Free | 23/6
Posted: 5/30/2012
According to founding Beach Boy Mike Love, there has never been a post-1990s Axl Rose vibe going on with his band. Sure, the singer/songwriter admits he and the iconic band have had a bunch of bumps along the way, but it never got to a point where they truly lost that loving feeling. 'When you mix business with ego there can be tense situations, but when you let that go, you realize that a lot of the stuff that got in the way is in the past,' he explained in an interview earlier this month. 'We can let the past screw the present by holding onto old disagreements or you can move past it and do something great.'... And something great is exactly what they're doing. In celebration of their 50th anniversary, the band has regrouped, recorded a new album, and are in the midst of an international tour in support of it. That's Why God Made The Radio marks the band's first new album in years and the first in which surviving original members appear on an album together in decades. West Coasters Love, Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks fittingly recorded their 29th album at Los Angeles' Ocean Way Studios. The album finds the hitmasters in similar territory with catchy choruses and infectious harmonies, and no, even though they're in their seventies -- the Boys from Hawthorne, Calif., still sound as good as they did in the '60's. I caught up with Love after seeing the band sell out the Westchester County Center in White Plains on May 15 (yes you read that right... Westchester!) and asked him about the new album, the tour and getting the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers back together. You guys put on an amazing show the other night -- and a lengthy one at that! How did you come up with the set list for the tour? I'd imagine it's a very long, grueling process.
It was. I'm always thinking you ought to be doing some of the songs the people know you for... the most recognizable, bigger hits lik