Donovan & Brian Wilson Celebrate Fifty Year Anniversaries – Sunshine Superman and Pet Sounds were both released in 1966 and both the Glasgow born troubadour and American genius are marking the landmark releases with tours visiting New York City.

Donovan played Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on Thursday September 15th, 2016. Brian Wilson played the Northside Festival at McCarren Park on June 12th, 2016 and returns to New York City on Saturday September 24th for a show at The Beacon.

When Donovan was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame four years ago, it was said that he single-handedly initiated the psychedelic revolution with Sunshine Superman. When we spoke on Thursday, Don agreed he opened the door as “when you look at the lyrics, the sound, the attitude, and the presentation of that album, it does pre-date by a year and a half most of what is called psychedelic music.” My bringing up the word psychedelic spurred a discussion that touched upon music, drugs, and meditation and Donovan recalled how he and The Beatles went to India seeking the ‘purest form’ of meditation to bring it back to the West.

On stage, Donovan shared a number of funny and engaging anecdotes including a songwriting session with Paul McCartney in which Macca played an early version of Eleanor Rigby with the title character named Oliver Tungee! Upon hearing an embryonic version of what turned out to be the B-side of Eleanor Rigby, Donovan contributed the line, “Sky of Blue, Sea of Green…In Our Yellow Submarine.” The scuttlebutt is he’ll be playing a set of Beatles songs when he accepts the John Lennon Real Love Award in December. In another aside, he revealed he wrote There Is A Mountain on a trip to the Caribbean and added an exclamation point of “Rastafari” after playing it. The stories, like the songs, were delivered with affection and the lucky 600 people at Zankel Hall went home delighted. Richard Barone, by the way, was fab helping out on guitar on a couple of tracks including the climactic Sunshine Superman.

As for Brian Wilson, the show in Brooklyn on a cool night in June was an equally memorable affair. The setlist was an embarrassment of riches with the complete Pet Sounds supplemented by a a generous handful of Beach Boys hits that weren’t on the album. Matthew Jardine handled the falsetto parts admirably and it was as transcendent an experience as one would have hoped with the kind of immortal material that was presented. With the acoustics of The Beacon enhancing the experience next Saturday, Broadway and 74th will definitely be the place to be. A memoir is coming next month from the man called I Am Brian Wilson!

Wolf Parade Light Fuse On 2016 Northside Festival; June 9, 2016

After Wolf Parade’s sound check on a gorgeous afternoon at Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, Dan Boeckner clipped on a microphone and spoke about this band‘s wildly triumphant comeback. “I underestimated what this band meant to people while we were active.” Maybe a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder in play here for both fans and bandmates. Wolf Parade’s shows ending their five year hiatus have been mad love fests! Smiles and positivity radiates from the stage to the audience where the waves gain power and bounce back. After five sold out nights at the Bowery Ballroom last month, this gig was a NYC victory lap. It also kicked off Northside Music, a festival that has evolved quickly and become a highlight of summer in the city. It ended in fine style on Sunday night with a Brian Wilson show at the same venue.

Boeckner brings great energy to whatever project he’s involved in and there have been plenty. Beyond Wolf Parade, he’s made compelling records with Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, and Operators. As he explained however, he always expected he would get back together with Spencer Krug, Dante DeCaro, and Arlen Thompson to make a fourth record and play shows. About eighteen months ago, it began to happen as the four men got together on Vancouver Island. After coming to the conclusion very quickly that it was fun and it felt like the right time, they brewed up half a dozen songs – four of which made the EP released last month.

As in the past, they didn’t make a move towards recording until the songs had reached a state where they could play them live. Boeckner told me they don’t write or build tracks piecemeal in studios. When they were ready, they adjourned to Dante’s studio in Shawnigan Lake and laid them down. Mike McCarthy, who is best known for his work with Spoon, then produced the ones featuring Dan’s vocals while the ones sung by Spencer were produced by Jonas Verwijnen of Kaiku Studios in Berlin whose resume includes Handsome Furs.

Here’s a bonus. Dan talking about his history with Spencer…”Don’t date my sister!”

Sunflower Bean at Flamingo Cantina in Austin for SXSW 3-16-16 & coming to House Of Vans as part of the annual Brooklyn hootenanny known as the Northside Festival on Thursday 6-9-16

Love the Bean!

The Wednesday afternoon performance that you get a taste of in the accompanying video was a highlight of this year’s extremely fertile SXSW festival crop. Nick, Julia, and Jake indulged me with an interview behind the venue and then matter of factly got down to the on stage business. The influences are great ones as evidenced by Julia’s Marc Bolan tattoo and they’ve got all the tools – chops, song craft, and presence – to be the most exciting New York City export to the rock world in a long time.

The guys hail from Long Island while Julia grew up on the edge of Alphabet City in the East Village. Jake has since found some digs in Bushwick while, unless he made a recent leap, Nick was still living with the ‘rents!

I was introduced to this trio‘s music at WFUV where they recorded a session earlier this year in our Bronx studios. My radio compadres are also knocked out by the Bean and they were enthusiastically invited to perform at FUV’s Highline Bash at Milk Studios in Chelsea just a few weeks ago. I was thinking it was a treat to see them in such an intimate space as bigger stages in bigger venues can’t be far off. They revealed they are brewing up a headlining show in November atop the free show at House Of Vans coming a week from Thursday. That show is part of the Northside Festival, 6/9 through 6/12 that boasts an impressive lineup including Conor Oberst, Frankie Cosmos, Wolf Parade and Brian Wilson! The House of Vans stage is on the water in Greenpoint just blocks from where Sunflower Bean recorded Human Ceremony in the studios at Thump. The event the Bean will play at will be headlined by another crack local outfit Diiv and includes Torontonians BadBadNotGood and Los Angeles quartet The Paranoyds.

A parting shot –

Before heading to Brooklyn for a Northside Festival show, rock duo Best Coast dropped by WFUV radio for a session.

Their gig (with 3 additional touring members) is this Saturday June the 13th; the multi-faceted event runs June 8 – 14 2015.

Prepare for the show by enjoying 2 interviews with the super fab Bethany Cosentino!

The new Best Coast album, California Nights, is immaculately produced pop that draws from, as Beth explains, an eclectic group of artists.  I spoke with Cosentino and her partner Bobb Bruno first in Austin during SXSW then again in The Bronx at WFUV.  HERE is a link to the substantial radio interview with in-studio performance in addition to the above 2 minute clip in the NY1 Sound Advice style…