It’s a trend that continues with their latest output, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, and thanks to a ubiquitous wave of ’90s nostalgia amongst the music industry, the band may finally get the critical and commercial respect it deserves. While their previous records have gotten progressively softer (perhaps explaining the increased lack of interest), Stars finds the group reinvigorated with a collection of 10 tunes full of measured distortion, crisp hooks, and Caws’ earnest tenor.

Opener “Clear Eye Clouded Mind” is driven by three sharpened power chords (not too sharp, mind you) laced together by Ira Elliot’s precision snare. The song forsakes buildup in favor of immediate fuzz, transporting one back to a time where having Ric Ocasek produce your album was synonymous with badassery. “Waiting For Something” and “The Moon Is Calling” pack further pop rock punch with a tinge of new wave keyboards, while “When I Was Young” serves as the album’s bittersweet centerpiece, a slow burner that begins with twilight plucking reminiscent of The Weight Is A Gift and Lucky before ascending to the addicting alt-rock heights of Nada Surf’s earlier work, anchored by sweeping power chords and dramatic strings.

If Stars has one setback, it’s the lyrics, something that has been a consistent weak spot for the band. Caws is capable of turning an evocative phrase, but the occasional reliance on half-baked pop culture references such as Gilligan’s Island and vague, awkward statements like “It’s never too late for teenage dreams” (and even the album’s title) bring out a clunkiness that threatens to undercut the otherwise tightened songwriting. But words aside, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy could be the comeback for a band who deserves to be recognized as something much more than a mid-’90s punchline.

Essential Tracks: “Clear Eye Clouded Mind”, “When I Was Young”, and “Waiting For Something”

Clear Heart Full Eyes sees Finn placing his usual rogues gallery of charismatic losers, drug dealers, and revelers in a more rustic setting creaking with slide guitar, caterwauling banjo, and ghostly acoustics. Having since left the city, the players are older (Finn regular, the skinhead Gideon, makes an especially depressing appearance), the party’s over, and most of them are now alone, left to deal with their past mistakes when confronted by ominous, sometimes biblical figures. The aging, entropic direction of his once celebratory yet conflicted religious characters is something Finn began to explore on more downbeat tracks like “First Night” off of 2006′s Boys and Girls in America, and here it becomes the crux of the album.

Christ himself plays the central role in “New Friend Jesus”, one of the record’s stronger tracks, where the messiah meets Finn in a parking lot, joins his band, helps him pay his bills, but provides no help when playing sports (“it’s hard to catch with holes in your hands”). Finn skirts his signature talk-singing for a more straightforward delivery, and while the narratives themselves are as resonant as ever and full of the aforementioned lyrical zingers (“When No One’s Watching” and “Terrified Eyes” are also standouts), it feels like he’s holding back vocally. The overall tone ends up sounding unsure and disconnected as opposed to ominous or foreboding. Granted, Finn’s current songs are slower and more meditative than his past work, but that didn’t stop the similarly paced and themed “Both Crosses” (off of 2008′s Stay Positive) from packing a heavy dose of creepy catharsis. As much as Finn may have tried to avoid replicating The Hold Steady, many of these tracks would have made perfectly good Hold Steady songs, and you can’t help but wonder what they’d sound like if he was singing them as his usual self.

Having a rotating lineup of musicians from Texas stalwarts such as Heartless Bastards, White Denim, and Phosphorescent doesn’t help either. The Hold Steady has always adapted to Finn’s constantly morphing details, infusing down-in-the-dumps cuts like “Lord, I’m Discouraged” with varied instrumentation that elevated the soundscape as much as it anchored it. Here, the twang plods along with stellar musicianship, but no personality, causing lyrically compelling cuts “Apollo Bay” and “Jackson” to feel like the singer and band are in different rooms. On Clear Heart Full Eyes, Finn brings the stories (he always brings the stories), but as a whole, the album sounds atypically half-hearted.

Essential Tracks: “New Friend Jesus”, “When No One’s Watching”

Feature artwork by Cap Blackard.

Take “The Symphony”, for example. The song is laced with dreamy keyboards, but strip them away and you’re left with a gradually crescendoing chord progression, unwaveringly melancholy vocals, and vague lyrics that would have easily fit in anywhere on The Final Straw and A Hundred Million Suns. It actually would have been nice to see the band further embrace their new-found love for the heavier side of electronica, an aesthetic that rears its toothsome head on the first half of the album, then peters out.

Opener “I’ll Never Let Go” buries everything in throbbing toms and spacy effects before giving away to an explosion of distorted crunch and thrilling backing vocals from famed gospel singer Merry Clayton. “Called Out In The Dark” has a nice tinge of disco and the ethereal momentum of “The Weight Of Love” possesses a heaviness akin to Muse. After that, it’s business as usual. While nearly all the latter half tracks contain an echo of dancefloor spirit, it’s typically placed in the backseat in favor of maudlin strings (“Lifening”), dreary piano (“New York”), and an emphasis on frontman Gary Lightbody’s heart-on-sleeve lyrics.

The words in the record’s first half are no different but are at least buried in the band’s more risky musical detours, whereas the latter half’s more straightforward tunes allow sentiments such as “Have we lost the magic that we once had?” and “We are the light” to shine in all their unspecified glory. Keyboard effects aside, it’s the same-old same-old, and whether you love Snow Patrol or hate ‘em, Fallen Empires will do little to change your mind.

Essential Tracks: “Called Out In The Dark”

You’ve always been a pretty huge comics fan, right?

I actually lived it and breathed it. You know, when I first came to America, I was eight and a half years old, and I remember one of the first books was The Brave And The Bold, and that was introducing the new Flash, the Silver Age Flash. You have to remember names like Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. I just devoured it. And, of course, the Atlas Group, the Kirby era monsters, and the Ditko off-world things. I bought the Harvey books…there are lines of comic books that I collected all the way from A to Z, from Charlton publications all the way to Dell and Gold Key. I mean, I had thousands and thousands.

And when I was… oh I don’t know, about 12 or 13 years old, I actually printed up one-page handouts, leaflets…”Buying comic books, a dollar a pound.”  And everybody had attics full of comic books. And I used to go there, because I knew what the Golden Age comics were worth. At the beginning of the model, comics weren’t worth anything. I was looking for the original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner things, and actually found some. So, a buck here, a buck there, and every once in a while, I’d get an Action Comics #38 or #40.  I made a small fortune.

So, you were a pretty business-minded gentleman from the very beginning?

Yes, I’m Jewish. Above and beyond all the other guys that talk, I have actually been and continue to be a superhero myself. From the late ’70s, in the KISS books that Marvel put out, Gene Simmons actually fought Doctor Doom with The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

What’s it like being in an Archie comic?  Is it a different experience from being in the traditional superhero comic?

It’s not different. It just goes to our mandate, which is self-imposed, which is to rule this planet, to make it Planet KISS, the world where we own the trademark. But it started off with myself picking up the phone and calling Jon Goldwater, who heads up the Archie guys. I was a fan of the early books of the Bob Montana days. You know, for over half a century, thousands and thousands of stories, and the characters still stayed vibrant and still remain an essence, living in that small town with the big ideas that affect everybody.

And Archie, other than just being a kids’ book for the younger audiences, actually dealt with some very big-game issues: homosexuality, and being outcasts, and different, and what that means. Just some really cool stuff in the same way that the Denny O’Neil Green Arrow and Green Lantern books dealt with drug addiction… those groundbreaking stories. This may be before your time. Do you know what I’m talking about?

A little bit. I’m a huge comics fans myself, but I don’t have as many of the older issues from DC.

Well, it’s the classic stuff. It’s the stuff that today… those books wouldn’t be possible without it today. You know, Batman, and Superman, and all the rest of them started off as sort of heroic ideas. And it wasn’t until the ’60s when there was so much social upheaval—Vietnam and so forth—that comic books actually started dealing with human ideas. The Marvel comic books in particular dealt with an outcast teenager. The cops didn’t like him and the bad guys didn’t like him. The Hulk continues to be an outcast, neither hero, neither villain. And of course, DC picked up the gauntlet a little bit and started dealing with, you know, being outsiders, and drug addiction, and the Vietnam War, and all. Without the ’60s and those books, today’s comics wouldn’t be possible. It’d be the same-old, same-old.

Do you read a lot of modern titles?

As much as I can, but what’s happened with the berth of all the independent publishers is that there are literally a thousand books a month that come out. None of them sell very much, and I don’t know how you could read all of it. I wish I didn’t actually have to go to work, so I could be a kid again, and stay home and devour it all.

I actually stopped buying new issues every week because it proved too costly. And to understand this X-Men title, you had to buy that X-Men title. It just got a little ridiculous, so I pretty much stick to graphic novels now.

Well, I think it happens as a consequence of business, which is that it’s such a competitive business, and the numbers are so small. The reason that Marvel or anyone else puts out four, five, six titles or variations of it is that you want to be able to control the visuals. So, when somebody comes by the store, instead of printing, for argument’s sake, 100,000 X-Men comics, you can put out four or five different X-Men titles, and only put out four or five thousand a piece, if you see what I mean, so you have a chance of selling 100,000.

That makes sense. It’s pretty interesting how the comic book industry has evolved over the years. With the KISS Archie comics, do they refer to you guys by your real names or your aliases?

Yeah, The Demon, and so on. We come about due to a magic event that happens, and you’ll have to read the books to find out what the event is, and where it came from.

Aside from the comics front, what’s the status of the band’s upcoming album, Monster? When’s it getting released?

We’re holding up releasing it, because there’s a tour that starts next summer. It’s going to be a worldwide tour that will last… oh, I don’t know, a year-and-a-half or so. We’re holding out and releasing it later to coincide with the tour, along with a ten-hour DVD, as well as a four-foot high book. It’s literally four feet high.

Sonic Boom was this great, old-school KISS record, some of the best work you guys have ever done. Is Monster in that same kind of classic rock vein?

Even more so. I don’t think we can be anything else. Everyone wanders, but it’s always good to come home.

When you say everyone wanders, KISS has dabbled, over the years, in all sorts of… I don’t want to say genres, but phases: Music From The Elder and your non-makeup years and what not. Looking back, is there anything that artistically you… “regret” isn’t the right word, but…

No, I understand, and it’s a very fair question. The truth is that when you’re busy doing something, you’re blinded by it, and you think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. And afterwards, you look back and say, “What the hell was I thinking?” It’s the same way you look back at photos of your hairstyle 10 years ago and you don’t want anybody to see it. But it’s part of life, it’s part of growing up, and it’s part of the experience. Would I change anything? No. The KISS golf course opens up in Las Vegas this month. The KISS Hello Kitty deal just launched in 90 countries. If you go down Times Square, there’s a 30-foot high Motorola poster. The tongue is out– it’s 10 feet long. I’m the face of Motorola this month. There’s KISS coffee houses all over the place. This has gone beyond what anyone thought a band could ever do. Yes, you have to have the music, and yes, you’ve got to deliver it live. But if that’s all there was, I wouldn’t be satisfied.

This is sort of a morbid question, but when the current lineup, as well as the rest of the original members have all, God forbid, departed…

The four original members never reached the success of this present lineup. People only remember it as a pivotal moment in media, and media doesn’t report what’s actually big. I’m going to give you a few facts that will blow your mind.

Sure, please.

Okay. The Ramones. The Ramones have one gold record to their name. Do you know that Chicago has 22 platinum albums? Did you know that?

I did not know that.

So, one of them gets all the respect in the world: The Ramones. But they meant nothing. They never succeeded, failed, in fact. Lived in their moms’ basements. Now, whether some people like it or not is an interesting question, because where were the people? Where were the records sold? Where were the concerts? They kept playing clubs. In other words, the people didn’t rally behind it. There are lots of groups that get all the respect in the world that never sold. And there are lots of bands that get no respect and have sold loads. So, what’s the criteria? A magazine article? Critics liking it? Or the people? The people decide everything. If the people do, then we’re paying attention to the wrong banners.

So, this current lineup with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer is literally 10 times the size of the original KISS lineup. And, by the way, it’s not unique. AC/DC is bigger by 10 times than with the original lead singer. And whether you like it or not, Van Halen with Sammy Hagar was actually twice as big than with Roth. And you’re talking to the guy that discovered Van Halen. So, “You can’t change lead singers, you can’t change original members.” Actually, if you take a look at the statistics, it’d be better to change the original members. Because you get bigger. The original Beatles were not with Ringo [Starr]. As soon as they got rid of Pete Best, they ruled the world. The Rolling Stones now has less original members. They’re touring again soon. It will probably become the biggest tour of all time, much bigger with the new members than they every were with the old members, the original members.

Do you think money trumps respect?   

I don’t care. Let somebody else figure that out. It’s just all opinions. Hot air comes out of our mouth when we talk. Hot air comes out of our ass when we fart. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean a lot. Opinions are like assholes, if you don’t mind me saying so. Everybody’s got one. Talk is talk. You like this comic book, I like that comic book. I want to know which one sells the most.

Whenever the current lineup of KISS can’t do it anymore or passes away, do you hope that someone else takes up the mantle, similar to a superhero?

Already planning that. Because there are no new bands, I’m talking about 10 years or younger, who can play stadiums. When you take a look at who’s playing the stadiums, it’s Paul McCartney, it’s U2, it’s The Rolling Stones. These are old guys. How old is Mick Jagger?

I don’t know. I want to say he’s in his 70s. He might not be that old. Let me check.

He may be 66 or 65.

I know Bruce Springsteen is 62.

The answer to Paul McCartney’s “Will you still love me when I’m 64?” is yes. Paul McCartney is multiple times bigger than The Beatles ever were.

Mick Jagger is 68.

68, yeah.

You got married pretty recently, right?

I got married when I turned 62.

It probably hasn’t changed too much since you and Shannon Tweed have been together for a while, but do you find that there are any differences between now and when you guys were just living together?

Yes. The arrogance of the male consciousness when we’re not married is in full force. “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do, I can go wherever I want to go,” which is why I urge all guys to never get married until they’re really old. Because we’re not mature. We don’t mature until we’re much older.

Was that what prompted it for you?

Well, I do actually care for her. So either we’re together or she’s going to leave.

Was it an ultimatum or something you came to realize by yourself?

No, nothing like that, but women always have that as an inferred difference. In either case, this is a far-reaching interview. Very interesting.

Is it okay that we’re talking about these kinds of questions?

It’s okay.

When you say there are no new bands…

I don’t mean that. I mean, there’s Green Day, and they’re doing very well. In some markets, they do very well. And Foo Fighters are a very big band. But on the level of stadium bands around the world, there are very few. And they tend to be old.

Are there any younger bands you listen to? 

Oh yeah, I think they’re terrific. Green Day is terrific. Foo Fighters is one of the best bands out there.

Our site actually just named them Band of the Year.

That’s great. And they deserve it. I think it’s legitimate, strong songwriting and everything’s really solid. But you know, once upon a time, when the British invasion was going on, you had a thousand bands, a thousand. The Kinks, The Hollies, and The Stones, and The Beatles, and on and on and on. A thousand. And then when it got heavier, you had Led Zeppelin, and Humble Pie, and Mott The Hoople. You had a thousand. And in the ’70s, you had Aerosmith, and KISS, and ZZ Top. You had a thousand. Today, you can say Green Day and Hello Kitty. [laughs] There are very few bands that have the power to get up there. And that’s because the world right now is ruled by karaoke singers. You know, the girls come out… and good luck to them. You know, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, even Madonna. 

With the Hello Kitty thing, is it Hello Kitty with KISS makeup?

That’s exactly right.

So it’s like a cat with the Demon makeup on?

You got it. We just launched it in 90 countries. You’ll see it on the store shelves all over the place.

That’s pretty awesome.

It’s more than awesome. Nobody can do that. You can’t do U2 Hello Kitty because there’s no face. It’s just a generic face.

I guess you could do Bono’s purple glasses, but that’s about it.

No, because there’s no one particular pair that says Bono.

Looking back, the unexpected results make total sense. Foo Fighters was a record essentially created by one man, while Wasting Light was a true collaborative effort, a dynamic on full display in this year’s retrospective documentary, Back and Forth. And although both albums were cut on analog tape, the latter was still digitally manipulated during post-mastering. Foo Fighters was written and recorded by Grohl at Seattle’s Robert Lang Studios. Wasting Light was recorded in a garage that had pretty much been renovated into a professional studio, complete with Nevermind producer Butch Vig and appearances from former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and Hüsker Dü grouch Bob Mould. You get the idea. Getting back to the group’s raw, and let’s face it, solo roots may have had noble intent, but the boys forgot that somewhere along the way they had become an actual band, a filthy rich one at that, and in a completely different fashion than Nirvana. And that’s okay. Simply put: Foo Fighters craft unabashed arena rock, and they do it well.

And how many bands can do that? Truly do it without a sense of irony, camp, or sheer boneheadedness. It’s a type of beast that roamed stages in hordes during the ’60s and ’70s (e.g. Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Thin Lizzy, the list goes on) but has since threatened to go the way of the buffalo. Popular rock behemoths like Nickelback go through the motions with imitative stadium swagger, and longstanding outfits such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers chug along on little to no gas. Arcade Fire, U2, and Springsteen (last of a dying breed) all know how to fill a cavernous space with a stellar live show, but their politics often become heavy-handed. Grohl & Co. just know how to rock, and this couldn’t have been more apparent in 2011.

A headlining slot at Lollapalooza performed during pouring rain and crackling lightning made their music all the more thunderous, as did secret shows at intimate venues like Los Angeles’ Spaceland (now The Satellite), Austin’s Stubbs, and Chicago’s Metro. Throughout all of April, the group continued their penchant for executing blistering jams on small stages with the Garage Tour, treating eight lucky fans to highly intimate concerts in their very own homes, or more appropriately, their very own carports. In the same month, the covers-only album, Medium Rare, was released on Record Store Day, featuring new covers (Thin Lizzy’s “Bad Reputation”, The Zombie’s “This Will Be Our Year) alongside older renditions (Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar”, Gary Numan’s “Down in the Park”). Leaving no white spaces in their schedule, they also knocked out late-night performances with legends like Joan Jett and Roger Waters. They rock. They roll. And then some.

To be fair, they don’t outright ignore politics. (Does anyone remember Grohl’s frustration with President Bush’s use of “Times Like These”? No?) This year was no exception. Though, even when the band does dive into the political forum (which is rare), they do so with energetic abandon and a smart-alecky smirk. In September, they lashed out against anti-gay protesters from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church in typical Foo fashion, donning exaggerated trucker garb and chugging through their jokey country (and pro-gay) ditty “Keep It Clean (Hot Buns)” from the back of a moving pickup truck. (It should be noted that the entire reason for the protest was the group’s promotional tour video, which featured them wearing (and not wearing) the same clothes in a truck stop packed with slow-motion shower nudity.)

This seriocomic juxtaposition is quite common for the group, though. It’s a part of their brand; they’re funny guys. Ever since their early video for “Big Me”, they’ve exhibited this knack for providing gut-blistering gimmicks. Nothing has changed. In fact, they’re funnier. Look at the two new additions to their impressive videography: “White Limo” and “Walk”. The former showcases a kitschy late-’80s aesthetic and, most notably, a muggy performance from Motörhead legend Lemmy Kilmister. While the latter hilariously spoofs Michael Douglas’ cult classic film, Falling Down, and ends up being one of this year’s best videos – but, more importantly, one of the group’s best.

Here’s why: A bespectacled Grohl strolls through all the linchpin scenes of the ’90s film, growing frustrated with a congested Los Angeles and taking out his white-collar anger on an assortment of poorly costumed characters (all played by his bandmates). Only when the song kick-starts into the breakneck throttle of the climax does Grohl arrive at a rehearsal warehouse, strap on a guitar, and launch into his true role as frontman for the greatest mainstream rock outfit in the world. It’s a moment that’s both hilarious and inspiring and a nod to fans well-versed in the group’s dueling displays of catharsis and buffoonery. Just when the viewer reaches an emotional apex, the police show up to arrest Grohl for his acts of assault throughout the day. It’s the perfect cap to the song and a comment on the band’s career. They’re willing to get serious, but not too serious. They’ll always be silly, but not too silly. And that’s why we (and the rest of the world) love ‘em. Keep rocking, boys. Our trucker hats go off to you.

After strolling onto the enormous, yet humbly adorned stage (only a chair, end table, two guitars, and piano were present), the gangly singer-songwriter introduced the set as “a prelude to pizza,” going on to praise Chicago’s staple food for its taste and abundance of “information” packed within its flaky crust. Without missing a beat, he launched into ubiquitous tour opener “Oh My Sweet Carolina”. Despite the audience laughter during his pre-show speech, everything went dead quiet with the first creak of his guitar strings and hushed vocal rasp. Very few singers can captivate in a venue as cavernous as Cadillac Palace with merely their voice and one instrument in hand, but Adams is one of them.

What’s more is that the performance was in no way hindered by the absurd between-song banter. No emotion was sacrificed at the expense of humor, and vice-versa. In fact, the seemingly warring aesthetics ended up working in conjunction, showing that the audience was more than willing to go to both places with the performer at the drop of a guitar pick. This was, after all, part of a solo tour in support of a beautiful, yet downbeat album. It could easily have been a somber night of euphony, but Adams’ rapport kept things from ever getting too self-consciously melodramatic, while the singular majesty of the songs kept his clownish side in check. The recital hall piano of Gold deep cut “Sylvia Plath” was as heart-tugging as ever, but that didn’t keep the singer from tacking on a false story about the deceased writer. “I didn’t know her, but we were in the same homeroom,” he smirked. “She was hot.”

While many of the evening’s tunes are practically solo affairs on record (the studio versions of “My Blue Manhattan”, “My Winding Wheel”, and most of the Ashes & Fire material already contain minimal instrumentation), a handful of heavily produced tracks benefitted greatly from a more stripped down arrangement. I’ll always prefer the slow ivory rendition of “New York, New York” to the bongo and organ-drenched one on the album, and Easy Tiger‘s “Everybody Knows” took on new melancholy meaning with just vocals and acoustic plucking. Even the cover of Ratt’s “Round And Round” felt right at home, mainly due to Adams’ unironic vocal approach and unabashed admiration for the song. Journalists have unfairly criticized his genre-hopping in the past, but the tune’s newfound incarnation was a perfect example of the musician’s two worlds colliding; hair metal by way of country. And why can’t a person have a little Stephen Pearcy with their Emmylou Harris?

For the encore, Alice In Chain’s grunge classic “Nutshell” received the same rural bare bones treatment, as did Cold Roses‘ ”If I Am A Stranger”, played here in its simpler, restrained version from the Follow The Lights EP. The only piece that somewhat suffered from the more meditative approach was “Let It Ride”. It wasn’t bad by any means, but the pacing was a tad too sluggish, causing it to lose some of its tumbleweed rollick.

The set also included two improvised songs (a regular practice at Ryan Adams shows) centered around the most amusing event of the night. When Adams called out a young woman in the audience repeatedly checking her cell phone, one assumed his old self from all those past reviews would rear its frothing head and snap its jaws. But instead he complimented her, explaining how the blue light emitting from the screen made her look like “a sorceress”. He went on to detail how she could read all the pizza-centric thoughts in his mind, then created a scenario about her being forced to attend the show with her overly sensitive boyfriend, who digs Ryan Adams songs because they “help me with my feelings.” When the audience member shouted that she didn’t have a boyfriend, Adams wove this into the story as well, transforming it into a tale of half baked existentialism. Later on in a spontaneous farewell song, he brought up the woman again, sincerely apologizing for any embarrassment he may have caused. It was a running gag that grew weirder and weirder as the concert progressed, and as tangential as it was, the constantly evolving details proved Ryan Adams’ talent as a storyteller, regardless of form, subject matter, or completely acceptable love for Ratt.

Setlist:
Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am A Stranger
Dirty Rain
My Winding Wheel
My Blue Manhattan
Carolina Rain
Everybody Knows
Sylvia Plath
Let It Ride
Dear Chicago
Chains Of Love
16 Days (Whiskeytown song)
Lucky Now
Two
New York, New York
Crossed Out Name
Please Do Not Let Me Go
Improvised Song (sorceress woman with the phone)
Round And Round (Ratt cover)
Improvised Song #2 (farewell)
Come Pick Me Up
Encore:
Nutshell (Alice In Chains cover)

Was Get Along recorded all from one concert or was it over several different nights?

You know, we filmed it over a six-month period. There are three films. One show was filmed over the course of the summer when we were on tour supporting Paramore. We took a little bit of time off; then we went on to do a trip-slash-tour to India where we brought another filmmaker with us.  And then we also filmed in Vancouver with a different filmmaker and did like more of a concert in hopes that we would be able to also really make like a sit-down kind of live record. So yeah, it was over the course of about six months. It took about another year to wrap it up and do edits and put all of the bits together. The whole project start to finish was about a year and a half. It was a big one [laughs].

Was there any rationale behind the setlist, knowing that it was going to get released as a live album? Or did you just do the songs you would normally do?

You know, it was kind of a combination of both. We ended up recording…I think we ended up doing a setlist of about 30 songs. [children start screaming in the background] I’m not killing children, I’m just walking by a school. [laughs] We recorded a lot of material and then sort of whittled it down to what we felt was both the strongest, but also the songs that we thought fans would want to hear, you know? Obviously we hope to always reach new audiences, but the real goal for a show within an album is to make something for fans. We’re not necessarily trying to break new ground or go out and make new fans, but we definitely wanted to entertain the ones that we already have. We tried to pick material that they would enjoy.

Yeah, you guys have always seemed to be cool about playing a good mix of new and old songs, whereas a lot of bands get prickly about playing their old stuff when they have a new album out.  Do you think that’s a trend with most live acts?

Yeah. You know, we’re sort of lucky. I feel like the songs that are most popular, for the most part…the songs that are most popular with our fans are usually the songs we really like from each album. Although, we generally also like to play new stuff. Having to go back and revisit some of the old classic records, it’s not as gruesome as it could be. [laughs] There are certain songs that if we never had to play them again, I’d be thrilled. But songs like “Call It Off” and “Back In Your Head”…you know, “Walking With A Ghost”…these songs that are sort of more well known throughout the fan-base, I have no problem playing them. I can still stand behind the material. I still find ways to connect with it. And the good thing about our band is that although it’s me and Tegan, we sort of have a revolving cast of characters who back us up. Playing with new people always injects something different into the music. We went up this summer with two guys we’ve never played with and it made me feel like I wasn’t even playing my own songs. It’s exciting and I felt nervous and it’s a really fun part about being in the kind of band we’re in. We don’t get stuck playing with the same people. We always have new people around.

On your earlier albums, you would write one song and Tegan would write one.  Do you guys find that nowadays you pretty much write everything together or is it still split down the middle?

No, no, we still are sticking kind of to our traditional methods of writing independently. We’re highly involved in the editing process. If I write something and record it, she’ll be the first person I send it to, and she’ll give me suggestions about arrangements or melodies, so we’re all certainly involved in the process. But from the beginning stage to about the 70% stage, it’s really us writing stuff by ourselves, individually. And that really seems to work for us. But we are getting more collaborative. I think in the beginning there was a little bit of reluctance sometimes, always sort of assuming that the other person was wrong. I’d be like, “Okay, thanks for your feedback, but no.” But as you get older and work with other people, you do a lot more collaborative stuff; you know, “I produced your record and I’ve written with other people and I’ve guested on things.” As you work with other people, it gets easier to take suggestions and criticisms and critiques and not act like that.

Being identical twins, have you started to see any differences or similarities between your songwriting styles? Can you recognize the Tegan songs from the Sara songs? 

Well it’s really tough to answer that because yes, I do, and probably in a magnified way because I’m me. So I hear some of the microscopic stuff in things. I always use the example that, for some people, the fact that we’re twins…you know, we look the same and they’re like, “Oh my god, I can’t tell you apart.” And I think that’s so absurd because I look at Tegan and I don’t see myself at all.  I don’t see a face that resembles mine at all. In the same way, when I hear music of Tegan’s, I don’t think to myself “Wow, that’s so similar. Like I hear only the finest differences.” So it makes it hard because I think we sound completely different. And yeah, I realize that our natural genetics and whatever make us sound similar.

You guys have talked a lot in the past about how, as songwriters, you have a sense of morality about yourselves and that you should be promoting a certain message with your music. Is that still the case?

It’s funny. After a couple of years, you think that your perspectives on things would change a tremendous amount, and yet they probably don’t.  Our approach to our band and our lives have remained pretty similar. At the end of the day, I want to be in a band that writes great songs, and I want to have as many fans as we can possibly find. We love to perform, and I’m a political person, so I love the fact that we have a voice and have a message, and that we’re promoting good and doing inspiring things. It sounds so boring, but it’s like that’s still my approach to the whole thing.

I think you guys do it in a pretty subversive way. You write things that have a message, but at the same time you don’t alienate the listener by being overly political. Is that something you’re conscious of when you write songs that are a little more message driven?

The big thing for me always was that I wanted to be able to talk about the things that I cared about or was inspired by or whatever, but I wanted to do it within reason. When I love a band and I think that someone’s fantastic, and I find out that they also share some of the same thoughts or concerns or whatever, it’s very exciting. But it is a fine line, because you can also like a band and find out they’re a bunch of dicks. I don’t want to abuse the power that comes from having a voice and having an audience. And I do know that we have an impressionable audience. So I choose very carefully what I talk about offstage or what I pursue or promote. Because at the end of the day, I didn’t want to necessarily be in a political band. I didn’t want to use music as a vehicle to talk about those things.

Well, you’re always going to write about what you’re feeling.

Exactly.

Do you think rock stars have a certain responsibility for how their content affects their fans, or do you also enjoy artists who write stuff that’s just fun?

You know what, I think there’s a place for all of it. I think there are people who I always…I think of U2 as a great example and I guess Arcade Fire comes to mind; bands that are sort of big and popular, exciting bands that also have political views and occasionally take the time to sort of step up and speak about the things they don’t talk about in their songs. But I also appreciate political acts, people like Billy Bragg. For me anyways, I listen to a spectrum of pop music. I think that if you feel compelled to do it, you should do it. There was definitely a time in my life when I thought that Tegan and I would grow into a political band but still have the vehicle of pop music, which I love.

Who would you say is the trashiest, most non-political, fun band you listen to?

[laughs] I don’t know if I would say trashy, but I mean I love pop music. I try to think about the records I bought in the last year…it’s so varied. I listen to a lot of old country and I listen to a lot of old hipster electronic music, and also a lot of really lo-fi shit. And I like love Rhianna. I envy and admire those who are able to write and produce those massive hits. It’s not easy and it’s not a fluke. I can really admire a big public machine like Justin Bieber. That record is just chock full of melodies and hooks and whatever. I love pop music so much. It’s what I grew up on. You know, my parents loved Zeppelin and Springsteen and U2 and The Pretenders and The Police and all that kind of stuff. We were indiscriminate. Anything that had a good strong melody, we loved it. So I still feel that way today. I can be the biggest snob, but when it gets down to it, I can get into a Tom Petty record.

I agree. In a sense, I almost don’t believe in guilty pleasures. There’s stuff you like and stuff you don’t like. Are you someone who mostly buys records or CDs, or do you go for digital music?

I definitely do digital music, but I’m definitely still an old-fashioned person in the sense that I buy a ridiculous amount of books and magazines. I love the sort of tactile experience of touching things and owning things. But I have to admit that with music, I can’t deny that being able to download it straight from the internet onto your computer or your iPod is just… sadly, I’ve moved away from the physical. I even thought of selling all my CDs, which is just…I’m having a hard time letting go, but I’m definitely considering it.

I have a friend who used to work at Apple, and she told me that they might be getting rid of the classic iPod. That worries me because I have a lot of music and wouldn’t be able to fit it on just a phone or iPod Nano.  How big is your record collection, and would that be something that would worry you?

Fairly big. It’s fairly big, and I definitely worry…even when I get a new computer and have to move my iTunes. There’s still something big about having to like carry that around with you, if it’s more in the internet, technical side of things, if it’s not in the physical side of things. The actual physical music that I listen to and listen to over and over again, and have listened to for years…I feel like I’ll always have that music anyway. Some of the other stuff is mostly impulsive.

Photography by Lindsey Byrnes.

Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalogue in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers.

Make no mistake, The Beach Boys were weird. Weirder than Waits, weirder than Zappa, and definitely weirder than The Beatles. The immaculate vocal harmony that made them famous was their weirdest weapon of all; a sunny fortress of euphony that shone through the darkest of times and strangest of lyrics in their latter days. You can take the boy out of California, but you can’t take the California out of the boy, even when that boy starts hanging out with Charles Manson. The bizarre juxtaposition made for a varied career of milestones and clunkers, all of them interesting.

Following Pet Sounds, every record was a document of the band slowly falling apart, and we’re about to take you through all of them (with the exception of the Christmas Album and live in-studio cover release, Party!); from the girls and auto-fueled glory of the early days to the hazy experimentation of the ’70s to the wretched ’80s when the group tried to reclaim their wholesomeness only to find that it had all but disappeared. For any music fan, the schizophrenic discography is both essential and disposable, demented and fluffy, hiply square and squarely hip. And by the end, it will have very little to do with surfing. Ladies and gentlemen, The Beach Boys.

-Dan Caffrey
Senior Staff Writer

Surfin’ Safari (1962)

“Here Today”: The whole gang. The Brothers Wilson, Cousin Love, and even a brief stint from David Marks. Marks was a rebellious cohort of Dennis Wilson who replaced Al Jardine on rhythm guitar and vocals while Jardine left the band for unexplained reasons (not to attend dental school, as is the widely accepted rumor). Jardine had already contributed acoustic bass and backing vocals to the group’s very first cut, the aptly titled “Surfin’ “.

“A Young Man Is Gone”: No one. It’s the first album, silly!

Prophetic hint of Brian Wilson’s sonic genius: The carnival barker on “County Fair”. While the rest of the album is fairly straightforward, producer Nick Venet’s sinister-sounding ringmaster is a hint of the playful, yet bizarre sound effects and spoken word segments of twisted masterpieces to come.

Number of cover tunes: Three. In 1962, the mere concept of the original album was still in its developmental stages, as most bands were hesitant to craft a record that was entirely made up of songs they’d written. Vincent Catalano and Herb Alpert’s “Little Girl (You’re My Miss America)” is the most interesting here, thanks to the slightly raspy vocal debut of Dennis Wilson.

Best piece of music played by an actual Beach Boy that’s not Brian Wilson: The guitar solo on the title track. The sprightly barrel roll of Carl Wilson’s strings was derivative of The Ventures at this point, but also displayed a precise musicianship that made it clear why he was the only non-Brian Beach Boy to play his instrument on every album.

Inessential instrumental: “Moon Dawg”. The instrumental tracks on the early albums were never as fascinating as future soundscapes such as “Let’s Go Away For A While” and “The Nearest Faraway Place”. The fact that this one’s an unremarkable cover only adds to its snooze factor.

Album Artwork Ranking (front cover only): #9 (out of 26 total). A photo of the band sitting in a sand-trapped truck while pointing at the ocean might ring a tad corny by today’s standards, but it also captures what made them so likable in the first place: catchy songs about surfing, cars, and girls. The overcast sky provides an unintentional hint of their future journeys into darker territory.

Surfin’ USA (1963)

“Here Today”: Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike, and David (who’s forced to sit out on vocals and stick to the guitar).

“A Young Man Is Gone”: Already absent from the majority of the band’s first album, Jardine is nowhere to be seen here.

Prophetic hint of Brian Wilson’s sonic genius: Ripping off Chuck Berry. The title track completely apes The Prime Minister of Rock ‘n Roll’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”, but with style, adding saltwater twang and surfing wordplay that captured The Beach Boys’ sound in a nutshell. Wilson would proceed to riff on already existing songs much more elegantly in the future (see the recently released The SMiLE Sessions for more examples), but he first did it here. Berry eventually sued the band and received royalties out the wazoo. Something tells me that for The Beach Boys, it was worth it.

Number of cover tunes: Three once again. Four if you count “Surfin USA” (and you should).

Best piece of music played by an actual Beach Boy that’s not Brian Wilson: Mike Love’s saxophone anti-solo in “Shut Down” is surprisingly moody, able to come off as both grimy and woozy in a matter of seconds. His wailing would be used to much cheaper and cheesier effect in the 1980s on “Kokomo”.

Inessential instrumental: Greek (and surf rock) standard “Misirlou”. It sounds oddly de-fanged here, most likely due to The Beach Boys’ musical inexperience at the time. Stick to the Dick Dale arrangement from Pulp Fiction to hear the song in all its frenetic, wiped out glory.

Album artwork ranking (front cover only): #12 (out of 26). It’s nostalgic, yet loses originality points, not because it was intended to be a cover for Surfer magazine, but because it’s so basic. The photo of a dude surfing doesn’t make any effort to show a connection between the sport and The Beach Boys’ music. Then again, the only one that actually knew how to surf was Dennis.

Surfer Girl (1963)

“Here Today”: “Hi, Al! Good to have you back. I guess being a rock star is a lot better than…well, not being a rock star. Wanna’ play bass and sing backup on a few songs? Cool? Okay, cool.”

“A Young Man Is Gone”: No one. Even David Marks gets to stick around for a little while longer, most notably on the dueling guitar majesty of the title track.

Song that proves Brian Wilson is a demented musical genius: The title track. When combining well-trod surfer imagery with yearning melancholia, wonderful things happen. This was only the beginning.

Number of cover tunes: None! And they did it before The Beatles. The all-original A Hard Day’s Night wouldn’t be released until the next year.

Best piece of music played by an actual Beach Boy that’s not Brian Wilson: Al Jardine’s liquid bass on “In My Room” is perfectly understated, and also the driving force behind the song’s quiet, yet crystalline confessions.

Essential instrumental: “Boogie Woodie”. For the first time, one of Brian Wilson’s non-vocal arrangements rollicks and rolls. Skip past the more-of-the-same “The Rocking Surfer” on Side One and get to the curved knuckle pounding of his piano on the album’ s closer.

Album artwork ranking (front cover only): #15 (out of 26). In retrospect, it’s a California predecessor to Abbey Road, but comes off as being way too staged. Dennis Wilson looks like he’s stomping grapes instead of walking, while Carl looks like he’s about to walk into a meat locker. Check out those gray clouds again though.

Little Deuce Coupe (1963)

“Here Today”: All of ‘em. It would “mark” David Marks’ final appearance as a full-fledged member.

“A Young Man Is Gone”: No dice. Surprisingly, the first album where one of the core members wouldn’t receive a single writing or performing credit would be 1985′s eponymous release.

Genius takes a holiday: Hastily recorded to beat out Capitol Records’ un-Wilson approved hot rod compilation, Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe was equally piecemeal. The only transcendent songs are the title track and “409″, both of which were released on previous albums. And despite its popularity, “Be True To Your School” is pure Mike Love fluff.

Number of cover tunes: Four, if you count The Beach Boys covering themselves.

Essential instrumental: All vocals this time around, although the album could have used some wall of sound originality.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #13 (out of 26). All things aside, that hot rod is pretty sweet.

Shut Down Volume 2 (1964)

“Here Today”: For the first time, just Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike, and Al; the lineup that would become legendary.

“A Young Man Is Gone”: David, we hardly knew ye. If you had only stuck around for one more album, you could have played music without the tyranny of then-producer (and the Wilson brothers’ monster of a father) Murry Wilson.

This whole cars and girls thing is getting kind of old, no?: Absolutely. Brian Wilson’s starry eyed introspection is absent from yet another hot rod record. It would thankfully re-rear its sob-filled head in just over a year on The Beach Boys Today!

Number of cover tunes: Two. Unenthusiastic takes on “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” and “Louie, Louie” are equally lackluster.

Best piece of music played by an actual Beach Boy that’s not Brian Wilson: Listen to Carl’s easily recognizable riff on the opening of “Fun, Fun, Fun”. It’s still classic, not to mention he really learned to shred once he got his hands on that Rickenbacker 360/12.

Return of the inessential instrumental: “Denny’s Drums” brings out the worst in Denny. And the drums.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #20 (out of 26). Brian looks like he really hates cars.

All Summer Long (1964)

“Here Today”: You know the score. No more changes in this category for a while.

“A Young Man Is Gone”: Ditto.

Number of cover tunes: One. “Hushabye” is as sleepy and phoned in as the title suggests. Its saving grace is Denny’s drums, which now actually sound like drums instead of Pringles cans.

Best use of studio chatter: Behind-the-scenes banter would become a Beach Boys trademark, particularly on the disturbing Brian/Murry clash of the “Help Me Rhonda” studio takes. On All Summer Long, “Our Favorite Recording Sessions” is a fascinating look into the group’s playful yet strained dynamic and whimsical foley effects.

Inessential instrumental: “Carl’s Big Chance”. Sounds like a porno directed by John Hughes.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #5 (out of 26). Really flashy, and looks like a summer action movie, despite the absence of actual action and a flu-ridden Al Jardine.

The Beach Boys Today! (1965)

Number of songs that show Brian Wilson is a sad, sad genius: Five. Today! marks the return of heartbreak, with nearly an entire side’s worth of pining ballads.

Most creepily confusing cut: “Don’t Hurt My Little Sister”. It’s never clear whether Mike Love and Brian are singing to themselves about a metaphorical sister or a friend who’s dating their actual sister. Either way, “why don’t you kiss her and tell her you miss her” makes the skin crawl.

Number of cover tunes: Two, but they’re good’uns. The Beach Boys’ renditions of Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Wanna Dance” and William Tyus, Jr.’s “I’m So Young” (recorded by The D’Italians) both top the originals.

Worst use of studio chatter: It’s never clear what the Boys are talking about on the radio interview of closer “Bull Sessions With Big Daddy”. Something about playing in Europe and a restaurant where they bring an entire lamb to the table. Oh, and Mike Love manages to squeeze in a lame pun about a tree. Uncheck the track in your playlist and let Today! end in intoxicating nostalgia with Dennis’ gently growling vocals on weeper “In The Back Of My Mind”.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #16 (out of 26). It looks wonderfully autumnal at first, but upon closer inspection, are they sitting in a swimming pool? While wearing sweaters? They are!

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965)

Number of exclamation points in the title: Two!! Weird!! The next release would be Party!, a live studio recording that would reinforce The Beach Boys’ love for covers. And exclamation points.

Most creepily spelled out cut: “I’m Bugged At My Ol’ Man”. Brian Wilson’s comic blues number about his father locking in him his room, taking away his radio, and boarding up his windows becomes a lot less funny when you consider that it might have actually happened.

Number of cover tunes: One!! The band would re-title Phil Spector’s “Then He Kissed Me” (originally performed by all-girl vocal group The Crystals) as “Then I Kissed Her” to, you know, give the song some male perspective. KISS would do the same thing on 1977′s Love Gun with “Then She Kissed Me”. So KISS sort of covered The Beach Boys who sort of covered The Crystals. And Phil Spector went on to murder someone. The world’s a twisted place…

Return of the essential instrumental: “Summer Means New Love”. Clunky title, magical song.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #11 (out of 26). Mike Love adores short shorts almost as much as Al Jardine loves getting sick during photo shoots. But, hey, Brian’s smiling.

Pet Sounds (1966)

“Here Today”: A shit-load of session musicians.

“Let’s Go Away For Awhile”: The Beach Boys playing their own instruments. While session musicians often filled in some of the gaps on previous albums, the only band members that got to play anything at all on Pet Sounds were Brian and Carl. Dennis is rumored to maybe have laid down some drum tracks somewhere, and Al Jardine got to show off his formidable tambourine skills, although no one could tell you on what track.

Best sound effect: The haunting and mystical train whistle on “Caroline, No” is the perfect way to end a masterpiece.

Number of cover tunes: One. The idea to rearrange the folk traditional “The John B. Sails” into “Sloop John B” was Al Jardine’s. That still didn’t mean he got to sing lead on the track, or anywhere else on the album for that matter.

Moment you “see the light”: “God Only Knows”

Mike Love’s “swell” addition: “Hang on to Your Ego” being changed to “I Know There’s An Answer”, due to concerns related to LSD. In a word: lame.

Essential Instrumentals: “Let’s Go Away For A While” and the loungy horns of the title track top any of the band’s songs about cars.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #3 (out of 26). Mike Love looks like he wants to karate chop that goat.

Smiley Smile (1967)

“Here Today”: The Beach Boys playing their own instruments once more. And they’re not bad either.

“Let’s Go Away For Awhile”: Van Dyke Parks. Brian Wilson’s brilliant SMiLE wordsmith ended their collaboration after butting heads with Mike Love over a lyric about crows uncovering cornfields.

Best retitling of a SMiLE demo: “Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)”, originally a stripped down take of “The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow)”.

Insanity loves company: “Little Pad” sounds like a vignette that’s played in the waiting room of an insane asylum.

Hey, speaking of insanity: In 1970, Carl Wilson stated that a drug clinic in Fort Worth, TX played patients the album to calm them down. “[The LP] acts as a soothing remedy which relaxes them and helps them to recover completely from their trip.” Write that down.

Song title that shouldn’t be creepy but somehow is: “She’s Goin’ Bald”

Song that did well anyway, despite everyone hating the album when it was released: “Good Vibrations”

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #2 (out of 26). More animals. And not just goats either!

Wild Honey (1967)

Number of session musicians who appear on the album: Not sure. Although none are documented, there’s definitely a flute or something on the title track. And there’s no way Dennis Wilson played those bongos. Maybe it was a toddler John Stamos?

Number of Stevie Wonder covers: One. Carl Wilson’s soulful take on “I Was Made To Love Her”.

Number of songs that sound like Stevie Wonder covers: One. Carl Wilson’s soulful “Darlin’ “.

Number of songs to eventually receive a disco treatment by the band: One. Two-and-a-half minute rock gem ”Here Comes The Night” was rerecorded as a cringe-inducing disco flop for L.A. (The Light Album) in 1979. It was nearly eleven minutes long.  

Album length ranking: #26 (out of 26). Of the band’s 26 studio albums (excluding their Christmas collection and Party!), Wild Honey is the shortest at just under 24 minutes.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #1 (out of 26). The bee and flowers were from a stained glass window panel in Brian Wilson’s mansion at the time. The title was taken from a huge jar of honey he had in his pantry.  Brilliant stuff.

Friends (1968)

Number of Beach Boys on the album cover: Six. Bruce Johnston had been an official bandmate for quite some time, but contractual technicalities forbid his photos from gracing on any of the LP fronts. Harsh!

Number of syllables in the album title: One. The only Beach Boys album to hold such a distinction.

Number of songs about transcendental meditation: One, officially. The cleverly named “Transcendental Meditation”. Two if you count “Anna Lee, The Healer”. Hokey subject matter aside, both songs are pretty stellar, which is more than can be said for future tracks about the exact same topics.

Number of songs that prove Dennis Wilson is a genius in the making: Two. “Little Bird” and “Be Still” were the first of his original compositions. Both add a surprising amount of depth and tenderness to the sparse record.

Essential instrumental: “Diamond Head”. Let the oral sex jokes begin!

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #17 (out of 26). The clouds and rolling hills sure are purdy, but that cowboy hat isn’t doing Mike Love any favors.

20/20 (1969)

“Here Today”: Charles fucking Manson. Dennis retooled the cult leader’s ominously titled “Cease To Exist” as “Never Learn Not To Love”. Manson was reportedly outraged by the lyrical changes.

Other badass but sort of disturbing Dennis Wilson moment: He had many on 20/20, but simulating sex at the end of “All I Want To Do” felt even dirtier than the Manson song. Turn up your stereo extra loud at the fadeout to hear his drug-fueled moaning.

Number of cover tunes: Three.  But for once, they’re all great. Al Jardine hoped to recreate the success of “Sloop John B” by including another folk standard, “Cotton Fields”. And this time he got to sing lead!

Number of Beach Boys smiling on the cover: One: Bruce Johnston. But he’s always smiling.

Best track leftover from SMiLE: “Cabinessence”. Gripes with the crow-uncovered cornfields aside, Mike Love finally agreed to include the avant-garde Wilson/Parks collaboration on an album. This was most likely due to Brian’s increasing inactivity with the band. They needed more songs and they needed them quick.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #19 (out of 26). Brian decided to hide behind an eye chart in the liner notes.

Sunflower (1970)

Number of Dennis Wilson songs: Three. The middle Wilson brother would prove to be the album’s MVP, coming in to his own on raucous tracks such as opener “Slip On Through”. It’s sad that the source of his distinctly raspy vocals was usually heavy drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, but that didn’t make his tunes any less compelling.  ”Forever” is gorgeous and “Got To Know The Woman” is indicative of the earthy gruffness displayed on Pacific Ocean Blue, his excellent (and only) solo album.

Number of Dennis Wilson songs ruined by a sitcom: One. “Forever” would be forever sullied by actor (and eventual Beach Boys percussionist) John Stamos on Full House. Mike Love, Carl Wilson, and Bruce Johnston even stopped by to lend backing vocals, and the entire thing was released on 1992′s terrible Summer In Paradise.

Number of Bruce Johnston songs: Two. “Deirdre” and “Tears In The Morning” are both unabashedly maudlin, but they work in their own right. After all, this is the guy who wrote “I Write The Songs”.

Proof that an inactive Brian Wilson is still better than most active musicians: “Cool, Cool Water”.

Worst costume worn by a Beach Boy in the album sleeve: Bruce Johnston’s tuxedoed limo driver, Carl Wilson’s cowboy, and Al Jardine’s organ grinder are all pretty horrendous, but nothing comes close to a bald Mike Love’s Jesus beard and robes, a getup he frequently sported while the band toured during this period. He’s also blessing his children, making him look less like the messiah and more like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #8. Lounging on a golf course seems to be an appropriately sunny introduction to the ’70s. And does anyone else think that fonts for The Beach Boys’ album texts are consistently awesome?

Surf’s Up (1971)

Number of Dennis Wilson songs: Zero. What gives? Given his grand slam on Sunflower, you’d think he’d have more to offer, especially on one of the band’s weirder albums.

Number of Bruce Johnston songs: One. The heavenly “Disney Girls (1957)”.

Number of songs sung by the band’s producer: One. “A Day In The Life Of A Tree” proved too sad for anyone to sing except Jack Rieley. Neil Young’s a fan though.

Album MVP: Carl Wilson. The youngest brother had a reputation for holding things together while Brian went nuts, and everything he touches here turns to sonic gold. “Feel Flows” is a personal best, and check out those pristine pipes on “Long Promised Road”. Still the best singer in the band.

Best rehashed SMiLE track: The title track. There are many versions floating around out there, but the Boys got it right on the first try.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #4 (out of 26).  The End Of The Trail. We’ve all seen that painting or statue countless times, but it was a darkly appropriate offset to the album’s carefree title. And is that supposed to be the same Indian from the band’s Brother Records logo?

Carl And The Passions – So Tough (1972)

“Here Today”: Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar. The bandmates of South African outfit The Flame were drafted into The Beach Boys by Carl in an attempt to add a rootsier sound to the album.

“A Young Man Is Gone”: Bruce Johnston, at least for now. There are conflicting stories as to why he left, but his sole contribution here is a backing vocal on Side One closer “Marcella”.

Most fitting title in a slightly ironic way: “You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone”, the album’s opener. For The Beach Boys, it could be argued this “mess of help” would always be Brian. Though, one could counter that argument and say Brian always needed The Beach Boys to flesh out his songs (see: The SMiLE Sessions).

What’s likely David Lynch’s favorite track: “Cuddle Up”. It sounds like something stripped from Blue Velvet.

Number of rehashed SMiLE tracks: Zero. Could’ve used some.

Album title ranking according to Britpop band Saint Ettiene: #1. The group used the title for their 1993 LP.  It’s also the namesake of a veteran Chicago improv troupe.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #23 (out of 26). The car is way less cooler than the Little Deuce Coupe of yore.

Holland (1973)

Number of songs used in a Martin Scorsese film: One. Blondie Chaplin’s bellowing tenor in “Sail On, Sailor” is showcased in The Departed.

Number of songs with the word “California” in the title: Three. All part of Mike Love and Al Jardine’s “California Saga”, a nature-obsessed epic with a spoken word interlude that works way better than it has any right to.

Number of Brian Wilson solo compositions: Zero! Brian receives a co-writer credit on “Funky Pretty” and “Sail On, Sailor”, which was written with like five other people. His only vocal contribution is a small portion of “California Saga”.

Did Carl Wilson receive a pat on the back for essentially taking charge in a Brian Wilson-less band? Possibly, but the group should have hugged him.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #6 (out of 26). The inverted canal thing is pretty cool.

15 Big Ones (1976)

“A Young Man Is Gone”: Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar.

Number of years since last album: Three. The longest break the band would take between releases until the 1980s.

Number of cover tunes: A whopping nine. This had everything to do with the album’s oldies/newbies concept and nothing to do with Brian Wilson’s further descent into drugs and mental illness.

Beatles did it better: Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music”.

Peak Billboard position: #8, their best in a decade. A world where this stinky lump of seaweed sells better than Sunflower, Surf’s Up, and (gasp!) the initial release of Pet Sounds is a world I want no part of.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #21 (out of 26). The Boys take their first aesthetic steps towards becoming a living jukebox. And that photo of a steadily ballooning Brian Wilson is pretty upsetting.

Love You (1977)

Number of songs written by Brian Wilson: 14. In other words, all of them. Brian somehow pulled himself out of a rut to compile an electronica-tinged masterpiece. Granted, some of them were written in years past, but it’s pretty amazing that this album comes packaged between the abysmal 15 Big Ones and M.I.U. Album.

Number of songs featuring a lead vocal from one of The Beach Boys’ wives: One. “Let’s Put Our Hearts Together” is an oddball little duet between Brian Wilson and then-wife Marilyn. The two would part ways two years later.

Number of Blues Brothers who had to pull Brian Wilson out of bed during the album’s recording: Two. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi played cops in a cringe-inducing SNL segment involving The Beach Boys.

Number of Beach Boys who consider it their favorite album: One: Brian, of course. But he also said the same thing about Friends. Now that’s a comments section debate waiting to happen.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #7 (out of 26). I think this was the bonus arcade game that came with Galaga.

M.I.U. Album (1978)

Number of cover tunes: Three, “Peggy Sue” being the worst.

Number of songs about transcendental meditation: Zero, at least not directly, which is surprising for an album recorded at the Maharishi International University.

Number of Beach Boys to show up at the initial recording sessions: Three. Dennis and Carl knew a turd when they smelled it.

Number of salvageable songs from an otherwise unsalvageable record: Three. “She’s Got Rhythm” is decent (the band always seems to have good openers), the cover of “Come Go With Me” has some fairly remarkable harmonies, and Dennis’ take on Brian’s “My Diane” is “Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by way of Tom Waits.

Peak Billboard position: #151

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #14 (out of 26). The Maharishi would be proud.

L.A. (Light Album) (1979)

“Here Today”: Bruce Johnston! In the producer’s seat, no less. Maybe the record was his way of getting revenge.

Number of cover tunes: Two. Sorta. Carl and Dennis belt out a straight-laced version of kiddie staple “Shortenin’ Bread”, of all things, and Al Jardine reworked a Bach composition for his wife and called it “Lady Lynda”.  After their divorce, he retitled it “Lady Liberty” and dedicated it to The Statue of Liberty. “Help Me, Rhonda” would eventually be called “Help Me, Roosevelt” in honor of Mt. Rushmore.

Number of Wild Honey songs expanded into nearly eleven-minute disco cuts: One. See the Wild Honey entry for more details.

Number of salvageable songs from an otherwise unsalvageable record: Three. Dennis Wilson’s “Love Surrounds Me” and “Baby Blue” are passable tracks from the Pacific Ocean Blue rejects pile and “Good Timin’ ” is the best music the band would release until this year with The SMiLE Sessions.

Peak Billboard position: #100

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #24 (out of 26). Transformation into oldies act complete.

Keepin’ The Summer Alive (1980)

Number of songs written by Brian Wilson: Six.

Number of songs written by Brian Wilson that make you wonder what he did with the real Brian Wilson: Six.

Number of salvageable songs from an otherwise unsalvageable record: Two. Randy Bachman adds some boogie to the title track and Bruce Johnston’s “Endless Harmony” is eery and emotional, most likely because it was written and recorded nearly a decade earlier.

Peak Billboard position: #75

Mike Love’s latest environmental crusade: “Santa Ana Winds”

Album artwork ranking: #18 (out of 26). There’s something both funny and disturbing about The Beach Boys trapped in a tropical fantasy land while the rest of the world enters the ice age without them. They even have their own air supply.

The Beach Boys (1985)

“A Young Man Is Gone”: Dennis Wilson. Responsible for some of the band’s best songs in the 1970s (and most certainly the best solo album to be released by any member), the middle Wilson brother drowned while intoxicated at age 39.

Number of years since last album: Five

Number of cover tunes: Two

Number of songs co-written by Brian Wilson’s Svengali therapist pre-restraining order: Four

Number of salvageable songs on an otherwise unsalvageable record: One. “Getcha Back” is still fun.

Peak Billboard position: #52

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #10 (out of 26). Its breezy simplicity holds up well. It could easily be the LP artwork for a modern beach-minded indie band like Girls or Real Estate.

Still Cruisin’ (1989)

Number of cover tunes: One proper, but nearly all of the other tracks appeared elsewhere, some of them decades earlier.

Number of songs marketed as first appearing on movie soundtracks: Six. Lethal Weapon 2, Cocktail, Troop Beverly Hills, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Big Chill, and Soul Man, respectively.

Number of Beach Boys to appear on Full House during the album’s promotional tour: All five of ‘em. Even Brian.

Number of songs featuring guest rap artists: One. A horrendous cover of “Wipe Out” boasts some rhymes from The Fat Boys.

Number of salvageable songs on an otherwise unsalvageable record: One: “Kokomo”, if only for its novelty and being covered by The Muppets.

Peak Billboard position: Not sure, but the thing somehow went Gold.

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #25. Could’ve been a poster for Cars 2.

Summer In Paradise (1992)

“Here Today”: I’ll take Manson over John Stamos any day.

“Let’s Go Away For Awhile”: Brian Wilson. The only shred of his presence on the album is a retread of “Surfin”, the band’s very first song.

Number of cover tunes: Two proper covers, two Beach Boys oldies.

Number of drum tracks performed by a Macintosh Quadra console: 12

Moment you realize it’s a Beach Boys album: …

Number of Americans who thought it was, as Mike Love originally conceived it to be, “the quintessential soundtrack of summer”: Less than 10,000

Number of great Dennis Wilson songs ruined by a cast member of Full House: One.  See above.

Number of salvageable songs from an otherwise unsalvageable record: …

Peak Billboard position: …

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #26.  Praised by Lisa Frank.

Stars And Stripes Vol. 1 (1996)

“Here Today”: Brian Wilson would come back for this death rattle. Thank god he would redeem himself with the re-recorded SMiLE eight years later.

Number of cover tunes: Every song is a cover or country rendition of an already existing Beach Boys cut.

Moment you realize it’s a Beach Boys album: …

Number of Beach Boys who sing lead: Zero. All lead vocals were completed by assorted country artists, including Toby Keith and Willie Nelson.

Peak Billboard position: #101

Brian Wilson classic saved from country pop hell: “In My Room”, originally slated for its second volume.

Expected release date of Stars and Stripes Vol. 2: …

Number of salvageable songs from an otherwise unsalvageable record: …

Album artwork ranking (cover only): #22. Ben Franklin wants his board back.

On top of releasing nine studio albums, the duo have put out several mixtapes, produced countless up-and-coming artists, made a handful of films, and starred in their own reality TV series. Oh yeah, and they won an Oscar, too. Phoning from Los Angeles, DJ Paul convivially chatted with Consequence of Sound‘s Dan Caffrey and special guest interviewer Dan Pfleegor about horror films, Three 6 Mafia’s delayed 10th album, and his love for R. Lee Ermey.

Tell us about your mixtape that’s been out.

Yeah, the latest one is Pray for Forgiveness, and it’s me and Ya Boy. We did the mixtape together, and put it out as a little bonus. So, it’s on iTunes for $4.99. It’s me and a little hot producer out of Memphis named Lil Lody. We released a video off the album. Me and Young Buck and Charlie P.

What’s the concept behind the video?

Aw man, the video’s stupid. It’s one of my favorite videos out there. It’s like a robbery movie mixed with a horror movie. The shape is like a horror movie, but the premise is put down like a robbery movie, like a drama. We got these chicks, and we give them guns and a Cadillac truck, and we spin ‘em up in a corner store. So, they run up in the corner store, and they start robbing and find out that the corner store man got a dope boy operation going on in the back. So, they run back there in threes, and they get the boys up. And the lesson there is that it’s hard to be a dope boy today.

Who directed it?

My boy Charlie P. One of the rappers in the video.

Are there any specific homages in it to already existing horror movies?

Naw, it just gives you the feeling of one, but it doesn’t taking nothing from one. We did a scene where the glass breaks, like if your TV screen broke. It’s pretty cool.

You guys have always been pretty big horror fans, right?

Aw, hell yeah.

Do you have a favorite horror movie of all time?  

Yeah, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part one. The original.

How’d you like the remake?

I liked the remake. It was one of the best remakes in remake history. That one was good, especially on the part where they shot the dude or the chick or whatever in the head, and the camera pans through her head out the back window. Man, that shit was awesome.

Oh yeah, it goes through the hole in her head after she takes the gun out of her vagina.

Just that sheriff alone, that dude’s a hell of an actor, man. He was crazy as hell in that. I wanted to kick his ass.

Oh yeah, R. Lee Ermey. Did you ever see Full Metal Jacket? He always plays a drill sergeant.

Yeah, I saw all his movies. He does commercials where he plays drill sergeants. He did a Geico commercial.

He did?

Yeah, it’s funny as hell, too. He did a Geico commercial where a dude was, uh… he wasn’t actually a drill sergeant in it, but he was a psychiatrist who acted like a drill sergeant. So, he was all hard on his clients and shit like that. And at the end, the dude’s crying, and he threw him a box of napkins and was like, “Here you go… Sandy Hands” or something crazy like that. I think it was a Geico commercial, but it was funny as hell, though.

You guys have ventured into filmmaking yourselves with Choices and Choices 2. Have you ever thought about making a straight-up horror movie?

Yeah, we have done a lot of that thing, man. We want to eventually do that. But we’re so scared. We got like three scripts, and nobody’s really had a shot yet. But I’m just trying to figure out the right way to do it and make it make sense and make it make money. ‘Cause it’s so easy to steal movies these days, you know? We already losing on music, so I’m just trying to figure out a way to put out a movie and do it with a skeleton crew and small budget so we won’t completely lose. ‘Cause I mean, you know, I’m in the hood and I’m at my boy’s house, and they be like, “Hey, man, let’s pop in the Transformers DVD,” and I’m like, “Damn, Transformers ain’t even out yet!” [laughs]

Is that frustrating? Laws of Power has been pushed back a few times. Is it frustrating to see the songs leak while you’re still waiting for the album to come out?

Naw, the songs that leaked… we leaked those. My studio is in my house. It’s like one of the guest bedrooms. And my engineer’s been with me like eight years. So, that shit don’t go to anyone else but me. He don’t even have a copy of it. At the end of the night, I lock the room, he go home, and I go to bed. We’ll leak our songs ourselves, you know, just to test the waters on them and release singles, but I never had nothing that like leaked and I was like, “Oh shit, how the hell’d they get that?”

Do you guys have a definite release date yet for Laws of Power?

Naw. Naw, the album’s done, but we’re just sitting there waiting for the label to get their minds right with which one of these singles they wanna roll.

Would you mind describing the plot of one of your film scripts?

Well, we’ve got one that’s called The Streets of Memphis. We’ve got a hip-hop movie that’s untitled.  And we’ve got Choices 3.

There’s going to be a Choices 3?  

It’s the return of Big Pat. He wasn’t in Choices 2 ‘cause he was serving time in prison, in real life. So, we just played it off that in Part 2 he went to prison, which he did. Then, in Part 3, he get out, and he’s coming at anyone who crossed him out or left him hanging or did bad shit when he was locked down. It’s hard. It’s gangsta as hell. It’s Project Pat on steroids. He comes out, and he’s killing motherfuckers all over the place.

Project Pat is frightening in Choices and on the albums, but on the show Adventures in Hollyhood, he seemed like a big teddy bear. Is that just because he’s shy? Does he have a nice demeanor normally?

Well, naw, he ain’t shy. Pat’s just real laid-back, you know?  It’s when you piss him off that you see the crazy side. He’s the type of guy that if you walk up to him… if a couple dudes walk up to him and then try to rob him or try to talk shit to him, he’ll try to talk them down first. He’ll be like, “Young dudes, ya’ll need to think about what you’re doing, this and that.” He’ll try to talk to them like, “This ain’t the way; you need to get your mind right, this and that. But if you wanna do this, there’s gonna be some repercussions.” [laughs] He has been in prison on and off a lot, but he can’t be wild in the streets. He only gets wild when it’s time to get wild.

Are there any plans for a Season Two of Adventures in Hollyhood?

Naw, that’s over with.

Was reality TV something you enjoyed doing, or did it get on your nerves after a while?

I like reality TV. It’s cool. But of course it gets on your nerves. A woman gets on your nerves, even the hottest one in the world.

Your early music contained a lot more references to occult imagery. Was that something you guys consciously moved away from, or did it just kind of happen?

Man, you know it just kind of happened. You gotta go with the times and the sort of people that’s listening to music in the club these days. Don’t wanna hear nobody talking about chopping somebody’s head off and eating it. You know what I’m saying? That’s a small crowd. There’s still an audience out there for that, and I wish I could one day sit back and throw a CD their way of that. But as of now, it’s too hard to sell records, so you’ve gotta try to come out with the hardest shit that you think that the whole world is gonna wanna buy, and not just some small little colored kids somewhere down in some small town gathered ’round a fire and thinking about shooting up the high school tomorrow.

How autobiographical would you consider your music to be? Is the stuff you do nowadays more autobiographical than your earlier albums?

Well, the stuff these days is really a lot of shit that we do, because the stuff we do is more about partying, drugs, women, alcohol. [laughs] It’s always been there on Three 6 Mafia albums. But you know, the ones in the day had more killing and robbing and this and that. All of them pretty much had the shit we done did. I mean I ain’t gonna sit up here and say I killed somebody or something like that, but as far as the robbery shit, the drug dealing, this and that… we grew up in some rough times, man. We grew up in some rough neighborhoods. So, there’s a lot of shit we did in the past that, you know, is crazy. You know, we talked about it once, and we really don’t talk about that no more. We’re just on to the more happier days. Those bad days roaming the streets are gone. We’re just talking about life as life goes, the present moment in life. And right now our life is riding in big cars and messing with hot chicks.

Do you think you’ve become happier as your career’s gone on?

Of course. Who wouldn’t?

DJ Paul’s mixtape, Pray for Forgiveness, is currently available on iTunes, with Laws Of Power, Three 6 Mafia’s 10th studio album, hopefully hitting stores sometime next year.

Note: This interview was conducted before the untimely, recent death of former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh.

Have you spent a lot of time at the beach before?

In Spring break ’87! [laughs]

Are you going to do some tequila shots?

No, I can’t do that. I would enjoy an India Pale Ale though.

Are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing? The Shins? Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears? Jane’s Addiction?

I like The Shins a lot.

It seems like a beach-themed year for you guys. First DeLuna, then the Weezer Cruise…

The Weezer Cruise is going to be epic. A ton of cool bands on there. We’ve got Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh and Wavves. Gene Ween is going to be there. It’s going to be fun.

Are you going to be hanging out around the boat a lot with fans or are you going to try and stay separate until the shows?

We’re going to be hanging the whole time.  We’ve got all kinds of things planned. I wanted to hit golf balls into the ocean, but someone told me they don’t do that anymore.

Really?

Yeah, I think you can get some biodegradable golf balls, which I think would be fine. It’s just going to be fun, goofy stuff like that.

You also just did a song for the Muppets’ Green Album.

Oh yeah.

When you guys recorded your version of “The Rainbow Connection”, did you have any kind of interaction with the people working on the new movie, or even the Muppets themselves?

We hung out a little bit with them. We’re kind of tight with them from back in the day, with the “Keep Fishin’” video and all that. So I was stoked when they asked us to work out a song for them.

Have you been a Muppets fan since you were a little kid?

Yeah, totally.

Would you say Animal’s your favorite since he’s a drummer and all?

No, I think my favorite is…I can’t remember his last name, but I like the professor.

Bunsen Honeydew?

Yeah, Bunsen Honeydew. I love that guy.

On the “Keep Fishin’” video, you got locked in the closet by Animal, right?

It was Miss Piggy.

Because she had a thing for you?

She had a thing for me.

Oh yeah, and then Animal took your place at the drums. He was always my favorite Muppet, but I was also really scared of him when I was little. He was so unpredictable. Did you have any feeling like that working with him or was he mainly just funny?

I didn’t really feel one way or the other about Animal. But who I did not like was Miss Piggy. I had an intense reaction to her. I didn’t like pushy chicks. I was always like “get ‘em out of here.” [laughs] I was like “really, I gotta do this?” [laughs] I literally have ancient feelings of resentment and revulsion that came up with when…like when Miss Piggy’s face was right in my face, I just wanted to stomp her. [laughs]

That was a genuine feeling?

It was the way she was just so pushy and kind of fat. I was like “get out of here.” [laughs]

To an extent, they’re puppets, but they’re also these iconic characters. It’s almost like you forget about the person operating them.

You do. It’s amazing. When they’re doing it, you forget about them. You can see the dude operating it, but the puppet still comes to life. It’s pretty wild. Another weird thing is they won’t let anyone film or photograph the characters if they’re not being animated.

That’s true. You don’t ever see a picture of an actual Kermit puppet laying by itself, unless it’s in a museum exhibit or something.

Yeah, it’s cool.

Do you guys all have kids?

I think everyone but Brian.

Not that you’ve ever been known as notorious partiers, but do you feel like as you’ve gotten older and settled down with families that you find yourself hanging out with other rockers less and less, going out until two in the morning, that sort of thing?

Yeah, we never really got into that. Of all the guys in the band, I probably partied the most. And to me, that means going over to my friend’s house to have a session. Not going out to a club or anything.

In the festival environment, with something like DeLuna, is there a lot of backstage debauchery or is it usually just people taking it easy?

It’s a surprising lack of debauchery pretty much. I wish I would’ve been around when they were doing all that stuff.  [laughs]

Do you think rock bands in general have grown a little tamer? Obviously there are rock stars who have their issues, but you never really hear about a Zeppelin or Stones type band anymore…people who just have these insane stories about what happens backstage with groupies.

You know who I think gets after all that shit is the bro bands. I think they’re still kind of punching the clock on that. Like the Motorcross dudes and stuff like that. [laughs] I think they’re getting into the debauchery. And shit, I’m 42 with two kids. What am I going to do, go out and bang hookers and snort coke? It’s not going to happen.

You guys have been playing the entire Blue Album again as of late. Do you have a preference for doing the older songs over the newer cuts?

I like doing the old songs. It’s novel. As long as the music feels good and the song is good, I don’t really care if it’s old or new.

Photo by Heather Kaplan

I saw you guys at the Aragon a couple of years ago. Everyone was taking turns singing lead, and you had gotten another drummer so you could play guitar while Rivers Cuomo could run around and do his thing. Is that still part of the show or are you back to the more traditional lineup?

Well Rivers plays more guitar now and I play more guitar now and we sort of use Josh [Freese] on most of the drums. But yeah, Rivers still wants to have that freedom to put the guitar down and interact with the crowd.

Is that something you’ve developed over the past few years? I saw one of your first post-hiatus live shows between Pinkerton and The Green Album and Rivers didn’t talk much at all to the crowd. He kind of  planted himself onstage and did his thing.  

I can’t tell you how many shows we did where nobody said anything to the crowd and we just kind of played our songs and then left. There’s something to be said for that, but I think other times, people want that interaction.

Both aesthetics are cool. Is it true that when you play the older albums all the way through, you try and replicate what you wore back in the day?

Rivers does. He’ll pull out something he would wear back in the day. I don’t really do that.

Are you guys recording any new stuff right now?

Rivers is writing songs right now and hopefully, come early next year, we’ll start banging them out.

Are you doing anything with your other bands or just sticking with Weezer?

I actually am. I’ve got 10 songs. I’m about halfway done mixing it. I don’t know where or who it’s going to come out on, but I’m looking forward to releasing that pretty soon as well.

Not to play favorites, but has Weezer always been your favorite set of musicians to play with?

They’re the only guys I play with. [laughs]

So is The Special Goodness just you or is that other folks too?

That’s all me at this point. They’re my favorite band. [laughs]