Latest news with #PetSoundsBand
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The Beach Boys' Al Jardine remembers Brian Wilson: ‘I'm still learning from him after all these years'
The death of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson is an immeasurable loss for music and for California, both the place and the dream of it that Wilson conjured with his regal and tender compositions. Wilson was the visionary of the defining American rock band, one who competed with the Beatles to move pop music into new realms of sophistication and invention, while writing songs capturing the longing of an ascendant youth culture. His death leaves only two surviving members of the original lineup — Mike Love and Al Jardine, Wilson's high school friend who sang lead on early hits like 'Help Me Rhonda' and wrote songs for beloved later-period albums like 'Surf's Up' and 'Sunflower.' On the day the world learned of Wilson's death, Jardine briefly spoke to The Times to remember his lifelong friend and bandmate. The guitarist, vocalist and songwriter — now on tour with his Pet Sounds Band playing Beach Boys hits with a focus on their 1970s output — looked back on six decades of writing and performing with one of the greatest minds of popular music. Jardine's conversation was edited for length and clarity. I just lost my best friend and mentor. It's not a good feeling, but I'm going to carry on and continue to play our music and perform with the Pet Sounds Band. Brian was a great friend. We grew up together, we went to high school together. We were both dropouts, which is not a bad thing as long as you have a vision of the future. His and mine was to make music. We were very good friends and very successful in part because of his great talent. He had an amazing ability to compose, very simple things and very complex things, all at the same time. He was a visionary. We all grew up together musically, but he grew exponentially. He became a leader, and formed new ways of chord construction, things no one had heard before, and we rose to the challenge with him. It's been said that Brian invented the state of California, the state of mind. That's a cute way of saying it, but he really invented a new form of music in the '60s and '70s. It was very sophisticated, but went way beyond that. He was a humble giant, a great American composer. I don't think anyone else could walk in his shoes, given all that he went through. I did write some songs he liked, and did help him get through treacherous times. It must be so frightening to be left in the wilderness by yourself and not know how to get home. He said one song I wrote helped him get through that, which is quite a compliment from the great Brian Wilson, who had his own demons to deal with. Brian Wilson's band was a reawakening of his professional life. He never enjoyed touring, so this band was a whole new life for him, to experience his own music and an adulation that he never had before. His legacy is of course in the music, and any interpreter of that legacy has to be sharp and devoted to it. We have the most devoted people that could be there to do that, so many original members of his band. My son Matthew, he's Brian's voice, and the DNA is there. With his arranger, Darian, arranging all vocals, we have all the muscle and genius to pull it off. When Carl Wilson and I were singing those parts back then, we'd abbreviate things — you can't do everything you did in the studio with only five of us. Now we've got 10 people onstage and I just heard some background parts yesterday that sounded just like we used to — you can hear Carl and Dennis in there. When we take the band out, I have a little white piano onstage, like the one he played in the past. It's a symbolic moment, the empty piano. While the Beach Boys tour was a hit-based performance, with this iteration, we're more introspective, deeper cuts, performing much of the 1970s catalog. There's quite a few numbers the public hasn't heard, exploring the heart and soul of those albums. I was hoping Brian would have been able to join us. But it's wonderful, we're hoping this music should last forever, and be felt at the deep levels that Brian experienced it. It sure is a great responsibility to play it, but it just feels natural to me. I've been doing it for so long, It doesn't feel weighty. I'm confident, especially with this band being so remarkable. I'm still learning from Brian after all these years.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Al Jardine Is Going on Tour With Brian Wilson's Longtime Band
A new era of Beach Boys history will begin this summer when Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band launch what they hope will be their inaugural tour. The Pet Sounds Band is a new name for longtime members of Brian Wilson's backing group, who have been inactive since Wilson stopped performing in 2022. 'I've been gathering up the troops, Brian's excellent band,' Jardine, who played with the group alongside Wilson for the better part of the past two decades, tells Rolling Stone. 'We're all just dying to get back to work, and I thought I'd take the reins.' More from Rolling Stone Madison Beer on Her Grammy Nomination, the Beach Boys, and All Those Megan Fox Comparisons Remember All That Silly Bubblegum Pop from the Sixties? A New Box Set Does Al Jardine Drops New Song 'Wish,' Plots Shows With Resurrected Brian Wilson Band The exact lineup has yet to be determined, but it's likely to include keyboardist Darian Sahanaja, drummer Michael D'Amico, bassist Bob Lizik, vocalist/percussionist Matt Jardine, pianist Gary Griffin, guitarist Rob Bonfiglio, horn player Paul Von Mertens, and keyboardist Debbie Shair. (Longtime multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory has already committed to 'Weird Al' Yankovic's summer tour. Early Seventies Beach Boys member Blondie Chaplin, who was a part of Wilson's touring unit from 2013 to 2022, has yet to sign on, but Jardine hopes he'll take part.) Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band aren't ready to announce dates yet, but Jardine says shows will run through June, July, and August. As for the set list, he's planning a mixture of classic Beach Boys hits with a large sampling of songs from the overlooked Seventies albums 15 Big Ones, The Beach Boys Love You, and M.I.U Album, which are being assembled into a box set later this year. 'There's a lot of material to draw from that people haven't heard before,' Jardine says. 'And we're going to have some fun.' Part of that fun will include the use of archival Beach Boys footage projected on screens. 'When Debbie and Matt and I went out as a trio some years ago, we had a video component that was very effective and very helpful,' says Jardine. 'I could discuss a particular song or a particular time or a memory that I had of something and share it with the audience. It helped set up the songs and the environment for the next song. And we're going to have to find some fresh video, of course, and maybe get a testimonial from Brian.' The initial thought was to call the show something like 'The Brian Wilson Band Presented by Fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine,' but there was concern that would confuse the audience. 'I don't want people to think that if I say it's the Brian Wilson Band, that they might think Brian's going to be there,' Jardine says. 'I don't want to put that kind of pressure on him.' It was the idea of Al's son, Matt Jardine, to call the group the Pet Sounds Band since these are the musicians that played Pet Sounds with Wilson at countless concerts over the years. There's talk of a possible Pet Sounds 60th anniversary tour next year, but a proposed setlist Jardine shared with Rolling Stone includes only 'God Knows Knows,' 'Sloop John Be,' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' from the album. But fans can expect staples like 'California Girls,' 'Do It Again,' and 'I Get Around,' along with tracks from 1977's The Beach Boys Love You like 'Roller Skating Child,' 'Honkin' Down the Highway,' 'Dang Dang,' and 'The Night Was So Young.' Most of the songs haven't been performed by the Beach Boys since the late Seventies, and 'The Night Was So Young' has never been done at any point. 'I'm a little nervous about it,' Jardine admits. 'It's going to take a lot of vocal rehearsal. We might even do 'Good Time.' Brian and I wrote that one together in a couple of minutes. It's one of my favorite tunes we ever did together. The band and I are going to share vocals on all these songs, and I've already threatened Darian that he might have to do 'Johnny Carson.'' (Wilson's salute to The Tonight Show host is an oddity of the Beach Boys' catalog. Sample lyrics: 'He sits behind his microphone/Johny Carson/He speaks in such a manly tone.') The original version of 'Ding Dang' is a mere 58 seconds of whimsy. Jardine has written a new chorus and verse to stretch it out into a proper song. 'I hope that doesn't offend fans,' he says. 'But it really is hilarious. At one point, I literally wanted to call this the Ding Dang Tour.' Other deep cuts in the proposed setlist are 'Susie Cincinnati' from 1970's Wildflower, 'It's Okay' from 1976's 15 Big Ones, and 'Peggy Sue,' 'She's Got Rhythm,' and 'Come Go With Me' from 1978's M.I.U. Album. They're also working up the title track to Islands in the Sun, a four-song digital EP Jardine is releasing in the coming weeks. 'It has several different kinds of music on it,' he says. 'I have a testimonial to my favorite songwriters of the Fifties, Leiber and Stoller, called 'Highway 101.' I also have a song with Neil Young that I like a lot called 'My Plane Leaves Tomorrow.' We recorded it together when I did my [2010 solo album] Postcard From California. I thought, 'Well, that didn't fit the theme for that album very well.' But it resonates now with the political unrest over in the Middle East. It's about a service person who goes overseas and has to serve his country.' These are the kinds of stories behind the songs that Jardine plans on sharing from the stage on tour, something he rarely was given a chance to do on tour with Wilson. 'I have a wealth of really good stories to tell, and it's always fun to talk about the band and about our legacy,' he says. 'It's a lot of fun, especially when you have video to back it up. It's just a complete show that way. And in the past, Brian was always in a rush to finish the show, so I was lucky to get a few words out. Just to describe something, it would be a luxury. But now we have the luxury of time.' At age 82, however, Jardine doesn't consider this a long-term proposition. 'I don't think my voice will be that great in my 90s, but you never know,' he says. 'I know that it's Mike's ambition to be doing this at 102.' But when the two founding members of the Beach Boys eventually join Wilson in retirement, Jardine hopes the group will live on. 'Why not? My son Matt and [Mike's son] Christian Love both have great voices,' he says. 'It would be on a different level than now. But it would still be doable because the music is the star of the show.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
