]

Oh, and I'll take the liberty to speculate on the interview Saturday:

'Hey, Brian, welcome to the show. Say, you told us you'll record an album titled 'Pleasure Island' anytime soon. What'll it be like?'
'A real rock 'n' roll album.'
'How's that?'
'That's an album with real rock and roll songs on it.'
'You have any songs ready yet?'
'No.'
'So you're writing them now then?'
'No.'
'You're putting us on, Brian... so you're contemplating ideas then?'
'No.'
'Um... are you certain that the project will be done then?'
'Yes. My wife and my manager told me to do so.'

[Shady]

This could very easily be an amazing album,

I just really want Brian to let loose and be crazy.

[The Heartical Don]

This could very easily be an amazing album,

I just really want Brian to let loose and be crazy.

I hope you are right. I had a beer and another scenario popped up in my head: it'll be a concept album for sure. The title is ironic. The island is Hawaii. And it's about a middle-aged pop icon who's there to rehabilitate under the aegis of a psychologist and his expensive team. Everything will be in it. Teardrops, primal screams, jogging, Mount Wilson, to be hugged in a hammock, the lot.

I would buy it.

[lance]

Personally, I dont really care about the concept or anything--if he is really going to be doing another album, I am excited. The sooner the better, I say.

[The Heartical Don]

Personally, I dont really care about the concept or anything--if he is really going to be doing another album, I am excited. The sooner the better, I say.

Perhaps he'll go back to two albums a year, like in the old days.

[Dancing Bear]

Pleasure Island is the name used in the Disney film adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio for the fictional location called Land of Toys (Italian: Paese dei Balocchi) in the original novel. The size and nature of such location is unclear (the Disney adaptation depicts it as an amusement park, whereas the novel implies it is at least as large as a township); the ambiguity in the original name (paese can mean country or land, but also town or village) adds to the confusion.

Located in the fictional land of Cocagne, Pleasure Island serves as a haven for wayward boys, allowing them to act as they please without recrimination. However, the truer and more sinister purpose of Pleasure Island is eventually revealed as it begins to physically transform the boys into donkeys.

Hmm, Cocagne. Imagine all the subtle references to Brian's lifestyle in the seventies that Benett can make in the lyrics.

[lance]

Personally, I dont really care about the concept or anything--if he is really going to be doing another album, I am excited. The sooner the better, I say.

Perhaps he'll go back to two albums a year, like in the old days.

I wish, but I would be thrilled with one a year...unless they suck, of course.

[buddhahat]

I liked 'Message Man' and 'Just like you and me' more than some of the other songs on TLOS so more of the same would be nice.

Absolutely agree with you there. Message Man is one of my favourite BW solo tunes for sheer up-beatness alone and both the songs you mentioned seemed much more in line with the humorous, quirky 'Love You' Brian than most of the stuff on TLOS so i would definitely hope for more stuff in a similar vein, but I'm not holding my breath.

[onkster]

Hmmmm...wasn't the last album (TLOS) originally announced as being based on "The Little Prince"?  Whatever happened to that?

And how do we make the jump from TLOS to an island-themed album?  Just type 'TLOS' over and over again, no breaks...

[Sheriff John Stone]

I can try and guess the following:

Wurlitzers
Wurlitzer-sounding synthesizers
Moog sounding synths
Manic laughter
Amusing voices asking for tickets
Maybe a rainforest song
Maybe a song about a healthy juice bar
A wistful song at the end as they/we leave the island

That's something I'd like to hear!

[Sheriff John Stone]

Of course this sounds great, if Al can make me go out and specially order his pirate book, I think a random concept album from Brian is more than welcome.

I was in a kindergarten recently, going through some of their books, and came across the Al Jardine Sloop John B book - with CD! Of course, I had to read/listen to it; sounded like some of those tracks from Postcards From California. I was all excited, and had to explain to the teacher who Al Jardine was and everything; she looked at me like I was half nuts....

[Pretty Funky]

Sorry Brian...You snooze, you looze!


Album 'Pleaure Island' released Sept 12.

http://www.whitevilla.nl/view.php?type=image&id=files/release_images/Pleasure+Island+%28Front%29%28500x500%29.jpg

http://www.whitevilla.nl/index.php?id=3&release=124

[Mr. Cohen]

'Hey, Brian, welcome to the show. Say, you told us you'll record an album titled 'Pleasure Island' anytime soon. What'll it be like?'
'A real rock 'n' roll album.'
'How's that?'
'That's an album with real rock and roll songs on it.'
'You have any songs ready yet?'
'No.'

I imagine it like this:
'Say, you told us you'll record an album titled 'Pleasure Island' anytime soon. What'll it be like?'
'A real rock 'n' roll album. Four songs with an electric guitar playing a "chug-a-chug" beat so softly in the background that it pretty much gets lost behind all the other instruments and voices, and four songs with a real driving piano, and probably two ballads.
'So, you mean soft rock?'
'No, rock 'n' roll, like America and Bread, maybe even like ELO on the real rockin' tracks, and of course, some Spector-like rock ballads.'

I'm not hating on Brian Wilson's music, it's just that he never rocks out, so I have no idea what he could mean by a rock 'n' roll album. When he did try to rock out, like on "This Whole World" or "You Need a Mess of Help", he usually produces it so that the rocking parts of the songs are really downplayed. They're still great songs, they're just not what I think of when think of pure rock 'n' roll, more like soft rock. He still hasn't had his "Helter Skelter". They need to just lock him in a room with only an electric guitar, a bass guitar, drums, and a broken amplifier that only plays things LOUDLY, and not let him out until he makes a real rock 'n' roll record (he likes Spector so much, why not a Ramones style track, like "Now I Wanna Eat Some Cake" or "Landy Lobotomy"?). That'll teach 'em.

[Don't Back Down]

and the first single from 'pleasure island'
SMART GIRLS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clju205JUEg

[The Heartical Don]

and the first single from 'pleasure island'
SMART GIRLS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clju205JUEg

Now that is plain mean! 

[Eric Aniversario]

Worst album name I've ever heard. Sounds like a bad 80s hair metal title: now it just needs a chainsaw in some sort of phallic representation near a scantily clad, artificially enhanced female model.

I imagine a cartoon album cover like something from the pages of "Where's Waldo", with a big island and a million things going on there, including rock-n-roll related stuff.

[Andrew G. Doe]

I'd imagine that it's not going to happen.

[mikeyj]

I'd imagine that it's not going to happen.

Agreed

[The Heartical Don]

I'd imagine that it's not going to happen.

Agreed

In the sobriety of a Thursday morning, on the day that I'll see Van Dyke Parks live with an extended chamber orchestra, I agree. 

[Dove Nested Towers]

I'd imagine that it's not going to happen.

You imagine that what's not going to happen? The cover looking like that? The album itself being
made? I'm lost. I guess I'm dumb, but I don't care.

[Andrew G. Doe]

The album. I'm thinking it's just a variation on the rock & roll album that Brian's been talking about recording since spring 1999. Now, if he'd said "well, my wife and managers came up with this cool idea...", I'd lay bets on it actually coming to pass. 

[Pretty Funky]

Yes it could be a answer for all those interviews.

Q: So what's next for you Brian?
A: Well I'm going to make a album called 'Pleasure Island'.
    (Think's...I'm really going to sit on my butt in front of my new big screen TV) 

[endofposts]

Why do people doubt that Brian would at least attempt to make "Pleasure Island"?  He keeps talking about it in interviews, so he might be doing something with it, just as he did TLOS.  It's more concrete than the amorphous rock album.  I'm not saying it will be the same concept in the end, or that any label will ever release it, but I don't doubt he's capable of writing and at least demo-ing it with a little help from his bandmates.  And maybe it will be booted.  Then, years from now, he might re-record all of it after everybody's already heard it, and it will be another recovered lost masterpiece.  Or another GIOMH.

[buddhahat]

Well we know he's just had a fairly productive writing spree, which must have had something to do with Capitol signing him so I wouldn't be surprised if we get another album fairly soon. Two of the stronger tracks from TLOS, imo, were the bonus cuts so I definitely think he has more up his sleeve!

It seems odd to me that he would be so vocal about this new project so soon after the generally well-received TLOS, if it wasn't something that had a chance of happening - why not bask in the glory of TLOS, if you don't have concrete intentions of committing to a new album? After all he's not just loosely saying "I want to do a rock n roll album." He's consistently talking about a themed project with a name, even, by the looks of it, scheduling interviews to discuss it.

C'mon jaded BW fans - a bit of optimism please!!

[matt-zeus]

In my naive optimism i'd like to think he'd put out a brand new album next year, nothing too laboured just a collection of new tunes with a bit of enthusiasm. As long as there's no spoken word interludes on it - I don't want to hear any more of that nonsense!