The Beach Boys: An American Band

This is a fairly decent documentary on probably one of the most influential bands in rock and roll. However, they do tend to gloss over most of the problems within the band. Many people know that Dennis Wilson was involved... Full review

This documentary on "The Beach Boys" may become more valuable as the years pass. Time has a way of allowing us to separate the sporadic and superficial from the genuine and great.Now that we have some space since the group's... Full review

What's great about this film, is that it doesn't just show you a series of little fifteen second sound-bites of vintage performances, but lets each clip run it's course, so you get to hear the entire song. Although many of... Full review

An excellent warts and all docu-bio of the legendary Californian surf band, told by the members themselves. From the very beginning, all the way to drummer Dennis Wilson's untimely death. A mixture of vintage concert footage, interviews, film clips and... Full review

The biggest thing to be learned from U.S. Singles Collection is that contrary to what Pet Sounds and the 2004 greatest-hits comp Sounds of Summer have told you, The Beach Boys also made a lot of terrible songs. From the vaguely racially insensitive "Ten Little Indians," the "ain't the fair great" "County Fair," their pair of bad Christmas songs ("The Man with All the Toys" and "Little Saint Nick"), the very strange recording of the "Lord's Prayer" in four-part harmonies, and the god-awful "Little Honda," i ... Full Review

Today, Brian Wilson, the most talented, yet most reclusive Beach Boy, has a solo career, but his brothers, guitarist Carl and drummer Dennis, have both passed away. When the Beach Boys got their start in the 1960s, they epitomized the laid-back, feel-good tendencies of the era, with songs such as "Surfin' U.S.A.," "Help Me Rhonda" and "Fun Fun Fun. ... Full Review

Legendary Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks has lent his string arranging and orchestration skills to the album, titled Replica Sun Machine and famed avant-garde composer John Cale of the Velvet Underground reportedly contributes some of his unique viola playing. ... Full Review

There's a scene during night two of the ABC miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family that pretty much sums up why the '60s surf-rock legends merit treatment in a spiffy sweeps-month extravaganza. The Beach Boys: An American Family starts off pretty slowinterchangeable altar-boy look-alikes are regularly thumped by abusive dad, who micromanages their career while they record a string of surf-craze hits in the early '60s. ... Full Review

Q. Many rock-era singers fronted groups before launching solo careers. But while they were still with their group, did it ever happen that the lead singer and the group were in the top 10 at the same time with competing... ... Full Article

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "This is my hometown," Brian Wilson said as he sat behind his keyboard. Indeed. And the Los Angeles crowd was treated to a two-hour soundtrack of the city from its main musical hero, highlighted --... ... Full Article

Pilots from all over the Northeast will fly their hot air balloons over Hudson Saturday and Sunday for the fourth annual Hudson Elks Club No. 959 Hot Air Balloon Festival. ... Full Article

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 7, 2005) Sad but true admission time: back in my late teens and early twenties, I thought of the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin as my three most hated bands. ... Full Article

The most gushed-about current British band sounds absolutely nothing like a band from the U.K. Or anywhere in Europe, for that matter. In fact, if you gave them a listen, you'd probably pick up some New Orleans boogie - a... ... Full Article

Feb. 25, 2004 | Had it been completed in 1966 as planned, "Smile," the Beach Boys' legendary unreleased album, would have begun with a song called "Prayer": a minute and a half of wordlessly angelic brotherly harmony, pure and rising. ... Full Article