brian wilson Archive
06 Aug 2026
Take Five: Key Beach Boys Tracks from the Mid-’70s
The Beach Boys and their music have gone through many phases. From their early songs about Southern California culture – surfing, girls and cars – to the ambitious baroque pop […]
01 Aug 2025
30 Days Out, August 2025 #1: Hennies + Krause, Barrington Levy, The Remantlists, Pet Sounds Live
Wow. Unclassifiable modern music, dancehall reggae, a live concept album and a tribute to one of the greatest records ever made. Those are among the highlights in Asheville’s live music […]
08 Aug 2024
For the Beach Boys, the Summer Never Ends (Part 2 of 2)
Continued from Part One… Created with a briefly returning Brian Wilson, the group’s last new studio album of all-original music, That’s Why God Made the Radio, was released in 2012. […]
07 Aug 2024
For the Beach Boys, the Summer Never Ends (Part 1 of 2)
The Beach Boys came on the scene in 1961, straight outta Hawthorne, California. The group’s songs embodied the myth of a youthful and carefree Southern California existence, one filled with […]
16 Jun 2021
Album Review: Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson
Here we go again. I’ve long held that various-artists tribute albums are by definition uneven. Some acts try to take the songs too far from their essence, stripping the songs […]
04 Mar 2021
Always Finish What You Started: Van Dyke Parks on ‘Orange Crate Art’ (Part 3 of 3)
Continued from Part Two… Parks recalls a visit to a friend in rural Virginia, nearly 2500 miles due East from southern California. “I went past, Galax, where the Old Fiddlers […]
03 Mar 2021
Always Finish What You Started: Van Dyke Parks on ‘Orange Crate Art’ (Part 2 of 3)
Continued from Part One… Parks recalls how the germ of the project came about in or around 1990. “I had a piano exercise, and it was fun for me,” he […]
02 Mar 2021
Always Finish What You Started: Van Dyke Parks on ‘Orange Crate Art’ (Part 1 of 3)
Though he never sought the role – nor does he wear it comfortably – Van Dyke Parks is something of a cult figure in music. An idiosyncratic musical storyteller of […]
24 Nov 2019
Brian Wilson: Do It Again
The standard take on Brian Wilson is also the most accurate one. It can be neatly divided into two parts. First part: The man is a genius. There’s simply no […]
24 Oct 2018
Album Review: Brian Wilson (1988)
If we’re being honest with ourselves, most sympathetic critics grade the post-Beach Boys music of Brian Wilson on a curve. Unquestionably a musical genius, Wilson is responsible for Pet Sounds […]
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