Interview with Emm Smith (Stereo Moon)

(This feature first appeared in issue 62 of Shindig! magazine. For the full unpublished interview with Emm Smith click over the jump at the bottom of this post. Photo by Mat Manser.)

 

Canadian sonic adventurers go back to the future and top up their studio tans with Duncan Fletcher.

“Ultimately I want to trip out like when you're dreaming, which can be the most amazing journey. Jumping from one adventure to another, seeing things appear in multiple places or configurations. Using the recording studio as an instrument. A Jerry Garcia quote says it best - 'mixing it for the hallucinations'” So says Stereo Moon mainman Emm Smith talking about modular recording, the technique pioneered by Brian Wilson on 'Good Vibrations' and SMiLE, and also utilised on Stereo Moon's latest outing, The Shape Of Psych To Come EP. Over its four tracks the band pick up the psych baton that was dropped by mainstream musicians in the late '60s. “I think in a Brian Wilson interview from that time he mentions the future of music being psychedelic and it doesn't happen. That future is a lie to some.”

Aside from the tightly arranged psych-pop of lead track 'Requiem For The Non-Believers', the band get to stretch out with free-form jamming and studio experimentation on the EP's instrumental tracks. They've also been obsessively re-working a debut LP, Smoking Shake By The Riverside, which should be ready for mixing next year. “There's a lyric in one of the songs that says, 'I've been driving myself insane but I wouldn't have it any other fucking way'. There's everything from pedal steel to horns, strings, double bass, organ, piano, banjo. I was laid-off from work in 2015 so production has slowed down. It costs money to rent a vibraphone for example, the next thing to get excited about! All the exotic instrumentation can be hard to find, or even people who can play them!”

Live shows are a less disciplined affair. Says Emm, “Live I’m going for more of a noisy Velvet Underground sound with psychedelic organ. For me the VU and The Beach Boys are the two ends of the spectrum I want to explore.”


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Mike Love - Good Vibrations: My Life As A Beach Boy

(This review first appeared in issue 60 of Shindig! magazine)

Faber & Faber

More villain than hero. That's how the world views Mike Love in the pantomime story of The Beach Boys. This book attempts to set the record straight, with Love placing the biggest blame for the band's fractious nature on the Wilson brothers' father Murry, a control freak whose bad management decisions would haunt the band over the ensuing decades.

He's equally candid about his own shortcomings, with evidence of his contradictory personality throughout; the most business-minded Beach Boy, but one with an interest in meditation and astrology; a clean-living, drug-free vegetarian with anger issues; a serial womaniser who won't live with a woman outside of marriage. As self-appointed “road-dog” Love has worked harder than anyone in the band to keep their stock high, a role he claims he was forced to take after missing out on songwriting credits and losing rights to the back catalogue. (Murry Wilson again!).

Aside from the score settling, all the juicy stuff is here – making Pet Sounds and SMiLE, lawsuits, tour punch-ups, Maharishi, Eugene Landy and Charlie Manson. Love may never win a popularity contest when up against Team Brian, but he's good company and disarmingly gracious when it comes to his extended family of bandmates, complimenting all three Wilson brothers, and expressing palpable sadness over Brian's mental decline and the deaths of Dennis and Carl.

As rock's most dysfunctional family band, The Beach Boys' story is one we'll never tire of, and from this angle it's less black and white than some observers would have us believe.

The Sunchymes' debut album available for free download!

In a week when we've sadly lost Michael Brown of The Left Banke, it's of some comfort to know that his legacy will live on through the countless musicians he influenced. One of the better bands that understood his genius are Northampton's baroque-popsters The Sunchymes. The band's music is an effortless mix of '60s west cost sunshine pop, English psych, with gentle baroque touches and sumptuous vocal harmonies.

The band have recently made their 2009 debut album Shifting Sands available for free download via their Bandcamp page. Fans of The Beach Boys, psych-era Beatles, Jellyfish and indeed The Left Banke are well advised to check it out, along with the follow up album, 2012's Let Your Free Flag Fly. Enjoy!

Click here for The Sunchymes website.
Click here for The Sunchymes on Bandcamp.
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The Beach Boys: Made In California (6 CD Box Set) out on 2nd September

The Beach Boys have opened their archives for a new career-spanning, six-CD collection titled Made In California, capping the legendary band’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. Made In California features more than seven and a half hours of music, including more than 60 previously unreleased tracks.  The deluxe set is presented in a high school annual-inspired hardbound book with personal recollections from the band’s members, replicated classic artwork and memorabilia, photos from the band’s archive, and handwritten yearbook-style inscriptions from Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks.

Produced by The Beach Boys and The SMiLE Sessions’ GRAMMY® Award-winning team of Mark Linett, Alan Boyd, and Dennis Wolfe, Made In California chronologically charts the 50-year career of America’s Band, from their earliest demos to their most recent recordings.  With huge hits and rare gems including never-before-released original songs, home demos, alternate takes and mixes, and live concert, television and radio performances, the set showcases the breadth and diversity of The Beach Boys’ recorded catalogue and illustrates the band’s unique and evocative West Coast story.

Made In California’s memorabilia includes Brian Wilson’s 1959 high school essay titled “My Philosophy,” which is reproduced in the collection’s book in its original handwritten form (the original is currently on display in The GRAMMY Museum’s yearlong Beach Boys exhibit celebrating the band’s 50-year career).

Made In California’s previously unreleased and long sought-after recordings include “Goin’ To The Beach,” “California Feelin’,” “Soul Searchin’,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” and “You’re Still A Mystery,” among others.  The set also debuts 17 unreleased live recordings, and features a special ‘From The Vaults’ disc of rarities selected by the band and the producers with longtime Beach Boys fans in mind.

One of the most iconic bands in popular music history and America’s first pop band to reach the 50 year milestone, The Beach Boys have performed and recorded the world’s favourite soundtrack to summer since 1961.

Siblings in Rock - A Video Playlist

Here's a video playlist for y'all. This could have been so much longer but I kept nodding off while trawling through clips of The Corrs. Please add some suggestions for additions in the comments box, I may add them to the list. I'm gonna dedicate this to my brothers, you drive me up the wall sometimes but I love you to bits. Enjoy!

 Click over the jump for my video playlist