The Original SMiLE Sessions Finally Getting Released

Back in 1966 The Beach Boys released what many people, myself included, consider to be the greatest album of all time, Pet Sounds.  By the end of that summer they were  already back in the studio working on what was supposed to be an even better follow-up.  The band was really excited about what was supposed to turn into the album SMiLE. The late Dennis Wilson was heard saying, “In my opinion [The SMiLE Sessions] makes Pet Sounds stink — that’s how good it is.”  But due to various business and legal complications, SMiLE, never saw the light of day.  At least not the original recordings.

A few years back, Brian Wilson went back into the studio and took a bunch of those original songs and recorded a new album that he released as SMiLE.  Which was great, but now we are going to get the chance to hear the songs as they were recorded in those original sessions.  Original band members, Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Brian Wilson have gotten together with Capitol/EMI to compile a collection of songs that will be released later this year as The Smile Sessions.  The collection will be released in both physical and digital formats, including a deluxe boxed set that will include “early song drafts, alternate takes, instrumental and vocals-only mixes, and studio chatter.”  This is making my impossible dream of a new Beach Boys album a reality.  Hope you guys are at least half as excited as I am.

Thanks to Paste and Blurt for sharing this wonderful news.

The Beach Boys – Heroes & Villians

Where is Cut Copy going, and will they take us with them?

It seems the internet is booming with excitement over the release of a new single by Melbourne based electronic outfit Cut Copy. Well, I think it’s worth mentioning that IHYEB shares in that excitement. I, Cody, have been posting my favorite Cut Copy remixes for what is now years here on the blog, so now when a new release comes my way I can’t help but be a little over excited.

RW: Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Girls Can Hear Us Remix)

Goodness I’ve been out of action for awhile! I’ve got a few reasons, and a couple more excuses, but I’ll save that for a much larger post that I’m planning.

I’ve been keeping my eye on the remixing scene during my absence, and it’s been pretty slow. No major activity by Soulwax or any other big name, and no real key albums dropping to remix.

Simply: it’s the slow season for remixes.

So let’s just take a moment to relax to some Beach Boys shall we?

Wait a second! This isn’t your grandparent’s Brian Wilson! This cozy little remix is a vibrant seizure of sound that will rock your cortex.

If it doesn’t, I promise a full money back guarantee.

I hope your ears get their moneys worth. Ω

(p.s.) I hate when remixers plug themselves in their own mixes. It’s stupid, and so was the “Mac OS X Alex” voice they used.  So “The Girls Can Hear Us”, if you’re listening… stop it.

3 Song Thursday – Wordless Codas

A coda is a musical means to an end. It’s the final transition into a song’s finish. This concluding passage is often what the listener remembers after the glow of the music has faded, and it determines whether a song sprints or stumbles over the finish line. These are a few of my favorite songs with instrumental codas, in which the singer is either too exhausted or too overwhelmed to continue.

1. “PDA” – Interpol

Interpol’s albums have grown exponentially worse with each new release, but this song is from their moody masterpiece of a debut, Turn On The Bright Lights. The song chugs along mechanically, led by throbbing bass drum hits and stabbing, dissonant guitars, returning to a confounding chorus about sleeping on “200 couches.” But then the song pauses, brightens. The chugging returns more excited than before, carrying a fragile organ coo on its shoulders, and the sounds zigzag and crash into silence.

2. “I Know There’s An Answer” – The Beach Boys

This wonderful Pet Sounds track is buried awkwardly in the third quarter of the album, which is perhaps why it is so criminally ignored. All the components of the song’s final 37 seconds are singularly present throughout the entire song: the bizarre circus piano, the merry banjo, and that tambourine. But it’s not until the song’s wordless coda that the threads are played together, and it is the blending of these elements that create true magic. It’s Christmas morning, it’s your first kiss, it’s absolutely perfect.

3. “Stop Breathin’” – Pavement

The song seems to begin in the middle of a phrase, without introduction. Stephen Malkmus croaks, “Dad, they broke me,” over drunken arpeggios and repeats the line twice at the finish of the first chorus. But he sings it only once for the second chorus, so we know a change is coming. Suddenly all falls silent, save for the sluggish 6/8 heartbeats of the drums. A brooding finger picked guitar line enters and is soon joined by another, each of them rising, falling and intersecting. The noise builds to a fever pitch, narrows to one single note of feedback, and then erupts again, roaring into a second coda.