The Beach Boys Archives

Brian Wilson at the Greek Theatre, Saturday, June 20th, 2015, Review

Edward Huerta / June 21, 2015

Set highlights included “This Whole World”, The Little Girl I Once Knew”, “Shut Down”, “Then I Kissed Her”, “Wild Honey” (with Chaplin singing and blistering guitar parts), “She Knows Me Too Well”, “Wake the World” and this is the first time I ever heard him do “Busy Doin’ Nothing” the bossa nova ode from 1968 Friends lp. You mix that in with the hits (California Girls, God Only Knows, In My Room, Lil Deuce Coupe….do I really have to list them???) and it was just a marvel

Album Reviews, Recorded, Slideshow

The Beach Boys ” Live In Sacramento 1964″ and “Keep an Eye on Summer – The Beach Boys Sessions 1964”

Iman Lababedi / January 28, 2015

For a Beach Boy fanatic, both albums might not add much to the story but what they add you’ll want to hear. And to hear Dennis, Carl and Brian performing together on stage can’t help but make you Smiley Smile.

Slideshow

The A+ List: 10-25-14

Iman Lababedi / October 25, 2014

It is in the very first couplet, “make my heart come all undone” -it is like he is begging for the sweet sensation of love: make and undone are the two words that come tumbling through and it captures her illsuiveness, his insecurity: the earliest sense of insecurity of love

Slideshow

Active Viewin': rock nyc Concert Picks Week Of June 30th, 2014

Iman Lababedi / June 29, 2014

if you are going to see Mike Love’s version, don’t expect transcendence, expect old guys thinking young guys songs so old couples can singalong and maybe their kids can join. On July 4th, at Jones Beach, maybe that’s what we want, memories of when we could have fun all summer long instead of working every summer for the past 40 odd years

Slideshow

10 Songs: Sunday, June 29th, 2014

Iman Lababedi / June 29, 2014

Mathematics – Mos Def – “You want to know how to rhyme you better learn how to add” Mos Def advises and he makes his point on this classic whose rhythmic hook has showed has shown up ever since, on the flip side of his biggest song – A

Lists, Slideshow

Different Songs With The Same Name, Part II

Steve Crawford / April 23, 2014

As attentive readers know, the theme of this piece is great songs by different artists that share the same title. In the first article on this subject, we learned to “Walk Like a Man” with The Four Season and Bruce Springsteen (but forgot Grand Funk), we observed “Love Is All Around” from the Troggs and Joan Jett, and we were infatuated with “Starry Eyes” by The Records and Roky Erickson.

Slideshow

The A+ List – 4-7-14

Iman Lababedi / April 7, 2014

The struggling, stranger rocker before he straightened his life out takes a love of his life and ties it to a specific time and place (nyc the week before 9-11), struggles through a freezing cold and adds an image for all time: “I was holding your arm, you were holding my trust like a child” and then it’s over. “I’ll always love you, love New York”.

Slideshow

The A+ List 3-7-14

Iman Lababedi / March 7, 2014

His ode to Duke ellington is not jazz, it is pop, and it might have a groove but it isn’t taken from Ellington but this ebullient, bouncy, and very tuneful dance number needs none of that to echo a Black Excellence that deserves the term. “You can feel it all over” is as hooky as an advertising jingle and memorable as your own middle name.

rock nyc

Hear Ye On Spotify: what rock nyc is listening to 11-25-13

Iman Lababedi / November 25, 2013

Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet – The Everly Brothers – From Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, this is a strange and beautiful close harmony duet about romantic fealty – A

rock nyc

Trixie Smith And Chuck Berry: Reelin' And Rockin'

Iman Lababedi / November 24, 2013

When you compare “Sweet Little Sixteen” with “Surfing USA”, you don’t hear the metamorphoses you do with Berry and Smith. Berry took an idea and changed it 30 years later whereas there wasn’t a decade between the Beach Boys and Berry.