Do It Again: A Tribute to Pet Sounds

[mr_j]

i just got this info in an email, and i thought i'd pass it on, as it's *very* interesting



If there are three tittles you will always see at the top of those “best records ever” lists, “Pet Sounds” is one of them. All the music magazines that matter, here in UK and far away on up the road love it, choose it, point it. And still analyse it, looking for new hidden secrets. No other recording like the masterpiece of The Beach Boys symbolises the transition to the adulthood that pop music experimented during the 60s. Its songs were an ode to a wasteful California that was saying goodbye to its hedonistic fantasy. The very last second before opening the eyes to the raw reality of the post-hippism. No other record has been so dissected. Thanks to that, Brian Wilson has mounted the melody winners’ podium. In those tracks, he squeezed out to the maximum his two bigger talents: composition and production. He made a masterful mirrow of the harmonic accessibility and symphonic ambition. Brian had no academic training, but with his visionary mathematical instincts he made possible unrepeatable recording sessions. Musicians that had played with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole followed his sonic instructions until the end. The result: 13 pieces of music released in 1966 with a timeless emotional value. The rest is history. As for example, the fact that they are the main influence behind The Beatles’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band”. That’s why it was more than a diplomatic compliment when some years ago Paul McCartney sentenced that “God Only Knows” it’s his favourite song ever. The same can be said about this affirmation made by legendary producer and “fifth Beatle” George Martin: “If I only had to choose one person as the main genius of popular music, I’d choose Brian Wilson”. Talking about music legends of the 20th century, the classical director and composer Leonard Bernstein did put out these words: “Brian Wilson is one of the most important modern musicians, his singing is very poetic and shows beauty, even if he’s doing it from the dark side. He’s a symbol of the new things in pop culture, and also a symbol of the change that a lot of people see in the future”. Forty years later, “Pet Sounds” is still gaining reputation and validity. Its shadow is getting longer, the outstanding bands of the present mention it constantly, the critics do the same. Did we say forty years? So, it’s time for a tribute. That’s what has thought the spanish label Houston Party Records. It had to be something special, so the company contacted some of its favourites alternative/indie stars. All of them said yes to the project. They were easy to convince: everybody was a fan of the album. In “Do It Again: A Tribute To Pet Sounds” there are renditions that chase the footsteps of the original versions, but from a sort of parallel roads, while others break the mould directly. The sum of different personalities provides a sense of constant surprise: just imagine Will Oldham and Patrick Wolf in the same record, or Nobody and Daniel Johnston. We feel seated in front of a kaleidoscope of musical points of views. Interesting how all these artists talk to us from that galaxy where Brian’s mind lived in 1966, but using refreshing and personal turnabouts. We hear idioms these days. Some are stranger (Vic Chesnutt), some ask for a sad waltz (Dayna Kurtz), some prefer a cold loneliness (Micah P. Hinson) than a hotter community (Architecture In Helsinki). Nobody wants to kill the father here (sorry, Mr. Nietzsche), but nobody tries to sell cheap photocopies of him. That’s what happens when you travel with a bunch of people that never subordinate their visions to the conventionalisms, that don’t follow the weak tendencies. Exactly the same artistic ideology that Brian Wilson believed in that 1966.

TRACKLIST:
OLDHAM BROTHERS – Wouldn’t It Be Nice
VIC CHESNUTT – You Still Believe In Me
NOBODY AND MYSTIC CHORDS OF MEMORY WITH FARMER DAVE – That’s Not Me
CENTRO-MATIC – Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
MICAH P. HINSON – I’m Waiting For The Day
ANTENNA SHOES – Let’s Go Away For Awhile
DAYNA KURTZ – Sloop John B
DANIEL JOHNSTON – God Only Knows
MAZARIN – I Know There’s An Answer
JODY WILDGOOSE – Here Today
PATRICK WOLF – I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI – Pet Sounds
THE WEDDING PRESENT – Caroline No

[James]

that's a lovely set of interesting artists doing the songs, and I love Pet Sounds, I really do...but I think it's time to let it rest for a while. There's been so much Brian Wilson the last several years; it's getting a bit....yawn. And I still want to love that stuff....