by

Song of the Day #26: ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ – The Beach Boys

I remember when I didn’t know The Beach Boys were a big deal.

Before my senior year of high school, I equated The Beach Boys with teeny boppers, surfing and cornball beach cookouts where kids with plastered grins danced the Swim.

Then I read about Pet Sounds, the classic album they recorded as a response to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, which in turn inspired The Beatles to crank out Sgt. Pepper. The idea that this surf group was in an arms race with history’s greatest band was quite intriguing, so I picked up the album.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #25: ‘Seeing Other People’ – Belle & Sebastian

Any list of my favorite artists would find the Scottish septet Belle & Sebastian nestled right up top. I like these guys so much that I could scrap this format and go to a ‘Belle & Sebastian Song of the Day’ very easily (though I’d have to live without Alex’s readership).

My favorite description of the band was a back-handed compliment (or maybe an open-handed criticism?) along the lines of “They’re a seven-piece band that somehow sounds like a single guy in a room with an acoustic guitar.” Much of their music is gorgeously delicate, a blend of guitar, piano, strings and horns buttressing Stuart Murdoch’s fragile vocals. But they’ve showed a knack for rocking out as well, especially on recent albums, and a crunk vibe I wouldn’t have thought possible from a bunch of twee Scotsmen.

Continue reading →

by

She & Him – Volume One

The track record of actors turned musicians is not a strong one. Eddie Murphy, Bruce Willis, Lindsay Lohan, Juliette Lewis — crap, all of it. It doesn’t seem to work the other way around, though. Plenty of musicians (especially rappers) make fine actors. I guess singing is already a form of acting, while the reverse isn’t true.

I mention this to point out why the success of She & Him is a very special achievement. Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, Elf, All the Real Girls) is the “she” in She & Him, while the “him” is alternative singer-songwriter M. Ward. But the band’s name is deceiving, because this is truly Deschanel’s work. She wrote all the original songs and sings every track, while Ward handles production and plays the guitar.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #24: ‘Just Another’ – Pete Yorn

Sometimes an artist puts out just one song that blows you away while everything else he/she does just kind of lies there. This isn’t the same as a one-hit wonder, because often these songs aren’t hits. It’s more of a one-wow wonder, a song that stands so far above its peers that it may as well be the only thing the person ever releases.

Pete Yorn’s ‘Just Another’ is among my favorite one-wow wonders.

Continue reading →