Tag: The Beach Boys

Artist of the Week – DIY Musician Tony Michael Ellis

Posted on by Max Hammer

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It’s no surprise after listening to the debut album by Los Angeles singer and songwriter Tony Michael Ellis, that Ellis lists The Beach Boys as his top musical influence, followed by The Beatles, and various Motown legends. The single, “It Soothes My Soul,” combines upbeat melodies, acoustic guitar and piano, along with soaring harmonies, that couldn’t sound more like a rendition of The Beach Boys’ unique 60’s California pop sound that still sounds as fresh as it has for decades. The Beach Boys were really America’s answer to The Beatles (no, it certainly wasn’t, in musical considerations, The Monkees, although they did manage to give The Beatles a bit of a run for their money). There is no question at all that Lennon and McCartney and Brian Wilson were in a tug of war on the music charts for some time, and pushed each side to raise their game in regards to songwriting creativity, musical experimentation and overall production value, as demonstrated by The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beach Boys’ classic LP, Pet Sounds.

This context is important when listening to Ellis’ music. He is not trying to hide the fact that he borrows heavily from the two bands’ ideas and signatures to write and record his own music. It’s easy to imagine that Ellis spent years listening to albums from The Beach Boys and The Beatles again and again and again. As a southern Californian himself, he obviously has a closer connection since he was a child to the Beach Boys because their sound was, and still is today, the California, fun-in-the-sun, beach cruisin 60s pop sound that lead the way to countless artists and bands who made some of the 60’s biggest hits based on the genius of Brian Wilson.

“It Soothes My Soul” – Tony Michael Ellis from Undertow – Jan. 14th

Of course there is no way at all that Ellis can be compared to Brian Wilson or Lennon/McCartney, it’s not anything like that. But, Ellis has a knack for taking their signatures sounds, along with dabbles of Motown riffs, grooves and melodies, and create songs that are still his own. Over the years, we couldn’t even count how many artists and bands we’ve heard who have been heavily influenced The Beach Boys’ sound or list the California band of brothers as a major musical influence.

Like some other singer/songwriters we’ve featured over the years, Ellis – who also plays keyboards – is not completely without help, and is not a one-man band (an artist that plays and records all of the instruments and then tracks and mixes them for a final recording – see IRC’s One-Man Bands archives – there’s a bunch of terrific artists and music to be found there; as is the case with so much of our archives, and where most of the songs after 2011 are still available for streaming and downloading). Assisting Ellis on his debut EP were Adam Marsland, on backup vocals, guitar, and drums, and Peter Green, on acoustic guitar.

“Without Her Love” – Tony Michael Ellis from Undertow

Tony Michael Ellis on Facebook

Best New Releases – Rich Aucoin, Jupe Jupe, AM & Shawn Lee, The Beach Boys, Hundred Days, Girl In A Coma, Air Review

Posted on by Max Hammer

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Halloween is over (if you missed the Halloween mixes go here) , and the holiday season (is it too early for Christmas mixes?) is revving up. Isn’t it crazy that 2011 is almost over? In addition to the holiday season, this is the time of year when ‘best of’ lists; see IRC’s Best Songs of 2011 series. In fact, right now, volume three will be posted on Monday.

We are really excited by this new-to-us band, Jupe Jupe, and have listened to the following two tracks about eight times apiece. If you’re old enough to remember bands like Depeche Mode and OMD, then you might just feel like you’re going back in time to the alternative goth rock sound of the late 1980’s and early 90’s, right before grunge busted out of Seattle with Nirvana in the forefront. We expect to hear more from Jupe Jupe in 2012; maybe they’ll even be one of our Bands to Watch in 2012.

But first, we have to kick off this week’s Best New Releases with the cool new track by Rich Aucoin, “It,” from the just-dropped album, We’re All Dying to Live. Aucoin is a rising Canadian musician and songwriter who has criss-crossed The Great White North a number of times on tour, including one time by bicycle. Aucoin has performed on stage with artists like Dan Deacon, Girl Talk, Deerhoof, The Weakerthans, The Golden Dogs, Holy Fuck, The Constantines, Dirty Projector’s and others. We don’t think it was an accident, however, that Aucoin’s album cover art is strangely similar to Sufjan Stevens‘ brilliant, and classic ‘indie,’ LP, Illinoise (shown below for comparison). From the font choice to the inclusion of Superman. Hmmmm.

“It” – Rich Aucoin from We’re All Dying To Live

“Once Around the Sun” – Jupe Jupe from Reduction in Drag

Double-shot: “Suspicion” – Jupe Jupe from Reduction in Drag

For More: JupeJupeMusic.com

Also, this week Fallon Cush released their self-titled, debut album, AM & Shawn Lee continue their collaboration with the release of Celestial Eclectic, plus listen to The Beach Boys’ The Smile Sessions via Spinner.

“Disintegrate” – Fallon Cush from Fallon Cush

“Dark into Light” – AM & Shawn Lee from Celestial Eclectic

Stream The Beach Boys’ The SMiLE Sessions via Spinner

If you’re a fan of Jesus and the Mary Chain, and The Beach Boys, you’ll probably want to hear the Mary Chain’s cover of the Boys’ “Surfin USA.” The track is from an site we like a lot called Cover Me Songs, where there are also other J&TMC covers of Pink Floyd, The Temptations and Jerry Reed. While we are featuring Beach Boys’ cover songs, might as well throw in a great new one – My Cousin, The Emperor covering The Beach Boys’ “Girl Don’t Tell Me.”

“Surfin USA” (The Beach Boys) – Jesus and the Mary Chain

“Girl Don’t Tell Me” (The Beach Boys) – My Cousin, The Emperor

Earlier this year, we featured an advance single from the Dallas band Air Review, and the track received a good response. The band’s music is masterfully composed, performed and produced indie folk pop, as clearly demonstrated on the splendid track, “America’s Son.” In fact, it’s one of our favorite Rarely Heard Songs of 2011 (that series will also be coming out soon; browse past posts). We included both tracks the band sent us from their LP, America’s Son, which was officially released on Nov. 1st.

Without hesitation, Air Review are a band to watch in 2012. Having previously opened for bands like Bowling for Soup, Blue October, Boxer Rebellion and One Eskimo, and after making a name for themselves in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, it’s beyond us to explain why they haven’t received a record deal yet. Perhaps they have, and they turned it down, but when we listened to these tracks for the first time, and the whole album afterwards, it simply did not make sense that a label wouldn’t have signed Air Review by now.

Air Review is just another example of what we always say – there are ten times as many fantastically talented and incredibly promising bands, that are DIY and flying under the radar, than there are popular ‘indie’ and alternative rock bands that are drooled over in some mainstream ‘indie’ blogs and music sites. The second single, “Low Wishes” is unmistakably upbeat, uplifting indie pop song, complete with magnificent choruses – the kind of song that you might want to play if you need a quick shot of inspiration. If we were a label, we’d probably sign this band. In 2009, the band released their debut album, Landmarks.

“America’s Son” – Air Review from America’s Son

“Low Wishes” – Air Review from America’s Son

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Plus, we would be remiss not to include the latest new tracks from new albums by rising band, Girl in a Coma, and the now globally-known band, Florence and the Machine. Also, don’t miss standout singles from new releases by Low Roar, The Soft Moon, The Loom and Carter Tanton.

Out of only respect, we are including the new single, “The View,” from Lou Reed and Metallica. Now, don’t get us wrong, we are HUGE fans of Lou Reed, (especially his Velvet Underground days a million years ago), and as far as Metallica, well, not so much. But this single is absolutely dreadful; shockingly so. But we still wanted to include it so that everyone can make up their own minds, but “yikes.” As soon as we heard that Lou was making a single with Metallica, we didn’t understand, and now we can see much more clearly just why that announcement made us skeptical.

“Smart” – Girl in a Coma from Exists & All the Rest

“Shake It Out” – Florence + the Machine from Ceremonials on Island Universal

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“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” – Low Roar from Low Roar

“Under Evergreen” – Shelby Earl from Burn the Boats

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“Total Decay” – The Soft Moon (courtesy of Pitchfork) from Total Decay EP

“For the Hooves That Gallop, and the Heels That March” – The Loom from Teeth

“Murderous Joy” – Carter Tanton from Freeclouds

“The View” – Lou Reed & Metallica from Lulu

(click the track to hear the Soundcloud cut)

In Dee Mail Releases for the Week of Nov. 1: Sun Sweet Sun, Hundred Days, The Cocks, The Scales

This section of Best New Releases keeps with our tradition of presenting good and interesting music from relatively unknown to completely unknown signed, but mostly DIY, unsigned artists who sent their music directly to us.  Greenville, South Carolina indie space pop/noise-rock band Sun Sweet Sun, lead by James Noyes, and his brother, Julian, is probably our favorite DIY artist with a new album out this week, Goodbye, Strange World. Julian is the band’s composer and lead vocalist, and James assumes guitar and synth.

The first track, “Planet Earth,” is edgier, fuzzier and noisy than the more spacey, reverb-heavy, predominantly vocal-lead sound of “Even Spacemen Need A Little Love” is charming enough on its own. They describe their music as “Lewis Carrol by way of James Dickey…a broad-ranging home-recording project and also a raggedly enthusiastic live band with a bit of Warholian mythologizing.” Aside from the over-stuffing of adjectives, we like their style – definitely can see why they count The Flaming Lips among their biggest influences.

“Planet Earth” – Sun Sweet Sun from Goodbye, Strange World

“Even Spacemen Need a Little Love” – Sun Sweet Sun from Goodbye, Strange World

Sun Sweet Sun on Facebook

The following handful of tracks are from new releases out this week that are more on the metal to punk spectrum of the musical scale, including London DIY hard rockers, Hundred Days’; another UK band, The Cocks‘ “Turns Around The Corner”; a new single from NYC punk band, The Scales, plus a track from a Russian band, Cape Fligely.

“Suicide Joe” – Hundred Days from Mission Exodus

“Burn In Hell” – Hundred Days from Mission Exodus

“Turns Around The Corner” – The Cocks from Tuesday Morning Hangover

“Day to Day” – The Scales from Brain Food

“Private Life” – Cape Fligely from The Key

Again, these are not songs (and especially not albums) that we are expecting to make a big splash, but since the artists went through the trouble of submitting their music, and because each has a new album out this week, we just felt it is worth including them in the mix. We’re especially interested to know which of this week’s In Dee Mail (for artists that send their music in the mail) artists you guys like the most, so please use the Comments section to do your own critique or review; sometimes we even update the post to include listeners’ comments.