I call this playlist First Frost. Because that’s yeah.
If you are on Rdio, you can subscribe to the playlist and if you really want, you can follow me on Rdio. I’m blurb omat. My Rdio address is: rdio.com/people/blurbomat.
Of particular note to music geeks is the release on Rdio of the Beach Boys The SMiLE Sessions. Scroll down to the Disc 5 section. There are 24 tracks from studio sessions for the song “Good Vibrations”. Hearing such a pervasive, cultural milestone of a song come together is really compelling. You can hear studio banter, Brian Wilson talking to people and giving direction as well as all the crazy instrumentation. Are pop songs still built with this level of craftsmanship? And when I say pop songs, I’m talking about Top40 level stuff… Really cool if you are into hearing music come together. They also include an alternate edit of the song that is much more raw and has less of the trademark Beach Boys harmonies.
Here’s a clip which features a cappella vocal tracks only of their harmonies:
It’s pretty amazing, even though it’s just a slideshow. It opens with “God Only Knows”, which was used as the theme song for HBO’s Big Love. But the rest of it is worth a listen. There are some great snapshots of the Beach Boys. (This was linked off of Metafilter a couple of years ago.)
I found “Wouldn’t it Be Nice?” (from Pet Sounds):
Crazy tight.
Also of note on this playlist, is “Black Water” from Apparat’s The Devil’s Walk. Heather wrote about our listening to this song on the outskirts of Palm Springs, watching the sun set behind a massive windmill farm (post with more photos):
(click image to see a larger version)
I’ll always remember the first listen, playing it quietly in our room at the Ace and hoping the clouds would clear up enough for an afternoon drive. And then again as we drove out to the windmills it came on again. Soundtrack to life moment, right there. o
