Idolator

Bruce Johnston is the perennial "Sixth Beach Boy," so to speak, even though he's been in the Beach Boys since 1965, when he replaced Glen Campbell (!) as the stand-in for Brian Wilson. Heckfire, he's allegedly the guy who played Pet Sounds for the Beatles, and he sang on "California Girls," so he's a Beach Boy in my book. My favorite solo work of Johnston's is his version of the Chantays' surf-rock hit "Pipeline," which was recently unearthed by a thrifting friend of mine. It's pretty much ruled my year. It's long, but hardly repetitive, carried forward by an insistent beat that was probably a tad fast by the standards of the day, but feels just right now and held together by dippy background vocals, bongos, surf guitar, and absolutely monstrous drumming (check it out at 2:39 for proof). More »

Say hello to the UCLA Bruins, who have a freshman named Kevin Love as their center. Why might some people who love the men who brought us "Fun, Fun, Fun" want to root for the team's demise? The answer lies in this quote from today's New York Times: "'He doesn't like to admit that he listens to [The Beach Boys] as much as he does,' said Mike Love, an original Beach Boy and one of Kevin's uncles. 'Because it might mess with his street cred.' " Well, Mike, it's probaly not the fact that it's the Beach Boys as much as it's the fact that the most hated member of the band happens to be a blood relation. After all, when I read that quote earlier, I realized that today's Times story was the first time that I'd seen the name "Mike Love" without the word "Fuck" in front of it in, oh, about 15 months or so. [NYT / Photo: AP]