The Beach Boys Making Pet Sounds

Documentary exploring the making of The Beach Boys critically acclaimed eleventh studio album. Recorded between 1965 and 1966, the album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson who had quit touring almost a year earlier in order to concentrate solely on writing and recording. Featuring archive footage and exclusive interviews…

As promising as Dios' mix of indie rock, psychedelia, and Californian pop was on their Arboles EP, the group's self-titled first full-length is even more ambitious and accomplished. Dios is a darker and more complex take on the band's unmistakably Californian sound; even the poppiest songs, like "Starting Five" – which carries within it the musical DNA of Golden State bands from the Beach Boys to Pavement – have a lingering melancholy. Much has been made of Dios' obsession with the Beach Boys, and they don't downplay it on the album. If anything, they emphasize it with the album's elaborate production, and even go as far as quoting the a cappella breakdown of Pet Sounds' "You Still Believe in Me" in the middle of "50 Cents." And like the band's idols (who also hailed from their hometown of Hawthorne, CA), Dios also make music perfect for cruising, although the band's sound suggests dusk and smog more than surf and sun; it's no mistake that the covers for both Dios and Arboles depict urban California sunsets.

Simon & Garfunkel's first masterpiece, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was also the first album on which the duo, in tandem with engineer Roy Halee, exerted total control from beginning to end, right down to the mixing, and it is an achievement akin to the Beatles' Revolver or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, and just as personal and pointed as either of those records at their respective bests…