There are few bands I hate more than the Beach Boys. I grew up hearing them on the radio and could never understand the fascination that bands like the Ramones had for these guys. Then, in the mid-’90s every other radio-friendly punk band decided that saccharine, harmonizing back-up vocals was just the thing the world needed. Then came the acoustic guitars! Someone shoot me please. So when I unwrapped the Travoltas’ live album, modeled after the Beach Boys’ 1965 release (complete with album cover parody and chatty house guests in the background), I got ready to lose my cookies. That was a premature reaction, to say the least. Maybe it’s the farfisa organ noodling in the background, maybe it’s their slightly whimsical (although thoroughly inappropriate) cover of Bad Religion’s “Sorrow.” Who knows? But for some reason these guys don’t get on my tits… until they pull out “Barbara Ann,” “Little Honda” and “California Girls.” It’s an interesting, ambitious idea that undoubtedly will be appreciated by folks a little less cynical than I.
–eric (Infect)