BEACH BOY BRIAN GETS IT RIGHT, LOVE DOESN’T
In 1988 Beach Boys founder and legend Brian Wilson recorded his very first solo album, a quarter century after the first BB LP. A nervous breakdown and subsequent drug use took him to the precipice that many feared he wouldn’t come back from, but he did, and has slowly made his way toward “normalcy” all the while creating music.
I got the assignment to do the second interview and magazine piece for that album, through a strange route. My son Chris had a good friend in high school, Randy Bookasta, who launched an alt music magazine, Contrast, while in his teens, and when Bookasta got the call from Warner Bros. for the landmark story he immediately, excitedly said Yes! then realized he knew next to nothing about Wilson, and called on me. It was a bizarre situation and it took me two months to create a cogent piece out of the fractured interview, but it ran 12 pages without a single word changed.
So I got to know Brian a little and his genius and how much he is beloved by anyone who knows him, and that good heart that has driven all of his music making continues as he recently criticized original BB Mike Love, who now owns rights to the Beach Boys name for touring, for Love’s decision to perform at the upcoming Safari Club International Convention, where Donald Trump Jr. will be the keynote speaker. Donny Jr. is a well-known killer of elephants, leopards, crocodiles, endangered big horn sheep.
Wilson is telling fans to stop buying Beach Boys music until the group stops supporting trophy hunting. Thank you, Brian. And Love maintains his decades-long reputation as being one of the biggest jerks in showbiz.
NICOLE RECOMMENDS:
LONNIE LISTON SMITH, CUT CHEMIST (second show added! One of the most versatile, legendary jazz-soul-funk keyboardists to ever grace the scene, known for playing with Miles Davis, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roland Kirk, Pharaoh Sanders, many more giants, Lonnie Smith will be getting cosmic this Sunday, backed by Inglewood jazz-funk collective Katalyst, plus a very special opening set by highly esteemed turntablist Cut Chemist, and DJ sets by KCRW’s Garth Trinidad.) -- Sun 9 p.m., Lodge Room, Highland Park, $30.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Mardi Gras with THE DAMN WELL PLEASE ORGAN TRIO (wait, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED over the LA Phil, Gerald Clayton, The Band, LA Opera, Jazz Bakery? oh yeah, and it isn’t even a trio though there may be 6-12 players on stage this show is all keyboard dynamo Darius Holbert, simply one of the most talented musician-entertainers I’ve ever seen and he doesn’t do live shows any more… only this, do ya hear what I’m sayin’?, plus Mardi Gras beads, N’Orleans drink specials, King cake, best party this side of the bayou, last year the last set was the best, after most of the crowd went home so prepare to party into Lent) -- Tues 9 p.m., Harvelle’s, SM, $10.
RECOMMENDED:
THIS AFTERNOON!! -- DR. STRANGELOVE (yup, put the SMDP down and run right over to our beloved Aero to catch one of my favorite films ever, early Kubrick plus George C. Scott, the brilliant Sterling Hayden, Peter Sellers x3, and who could ever forget Slim Pickens riding that bronco into oblivion) -- Thurs aft 1 p.m., Aero Theatre, SM,
TONIGHT! -- LA OPERA - EURYDICE (last performances! - LA Opera goes after the Orpheus tale, young bride dies of snakebite on her wedding night, descends to underworld, meets up with Pop but gets a chance to rejoin Land of the Living and husband Orpheus but this time it’s told from the woman’s POV, rising wunderkind composer Matthew Aucoin partners with librettist-playwright Sarah Ruhl, a world premier) -- Thurs 7:30 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, DTLA, $49-$284.
TONIGHT! -- MELISSA MORGAN (never seen her, watched a couple of videos, read some rave reviews, trust the booking at Sam First, her pianist last night was the great Gerald Clayton, so I think I’m on solid ground with this recommendation) -- Thurs 8, 9:30 p.m., Sam First, LAX, $15-$20.
TONIGHT! -- DVORAK 7, IVES 1 - DUDAMEL (oh Gustavo, you crazy Venezuelan you, pairing Ives and Dvorak in a series, starting with possibly Dvorak’s best, and my fave, the 7th, though the “New World” is most performed, and Ives, how, after all, can you take anyone named Charles seriously, he was a flop for most of his lifetime as a composer but a star life insurance salesman, Mahler loved him so that’s good enough for me) -- Thurs, Fri 8 p.m., Walt Disney Concert Hall, $64-$209.
DVORAK 8, IVES 2, Sat 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m., Disney Hall, DTLA, $78-$223.
“ONCE WERE BROTHERS: Robbie Robertson and THE BAND” (film - I’m tempted to give this a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED sight unseen because I am such a huge, longtime fan of The Band, and so are a few other credible people like exec producers Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, Van Morrison, Clapton, Springsteen, etc etc, Scorsese opined what I thought the first time I heard the new Big Pink album, “This didn’t sound like anything else,” a confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most respected and enduring groups in the history of popular music) -- Fri, Landmark Theater, WLA, $12-$15.50.
LA OPERA - ROBERTO DEVEREUX by Gaetano DONIZETTI (talk about divas, how about strongwoman Elizabeth I, her formidable public persona hiding a fragile heart aching to reconnect with a suitor whose loyalties are uncertain, bouncing from rage to heartbreak) -- Sat, next Thurs 7:30 p.m., Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, DTLA, $24-$329.
SARAH SILVERMAN & Friends (it’s Sarah Silverman, a preeminent comedian of our time, I adore her for so many reasons so I think you should go, no matter who her Friends are) -- Sat 8:30 p.m., Largo, LA (sold out? - go beg!).
GERALD CLAYTON and Marcel Camargo Duo (we are so fortunate that jazz pianist Gerald Clayton has the energy and desire to play everywhere because if you miss one gig because it’s way across town or wrong date or time, just wait a week or two, I’ve been dying to see this rocknroll gallery and this is the best excuse possible) -- Wed 8 p.m., Mr. Musichead Gallery, LA, $15-$25.
LEO KOTTKE (I saw him not too long ago at Pepperdine, after some 50 years, and he was as superb an acoustic guitarist as he was in the ‘60s but had also honed great patter and comedy asides, he gives great show) -- Wed 8 p.m., Largo, LA, $50.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: DVORAK 9, IVES 4 2/28, 29, Disney Hall, DTLA; MARIA MULDAUR 2/28, TOM PAXTON 2/29, McCabe’s, SM; DUSTBOWL REVIVAL 2/29, Troubadour, WHwd; CHIEFTAIN’S IRISH GOODBYE TOUR 3/1, Disney Hall, DTLA; LYRIS QUARTET & Mezzo-Soprano JESSICA RAUCH perform New String Quartets by LA-Based Composers 3/3, In Sheep's Clothing, DTLA; BURTON CUMMINGS, 3/3, ROSEANNE CASH 3/6, Pepperdine, Malibu; SARAH SILVERMAN & ALL STARS 3/22, Largo, LA; FARTBARF 3/6, The Sardine, San Pedro; LIQUID KITTY'S PUNK ROCK BBQ - Spring Forward Edition 3/8, Harvelle’s, SM; BUDDY GUY 3/8, The Saban, Beverly Hills, 3/11, The Canyon Montclair; SOUL ASYLUM 3/11, Teragram Ballroom, DTLA; KINKY FRIEDMAN 3/13, McCabe's, SM; AARON NEVILLE 3/13, The Rose, Pasadena, 3/14 The Canyon Agoura Hills; GRACE POTTER 3/19, El Rey Theatre, LA: TAJ MAHAL QUARTET 3/20, The Canyon Agoura Hills. 3/21 The Canyon Montclair, 3/22 The Canyon Santa Clarita; SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS 3/28, Teragram Ballroom, DTLA.
Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 2,000 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 34 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
