Beach Boys

The Beach Boys is composed of 3 brothers, a cousin and a neighbor who, together, celebrate the california culture and express themselves through music. The group gained quite a lot of popularity in California with this general musical theme and the tight vocal harmonies. They eventually signed to Capitol Records.
Brian Wilson played the role of relative, band mate, principle writer, arranger, and producer. He had a tough upbringing due to a violent yet passionate father. Music became everything to Brian. He was influenced from a young age by songs such as the Rhapsodian Blues, and a jazz/harmony group known as the four Freshmen. Brian describes hearing that group as a religious experience. His way of bonding as an adolescent was standing around a piano and singing harmonies. Brian was a big fan of Harmonic counterpoint. You can hear this in his instrumentation and vocal compositions. Dennis provided the initial influence of surfing as context for a song. Then Brian and Mike wrote a song called "surfing" and showed it to Brian's father who at first was furious, then realized it had commercial potential.
Due to a worthy challenge presented by the introduction of the Beatles and their album Rubber Soles, The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds, an album mostly created by Brian Wilson. Brian had a taste for exotic instruments on this album. His ability to envision the album as a whole and keep consistency throughout was superb. Tony Asher was brought on to write lyrics for the album.
The Pet Sounds album had the ability to take me on an emotional roller coaster I was not expecting. Some of the songs made me want to get up and smile and be happy whereas other songs, such as Caroline, gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes. I can really appreciate how simple everything sounded, yet how much emotional impact it had. The lyrics were simple to follow and were very meaningful. Regardless of Mike's opinion, I think the lyrics and the way they tied together from song to song, were phenomenal. The tonality in the vocals also was awesome. In sad moments, you could hear the voice crying, in happier uplifting parts, you could hear joy in the voice. That's something I loved about the album.

Reference page
http://soundcloud.com/chrispyspears/brian-wilson-podcast