Brian Wilson: NO PIER PRESSURE

Summary

Jokermen Podcast – Brian Wilson: NO PIER PRESSURE

Date: April 13, 2026
Hosts: Ian and Evan

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Overview

In this episode, the Jokermen Podcast continues its deep dive into the Brian Wilson and Beach Boys catalog by tackling No Pier Pressure—one of the most divisive records in Wilson’s solo career. Ian and Evan dig into why this late-era album is so fraught, the unusual abundance of guest features, its origin story as a “compromised product,” and why it feels less like a genuine Brian Wilson album and more like a confusing, melancholy pop grab-bag. This conversation is sharp, affectionate, disappointed, and wryly funny, especially as the hosts grapple with saying goodbye to their long-running Wilson series.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Is This Even a Brian Wilson Album?

• Early assessment: The hosts agree that No Pier Pressure is so compromised it barely qualifies as a “proper” Brian Wilson solo album.
  • “It’s a compromised product for any number of reasons, maybe. Chief among them are our good friend Mr. Buddy Love, coming in for one last appearance… Joe Thomas, it’s a bunch of songs, some of which have Brian Wilson on them, some of which hardly have Brian Wilson on them.” — Ian [03:09]
• Questioning authorship: The album’s genesis and execution raise doubts about how much Brian was truly present and involved.
• The "Fog of War": There’s a “sort of fog of war” around the project, similar to other late-career legacy albums.

2. Album Cover & Title: A Beach-Word Generator

• Harsh critique: The album is visually lambasted:
  • “One of the worst album covers I’ve ever seen.” — Evan [04:50]
  • “It looks like an Instagram photo from 2015, which, coincidentally, is when this album came out.” — Ian [04:57]
• Family ties: The cover was shot by Brian’s daughter, Daria.
• Title pun (“Pier”/“Peer”): The hosts bemoan the slack pun, calling it a desperate last gasp in the “beach word” title game.
  • “Words that vaguely have to do with the beach are being combined in ways that don’t even really hold up to basic scrutiny.” — Evan [06:26]

3. A Confused, Compromised Genesis

• Initial intentions: This was supposed to be a Beach Boys album, then a Brian Wilson album, then three albums (Brian/Jeff Beck duets, instrumentals, rock songs), before being shrunk to one collaged record.
• Notable producer: Joe Thomas, whose influence is much derided, shaped the final messy result.
  • “This just yet another classic Brian Wilson. Is it a Beach Boys album? Is it not a Beach Boys album?... Just a, you know, a complete cluster. I'll just send everyone over to the Wikipedia page.” — Ian [07:05]

4. Guest List Overload

• Feature-heavy: A “murderer’s row of schmoes” (with a few exceptions): Alan Jardine, David Marks, Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward (She & Him), Mark Isham, Peter Hollens, Kacey Musgraves, Blondie Chaplin, Nate Ruess (from Fun.), and Cebu (“assume it’s short for Sebulba from Phantom Menace”).
• Rejected collabs: Two promising collaborations—Frank Ocean (rejected for wanting to rap) and Lana Del Rey (whose track only surfaced in leaks)—are held up as “what could have been.”
  • “There was a world, though, in which some of these collaborations might have been kind of sick. Specifically, two collaborations that did not make this record. One, Frank Ocean, and then two, Lana Del Rey … The Lana Del Rey track was recorded and actually came out in that big, giant, massive leak of Beach Boy shit from a month or two ago. Did you listen to that at all after I sent it to you?” — Ian [16:29]

5. Dissection of Tracks & Songcraft

a. Track-by-Track Key Impressions

• “This Beautiful Day” / “Whatever Happened” [17:48, 26:00]:
  • Opening “fake out” with a short, beautiful intro then suddenly derailed by the next song.
  • "Whatever Happened" is viewed as “perfectly acceptable,” a taste of what a late Beach Boys record should sound like.
    • “This is a song that just works plain, you know, plain out.” — Ian [27:06]
• “Runaway Dancer” (feat. Sebu) [21:39]:
  • Universally disliked, described as “not Brian Wilson music.”
    • “This is maybe the clearest example of it where... I mean, fundamentally, this is not Brian Wilson music to me.” — Ian [21:39]
  • Blamed squarely on Joe Thomas.
  • Compared to generic 1976 disco and modern Avicii-lite pop.
• Guest-Driven Songs [35:13+]:
  • “On the Island” (with She & Him): Slight, pleasant bossa nova, but could be anyone.
    • “This is featuring Brian Wilson, and there's no other way. That's what it is.” — Evan [38:22]
  • “Guess You Had to Be There” (with Kacey Musgraves) [45:40]: Country flavor but unmemorable, more Casey’s than Brian’s.
  • Multiple tracks likened to “iPhone slideshow music” with overly clean, generic, or “license-free” production.
• Late-album Run [49:39]:
  • “Don’t Worry,” “Somewhere Quiet,” “I’m Feeling Sad,” “Tell Me Why,” “Sail Away” — blend together as indistinct, derivative, or “songs titled after other, better songs.” “Sail Away” is described as a “Disneyland version of Sloop John B.”
  • Exception: “I’m Feeling Sad” has genuine Wilsonian melancholy and is praised as one of the only moments that feels authentic.
• Deluxe Edition Additions:
  • “One Kind of Love” stands out as a late highlight, “everything I’d want from a Brian song, a late Brian song… the context powers this song, really.” — Evan [55:51]
• Final Tracks:
  • “The Last Song” is reflective and gentle—praised but lamented for not involving Lana Del Rey’s (unreleased) version as a true duet.

b. Thematic and Emotional Disconnect

• The recurring problem: the record feels forced, with Brian often reduced to a background presence or “passenger” in his own project.
  • “This just does not feel like the type of album and the type of music that Brian Wilson wants to be making. And I think there's no getting around it.” — Ian [25:08]
  • Audience feels the push-pull of authenticity vs. commercial calculation.
  • Attempts to modernize Brian are seen as fruitless (“Brian Wilson in 2015 was never going to be a popular major going concern as a pop artist ... It’s misbegotten from the start.") [30:56]

6. The "Brian & Friends" Problem

• Hosts wish the album had been marketed (and constructed) as “Brian & Friends,” or a duets/tribute album—making sense of all the features and allowing Brian to step back gracefully.
  • “I think that solves a lot of your problems…because Friends—great.” — Ian [39:04]
• The missed opportunity for a curated, celebratory, career capstone, instead of a muddle.

7. Broader Reflections: Legacy Albums & Late-Career Choices

• Other artists (Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cale, Randy Newman) are contrasted: their late works, even the wildly eccentric ones (“Lulu,” “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” “Dark Matter”), remain true to their creative identity, “audiences be damned.”
• In contrast, Wilson and the Beach Boys, via Joe Thomas, churn out music that aims for relevance but results in mediocrity, softening or even erasing their distinctive voice.
• On modern duets: regret expressed that the only “good” guests (Lana, Frank Ocean) didn’t materialize as planned.
  • “It is accidentally a perfect match, you know, that the people calling the shots on this album kind of stumbled ass backward into and, you know, and out of apparently.” — Ian [69:19]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Critique of the Cover:
  • “I really do not like this album cover because it looks like an Instagram photo from 2015, which, coincidentally, is when this album came out.” — Ian [04:57]
• On the guestlist:
  • “A murderer's row of a bunch of schmoes that are working on this album. Not Al. Not Blondie, not David, sort of David Marks, but everyone else. Basically, a bit of a schmo.” — Ian [15:13]
• On “Runaway Dancer”:
  • “It's brutal … fundamentally, this is not Brian Wilson music to me.” — Ian [21:39]
• On the album’s schizophrenia:
  • “Look at the songs we've listened to so far. Runaway Dancer, Whatever Happened, On the Island, Half Moon Bay. These sound like four songs from four different albums, and they're just one after the other here.” — Ian [40:32]
• On the “Brian & Friends” approach:
  • “Maybe we could call this one, like, Brian and Friends.” — Evan [39:01]
• On the album’s fundamental flaw:
  • “This just does not feel like the type of album and the type of music that Brian Wilson wants to be making. And I think there's no getting around it.” — Ian [25:08]
• On Brian’s late-career drift:
  • “Brian himself is a bit of a passenger, I think, in his own career, at least, as a recording artist and a songwriting artist.” — Ian [59:51]
• On the missed Lana collaboration:
  • “She is as good as that gets. ... She understands what's great about him in a way that the people closest to him in his music production... clearly don't get.” — Evan [68:45]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:00] – Penultimate episode set-up; is this the last real Brian Wilson album?
• [04:44] – Vitriolic album cover discussion
• [07:05] – Background: Chaotic creation and shifting project identities
• [15:13] – Rundown of (and jokes about) the guest artists
• [16:29] – The Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey “what-might-have-been”
• [17:48] – Track-by-track begins: “This Beautiful Day,” “Whatever Happened,” “Runaway Dancer”
• [35:13+] – The “On the Island” segment: musings on features and modern "tiki" culture
• [39:04] – The “Brian & Friends” solution
• [55:51] – “One Kind of Love”/deluxe edition discussion
• [61:39] – Overarching thoughts on Brian as “passenger”/producer problems
• [68:45] – Lana Del Rey as a potentially perfect collaborator
• [72:40] – Final assessment/ratings: One star out of three

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Tone & Takeaway

The episode is deeply wry—a mixture of sincere disappointment, affectionate nostalgia, and gallows humor about decline and missed opportunities. Ian and Evan are both passionate and critical, not sad to see Joe Thomas exit the scene, and hyper-aware that the Beach Boys well has finally (almost) run dry. What remains, for all the half-hearted attempts to force relevance, are flashes of the old Wilson spark—often obscured, but worthy of cherishing when they appear.

Bottom line:
No Pier Pressure suffers from blurry authorship, misguided commercial instincts, a parade of unnecessary features, and a lack of focus. But scattered throughout are moments—especially in tracks like “Whatever Happened,” “I’m Feeling Sad,” “One Kind of Love,” and the closing “Last Song”—that hint at the genius just below the surface. For die-hards, there’s gold if you squint—just not enough to make this feel like a proper, fitting farewell.

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Final Rating

One star out of three.
“I'm rounding up to one star. Let me say that.” — Ian [72:46]
“And I'm being peer pressured into giving it one star as well.” — Evan [72:52]

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Looking Ahead

• The final Brian Wilson episode will feature At My Piano and Long Promised Road, with one extra Beach Boys “nugget” before the curtain falls.
  • “The sun is setting. The giant mouse head sun overlooking the Woody is about to sink into the ocean on the Beach Boy series, and we're all about to be fully annihilated.” — Ian [74:43]

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Transcript

[Ian]

Jokerman podcast is brought to you by Distrokid and their new direct to fan tool. Allowing any artist to sell merch. Distrokid Direct allows artists to create a merch store in minutes without any upfront costs or any technical skills or know how they'll take care of all the logistics and the nitty gritty. And as with distribution through Distrokid, they never take a cut of the proceeds. You, the artist, keep 100% of your earnings. Once again, that's Distrokid Direct. Open a store [e-mail] direct. Join the Human brave.

[Evan]

Welcome back to Jokerman Brian Wilson Podcast. I'm Evan.

[Ian]

I'm Ian.

[Evan]

We are at the second to last.

[Ian]

Penultimate. Penultimate Brian Wilson album. That's right. Penultimate Brian Wilson episode. We got a couple things. Well, really kind of. One extra thing we're going to jam in at the end. And then our classic album art episode. Everyone's favorite topic of conversation on Jokerman podcast. And then of course, the Jokerman 100 coming before long. But yeah, this is. It's the second to last Brian Wilson album. And in some ways it's really the last Brian Wilson album. And in other ways, this actually isn't even the last Brian Wilson album. The last Brian Wilson album was one of the ones before. Because it's questionable if we even want to consider this a Brian Wilson album.

[Evan]

This is. And I can't believe that I'm even saying this, but this is like the sequel to what's it called again? You gotta help me out.

[Ian]

You're gonna have to refresh my memory more than just what's it called again?

[Evan]

The other album by Brian that you would classify as like very forgettable. The one with Desert Drive.

[Ian]

Oh, Getting in Over my Head. The other album from 2004.

[Evan]

This is basically getting in over my head 2. It's exactly as necessary. It's exactly as called for. It's exactly as chock full of features.

[Ian]

It's even more. It is even more chock full of features. And some might say it's even less

[Evan]

necessary than getting it when I. I was being sarcastic. It's exactly as well. Yeah, maybe it is even less necessary than. Than that. Which is to say a lot that's a lot less necessary.

[Ian]

We will find out soon.

[Evan]

Are you on the edge of your seat yet about what we think?

[Ian]

Stay tuned for more, folks. This is going to be a real shocking conclusion here. No, it isn't, I don't think. At least for me.

[Evan]

Well, let's get it out of the way and just both agree it's kind of not like we're talking about a proper Brian Wilson album.

[Ian]

Yes, it's a compromised product for any number of reasons, maybe. Chief among them are our good friend Mr. Buddy Love, coming in for one last appearance. I think in a previous episode, I said, we're done with him after this. Turns out I was wrong. I forgot that he was also the mastermind. Mastermind behind no Peer Pressure, which is the album we're talking about today, if we haven't said the title already. And then, you know, beyond Mr. Buddy Love, Joe Thomas, it's a bunch of songs, some of which have Brian Wilson on them, some of which hardly have Brian Wilson on them. It's. It's unclear to me the extent to which Brian really was even. This is, like, present during proceedings for this record.

[Evan]

I think we feel exactly as confident in that way as we do about Bob Dylan's Patreon. Like, this is the degree to which we can.

[Ian]

Good comparison.

[Evan]

We could be sure that the artist in question is actually behind it and in any meaningful sense generating this work. Well, maybe that's. Creating it maybe is too much. I mean, doing, let's say, making it happen, producing. It's all kind of. It's. There's a sort of fog of war around both of those projects. The one today being no Peer Pressure.

[Ian]

No peer pressure. P, I, E R. Well, get it. You get it.

[Evan]

And let's talk about the album cover, which basically makes it terrible. Very clear that this is one of

[Ian]

the worst album covers I've ever seen.

[Evan]

Brian Wilson album. Because it says Brian Wilson really, really big on the top.

[Ian]

I really do not like this album cover because it looks like an Instagram photo from 2015, which, coincidentally, is when this album came out.

[Evan]

2015, man, it does have the patina, faux patina of blue. Digital lomography.

[Ian]

Exactly. And then, like, the ocean, the horizon is, like, completely blown out behind it. So, like, it's not even a. Well, it's not even a good photograph, even if you take the processing out of it. Would it shock you to learn this is another. You know, we had the Mike Love albums.

[Evan]

Are you kidding me?

[Ian]

That were photographed by his children. This is not Mike Love's children that photographed this, but this is Daria Wilson, Brian's daughter photographed this. You know, made this photograph. So, you know, I appreciate the fact that Brian is involving his daughter here. I just. I'm not. I'm not a fan of the design.

[Evan]

I think that this photo wouldn't be a Bad photo. If it was, like, didn't have that blue tinge, like, if this was like a warm analog, actual photograph, like, William Eggleston style, like, just a snapshot of, like, under this pier, I think it would be great. Of course, there's a little sign that says, no Peer Pressure.

[Ian]

What does that mean? Like, I don't even. I know it's a pun, but, like, what are we. What did. Like, what are we even trying to say? Well, calling this album no Peer Pressure,

[Evan]

that's like California Beach. That's like one of these things that's like. At a certain point, there is, like, an actual, like, we. We've defended so much. You know, we've. We've been here, I think, giving a fair shake to so much Beach Boys stuff, Beach Boys related stuff. But there is a point which I think we've now reached at the very end where, like, words that vaguely have to do with the beach are being combined in ways that don't even really hold up to basic scrutiny. Except for that. Yeah, it's a beach word being used. Yeah.

[Ian]

P I E R Pier. Yeah, it's a little bit like, you know, in 2001, when they're taking the. Taking the memory cards out of hell and he's. He's just. He's like melting. Exactly. That's kind of the extent of the creativity process that's going on with our. Our boys, our men, our senior citizens of the beach. That's right. Here, a mug. There a mug. Feels like a long time ago. Would it also shock you to learn that this album is. You know, we said this is sort of a compromise album, maybe not even a Brian Wilson album in the strictest sense. Would it shock you to learn that the recording, the creation, the genesis of this album itself was confused and protracted and itself quite troubled, compromised from the very beginning? I know it might shock you in the finished product to learn that, but this is just yet another classic Brian Wilson. Is it a Beach Boys album? Is it not a Beach Boys album? Am I doing it on my own? Am I doing it with someone else? Just a, you know, a complete cluster. I'll just send everyone over to the Wikipedia page because that is mostly devoted to all the back and forth. Will they, won't they, on this album? But highlights. This was supposed to be a Beach Boys record initially. Then Brian decided, no, it's gonna be a Brian Wilson album, which, honestly, that's fine. I don't think we needed another Beach Boys album after. That's why God Made the radio. Then this was gonna be. This one album was gonna be three albums. It was gonna be one album of duets between Brian and Jeff Beck. Just a whole album of duets between Brian and Jeff Beck, a name that I've seen a thousand times but know virtually nothing about. There was going to be a second album full of instrumentals, and then there was gonna be a third album of, I don't know, rock and little rock and roll numbers or something like, I don't know, a third album.

[Evan]

Jeff Beck playing. I mean, he's known as a guitarist.

[Ian]

I think he sings, too.

[Evan]

Yeah, but he's not really. He's more known as a guitarist.

[Ian]

All right, well, there's a.

[Evan]

There's a quote.

[Ian]

There's a quote on the page here from Joe Thomas, who described the aborted Brian Wilson Jeff Beck album as, quote, fusion jazz rock, with Brian singing oohs and ahs. So, I mean, fusion jazz rock. If we're making, like a late era Donald Fagan record, that could be kind of tight. But something tells me that the Brian Wilson Jeff Beck effort was not really going to sound like Sunken Condos or something.

[Evan]

Well, it might sound like it, but I don't think the lyrics would be.

[Ian]

Certainly not up to. Up to snuff there. Anyways, that album gets canned. The Jeff Beck contributions get canned. I think Brian and Jeff Beck were touring together and it was just sort of messy in terms of when they were gonna record the album. Were they gonna record the album? Was the tour before? Was the tour after? Then somewhere along the line someone decides, ah, this sucks. We're not even gonna put this out. And I think Jeff Beck was kind of pissed about that. And then the instrumental album also gets scrapped somewhere along the way. And it just gets shrunken down into this one. This one collection of songs, which is itself pretty long, that feature many guest appearances, as we've discussed here. What are some of the names that we have on this album? Of course, we have Alan Jardine, Beach Boy Alan Jardine, and former Beach Boy David Marks as well. We've got Zooey Deschanel, everyone's favorite character from the 2000s.

[Evan]

2015. When did 500 days of summer come out?

[Ian]

That was way before. That was 2009.

[Evan]

Yeah, but I think she was still writing that.

[Ian]

She was on the TV show in 2015, New Girl.

[Evan]

The New Girl. I never watched even a moment of that show.

[Ian]

Nor did I, although I think I was aware that they taped a lot of it by my dad's apartment in the Arts district in Dallas.

[Evan]

Did you ever have a 500 days of summer moment. Did he watch that movie?

[Ian]

Oh, of course I watched that movie. And yes, I definitely. I mean that was a big deal

[Evan]

for us to do it. That was an influential moment for if you were in especially like in Los Angeles and you were like 15, 16 years old.

[Ian]

Exactly.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

I think it was 16 when that movie came out. And you know, of course men, Men.

[Evan]

Boys of that age were not like immune like they.

[Ian]

People were buying certain type of boy of that age. Of which I think you and I both were.

[Evan]

Yeah, I think that there were like flirtations with sweater vests. I think there were like over ear headphones. Like maybe. Maybe trying out weari a little tie. All that.

[Ian]

Certainly the. The kind of peak. Peak. Would we call it Twee? It's not quite twee.

[Evan]

It's more like. Well, no, because it is famous for like sort of having like a. I think an influential soundtrack. Like making like the. Here comes your man the Pixies karaoke scene. Like I was really into Temper Trap

[Ian]

song that was in the trailer. Like I was in love with that.

[Evan]

So. And he's. He's like wearing a shirt and he's wearing like a Joy Division Love will tear us apart T shirt and like.

[Ian]

Right.

[Evan]

They're like going to the record store and like. Yeah, it's very aspirational to again a 15 to 16 year old in 2009 to. I'll say 2009 to 12.

[Ian]

Yeah, I think something about that. Something in that range. So yes, we're still in the general blast radius of 500 days of summer when this album comes out.

[Evan]

What's her other thing called? She and Him?

[Ian]

Well, that's. It's them. That's who's credited on here. So it's Zooey Deschanelli, M. Ward.

[Evan]

She and it's Them.

[Ian]

No, no, no, no. Van would not be so happy with that.

[Evan]

It's they, they and them. That's what it.

[Ian]

They, them.

[Evan]

That's what it would be today because of Woke. That's.

[Ian]

That's. That's. That's some Jay Leno level material right there.

[Evan]

That's not. I don't think Jay does that kind of thing.

[Ian]

Well, he, you know, I think he just tells.

[Evan]

Tells classic jokes. I want to see Jay.

[Ian]

I'm sure you can. No, actually, I don't know that you can. I think he's been going through some

[Evan]

tough time, but that hasn't stopped him. That's why he's still out on the road.

[Ian]

Even though he's like driving his car into walls every other week.

[Evan]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He is. Anyway.

[Ian]

All right, she and him. Beach boy. Alan Jardine, Mark Isham, some guy named Peter Hollins. Don't know who that is. Casey Musgraves, pre superstardom. Casey Musgraves, former beach boy. Blondie Chaplin. Nate Ruiz, from Fun. You remember them?

[Evan]

I do, but I only know the one.

[Ian]

The one song tonight, Everyone?

[Evan]

Well, no, the one song. And also Jack Antonoff.

[Ian]

Jack Antonoff was in that band before he became Jack Antonoff. And then, perhaps most perplexingly, someone named Cebu. Do we know anything about Cebu?

[Evan]

No.

[Ian]

Okay, I'm gonna just assume that it's short for Sebulba and we can.

[Evan]

Sebulba from the Phantom Menace.

[Ian]

That's right. He's got a second care out of pod racing. Yeah, he's working with Brian Wilson on.

[Evan]

Featuring Brian Wilson and. Wow, I didn't. He's working with Sebolba.

[Ian]

So.

[Evan]

Yeah, he's like. Joe Thomas is friends with it.

[Ian]

Joe. They go. They go way back. Sebulba actually used to be a wrestler.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Before he got into pod racing. And that's how he and Joe got connected.

[Evan]

Well, actually, it would have been a long time after he was involved in pod racing.

[Ian]

I guess that that's true. It was a galaxy a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Yeah. All right. Well, that was fun. Anyways, so we've got a murderer's row of a bunch of schmoes that are working on this album. Not Al. Not Blondie, not David, sort of David Marks, but everyone else. Basically, a bit of a schmo. There was a world, though, in which some of these collaborations might have been kind of sick. Specifically, two collaborations that did not make this record. One, Frank Ocean, and then two, Lana Del Rey. I don't know that there are any tapes that exist of whatever Frank was gonna do. I don't know if Frank even actually cut his track. Apparently, he was going to rap. And so Brian said, we don't want any rap, and then he was shitcanned. But the Lana Del Rey track was recorded and actually came out in that big, giant, massive leak of Beach Boy shit from a month or two ago. Did you listen to that at all

[Evan]

after I sent it to you? Yeah, I did.

[Ian]

Like, that is. That's. That is, to me, way better than, like, any of the other collaborations that we have on this album.

[Evan]

I'm pretty confused about why that didn't make it on. I mean, I assume it must have been because of just some, like, contract stuff or Payment or, you know, something boring like that. Because you'd think that that's exactly what they were trying to do on this.

[Ian]

It seems like the best case scenario, like if that was the demo, if that was like the work tape or whatever, and someone played that for the record company and said, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have artists like this sing songs like this with Brian in the background. I totally get it. I hear it. I'd say, that's fantastic. Who else we got? And it seems like kind of the opposite thing ended up happening. Where we've got this one instance of this project being like, pretty totally successful. And someone just said, ah, fuck that one. Throw that out there. Let's get Sebulba on this track. Make sure that that one hits a track 2 in the track list. Kind of baffling to me. But then again, you know, so much of the Brian Wilson solo career is kind of baffling to me.

[Evan]

Well, shall we talk about it?

[Ian]

I suppose we should. We must eventually.

[Evan]

Total fake out at the beginning. I think, like, this is classic, like, first track. Itis. Where it's like, I. I mean, I'm pressed to like. I'm trying to think of other examples when this has happened, but I feel like it has. Where it's like a first track on a Brian or Beach Boys record. Well, I guess the last Beach Boys album.

[Ian]

Yeah, this is very much like. What is it? Think about the days right at the beginning of the Beach Boys record where it sounds like this kind of interesting, mature, beautiful, simple composition. Almost sounds like the beginning of. You know. Or not. Doesn't sound like it necessarily, but seems to take some cues from the beginning of like a record like Friends, you know, Remember the way that Friends is just so, like, ethereal.

[Evan]

Meant for you.

[Ian]

Meant for you. Exactly. And then you kind of go along your way, really rich bit of scene setting. Just nice music, frankly. And then it's just. I mean, here in particular, it's just they pull the rug right out from under you.

[Evan]

Yeah. This is what, like one minute maybe? Yeah. And then we're into the. Straight into the worst thing here.

[Ian]

Oh, like, I don't know. I mean, it is the worst thing here, you know what I'm saying? I don't know too. Is just like, why?

[Evan]

How?

[Ian]

Like, yeah, who? Where? How? Just anyone involved in the decision making process. I just run away. Dancer.

[Evan]

Yeah. I can't even begin to really guess about, like, what this just. I. Let's blame Joe Thomas, I guess because he had Final cut on this, I assume, you know, he's like kind of in charge.

[Ian]

You get the head honcho. That's right. Yeah. The bio on the genius page, it has like a little bit of description about it. Down below sometimes says, formed from an older unfinished Joe Thomas tune called Talk of the Town.

[Evan]

Oh my God, really?

[Ian]

Talk of the Town. This is a completely and utterly baffling piece of work. Well said, anonymous genius contributor.

[Evan]

Yeah, it is. I don't know what to say about it.

[Ian]

How would we describe this?

[Evan]

It's a. Like I want to. I mean, you could say disco, but it sounds like like the impression I got listening to it is like this was a song like a Diddy kicking around in potential wrestler Joe Thomas's head in like 1976. And he's just humming it to himself and like making like crappy demos to like an eight track. And then decades later is like, I got something. I got something for this. And then pulls this dusty thing out and then just like has some sad sack session guy pull out like his MIDI device and do like the most uninspired, generic, like depressing sounding production of like a. Like a discotheque dance number like 1976 via 2015. It's brutal.

[Ian]

Yeah, it's just a complete failure. I think there are some songs on this record that work. There are some songs that work, just they work. And there are some songs that like sort of work. And then there are songs like this. And this is maybe the clearest example of it where it's like. It just. I mean, fundamentally, this is not Brian Wilson music to me. Like this song.

[Evan]

It doesn't sound like Brian at all.

[Ian]

At all. And this is what I was thinking. I was listening to this album, you know, one last time earlier today before we hopped on and trying to think about like, this is the late, late era Brian Wilson release. You know, there's the piano album, which is nice, and I think that'll be a graceful note to end it. But it's not like it's not anything unexpected or anything out there. Right. The way that so many of our favorite artists at their very, very end, you know, tend. Tend to do. And I was trying to think of myself, like, why, why does this album just not work for me when, you know, you think about Bob, obviously, late, late stuff. You've got all the Sinatra records, for instance. Lou, of course, goes out with Lulu. This sort of like sexual torture, poetic odyssey. John Cale is writing songs.

[Evan]

John Cale's not finished. You know, he's not finished.

[Ian]

And neither is Bob.

[Evan]

What's amazing, though, is, like, John Cale is doing Runaway Dancer, but he's, like, been doing it long enough that, like, we can. We can just understand that that's like a new string to his bow, so to speak.

[Ian]

Yeah, I mean, that's what I was going to say is, like, these. These albums that these other guys have all made our work, even though they're all weird and they are their own unique things because they fundamentally reflect the type of music that their creators want to be making. Bob Dylan wants to be doing hours of Sinatra covers. Lou Reed wants to be doing Junior dad and Dragon. John Cale wants to be doing songs called Funkball the Brewster.

[Evan]

You know, Randy, that's not one of the funkball.

[Ian]

Of course it is. Funkball the Bruce. Come on, who don't. John Cale, Funkball the Brewster.

[Evan]

What's that from?

[Ian]

Poptical Illusion.

[Evan]

Okay. Because I. I thought you were misremembering Jesus. One of his other, like, the. What's the. I feel like he has, like, a lot of songs with weird names like that. Well, like Chums of Humpty.

[Ian]

Chums of Dumpty.

[Evan]

Dumpty.

[Ian]

It's Dumpty.

[Evan]

Yes.

[Ian]

Yes. It's all John Cale type of shit, Randy. Another great example on Dark Matter is doing, you know, sort of, you know, joke songs about Vladimir Putin and his big epic, you know, the great debate type thing. And then also these, like, harrowing, you know, personal tales of like. Like losing a child or whatever. And, like, these are all very different things. And I can appreciate all of them because they are an accurate reflection of who these people are in their late, late era. And it is as weird as it might be, as unexpected as any of it might be. I dig it. Because it is.

[Evan]

It comes from them.

[Ian]

It comes from them, exactly. It's who they are. It's what they want to be doing, audiences be damned. And that is really the fatal flaw, I think, with this Brian Wilson release. And to some extent, it's a flaw with several of the albums that we've talked about more recently. Although it's really, really clear here, this just does not feel like the type of album and the type of music that Brian Wilson wants to be making. And I think there's no getting around it.

[Evan]

Yeah, it feels like abuse somehow.

[Ian]

Runaway Dancer,

[Evan]

Whatever happened, all right, this is how it should have. We should. We should just get rid of Runaway Dancer. Imagine that Brian Wilson never met Sebulba and then just go from beautiful, this beautiful day to Whatever Happened, which like that. Like it or not, it makes sense.

[Ian]

Absolutely.

[Evan]

And, and it's not upsetting. Like, I want to like this album and I want it to be the kind of like lovable, schlocky record that I can reasonably expect and find like a reason to. To enjoy. Like, sometimes you do just want to have something kind of treacly and you just want to have like some like a tub of ice cream, as in record form. And that's what this kind of thing can be. But then you've got like these interruptions. But this beautiful day and then whatever happened feel very much like it's a smooth transition of just like pure sweet schlock. And I'll even get ahead of myself and say the next song too, after that even falls into that. But whatever happened. Let's talk about that for a second.

[Ian]

Yeah, no, I think this is just. This is nice and this, this makes sense. And I think it's a. It's a peek into what this album could have been, especially had it been actually designed as, and came across as an actual Beach Boys album. You know, this is one of the songs that's got Al and David Marks on it and it's got a very. That's why God made the radio feel to it and flavor to it. You know, they are the starry nights, the harbor lights, the moon across the bay. Whatever happened to my favorite places? Nothing's where it used to be Whatever happened what's gonna happen to me? This is like perfectly acceptable, you know, music and sentiments to be being expressed by these 70 something year old on an album like this. And so like, this is what I was saying earlier where, like, some of the songs on this album work and others, like sort of work. I think this is a song that just works plain, you know, plain out. But the fact that it's just surrounded by so much perplexing, just distasteful material, it's sort of a schizophrenic listen. Going through this album and knowing a little bit more about it now, you know, having done whatever brief little bit of research into its genesis. This was supposed to be three albums and it was gonna be from the Jeff Beck sessions. And then the instrumental one. And then what? Like, I can see that now in the track list here, you know, because it's just. It does feel like different songs from different projects kind of cobbled together in a weird and sort of unsatisfying manner.

[Evan]

This is where I start to get kind of annoyed that there was, I don't know, that this wasn't on the last Beach Boys album. Like, why do we need this album when we could have taken the better things from it and put them toward a Beach Boys record that didn't have, like, some of those.

[Ian]

Yeah, this, that. That's the funny thing. This song is better than like, half of the last Beach Boys album. Get Rid of Spring Vacation or get.

[Evan]

Get rid of Spring Vacation, for the love of God. I mean, this should be on there just because it, like, like feels so much in line with whatever they were doing. Yeah, like their geriatric sundowning thing that was like. That's the concept at least. Like, you know, have some. Some stick to itiveness with your idea. But even that record and this one, unfortunately neither escapes this thing of like trying to Weekend at Bernie's, the parties involved into being like, hip in the early 2010s version of the word.

[Ian]

Well, that's just like, again, the people that are directing this, you know, this is put out under the Brian Wilson name. But obviously Brian himself is not calling all the shots here. Like I said, I understand the impetus or the thought to, like, all right, Brian Wilson, he was a big pop star in the 1960s. Let's bring him back for a new generation and get him tuned in to the sound of today. I understand that when you're doing Brian Wilson 1988, and it's only 1988, and there is some glimmer of a hope that someone like Brian Wilson could become a contemporary popular recording artist, but it's 20 fucking 15 on this album. And a song like Runaway Dancer might bear some passing resemblance to whatever bullshit is on the radio in 2015. It's got sort of like a Avicii type sound.

[Evan]

You remember the Talk of the Town? Yeah. I mean, I hate how catchy it can be, actually. It kind of can get stuck in your head in the way that Tar on the beach gets stuck on your

[Ian]

foot, on your feet. Exactly. Well said. Just like Brian in 2015 was never going to be like a popular major going concern as like a contemporary pop artist. And so it's just. It's misbegotten from the start. And so songs like Whatever Happened, you know, they aren't. It's. It's nothing spectacular to me, but it's a solid single. It's a double. And sometimes you just gotta, you know, advance runners on the basses a little bit. It should be noted also that like, the Brian Wilson band is credited on this album. You know, all the. All the typical homies, Darian Jeff Fosquette, Probing Gregory, Paul Von Mertens and so. And like the music that is made on many of these songs. Very nice and like, almost entirely successful, give or take the production choices here and there. But it's just like the. Again, like I was saying earlier, the fact that you've got so many different false starts boiled down into one package, it just. It ends up being less than the sum of its parts.

[Evan]

What is. Whatever happened about. It's just like a sort of overly wistful thing and. David Martin, Whatever happens somewhere in there.

[Ian]

Yeah, exactly. You know, it's like when. It's like when you go to. When was the last time you were in Agora?

[Evan]

Well, it kind of reminded me of just when we were in Hawthorne.

[Ian]

Sure. Well, yes, certainly.

[Evan]

I think that's Agora as well. Any, any. Literally any small town, that's what it

[Ian]

would be like for us. Going to Agora is like, you know, Brian going to Hawthorne or whatever. But, you know, it's when you go back to your little town and you cruise down the main strip, when you cruise down Canaan Boulevard and you realize like, oh, that used to be the. I don't know what is still there and what isn't. Is the Starbucks still there? Is the Rite Aid is gone.

[Evan]

I think the Starbucks is gone.

[Ian]

Well, we know the Rite Aid is gone.

[Evan]

Yeah. And I think the Starbucks isn't there anymore. Or maybe the Starbucks is, but the, The.

[Ian]

The donuts.

[Evan]

Well, what's next to the donuts? The. Not that it's not a Jack in the Box. It was a Carl's Jr. That's gone.

[Ian]

Oh, man. I spent a lot of time at

[Evan]

that Carl's Jr. That was there for. I mean, it is like ridiculous, but you know, to be like crying about the, the death of a fast food location. However, the truth is, and especially I think in Southern California, some of these fast food locations, it's been the same one for like 40 years.

[Ian]

It's a cultural institution. Yes.

[Evan]

Like the one in Malibu. The Jack in the Box in Malibu.

[Ian]

Oh, the Jack in the Malibu. Jack in the Box.

[Evan]

If you watch like episodes of Rockford Files, like shot in like the mid-70s, it. That's. That's still a Jack in the Box. So it is kind of like a big deal when one, you know, it can be there forever.

[Ian]

The. The. The Malibu McDonald's also, for that matter, it's a little ways down from Jack in the Box. But that's another iconic, iconic instance of fast food restaurant that Carl's junior On Kanin. You know, I hung out there all the fucking time when I was like a 9th grader with. With the homies. Just like.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Getting up to no good. But earlier than that, even that was one. Do you remember when Carl's junior Had a salad bar? Do you ever go to those? Yeah, yeah, that was a salad bar. Carl's Jr.

[Evan]

I think I remember going to that as a child.

[Ian]

That was the peak of. Of. Of like, sophistication and quiet luxury.

[Evan]

When I was there last at that particular Carl's Jr. The only memory I have is of me lighting a dollar bill on fire. So I must have been like. Like 15 or something.

[Ian]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Oh, man. Yeah, I would. I would just blast a doobie and then go over there and order a double western. What was it? What was it? The western bacon cheeseburger.

[Evan]

Bacon cheese?

[Ian]

Yeah, with the onion rings and the barbecue sauce on it. Oh, boy.

[Evan]

I always like the star shaped nuggets because.

[Ian]

Oh, those were classic.

[Evan]

It just tasted better somehow. It's a great. Triangles are just fun to eat anyway.

[Ian]

You could, like, dip them, you know, in the little. And you could. Yeah. All right. That. It's that type of song. Whatever.

[Evan]

Here we're at. But now we're on the Island.

[Ian]

Now we're on the island. And this.

[Evan]

On the island with she and him.

[Ian]

With she and him. As far as the gas spot. The gas spots, the guest spots, guest appearances go. One of the better ones, I think, on the Island. It's a very simple little tune. It's got a bossa nova type of flavor to it. It's, you know, go for me, Panama Light, basically. And it's hard. Like, this is. This is where the guest appearances really start to kind of take over this album. Because, like, is Brian doing anything here besides just like, echoing a little bit of Zooey Deschanel on the.

[Evan]

He's going on the Island.

[Ian]

Okay. Yeah.

[Evan]

Which is the title.

[Ian]

It is the title.

[Evan]

Waste in our Time. Yeah. He's doing backup ooze and ahs, more or less.

[Ian]

Yeah. And so that's like, the song is fine. I think it's. It's nothing spectacular.

[Evan]

It does work out, I think with the use of she and him here. It's like, it's. It's quaint. It feels like a song that is active, like effectively conjuring some kind of like, tiki bar vibe. Like it. I'm pretty sympathetic to anything like that. Like, I've kind of cast a wide net because if you go to any tiki bar these days, like, that's how it is. Like, you want to hear. Ideally Just like pure exotica music. You want to hear, like, Martin Denny or Les Baxter. But a lot of the time they're playing stuff that also kind of sounds like this. It's just. Just part of the mix of modern tiki, or as they say, I think to be woke. The. What's. What's the word they use instead of tiki?

[Ian]

I didn't know that they had stopped using the word. I mean, San Francisco, this is the birthplace of tiki culture. So as far as I'm aware here, at least, tiki is still the descriptor.

[Evan]

Yeah, I think that there's, like, Polynesian maybe, is, like, being used. But anyway, it's tiki bars, and that's

[Ian]

fine to play a song.

[Evan]

I love a tiki bar. I had a great time at the tiki bars in San Francisco last time I was there.

[Ian]

That's right. Yeah. We can hit some more next time you're up here. But so, like, my main gripe with a song like this is. It is barely a Brian Wilson song. It is, like, that could be anyone singing the backing vocals, you know, the chorus stuff. It's nice that it's Brian and you can tell that it is Brian. But, like, that doesn't make it a Brian Wilson song. It's mostly a she and him song. And so even though it's a decent piece of music, like, if I'm coming to a Brian Wilson album, especially the last Brian Wilson album, that isn't the piano thing, at least I want to be hearing Brian Wilson music. And so to the extent that I'm not getting music that Brian Wilson really is even the main star of, that's gonna be a dissatisfactory experience for me.

[Evan]

This is featuring Brian Wilson, and there's no other way. Like, that's what it is.

[Ian]

That's just what it is. Exactly. And again, that could be fine, especially if you packaged it as, like, you think about the Barbra Streisand record from last year, the one that Bob did a duet with her on. I think that album is just called Duets or Duets two or something, because it's the second time she's done it. If you explicitly package it as it's this famous person and then a bunch of other famous people singing other songs with them, that's fine. But when it's just the Brian Wilson album, and so much of this album is not Brian Wilson, you know, you start to have a bit of a challenge there.

[Evan]

Maybe we could call this one, like, Brian and Friends.

[Ian]

Brian and Friends, Yeah. I think that solves a lot of your problems.

[Evan]

And there you go. That's perfect. Because Friends.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Evan]

Great.

[Ian]

Let's be friends. You could even do a cover of Friends on here.

[Evan]

That would have been great. Like, we. We just need to go back in time and kill Joe Thomas.

[Ian]

That's right.

[Evan]

No, that's too extreme. We need to just go back there and convince him.

[Ian]

Well, maybe one day. Next song, Half Moon Bay. So here we've got our little snippet of the instrumental album. This again, Like, I think this sounds fine and actually sounds like, kind of nice. It's got, like a little bit of kaput light type flavor to it, which again, makes me think of that quote that Joe Thomas gave earlier, the jazz rock fusion album that Brian and Jeff Beck were making. Like, obviously you would never get an album that sounds like kaput, but, like, I kind of like the schmaltzy horn forward sound of a song like this. Half Moon Bay. But it just. It doesn't really bear a whole lot of resemblance to anything that's surrounding it. Like, look at the songs we've listened to so far. Runaway Dancer, Whatever Happened on the Island. Now, Half Moon Bay. These sound like four songs from four different albums, and they're just one after the other here.

[Evan]

Yeah, this doesn't have any. Well, this one is just mostly. What is this, an instrumental?

[Ian]

Yeah, that's what I just said.

[Evan]

Yeah. I'm glad that there is an instrumental because it does kind of create the illusion of like a proper Brian Wilson joint, you know?

[Ian]

Yeah. The same way that you've got, you know, let's go away for a while.

[Evan]

It alludes to sounds to that traditional like. And I like that, you know, it's called Half Moon Bay. It's like, it feels like the nearest faraway place as much as it needs to. It's a better title I had to say about this.

[Ian]

Yeah. The only. The only, you know, issue I have with it is like, it just. It's. I'm. This is such a bumpy ride listening to this album. Just as soon as you settle into a vibe, it's just on to the next one. I will say Half Moon Bay. Much better title for song than California Beach. Half Moon Bay is a beach in California, but it isn't just called California Beach. I'm gonna be thinking about that one for a good long time. California Beach.

[Evan]

I have to pee real quick.

[Ian]

All.

[Evan]

Right,

[Ian]

All right. Next song. Our special love.

[Evan]

This. I didn't.

[Ian]

This.

[Evan]

I listened to this a couple times and I don't remember this at all.

[Ian]

It sucks.

[Evan]

I didn't know there was a song called Our Special Love in here.

[Ian]

Oh, there sure is. Interestingly. So is this on the original? It is. Okay, so we are using the deluxe version, or we're referring to the deluxe version of no Peer Pressure, which is the version of the album that's available on streaming services. This is a 16 song set. The initial album, the Plain style traditional classic flavor, only had 13 songs on it. So they've added three songs, including one song that is one of the better songs here. So I'm trying to figure out which of you know, kind of where the deluxe edition comes from and how that differs from the standard one. But this is. This was there even on the plain version. This like, ah, it's got like sort of a mid tempo, like 98 degrees, Backstreet Boys reject type thing.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

White boy R and B. Yeah. I don't know who Peter Hollins is, but I'm not too impressed.

[Evan]

Maybe this was the one that was supposed to have Frank Ocean.

[Ian]

I mean maybe that could have been sick, but it's the only.

[Evan]

All right here. I have to. I don't want to get into this because it's too big of a conversation, but I never did understand, never have been interested, don't see the appeal, particularly have never been moved by a song or even to listen to many more songs of Frank Ocean.

[Ian]

Oh, wow. Well, you're missing out, my friend.

[Evan]

I mean he doesn't really exist anymore. He makes $70,000 necklaces.

[Ian]

Yes. Yeah. Homer.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

By Frank Ocean. Some, some jewel. I think he sells like, like, like diamond studded cock rings and stuff too. Which is cool if that's your thing. But I kind of wish that he just made music more. Yeah, that's a whole other kettle of fish. So we might need to just table that conversation for now. But man. Blonde. What a record.

[Evan]

I'll take your word for it this

[Ian]

time, but yeah, this song is bad. The next song, what do we got the right time. All right, this is just an Al Jardine song and I'd like to hear Al Jardine sing a song. But it's not a Brian Wilson song.

[Evan]

Yeah, no, it's not a Brian Wilson song.

[Ian]

And if it were, that's the thing. If it's a Beach Boys album, that's fine, because Brian Wilson's a Beach Boy. Al Jardine's a Beach Boy. No problem. It's good. It's a Beach Boy song, even if it's sung by a different guy than Brian Wilson. But it's a Brian Wilson album.

[Evan]

This is. This is the section of the record that really just starts to become like a big ball of wolf. Nothing like our special love into the right time to guess you had to be there the right time and to guess who had to be there. Like, those. Those just scan so similarly in my mind as, like, what? Like, the titles just seem like. So it's like eggshell and parchment white. Like, I'm just differentiating here between these two very distinct songs.

[Ian]

I guess you had to be there. I actually kind of like.

[Evan]

Oh, you do? I found that one to be, like, one of the worst ones.

[Ian]

I think that, like, as it's a Casey Musgrave song, it's not a Brian Wilson song once again. So, like, it fails on that account. But if you're. If you're setting that aside, you know, I think it's. It's a song that has an identity, at least. It's got sort of a, you know, country, country flavor. Country pop type flavor.

[Evan]

Oh, my God. Sorry, I hate to interrupt. I just. When I was trying to come up with a big number of how much the necklaces cost on the $70,000, did

[Ian]

you completely undershoot it? Is it, like, $700,000?

[Evan]

There is a necklace on this website that is $695,000.

[Ian]

Yep. That sounds about. Sounds about right. He's been doing that for a long time. He's, like, really into it.

[Evan]

Well, if you sell one of those, you don't need to ever make music again for a while.

[Ian]

Well, I don't think he ever needs to make music again, ever, because he's very wealthy and he's got a bunch of songwriting credits, and he's kind of an international superstar. It's just like. Yeah, it's been a decade. I don't know. I don't know that there ever will be a Frank Ocean album again. And if there is, I don't expect it to be very good, to be honest. But in the meantime, I'm glad that he's having fun with his jewelry line.

[Evan]

Could it be the right time?

[Ian]

Yeah, whatever.

[Evan]

This is, you know, the right time is fun. I could have this be, like, on any Beach Boys album better than.

[Ian]

Better than spring vacation 70.

[Evan]

And I would be like, all right,

[Ian]

sure, Al sounds a little bit like a robot, but that's just. That's. That's par for the course with the Joe Thomas Experience. You're gonna. Everyone's gonna sound a little bit like Daft Punk.

[Evan]

Guess you had to be there. Yeah, it's just Kind of like it's Casey Musgrave song.

[Ian]

I don't know what else to say.

[Evan]

And the music of it though, like the instrumentation, it's. It's got that. That like iPhone preview music vibe. Like it, like 2015. I like Apple preview music. Like it, you know, showing you like pictures. Yes.

[Ian]

It just feels very license free type music.

[Evan]

Yeah. And like that has got. That kind of music has gotten more sophisticated, I think. And this is bringing me back to a time when it all sounded like this.

[Ian]

Oh, there's a picture of Brian in Casey Musgraves. That's nice. That's fun. Brian's looking good. He's in an aloha shirt. He probably doesn't know who this is, but it's a nice picture of them. All right, what's next? Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry. Whatever. Oh, okay, I remember this one. This is the Mario. This is the Mario Kart song. Someone. Someone called us out on jazz fusion. Someone called us out on Patreon. Comments recently for like anytime there's like an instrumental song, the only reference point we ever say is like, it's N64 music. And that is kind of true. But like, I'm sorry, this just sounds like the Isle Delfino course on Mario Kart.

[Evan]

Listen to those horns.

[Ian]

Exactly.

[Evan]

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

[Ian]

Yeah, I feel like I'm about to get hit by a red shell and go tumbling into the ocean. Don't worry.

[Evan]

Dig for yourself. Love everyone.

[Ian]

Like this one is a real.

[Evan]

Don't worry about this song. Just don't worry about it.

[Ian]

It's just called don't worry. It's like you listen. Hey, Brian Wilson. Don't worry. I can't wait to hear this. Cuz like don't worry, baby. That's one of my very favorite songs ever. This has got to be something like that. It's got to be just as good. Almost just as good. No, no, no, no.

[Evan]

My friends record just falls off such a cliff. Like after whatever happened, the third song. I mean, maybe after on the island and Half Moon.

[Ian]

I think on the island, let's say

[Evan]

after having Half Moon Bay. After that it's just like, where are we? Like then there's don't worry, then somewhere quiet, then I'm feeling sad, Then tell me why, then sail away. Like these songs that I know I just listened to, but I can't recall.

[Ian]

Somewhere quiet. Okay, let's see.

[Evan]

Oh yeah, it sounds just like don't worry.

[Ian]

No, this one is this has got more of like a. Like a kiss me baby type sound to it. It's the. It's the surfer girl. It's the slow hug and kiss your sweetie baby on Makeout Point type of sound to it. That's about as much as I got.

[Evan]

A little slower.

[Ian]

Yeah, it is a little bit slower.

[Evan]

I'm feeling sad. This one's kind of got like a. Like a raindrops keep falling on my head pace.

[Ian]

Yes. And I appreciate this song. This feels. This feels bright. This feels Wilsonian to me.

[Evan]

Yeah. Speaking of Wilsonian moments, I do feel like on. On the Island. I like the line about we got a color tv. The. With the money you sent. And then there's like a cigarette burn on the. On the coffee table. And then something. They rhyme that with bait. Like, no. Something, something. No, like no. Something like that. We only have basic cable.

[Ian]

Yes.

[Evan]

Or like. Which is funny just because that does feel like a. A Brian thing of like a line about a TV and then another line about TV

[Ian]

not gonna be watching Norbit on basic cable. Brian. Yeah. I think that I'm so lonely. I'm so lonely I'm feeling sad. That's what I'm comparing it to is I'm so Lonely from the Beach Boys album, 1985. This is Brian type stuff. Sometimes I feel very sad, you know, Another pet sounds like this is a. I can get on the level with a song like this because it feels for the first time, not the first time on this album, but one of a few times on this album that like, all right, a Brian Wilson song called I'm Feeling Sad and it sounds like this. I can. I will. I will assume that Brian Wilson actually wrote this song and was interested in creating it. And I can't make that same assumption about most of their music on this album.

[Evan]

Yeah, and it's nice.

[Ian]

I like. I think again, this, It's. It's got a nice kind of mid tempo type of flavor to it or sound to it. It's got a raindrops keep falling on my head type melody. It's kind of, you know, I'm feeling sad, but I'm doing the best I can type of emotional register here. I think it's nice. And I think an album that has music like this, this stands up nice to, you know, it stands nicely next to this beautiful day or whatever happened. Even maybe Half Moon Bay, if we want to be generous. There's something in here somewhere. You just. You gotta mine it out of this, like noxious, you know, poison, poisonous, asphyxiating. Environment with all these other songs around it.

[Evan]

Tell me why Tell me why. Not that.

[Ian]

Like that. That one. Oh, that's a good one.

[Evan]

Just this. I don't know, man. This.

[Ian]

I love the sequencing on this. Because you've got I'm Feeling Sad, Tell Me why, which is Brian. Well, yeah, that's funny. But, you know, most of this song is Brian just saying, I'm feeling sad. I'm feeling sad. And then literally the first line of Tell Me why is Brian saying mostly happy or kind of funny, but mostly

[Evan]

sad good, but mostly bad.

[Ian]

He's just right back to talking about how he's sad in the next song.

[Evan]

I do like that. The kind of good but mostly bad

[Ian]

kind of good but mostly bad. I really missed the thing we had until you went away. That again, feels. Feels like a Brian lyric there.

[Evan]

Yes.

[Ian]

So I think that this works. Al is on this one also. It's just like, you know, you're losing patience with this album by this time. I think I am.

[Evan]

At least I am.

[Ian]

And so it's sort of a too little too late situation. Same thing with Sail Away.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

I know another song called why are all these songs titled after other, better songs? Don't Worry is Don't Worry Baby, Tell me why is Tell me why I'm feeling Sad sounds like I'm so lonely.

[Evan]

And Stay Away is literally sleep.

[Ian]

And it sounds like Sloop John B. Exactly.

[Evan]

That's all we need to say about it. It's like a song that features stuff that sounds like Sloop John B. Yeah,

[Ian]

it's just a Sloop John B. Knock off. I do like the Blondies on this one. We love to see Blondie Chaplin here making an appearance again with Al.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

And there. There he is, Beach Boy Al Jardine. But, yeah, I mean, like, whatever. It sort of sounds like a Disneyland version of Sloop John B. Yeah.

[Evan]

Then out of nowhere, out of the clear blue sky, we have a great

[Ian]

song and a song that was not on the album initially. This is one of the additions on the deluxe version. I don't know.

[Evan]

Not on the original.

[Ian]

Well, because this was the song that was explicitly written for the movie. Movie One Kind of Love, which doesn't sound a whole lot like much else that's going on here. And I think that is kind of understood and makes sense, knowing what we know about this album. And, like, I think this is a good song. I'm not quite as head over heels, I think about it as you are, but it does sound a hell of a lot better than almost everything that is Surrounding it on this deluxe version of no Peer Pressure.

[Evan]

I just love this one. I think it's like the most. It's just everything I'd want from a Brian song, A late Brian song. Like, it. It feels genuine and it feels emotionally coherent and it's melodically really strong and. And just like it. It. The context powers this song, really. I mean, the. The thing like at the beginning when he says just driftwood floating on the sea, it feels very much like I'm

[Ian]

a cork on the ocean.

[Evan]

Yeah. But in like, a way that, like, is finally re. Repositioned to be for, like, a hopeful song. And. And just like the understatement of I wasted so much time running circles in my mind and then I couldn't hear my heart calling out for you. It's like, so beautiful. Yeah.

[Ian]

No, I think that there are some nice lines and I think musically this sounds really nice. It's got. It's. It's a very big kind of overblown production sound. Lots of strings and soaring harmonies, and.

[Evan]

I don't think it's overblown. It's. It's perfect. It's just blown. Well, let's just say it's exquisitely blown,

[Ian]

but it's well done is what I was gonna say about it. Well, you know, even. Yes, even if it is a little more, you know, it's got some curly cues and some whipped cream and some maraschino cherries dropped on top of it. Like you're doing it in an effective, appropriate kind of manner. And when again, it's appearing on this album that's got like the she and him bossa nova song, the Casey Musgrave pop country song, the Sebulba dance pop track. Like, I just. Like I'm. I'm having a hard time here. By the time you get to this song, that's buried. Track 14 on the Deluxe edition of no Pure Pressure. Like, why isn't this just track one on this album? You know, because it is absolutely probably the strongest thing here. And, you know, I just. I'm looking at the play counts across this album. This is like one of the least listened to songs on the album. The next song, Saturday night, the most unnecessary thing I've ever heard, has more than double the plays of one Kind of Love on no Pen Pressure. Who knows?

[Evan]

Nate Ruiz?

[Ian]

I guess people, like, he's the guy from Fun.

[Evan]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Ian]

I guess that's. I mean, he's got a lot of fans, so maybe people are just going to him. That's, you know, I Don't know the song.

[Evan]

I mean, Saturday Night is. I guess it's one of the least. The lesser.

[Ian]

I hate that song. Terrible. Terrible.

[Evan]

Yeah, it just sounds like nothing.

[Ian]

Talk about iPhone slideshow music.

[Evan]

It doesn't sound anything like Brian Wilson, I'll say that.

[Ian]

And Nate Ruis is singing the whole thing. Like, Brian is so just. He's absent on half of these songs. And, like,

[Evan]

why couldn't Brian have just made a record of. Of covers? I. All. We just. We never did get that. Like, I would have loved to have just gotten. I mean, except for the Gershwin thing and the Disney one. Like, yeah, sure. Like, I. I would have loved to just hear him do songs that are actually. Like when. When I read Saturday Night. Like, I wish he was doing Heart of Saturday Night, The. The Tom Waits song. I wish he was doing Sail Away.

[Ian]

Well, not even. Yeah. I mean, not even Randy Newman.

[Evan]

Randy Newman.

[Ian]

But why isn't there the Brian Wilson album? That's him just doing, like, the Crystals and Darlene Love music, you know, music that he.

[Evan]

Why doesn't he just record? Don't Worry, Baby?

[Ian]

It's. You know, it's. It's a good question. And I think the answer to that question is sort of the same answer that we have been circling around since way back when. In some ways, I think the template or the path that Brian was set on for his entire solo career was established by those sort of lost years in the 1980s when Landy was running the show and there was just all this sturm and drang surrounding him. Who's in charge of this thing? Is it this person? Is it that person? They're not talking to each other. There's conflicts there. Who's writing with Brian, who's producing Brian? What label is putting this music out? Like, Brian himself is a bit of a passenger, I think, in his own career, at least, as a recording artist and a songwriting artist. Once you get to the solo years, to be specific. And there are some instances of that working out beautifully. I think Brian Wilson, 88, is a great example of that. I think Orange Crate Art is a great example of that. Smile 2004, obviously, is maybe the primo example of that. So when he has the right driver that he can be sitting as the passenger alongside, it's great. It's going to work out. But the problem is he just. He very often does not have the right driver. And, you know, typically it's either Eugene Landy or Joe Thomas, and both of them are equally inappropriate for very different reasons. And that's why? You get so many. So many things like sweet insanity and imagination and this album. It's like when he just gets linked up with the wrong person. You're only gonna get a percentage, a portion of the real Brian Wilson coming out. And, you know, that's the way that I've kind of come to read his career.

[Evan]

You know, the last song, the last

[Ian]

song, which is, appropriately enough, the last song, an original Brian Wilson album.

[Evan]

Is it the last song on. Was it even, like, what is the deluxe version versus?

[Ian]

Yes, this is on the regular one.

[Evan]

Okay.

[Ian]

The ones that are missing from the regular are, Don't Worry, One Kind of Love, like I already said, and. Oh, actually, no One Kind of Love was on there. Hang on. Okay. Sail Away. No, that was on there, too. I can't even read this thing. Tell me why. No, that was on there. I'm feeling sad. Okay, that was not on there. And Don't Worry and Somewhere Quiet. Okay, so those three songs in the middle, 9, 10, and 11 are the ones that were added.

[Evan]

I like this song.

[Ian]

The last song.

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

Yeah, I like it too. Honestly, I like the Lana one better. And I think that, that. That, like, there's something with the right partner, you know, with the right duet partner, you can. You can kind of do things. You can sort of summon an energy or kind of charge a song up, I think, with a little bit more spirit or import or significance. And you can do that in the right way, and you can do it in the wrong way. And I think clearly you do it in the wrong way in many cases on this album. You know, see the Sebulba song, for instance. But. But if you have Lana Del Rey singing the last song, which is called the Last Song on this ostensibly last Brian Wilson album, that, I don't know, kind of makes this a richer text to me. Just the fact that it's the same song, same words, but her singing them as opposed to Brian or, Lord knows, any of these other schmoes. I think that's a really cool and effective way to put a song like this across. But obviously they had to go and record the whole thing, knock it out of the park, and then just leave it on the cutting room floor. And what we have with the last song with Brian singing it is still good.

[Evan]

It's good.

[Ian]

It's good, but it just. It isn't what it could have been.

[Evan]

I like both. I kind of wish that there was a mix of what you hear in both where, like the Lana one. I feel like there's a little bit Too much Lana at the top. Like, I wish it was a bit more Brian, the Brian one. I wish there was Lana. Like, I kind of feel like the mic, the mix of them isn't really achieved. Like, I'd really like to hear it as, like, a proper duet kind of. Or. Or at least just sort of have them weave together.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

A bit more. Instead of just like, the other one, the Lana one just feels like, okay, it's like, mostly Lana and then Brian, like, on backup vocals. I'd like to hear them just kind of singing.

[Ian]

Singing together. Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't be appropriate for the last song on this album to not really be a full Brian Wilson composition. So I understand making that choice based on that reading there. But I just have her sing another song, I guess, you know, show up somewhere else.

[Evan]

Well, she could have and should have and could have and should have done any collaboration like this, and absolutely none of them worked out. Like, you know, she was supposed to work with Lou Reed, and that didn't happen because he died, like, right when they were supposed to do it.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Evan]

And I don't know. I mean, we haven't talked about Lana Del Rey at length on the podcast, but to me, she's, like, easily the. The best pop star around.

[Ian]

Like, she depends on how you qualify pop star.

[Evan]

Well, she can. She's someone who could be that any time. I think you're a pop star if you could decide to be one at any given moment. Like, if you. She has a catalog and she has the ability to be like, no, I'm just doing pop now. She's not doing that. She hasn't been doing that. But she still occupies that space, and it's like, a testament to how good she is that she can. She has that range. Like, she can do whatever she. She has so many things that she can do. But working with Brian Wilson here, it's, like, contextualizes. It's a shame it didn't get done for real, because I think it contextualizes Brian in the way that they're searching and, like, groping in the dark to try to find, like. Like, who is a model for Brian. Basically. Like, Lana Del Rey shows by example that you can be a capital P pop star, then also be, like, a creatively daring singer, songwriter, genius, composer type, and those don't have to conflict. And her career is still just appreciated on the basis that she's Lana Del Rey. She has that ability. I mean, Father John, Missy, to a lesser degree, in terms of, like, the pop side is, like, similar But Lana is kind of like the. She's like the. The queen bee of that. And Brian feel like Brian could have. He. He is that to me anyway. And to a certain degree, like, he's. When you really let him go, he can do anything. And he can also just make satisfying, immediate pop music.

[Ian]

Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think it's telling that the two duets or collaborations that would have been coolest and most interesting and done with the two best artists, Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey, are the two that didn't end up up being made and included here. And obviously Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys are so influential and so important in the history of rock music. That's why we've just spent literally two years talking about every single painstaking song every step of the way. And there are so many artists that you could pick that are great artists, contemporary artists or contemporary in 2015 that would have been appropriate to include in a Brian Wilson collaboration type thing. Imagine the Brian Wilson Panda Bear Av Tayor collaboration or something. Right?

[Evan]

Yeah.

[Ian]

I mean, they never would have done something like that. But, like, they did.

[Evan]

John Cale did, though.

[Ian]

Well, yeah, John Cale would have been a great artist for Brian Wilson to collaborate with. Let's have the two of them duet on Mr. Wilson.

[Evan]

Yeah. I mean, Lana is a great. She is as good as that gets. And it.

[Ian]

Well, that's what I was gonna say

[Evan]

is like, she's perfect for it. I mean, you. When you listen to her, like, she raises him up to the stature that he ought to be seen as, is what I was trying to say, like that she. She understands what's great about him in a way that the people closest to him in his music production, in a music production capacity, like, clearly don't get how to. If they do get it, they don't know how to articulate it. But, like, she just knows that kind of thing, like, backwards and forwards of like, why he's important.

[Ian]

Yeah. It's just. It's a. It's. It is accidentally a perfect match, you know, that the people calling the shots on this album kind of stumbled ass backward into and, you know, and out of apparently. Well, exactly. And then. And then just left it, you know, left it on the side of the road. They never. No one would have ever, you know, done the John Cale or the animal collective collaboration with Brian Wilson, you know, if we had been calling the shots, that that's what would have happened. But obviously, you know, there are many reasons that we were not and never would have been calling the shots for something like this. And so, like, even. Even assuming or setting aside the fact that there are a zillion great artists that never would have been selected for this because it just doesn't work, or the commercial opportunities aren't there. Like, the people doing this shit still did accidentally find a couple great matches for Brian in this collab if we're gonna do this duet, collaboration, whatever thing. And then they still just, like, let him go. And so I think you end up seeing the understanding, or the lack of understanding, to be more specific, of who Brian is and why he's important and where his influence can be felt on the contemporary music scene circa 2015. It's not with fucking Cebu or Nate Roos or Peter Holland's, whoever that, you know, like, that is not who Brian Wilson is or why Brian Wilson's important or he's one of the greatest of his legacy. Exactly.

[Evan]

Are those people the greats? Like, no, they're not even in the conversation. Like, they're not even. Why are you putting him up? Well, no, they're people they accept. But who. Who are the greats? Like, who's even being talked about in those. That way? Like, that's where you start with who you pair Brian Wilson with. If you. If you gave a shit, if you knew what frankly. I mean, I'm sorry, what's his name? Thomas? Joe.

[Ian]

Buddy.

[Evan]

Buddy. My buddy. Listen, like, he's. He's passed on and can't defend himself. But if you knew even like a stick of what this is about, if you knew jack shit about Brian Wilson, you would know not to like, let that kind of thing be who he's working with. Like, give me a break. You can't be like, he's a genius and then be like, yeah, whoever's on, like, the next on the list is who he's working with today. Get out of here.

[Ian]

No good sign. Our Joe Thomas. Not sad to see you go.

[Evan]

No, he was a better wrestler than producer, let's say that.

[Ian]

And he was maybe not even a wrestler. His. His producing career should have been as real as his wrestling career, which is to say, not particularly.

[Evan]

It's in your imagination, you could say.

[Ian]

That's right. One star for no peer pressure. It's not a zero, but yeah, it's

[Evan]

a one star out of three.

[Ian]

Let's. I'm rounding up to one star. Let me say that.

[Evan]

And I'm being peer pressured into giving it one star as well.

[Ian]

Yeah, well, you know, sorry to be raining on everyone's parade here. At the end of the day, I

[Evan]

don't think anyone was having a parade about this.

[Ian]

We gotta call it like we see it. Yeah. I mean, I just. I wish we had. I think about. Think of like, with the Lou thing and the John thing, like, we had a week's worth of Lulu episodes. We had, like five hours of conversation. It was such, like an epic going out on a high note type of thing, you know?

[Evan]

Yeah. We had to, like, roll up our sleeves and get into Murder Most Foul.

[Ian]

We did like a. Yeah, yeah, we did all the rough and rowdy shit. I think the last main episode we did because we had done rough and rowdy before, but we did like a marathon episode with Ray doing triplicate where we just talked about like all 30 triplicate songs for what felt like seven hours. And this is just, you know, it's. It's sort of just petering down the drain a little bit.

[Evan]

But we have one more and it's. It's. It's not bad because it. It is actually engineered to not be. It's not possible that it can be bad. It's Brian Wilson at my piano.

[Ian]

At my piano. Yeah. We'll be doing at my Piano and Long Promise Road together, as you know. Because, you know, as much as I like at my piano and as nice as the music is, there isn't necessarily a ton to say about it. So we're gonna roll that and Long Promise Road together into one final Brian Wilson episode. And we got one little extra Beach Boys nugget coming before then. But we are. The sun is setting. The giant mouse head sun overlooking the Woody is about to sink into the ocean on the Beach Boy series, and we're all about to be fully annihilated.

[Evan]

So well, or pass sweetly into that gentle night.

[Ian]

Depends on how you look at it, Jokerman.

[Evan]

I've never really felt this way before. Don't let go there's still time for us so let's take it slow I wish that I could give you so much more La.