Looking for a reason to SMiLE? An eBay Celebrity Charity Auction for The Beach Boys’ SMiLE Sessions has just launched…

If you’re a Beach Boys fan, you’re not going to want to miss out on a little piece of BB history.  Up for grabs is a limited edition Hobie Retro Classic Surfboard signed by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston plus a Light Up SMiLE Sessions box set signed by Brian Wilson. All proceeds go to Heal the Bay; a non-profit environmental group working to restore Santa Monica Bay in The Beach Boys’ beloved Californi-aye.

Bidding closes on February 8th. GET BIDDING HERE!

SMiLE; the album that could have been. The album that will now finally be.

It’s 1967: the American charts are flooded with British bands with floppy haircuts and cool guitars. The lone American voice holding them off is The Beach Boys. A year earlier they released Pet Sounds – for many, the greatest album of all time. We know The Beatles heard it, it’s Paul McCartney’s favourite album, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a response to the album that defined the ’60s.So the world waited for what The Beach Boys would do next. The first single was fantastic. You may have heard a little tune called ‘Good Vibrations’ – spiritual, sophisticated and unforgettable, a number one single the world over.

It captured what Brian Wilson was trying to get at. He called them “teenage symphonies to God”. Yeah, that seems a bit corny now. But Brian Wilson wanted to show the world how wonderful it was – he wanted to make you smile. But the rest of the album never came. Why? Lots of reasons. Some members of the band didn’t like the new psychedelic direction – stick to songs about cars and the beach! Drugs were everywhere (it was the 60s…) and took their toll. And the work was ambitious… hundreds of hours of recording, trying to find that perfect sound. Weeks stretched to months and SMiLE, the album that should have been, never happened.

What we do know is this: in 1967, Capitol commissioned artwork and that covers were printed. Many songs were recorded, and some eventually released on later albums – ‘Surf’s Up’, ‘Cabinessence’ and ‘Wonderful’ among them. The album grew in stature – tapes were leaked and traded by bootleggers. Tracks were released in a 1994 box set, the first official taste of the SMiLE sessions. Essays and books were written, Brian Wilson was even playing a couple of Smile songs in concert. The legend grew.

Brian Wilson revisited Smile in 2004, re-recording the whole album, finally giving us a definitive track listing. The logical next step is the new SMiLE box set. Taking that definitive tracklisting, lyrics and arrangements, and assembling it with the original tapes. Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike, Al and Bruce are back together on this album, each of them at the peak of their powers. The songs are Brian Wilson’s best. It took 45 years, and it was worth every second to get this right. If this album came out in 1967, it would have changed the course of popular music – maybe now in 2011, it’s not too late.

The SMiLE Sessions will be released on October 28th in a  number of formats. But extravagant box sets and 3D covers aside, it’s all about the love and emotion in the music. If you’ve ever felt sad or happy, young or old, loved or unloved, lost or found – there is something for you here in SMiLE. (If you’re looking for a place to start, I suggest the song “Wonderful”….)

I’m always super curious with how artists / bands first started out before they became well-known. It’s also a question I ask musicians in Australia regularly when first meeting them through my job. Usually makes a good story & paints a great picture of who they are as an artist.

Now I know this example is pretty old (22 years), but I still think it’s really cool.

Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Laurent ‘Branco’ Brancowitz met at school in 1987 and discovered they had the same tastes for rock bands such as MC5, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys or The Stooges. So they formed a group called Darlin’, which is a tribute to a Beach Boys song. They released their first EP on Stereolab’s record label Duophonic, 800 copies in all. Later an english journalist from Melody Maker (a weekly UK music mag), who reviewed this record, said it was “a bunch of daft punk”.

So they decided to do some other music and Thomas and Guy-Manuel took this name, Daft Punk, as the name of their new group. In 1993 they discovered electronic music and were inspired by its sound. But Branco didnt like it so he decided to leave the group to join his brother, Christian Mazzalai in his band which was later called Phoenix.

To hear tracks by Darlin’ – head to their unofficial myspace. I’m sure a copy of their EP is ridiculously rare.

And here’s The Beach Boys song that started them off in their musical careers… Great track!