With You Every Night · Ariel Pink

[2025]

"Can't lock me out when I'm the voice within"

Total dream-gaze-mazement.

LO-fi hypnagogic goodness that goes from romantic to creepy to ecstatic and more. He's tapping into the lost subconscious for a peak deep sonic dreamscape where all sorts of forgotten and unthought things are bubbling away. A hazy and haunted trip-out of glorious proportions. 

The pint size psych pop maestro is in unexpected fine form in 2025.

DURUTTI COLUMN - Lips That Would Kiss/Madeleine

Durutti Column - Lips That Would Kiss/Madeline [1980]

You will be charmed and enchanted by the debut 7" of Vinni Reilly's sublime mesmerising guitar exploits put through the Martin Hannet ringer. Fragile, sweet and odd. 

Durutti Column often get lost in the history of post-punk, the development of 80s guitar music and all things ethereal, They were also a key influence on future genres dream pop, shoegaze, UK post-rock, hypnagogia etc. Durutti Column are not just some footnote though, they are the big bang... well more like the gentle rippling waves of the oscillating universe... 

Vinni Reilly captures the beauty and melancholy of our lives, everything in between and more. Capturing the ineffable is what art is for and Reilly excels in this pursuit. There is so much unnecessary bullshit put out into the world it's hard not to be touched when somebody is generous enough to create such poignant and exquisite music for you to enjoy. 

Warning - Warning

[1982]

If Gary Numan turned into Cookie Monster and started playing doom maybe it would sound like this. One of the stranger anomalies in the history of 20th century pop. Disco-Doom or as somebody said aesthetically it's Disco Grover meets Cookie Monster. It's got vague hints of French cosmic, 80s action/sc-fi/horror soundtracks, zuehl, Goblin, Archaïa, Heldon, Chrome, F/i, new wave, synth-pop, space-rock, doom etc. but really this German duo's debut LP defies categorisation and is in a genre all of its own. 

Swans - I Am The Sun

I Am The Sun - Swans [1995]

Keeping up the theme of all things sunshine. Beach Boys and Swans are pretty much the same really, sun and fun.

You know what's funny, when this came out Swans were perceived as so passé hardly anybody even noticed. I recall a small article in The Wire and one dude on the radio in Melbourne played tunes from The Great Annihilator so I would be curious what the sales figures were. A year later after releasing the follow up LP Soundtracks For The Blind they broke up because the lack of financial stability had become so stressful they couldn't even sustain running the band.  

In a turn of events that is still surprising to me Swans returned in the 2010s after a thirteen year hiatus to immense critical acclaim and an unforeseen surge in popularity. Somehow in their absence a huge cult following featuring a younger generation of devoted fans had formed. Soundtracks For The Blind had become a cult phenomenon online to rival other cult records of the 90s like Spiderland, When The Kite String Pops, Stratosphere and In An Aeroplane Over The Sea. I'm guessing their influence on Godspeed You Black Emperor was also a key factor to their meteoric post-millennial rise.

Song For The Sun - Swans [1991]

Another Beach Boys-esque tune to get you in your Little Deuce Coup headed to the coast for some surfing fun in the sun and beach babe action. Michael Gira the most fun man in rock with the sunniest disposition!

Palisades Park - The Beach Boys

[1976]

Where the Beach Boys pay tribute to the music that inspired them in the early days. This is a cover of Freddy Cannon's #3 hit from 1962. Carl absolutely kills this vocal performance. Also featuring great fairground organ lead break for peak Americana nostalgia. The good ole days when everything was way more innocent, even the creepy stuff. The Beach Boys are America's band but also they're Australia's.

Let Us Go On This Way · The Beach Boys

[1977]

There's refined radio friendly Beach Boys then there's deranged scuzzy Beach Boys and much in-between but hey its all Beach Boys. Many can't hack the rough unhinged and lo-fi version but for those that can handle it there's a load of wild stuff. I mean they sometimes get so goofy its like outsider music at times... And they are retarded aren't they... like they've got arrested development, grown blokes stuck with 15 year old boy brains. In a way they're keepin' it pure with these adolescent rock'n'roll concerns and startling strange music that's so abrupt you can't ignore it.

The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick

[1963]

A young Mike Love at a vocal peak here on this tune penned by Brian Wilson. Many moons later It was credited to Wilson/Love after legal action, there was no love lost between these two cousins. Creating a Christmas classic is no mean feat and here The Beach Boys entered the Christmas pop culture lexicon forever.

Merry Christmas everybody!

It's OK · The Beach Boys

[1976]

By this stage, the Brian's Back era, The Beach Boys were post-modern whether they knew it or not.  Everything about this is fan-fucking-tastic: The melody, the words, the sentiments, the impeccable Brian production, the expansive harmonies, the hand claps, Brian on the fucking Moog!

You don't hear this ever on golden oldies radio here but it's an undeniable feel good hit of the summer. 

The fuckin' best! 

Find a ride 

In the sum-sum-summertime
It's OK

it's alright

Dennis on the outro...  two Dennis' in fact!

Dennis

Dennis

*Roy Wood guests on drums

**The sound and vibe here are a precursor to Brian's great 00s solo LP That Lucky Old Sun.

***Also surely this is the inspiration for several sunny tunes on Ariel Pink's Before Today.

Here Comes The Night · The Beach Boys

[1979]

Beach Boys fans know this as a tune originally from Wild Honey but some insane people prefer this rerecorded disco version. The legendary Curt Boettcher (The Millennium/Sagittarius) along with Bruce Johnson were behind the production on this one. The ten minute version took up most of side two of L.A. (Light Album) however this is the 7 inch single edit of the tune. Many fans hated it as did guitarist Al Jardine.

[1967]

The Wild Honey LP is an underrated masterpiece. Its got a harder stripped back r&b vibe compared to the sophisticated psych pop of the previous two records. Like the rest of the album Here Comes The Night is heavy on the piano, bass and organ: A very nifty proto lo-fi sound. I do love it when Brian has a sing on Beach Boys songs.

The Beach Boys - Adult/CHiLD (Medley)

The Beach Boys - Adult/CHiLD (Medley) [1977]

This is a neat medley of the record that the Beach Boys scheduled to put out to follow up the strange synth pop odyssey Beach Boys Love You (1977) but Mike Love and Al Jardine ixnayed Brian's plans for that and made a different album instead called M.I.U. Album (1978). 

The Beach Boys - Hey Little Tomboy [1978]

The one tune they salvaged from the abandoned Adult/Child project for the M.I.U. Album was this peak weird Brian tune. A lost classic. Many don't realise that Brian is a fucking hilarious dude because he's often so deadpan. He was one funny fellow!