A Teenage Symphony To God

Most people I grew up with went through some kinda Beach Boys faze. Discovering the pure genius behind the album Pet Sounds, then the bootlegs of SMiLE, the unreleased "Teenage symphony to God" that took almost 40 years to finish and release as "complete". All of that music, combined with the tragic story of a tormented genius in the midst of a fucked-up family and the pop music industry, made the Beach Boys become interesting subjects to study, and made me realize that their image of being this "nostalgic fantasyland you could revisit where Vietnam never happened and baby boomers never had to face the responsibilities of parenthood" only exists through way of marketing.

In 2001, Pete Tomatz and I went on a spree to gather up as much music from the SMiLE recording sessions as possible. I truly thought the album would never be completed, and sort of felt that it was our duty to make the most complete version of what we could find. Of course, I was limited to what I could find at the time and the information we had about it, plus we took liberties to make it flow the way we liked it best, so there was no way it was going to be accurate.

Here's what we came up with: Beach Boys SMiLE.zip (expires 4/17)