By Matt Keath
MATT'S COMPANION GUIDE TO EPISODE 3: MUSIC SAVED MY LIFE POD
This week we’re talking about The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet, two experimental pop albums put out 51 years apart. It’s hard to imagine Soft Sounds will have the kind lasting impact Pet Sounds did (but it’s possible nothing ever will).
Japanese Breakfast "Soft Sounds From Another Planet" (album art)
Japanese Breakfast basics:
Members: Michelle Zauner
Founded: 2013
Studio Albums:
- Psychopomp, 2016
- Soft Sounds From Another Planet, 2017
What they’re saying about Soft Sounds From Another Planet;
“Inspired by the cosmos, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner addresses life on Earth. Her voice shines over melancholic arrangements, evoking Pacific Northwest indie rock as much as shoegaze”
“For a record with its aspirations in the allegorical freedom of the cosmos, Zauner returns over and over to the painful architecture of this world. There’s beauty in it, too, this seeing more clearly, this holding of two things in mind at once. There are no bromides or reassuring aphorisms here.”
“Soft Sounds From Another Planet… [is] a somber, starry lullaby that results in periods of fitful sleep marked by struggles with fading love and death’s vague mystery.”
Dennis Wilson aka “The Hot One”
Beach Boys basics:
Members:
- Brian Wilson
- Dennis Wilson
- Carl Wilson
- Mike Love
- Al Jardine
Founded: 1961
Audio Albums: 20+ wikipedia that shit
What they’re saying about Pet Sounds;
“But Pet Sounds....nobody was prepared for anything so soulful, so lovely, something one had to think about so much. It is by far the best album Brian has yet delivered, and it paradoxically began the decline in mass popularity that still plagues this band. It also reflected Brian’s preoccupation with pure sound.”
“Almost predictably, as the deserved praise for the vocal arrangements may never wane, I’ve heard more fine things said about the instrumental tracks recently than any other aspect of the record. In any case, the technical achievements of the record (only given further support by the stereo issue of the record in the late 90s) have tended to overshadow the emotional and spiritual ones, at least in my lifetime.”
Appendix:
Townes Van Zandt
Hayley’s been dipping her toes in the catalogue of a songwriting legend. Check out my favorite Townes track with a cover from Andrew Bird thrown in free
The Modern Lovers
Emo Revival
http://www.stereogum.com/1503252/12-bands-to-know-from-the-emo-revival/franchises/list/
Stereogum published this nice Emo Revival primer. I’d add the following three artists to their list:
Songs: Ohia
Otis Redding
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/otis-redding-the-crown-prince-of-soul-is-dead-19680120
Jann Wenner had no idea he was leaving out what would become Redding’s most famous song when he wrote this obituary in 1968. Also, here’s the song that almost made Hayley crash on I-20:
Feist
Louvin Brothers/Andrews Sisters
Here’s Mike Love on meeting Charles fucking Manson
Bill Mallonee
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2006/07/pastes-100-best-living-songwriters-6170.html
Paste named Bill their 65th-best living songwriter in 2006. He shares the list with some absolute powerhouses. While he’s probably had less commercial success than anyone else on the list, his lyrics are pure class. He also replied to a fanboy Facebook message I sent him when I was 16. What a dude.