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Martin Phillips, whose New Zealand band the Chills served as an influence on R.E.M. and Pavement, has died. He was 61.

His death was announced in a statement posted Sunday on the Chills’ social media accounts. No cause or date was given. New Zealand’s Otago Daily Times reported that Phillips had recently been admitted to Dunedin Hospital with liver problems.

The Chills were known for jangly guitar pop. Phillips was the band’s only constant member in a career that attracted an international following across four decades.

Neil Finn of Crowded House issued a statement Sunday, calling Phillips “one of Nz’s greatest songwriters” and described him as having been “fascinated by and devoted to the magic and mystery of music.”

Phillips formed the Chills in 1980 with his sister, Rachel, and the band signed to Flying Nun Records in 1982. The band’s first studio album, Brave Words, arrived in 1987.

Their follow-up,...

When you sit down to watch a documentary about the Beach Boys, you know what you want: to be immersed in the California dreamin’ of the group’s early surfin’-hit days, in the jaunty beauty of songs like “I Get Around” and “Help Me Rhonda” and “All Summer Long,” and in the story of how Brian Wilson began to figure out a way to turn pop songs into miniature symphonies. You want to be immersed in the recording of “Pet Sounds,” in the Beach Boys’ rivalry with the Beatles, in the derailed masterpiece that was “Smile,” and in how Brian’s mental and emotional problems began to tear himself and the group apart. You want to know how the other Beach Boys, caught in the wilderness, found a way to put the group back together, though it’s almost like they became a different group. You want to see...

Genre-bending is something music artists have only in recent years had the freedom to explore. But Guatemalan singer and songwriter Gaby Moreno has always made music on her own terms - and she's been so effortless at it, you could hardly tell back in the day that she was even breaking the rules. The artist started dabbling in pop, rock, folk, jazz, and blues in both English and Spanish more than a decade ago, when most artists couldn't get away with it.

Related: Sky Rompiendo Is Stepping Out on His Own After Years of Producing Reggaeton Hits

She's revisited all that in the various projects she's dropped just in the past year. Her latest is "El Saber" - a Spanish-language track she wrote for Eugenio Derbez's recent film "Radical" - which was released on Nov. 3. At first, it may appear to be a great departure from the English bluesy...

Ask Noel Gallagher how the material from his excellent new album, Council Skies, is going over live so far on his U.S. tour with Garbage, and you’ll get an answer only he would dare to give: “Terrible,” he says, blaming crowds who haven’t absorbed the album yet (like all of his post-Oasis work, it’s credited to Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds). “I’m starting off with five new ones. People should have bought the fucking album, then, shouldn’t they? So they’re gonna...

Rufus Wainwright has announced his upcoming album Folkocracy will arrive June 2 and released its lead single “Down in the Willow Garden” on Monday. The track features Brandi Carlile, and is described by Wainwright as a “blatantly brutal and masochistic” folk ballad.

“I chose us a cheery little number — not! The song is so blatantly brutal and masochistic that I had to sing it with a woman. Sadly, we still live in a violent world,” Wainwright said in a statement. “The amazing thing about so many folk songs is that, content wise,...

Tommy Morgan, a harmonica soloist who contributed to hundreds of movie and TV shows including “Roots” and “Dances With Wolves,” died June 23. He was 89.

Morgan played on film soundtracks and record dates going back to the early 1950s. His estimated 7,000 recording sessions, according to statistics on his website, suggest that more people have heard his harmonica work than that of any other player of the instrument.

That’s Morgan’s harmonica on Quincy Jones’ “Sanford and Son” theme, Mike Post’s “Rockford Files” theme and the scores for numerous shows including “Maverick,” “The Waltons,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “China Beach,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Family Guy.”

He played on the Emmy-winning score for “Roots” and its sequel, “Roots: The Next Generations.” And his bass harmonica was the signature sound of Arnold Ziffel, the pig on “Green Acres.”

In addition, Morgan played on dozens of classic films including “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,...

For a one-hit-wonder, Tommy McLain admits he has few complaints.

Back in 1966, he’d climbed into the top 15 with a swamp-lounge version of Don Gibson’s “Sweet Dreams,” which showcased the Louisiana native’s tremulous voice. Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe were fans of his work; Joe Strummer cut a cover of “Before I Grow Too Old,” a Fats Domino B-side associated with McLain (Strummer’s version was called “Silver and Gold”). The drugs and alcohol were behind him, and decades later, McLain was gigging regularly in his home state.

By 1969, the Beach Boys were in a rough place commercially. The brilliant Pet Sounds, years away from gaining the cult following it would eventually accrue, was a commercial dud. Radio had moved on to heavier rock and soul. The Summer of Love and Monterey Pop came and went without the participation of the band who gave the world “Good Vibrations.” Woodstock was happening as these thirtysomethings were figuring out the next move.

Their dilemma was embodied in the single they put out that year: the A side, a Brian Wilson song called “Break Away,...

George Gerdes, a prolific character actor whose many credits stretch from Miami Vice and Seinfeld to Bosch and Broadway’s A Few Good Men, died Jan. 1 of a brain aneurysm suffered the day before. He was 72.

“George Gerdes has departed,” tweeted Bosch star Titus Welliver. “An actors actor and deeply kind man. Rest easy brother, we are fewer… ” Gerdes had a recurring role on the Amazon Prime series as the operator of a halfway house for Vietnam War veterans.

A singer-songwriter whose two albums of the early 1970s, Obituary and Son of Obituary, drew a small but loyal following for their offbeat humor – his “Hey Packy,” a love letter to a dog, was covered by Loudon Wainwright III in 1976 – Gerdes would go on to build a long career as an actor in often small but memorable roles. On Seinfeld, he played “Man #1”, a vigilante outraged over George Costanza’s treatment of the Bubble Boy,...

The 21st Annual Latin Grammy Awards were presented on Thursday, November 19. They awarded the best Latin music released within the eligibility period of June 1, 2019, through May 31, 2020. So who were the big winners? Scroll down to see the complete list in all 53 categories, updated throughout the event.

J Balvin led the nominations with 13 bids including two for Album of the Year: “Colores” and “Oasis,” the latter of which was his collaboration with Bad Bunny. Balvin also had two nominations for Record of the Year, for his own “Rojo” and as a featured artist on Anuel AA‘s “China.” In the last five years J Balvin has won a total of four Latin Grammys, but he had never won in the general field.

SEE2021 Grammy predictions: Harry Styles on track for a Timberlake-style awards breakthrough

Bad Bunny was next in line with nine nominations. Like J Balvin, he had two chances to claim Album of the Year,...

Brian Wilson has shared a gorgeous cover of the song “God Only Knows” from Crowded House frontman Neil Finn. According to Wilson, the Melbourne singer and instrumentalist first recorded vocals of himself singing the Beach Boys classic while out on a walk, and then taped a full piano version back at his house during quarantine.

Neil Finn of Crowded House took a walk and recorded himself singing “God Only Knows” and then added a piano version at home. https://t.co/JADkntnLHL@CrowdedHouseHQ

— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive) May 22, 2020

Finn’s cover...

Mike Love has a message for everyone hunkering down in quarantine: “This too shall pass.”

And since he’s a Beach Boy and thus some mention of the sun is decreed, he adds: “The best is yet to come/So let’s get back to having fun, fun, fun in the sun.”

Love and sometimes-Beach Boy John Stamos teamed up while in self-isolation to write and record “This Too Shall Pass,” a peppy Covid-19-themed track and Love’s first since his 2019’s 12 Sides of Summer.

“We all remember when...

Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks have unearthed their previously unreleased cover of the jazz standard, “What a Wonderful World.” The track is one of several rarities that will appear on the upcoming 25th-anniversary reissue of Wilson and Parks’ 1995 collaborative album, Orange Crate Art, out June 19th via Omnivore Recordings.

Wilson and Parks’ cover of “What a Wonderful World” boasts a simple arrangement that finds Wilson crooning over some very lush keys. Backing harmonies that sound like the Beach Boys crossed with a church choir are peppered throughout, while Wilson...

Nick Cave shared a tender interpretation of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer,” the first offering from the upcoming tribute compilation, Angelheaded Hipster, which was produced by the late Hal Willner. The record will arrive September 4th via BMG.

For his cover, Cave transformed “Cosmic Dancer” into a poignant piano ballad buoyed by a rich orchestral arrangement. The track arrived with a video of Cave and others recording the song in the studio, paired with a montage of archival footage of T. Rex.

Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T.

“AngelHeaded Hipster,” a long-percolating tribute album to Marc Bolan and T. Rex — featuring U2, Elton John, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Lucinda Williams and Father John Misty, and which is a companion to a forthcoming documentary film on the legendary rocker — is due on Sept. 4. The first track from the album, Cave’s take on Bolan’s 1971 song “Cosmic Dancer,” can be heard here.

The 26-track album, helmed by veteran producer Hal Willner — who passed away April 7 due to complications from coronavirus — features a tag team between U2 and Elton John on T. Rex’s biggest hit, “Bang a Gong (Get It On),” as well as contributions from Cave, Jett, Williams, Misty, Todd Rundgen, Perry Farrell, Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, Kesha and many others. The full track list appears below.

Both the album and documentary are from BMG, in collaboration with Who/Robert Plant manager Bill Curbishley’s Trinifold company.

Hal Willner wasn’t known for playing music himself. But the producer, who died Monday at 64, had a unique gift for making music happen. Through his marvelously eclectic tribute albums — which featured everything from Tom Waits yowling out Snow White’s “Heigh Ho (The Dwarf’s Marching Song)” to Debbie Harry singing a wordless tune from Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Chuck D declaiming passages from Charles Mingus’ autobiography — he turned countless sonic what-ifs into reality. As he once put it, through his curation he was “trying to to...

Tons of songs become baseball stadium classics, even if they don’t start out that way: Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” Gary Glitter’s “Rock & Roll Part 2,” the list goes on. Harry Nilsson aimed to go straight to the ballgame with his own sports anthem, “Yo Dodger Blue.”

“Dad was devoted to this team ever since they were the Brooklyn Dodgers,” his son Kiefo tweeted of the track, which was included on the singer-songwriter’s posthumous album, Losst and Founnd, a collection of material Nilsson recorded at the end of his career.

Twenty-five years after Harry Nilsson died from a heart attack, a new posthumous album, Losst and Founnd, has been assembled from material he recorded in the latter stages of his career. Amazingly, it’s the first time the public has heard new material from the singer-songwriter since the release of his 1980 album Flash Harry. To commemorate its release, the four-part podcast series Final Sessions has been created to trace the story of how it came together.

The demos that form the core of Losst and Founnd were recorded in the...

Twenty-five years after Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack at the age of 52, his estate has announced a new album of unreleased material. Titled Losst and Founnd, the record will arrive on November 22nd via Omnivore Recordings.

Nilsson was working on the record at the time of his death, and fans have asked for its release ever since. It marks his first new material in nearly 40 years, following 1980’s Flash Harry. Two singles have been released — the dreamy “U.C.L.A.” and “Lost and Found” — which can be heard below.

“It was like a ball of fire hit the Troubadour. When he got to ‘Take Me to the Pilot,’ the place levitated,” Linda Ronstadt said of the first night of Elton John’s 1970 residency at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. And as that show is depicted in the Elton John biopic “Rocketman,” the crowd in the audience does the same, soaring off their feet in a moment of musical magic.

Of course, Ronstadt and director Dexter Fletcher are embellishing a little bit – we’re quite sure no one literally defied the laws of gravity when John took the stage on that night on Aug. 25, 1970. Though for people who were there, it no doubt felt that way. Just look at this iconic photo of John sideways at his piano as he quite literally turned heads among those lucky few in the crowd.

Elton John performs at the Troubadour on Aug. 25, 1970. pic.

Things get weird in Sofia Bolt’s video for “London 2009,” the hazy new single from her upcoming debut album Waves. Directed by Christina Acevedo, the video features Sofia Bolt, a.k.a. Amélie Rousseaux, in Los Angeles’ El Prado bar under a shimmering disco ball. Everyone is disguised by a painted mask except for Rousseaux, who sits uncomfortably alone, sipping a glass of wine and getting covered in silly string.

Light floods into the bar as Rousseaux becomes captivated by a heart-shaped stranger. They kiss and exchange phone numbers, but Rousseaux ends up alone,...

John Cassavetes springs forth as a major 1950s talent in these two ‘Primetime Special’ dramatic plays broadcast live on ABC and CBS. Crime in the Streets is the Reginald Rose classic directed by Sidney Lumet; No Right to Kill is a ‘culture for the masses’ adaptation of Crime and Punishment. Cassavetes’ co-stars are Robert Preston, Glenda Farrell, Terry Moore and Robert H. Harris.

Television’s Lost Classics

Volume One John Cassavetes

Crime in the Streets; No Right to Kill

Blu-ray

Vci

1955-’56 / B&W / 1:33 Kinescope / 2 x 60 min. / Street Date September 11, 2018 / 18.99 (Amazon)

Starring: John Cassavetes, Robert Preston, Glenda Farrell, Mark Rydell, Terry Moore, Robert H. Harris.

Directed by Sidney Lumet and Buzz Kulik

Remember the movie Network, when William Holden’s character says he’s going to write a glowing memoir about his ‘good old days’ in the Golden Era of Live TV in New York? That was in 1975, just...

It’s been a pretty big week on the Cher front. Not only did she receive the Kennedy Center Honors alongside Philip Glass, Reba McEntire, Wayne Shorter and the creators of Hamilton, but her Broadway musical The Cher Show opened on Monday night. The show received fairly mixed reviews, but most of the press focused on actor Jarrod Spector, who plays Sonny Bono, gently admonishing Kanye for being on his phone throughout much of the night. “Please pardon my lack of etiquette,” Kanye wrote in a rare apology. “We have...

Wild Honey Orchestra: Buffalo  Springfield tribute Alex Theatre, Glendale CA February 17, 2018

The Wild Honey Foundation started putting on themed benefit concerts a quarter century ago and was revived a few years back, now benefitting the Autism Think Tank. A collection of superb Los Angeles-based musicians with extensive résumés comes together, led by guitarist Rob Laufer (Johnny Cash, George Martin, Cheap Trick, etc.) as The Wild Honey Orchestra to back special guest stars (many, but not all, also L.A.-based) and augment existing bands, this year performing songs of Buffalo Springfield, the band that shot Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and Richie Furay (Poco, Souther-Hillman-Furay Band) -- along with bassist Bruce Palmer (later Jim Messina) and drummer Dewey Martin -- to fame in the late '60s.

Thanks to my Wild Honey pal Michael Ackerman, I got to attend both the show and two rehearsals, which even after decades of listening...

Ringo Starr will pick up his drum sticks this fall for a tour of the United States—with a little help from his friends in the All-Starr band.

Beginning Oct. 13 with an eight-night residency at Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, the trek will continue across the country before concluding in Newark, New Jersey on Nov. 16. So far 19 dates have been announced, and more are expected to follow.

Starr will be backed by the longest incarnation of his ever-evolving supergroup, including luminaries like power-pop wizard Todd Rundgren, Toto’s guitar great Steve Lukather, Richard Page of Mr. Mister, and Gregg Rolie,...

It's blissfully romantic, undeniably eccentric, the easy go-to-answer for the best Adam Sandler movie ever made, a modernist gem, a valentine to old musicals and the only film to feature both Philip Seymour Hoffman and an abandoned harmonium in key supporting roles. Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love remains an outlier in the filmmaker's career and one of the more oddball movies to come out of a studio in the past two decades – an ode to true love involving phone sex scams, pudding, wrecked public restrooms and proof that even...

Recently, archaeologists made a startling discovery. Excavating a hitherto undiscovered burial chamber in the Great Pyramid, they came across a series of hieroglyphics in which, amid the depictions of ancient pharaohs and Egyptian gods, was a familiar figure: pale, knock-kneed, clad in a pinched grey suit and a red bow tie — the first concrete evidence that Pee-wee Herman has lived among us for thousands of years.

This is, of course, a lie, but the ageless appearance of Paul Reubens' iconic character in Pee-wee's Big Holiday, which Netflix released on...

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Almost forty years ago, in February 1966, The Beach Boys began work on Good Vibrations, their most famous and visionary song.

It was slated to be the centrepiece of what undoubtedly would have been their greatest album, SMiLE, which would have eclipsed even Pet Sounds.

But SMiLE would never be released, and its convoluted and ultimately doomed recording process has since become the stuff of legend.

Over more than 50 recording sessions in at least four different studios, the Beach Boys’ leader Brian Wilson tried and failed to realise his vision, due to all manner of problems besetting the project.

There was internal pressure from other band members, Brian’s spiralling drug use and mental health issues, not to mention the fact that the songs he wanted to make were so far ahead of their time.

On Pet Sounds, Brian had sung “I just wasn’t made for these times”, and with SMiLE he proved it,...

It's back and better than ever -- the makers of Pee-Wee's Playhouse capped their Saturday morning show with a Christmas Special to end all Christmas Specials. All the show's regular characters, special treats and creative extravagances are enhanced with a tall stack of celebrity guests, performers and walk-ons -- it's a 1988 time capsule. Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special Blu-ray Shout! Factory 1988 / Color / 1:33 flat / 49 min. / Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse / Street Date October 6, 2015 / 19.97 Starring Paul Reubens, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Grace Jones, k.d. lang, Dinah Shore, Little Richard, Cher, Del Rubio Triplets, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Joan Rivers, Charo, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Carlson, Ric Heitzman, Suzanne Kent, William Marshall, George Mcgrath, S. Epatha Merkerson, Alison Mork, John Paragon, Lynne Marie Stewart, Vic Trevino. Cinematography David Lewis Film Editor Billy Fox Original Music Van Dyke Parks Written by John Paragon, Paul Reubens Produced by Steve Binder Directed by Wayne Orr,...

Los Angeles - Last night musicians and comedians gathered at the Ace Hotel to honor the 60th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's groundbreaking poem "Howl," in the form of a benefit concert thrown by the David Lynch Foundation. The non-profit centers on spreading the word about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation. Sounds like a laugh riot, right? Actually, everyone fared pretty well... "David Lynch... the man who made me afraid of hallways." Musician Kevin Drew, as an introduction "Live abortions! Raise your hand if you've had an abortion... or you can just slap me five when you leave." Amy Poehler "I love rap music but I despise poetry." Chris Parnell, prior to rapping "The Ballad of the Skeletons" with Amy Poehler "This should go for two or three hours. Let's round it up to six... Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You have to if you wanna see Nic Cage.

Brian Wilson biopic Love and Mercy is a game of two halves: the good half features Paul Dano, in an awards-calibre performance, as the young Wilson at the height of his powers, when he created his masterpiece Pet Sounds (released in 1966) as his psyche simultaneously began to unravel; the bad half features an inexplicably cast John Cusack as Wilson in the late ‘80s and early ’90s, when he was under the ‘care’ of the sinister Dr Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti).

The film cuts back and forth between the Dano/Wilson era and the Cusack/Wilson era, rather than having them follow each other chronologically, which helps the weaker Cusack section to an extent by allowing it to not have to stand on its own for an hour or so. Dano does an outstanding job with his impersonation of the troubled genius, which is bolstered as well by his general resemblance to Wilson.

And now for our feature presentation… the folks at Red Bull have posted online What Difference Does it Make: A Film about Making Music. It’s an energetic mash-up of the events occurring during Red Bull Music Academy’s festival last year in New York, and it contains moments from Brian Eno, James Murphy, Van Dyke Parks, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Philip Glass, Steven O’Malley and many more.

And now for our feature presentation… the folks at Red Bull have posted online What Difference Does it Make: A Film about Making Music. It’s an energetic mash-up of the events occurring during Red Bull Music Academy’s festival last year in New York, and it contains moments from Brian Eno, James Murphy, Van Dyke Parks, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Philip Glass, Steven O’Malley and many more.

Beck will perform his sheet music LP, Song Reader, in its entirety for only the second time ever later this year. The singer, who’s releasing a new album in early 2014, will be joined by a number of collaborators on Nov. 24 at Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, including Jarvis Cocker, Jenny Lewis, Childish Gambino, Jack Black, Van Dyke Parks, and John C. Reilly. The L.A. Philharmonic—conducted by Beck’s father, David Campbell—will accompany them. Eyeglass company Warby Parker, for which Beck recently designed a pair of frames, is presenting the show. Tickets go on ...

Few have heard Beck's "Song Reader" -- his 2012 album released only in sheet music form -- but today he announced another chance. On Nov. 24, Beck and a slew of special guests will perform the album at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Pre-sale tickets go on sale Nov. 2 and general sales start Nov. 3. This summer, Beck performed "Song Reader" live for the first time in London and many of his collaborators from that show will return to Walt Disney Concert Hall, including Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Jenny Lewis, Childish Gambino, Jack Black, Van Dyke Parks, and actor-turned-musician John...

Los Angeles -- For a city that has argued for decades over what its official song ought to be, Los Angeles has never lacked for serious contenders.

Anyone who has spent time here knows the city already has at least one unofficial tune: Randy Newman's "I Love La" is played after every home game the Los Angeles Lakers or Dodgers win.

But have you heard Bing Crosby warble about how he once planned to "settle down and nevermore roam, and make the San Fernando Valley my home?" Or songwriter George G.W. Morgan's tuneful boast in 1876 that if you really wanted great wine, forget the fancy European stuff, just open a bottle of La's best and drink up.

Crosby's "San Fernando Valley," a hit in 1943, and Morgan's "The Wines of Los Angeles County" are just two of nearly 200 songs that promote, mystify, glamorize and, let's be honest, often exaggerate...

After sharing the best historical album award for The Smile Sessions at the Grammys Pre-Telecast awards, Brian Wilson was asked backstage about the possibility of a Beach Boys reunion. Wilson replied quickly, flatly and without emotion, "I doubt it, no." Story: Beach Boys' Mike Love: 'I Did Not Fire Brian Wilson' The Beach Boys frontman's comments were typically brief and to the point. The favorite song he's written? “California Girls.” Did he and Van Dyke Parks -- Wilson's collaborator on the album -- know when they were writing Smile that it was ahead of its time? "Yes, we did," he responded.

read more...

In a way, it has always seemed like the life of Rufus Wainwright was headed for the big screen. The son of famed Canadian folk music legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, he was born into something close to music royalty. But he forged his own musical path, performing weekly shows in his hometown of Montreal before cutting early demos (listen to one of the songs below) that found their way into the hands of famed producer/arranger Van Dyke Parks who passed it onto DreamWorks head Lenny Waronker, and the next thing you know, he had a record deal (Jon Brion produced his first album). And over the course of six albums, and a couple more live albums, Wainwright showcased himself to be a premiere pop songwriter, with influences as wide-ranging as Tin Pan Alley and high opera, all while putting his own baroque spin on things; Elton John...

If any two indie rock vocalists have the vocal chops to sing with the likes of Van Dyke Parks, it has got to be Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold and Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen. The 69-year old songwriter and producer has been touring off and on since 2010 -- and now, according to Bella Union, Van Dyke Parks will share the immaculate Barbican Theatre stage in London with Pecknold and Rossen to the delight of music fans everywhere.

Understand this: The Beach Boys’ Smile is unfinished. It was unfinished back in 1967, when Brian Wilson decided to abandon the project that was literally driving him insane, and it remained unfinished even after Wilson recorded a simplified version of Smile in 2004 and took it out on the road. The rudiments of what Wilson and lyricist Van Dyke Parks intended for Smile were there in the ’04 album, which sequenced the album’s scattered songs—many of which had ended up on later Beach Boys records in some form or another—into three suites, loosely engaging with the story ...

Everett The Beach Boys in 1967

Today’s release of “The Smile Sessions,” with music by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks recorded in 1966 and ’67 by the Beach Boys and Wilson’s preferred Los Angeles studio musicians, suggests the lost, legendary Beach Boys album “Smile” is now available.

It’s not. What’s referred to as “Smile” on the first disk of both the two-disk and five-disk version of “The Smile Sessions” boxed sets is a facsimile cobbled together from recordings...

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Rating: 5.5 out of 5 stars

Forty years after the original recording of Smile, the great lost album by 60s pop group The Beach Boys that was cancelled mid-recording, and the ‘unfinished symphony’ is finally getting an official release. The album has been heard before due to bootleg reconstructions and a 2004 rerecording by the Beach Boys producer, co-songwriter (alongside Van Dyke Parks), vocalist and all round genius Brian Wilson, but this is the first time we can hear the album in a finished form by The Beach Boys themselves

There are numerous rumours and reasons why the Smile sessions were abandoned in the first place: Brian Wilson’s depression, vocalist Mike Love’s disdain for the Beach Boys new sound (especially after the commercial failure of...

The Beach Boys' fabled "SMiLE" album is finally hitting shelves, some forty years after recording was first started. Capitol/Emi has collected the iconic band's storied '66 - '67 sessions for the unfinished LP, with the participation of original Beach Boys Al Jardine, Mike Love, and "SMiLE" mastermind Brian Wilson, to be released in multiple formats November 1. In multiple marathon recording sessions in 1966 and 1967, The Beach Boys recorded dozens of songs (many co-written by Van Dyke Parks) to appear on an album intended to be the follow-up to the band's acclaimed 1966 album, "Pet Sounds." With Wilson's unchecked depression...

Legendary musician and wordsmith Van Dyke Parks has announced his first new music release since 1995’s Orange Crate Art, a collaboration with former Beach Boy Brian Wilson. The project will be a series of six 7” singles, which will all be released this year on Parks’ Bananastan label. Only the first two singles, “Dreaming of Paris” and “Wedding in Madagascar,” have names so far.

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Joel and Ethan Coen’s cult comedy “The Big Lebowski” received a ton of press last week due to a Blu-ray release of the film and a star-studded Q-and-a held in New York City on the film’s behalf. Get Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore together on one stage, and it’s going to make headlines.

But today, another Coen Brothers masterpiece is making news. “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” the filmmakers’ odyssey through the Depression-era South, is releasing a two-disc, anniversary edition of its Grammy winning soundtrack, and the disc reportedly will feature 12 tracks that didn’t make the cut the first time around.

While the soundtrack is best known for its version of Dick Burnett’s “Man of Constant Sorrow” (covered by George Clooney and the Soggy Bottom Boys), it also boasts fantastic bluegrass staples handpicked by the brothers and T. Bone Burnett.

Nazis. Wonder drugs. Uzi-toting mothers. Here's what to pick up this season, from the current issue of Newsweek.

Nothing Dauntedby Dorothy Wickenden

Related story on The Daily Beast: The 12 Best Books of Summer

Century-old letters composed in the wilds of Colorado by two young schoolteachers provide the backbone of this stirring narrative by one of their granddaughters.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suitby Mark Seal

At 17, Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter left Germany for the U.S., where he pursued a two-decade career as an impostor, most famously as Clark Rockefeller. This spectacular story is all in the entertaining details.

State of Wonderby Ann Patchett

A female research scientist from a Minneapolis drug company is sent to Brazil to find a doctor working on a wonder fertility drug. Think Heart of Darkness with women.

Carte Blancheby Jeffery Deaver

His creator may be long gone, but James Bond (with his gadgets, women, and...

Why are we always driven by the elusive goal of living forever? A new book argues that we should give up on perfectability and embrace our mortality. Malcolm Jones talks to philosopher John Gray.

The English political philosopher John Gray has a quarrel with progress. It's not that he doesn't believe in it. Indeed, he cheerfully admits that science and technology have, in many ways, improved our lot. "Remember what DeQuincey said in the 1820s in his Confessions of an English Opium Eater: a quarter of all human suffering is toothache. It would've been true then. Now we don't suffer that," Gray says, by phone from his home in Bath. "Progress in dental science is real. And it's only one example of a respect in which the growth of knowledge is absolutely real."

Related story on The Daily Beast: Rise of the Superbacteria

The problem, according to Gray, is that while technology improves,...

Historical artist, composer/producer Mr. Van Dyke Parks, will barrage a series of 7″ vinyl singles beginning in August of this year. The 7″ series of singles will illustrate artwork on the vinyl from some of Americas top contemporary artist. Parks will release the illustrated vinyl series out on his label, “Bananastan Records” with worldwide distribution by City Hall/ Runt. Park comments on the illustrations by the American contemporary artist as, “A work of art that relates to the music with-in”. Ed Ruscha illustartions of “Dreaming of Paris” / “Wedding in Madagascar” and Art Spiegelman’s, “Wall Street” / “Money is King” will be the first two singles released. Van Dyke Park mentions on the...

At the height of their fame, the Monkees teamed up with Jack Nicholson to film the psychedelic classic Head – and destroy their careers in the process. So how do they feel about it now

Davy Jones doesn't really want to talk about Head. The former Monkees heartthrob is happy to talk about his old home in Manchester, his new home in Florida, his racehorses, his theatre career – anything, basically, except the cryptic, psychedelic art movie that, in 1968, marked the end of the Monkees' short tenure as the biggest rock band in America. "We were pawns in something we helped create but had no control over," he says crossly. "We should have made Ghostbusters, Ok?"

Head could never be mistaken for Ghostbusters. It's a fourth-wall-shattering, stream-of-consciousness black comedy that mocks war, America, Hollywood, television, the music business and the Monkees themselves. These days, it is fondly remembered as one of the...

As part of a soundtrack for Max Winkler’s film Ceremony, Eric Johnson from the Fruit Bats has rounded up songs from Pete Townshend, Van Dyke Parks, Eric Burdon, Ezra Koenig and some other musicians. For his contributions to the film score, Koenig recorded a cover of Paul Simon’s 1972 song “Papa Hobo.” Download the track here and see the complete tracklist below....