"My face isn't able to smile," Brian Wilson confides to collaborator Van Dyke Parks in one of this comprehensive double-DVD set's poignant bonus interviews, "but my heart does. "Using vintage clips and the frank insights of Brian's friends and colleagues, writer/producer/director David Leaf (a longtime Wilson confidant and author of the pioneering history The Beach Boys and the California Myth) charts the music legend's spectacular rise to stardom and the troubling gestation and subsequent abandonment of the 1967 album widely anticipated as Wilson's artistic coup de grace…
Album released through Diwphalanx Records in early 2008, featuring guest musicians Michio Kurihara of Ghost and Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))), both of whom have collaborated with Boris in the past. Shortly after this initial release, the album was released by American label Southern Lord with a slightly different track listing, different artwork (by Stephen O'Malley), and an almost entirely different sound.
Slavic Smile was recorded in 1982, shortly after the Modern Jazz Quartet was reunited. On this album, the unique pianist of the MJQ, John Lewis pursued a different sound and approach from the legendary group, albeit with the same instrumentations and Connie Kay on the drum chair…
Tir Na Nog expanded their horizons on their 1972 sophomore release by adding drums (Barry DeSouza) and bass (Larry Steele), as well as some effective string arrangements. Produced by the legendary Tony Cox (Caravan, Françoise Hardy, Family), A Tear and a Smile retained all of Sonny Condell and Leo O'Kelly's offbeat phrasing, playful melodic deviations, and pastoral balladry, while subtly turning an eye to the prospects of a little commercial appeal…