Area musicians talk Pet Sounds

If Paul McCartney says Pet Sounds is his favorite album, then it should be in everyone's top ten, says Mason Brazelle, drummer for Atlanta trio the Young Antiques. "If the guy who inspired it loves it that much, then it's got to be a masterpiece." As Pet Sounds composer Brian Wilson comes to town to perform his Beach Boys masterpiece live, a wide range of artists in Atlanta and Athens were asked to comment on the 1966 album and its impact on their music. The artists cite almost spiritual revelations as proof that Wilson's labor of love still inspires new listeners. "It's not the surfer bubblegum from the early days of the Beach Boys," continues Brazelle. "How grown men can sing that perfectly together is beyond me."

According to Greg Kagen of the Chain Poets, Pet Sounds is "like an emotional tonic. It's the philosopher's stone of pop records."

Todd Mann of the Bay County Poets says, "The amazing thing is the use of harmony as the integral part of the songs. I have a CD with pannable tracks of songs like 'God Only Knows.' If you pan to vocals only, the song still stands. You don't lose any sense of rhythm, melody or focus. The vocals are so prominent in nearly every measure of the song. Add those vocals to the music and the sound that comes out has such a depth and emotion, you can see that Brian actually was the Beach Boys."

As a direct influence on songwriters, few albums have had as large an impact as Pet Sounds. Eli Eickhoff of Nillah claims, "The idyll that the songs portray directly influenced my songwriting. The dreaminess, the optimism, the overall joy. That's the goal of doing pop music: to write songs people can't bear not to sing along with."

Harry Beale, of recently re-formed '80s Athens band Alice Road says the album "really opened my mind to the possibilities that we can reach with imagination. To this day, I hear new sounds, and experience new freedoms when I listen to my scratchy copy."

Instrumentalist Glenn Phillips appreciates the record's timeless quality. "The older I get, the more I relate to the emotions on the album," he says. "The thing that's really amazing is that Wilson made that music in his 20s. You know, about the same age as Kid Rock." Andy Gonzalez, of Athens' Marshmallow Coast and Of Montreal, similarly finds "hope that something so musically and creative can still affect people after so many years."

Mark Talbott of Beautiful views the record both in terms of the era in which it was released and its continuing relevance. "It allowed those who were looking for a direction to see that a little bit of innocence could relieve most of the soul-searching associated with the times," he says. "I have seen the influence of this record in many bands. The experimentation of instrumentation, along with the use of the theremin, has inspired much of the originality that is prevalent in our town's music."

Kathleen Turner Overdrive bassist Tim Nielsen, formerly of drivin n cryin, used Pet Sounds for sampling on a side project. The Gentle Readers, meanwhile, recently tried their hands at re-creating the music live by learning to play "Wouldn't It Be Nice." "It has more chords in one song than I have ever learned in my life," says the Readers' Lee Cuthbert. "We tried to do the Wilson thing with a song on our last record but it didn't work until we added percussive elements on the off-beats. He makes a lot of instruments percussive, and then adds timpani and all that. It makes for a very complicated, unorthodox, sonic experience."

Other local musicians use the record in less conventional ways. While Athens experimentalist Hiro Noodles recommends Pet Sounds' "Let's Go Away for Awhile" as "an ideal soundtrack for attempting astral projection," Kenny Howes says, "It's a great make-out record."

And while Swimming Pool Q's leader Jeff Calder admires the album as "a pop recording of a singular visionary intention," Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes admits, "I still don't completely understand it. It's so complex, yet still so enjoyable. I love it because it is completely devoid of vanity. It's so sweet, intelligent and moving."

Everyone, however, seems to agree with Young Antiques leader Blake Rainey. "You just don't have a music collection," he says, "unless you own Pet Sounds."