Get to know ... the Beach Boys

What you know: Surfing, fun, summer, sun, surfing, cars, girls, surfing. Really high, intricate, poppy harmonies. I couldn't stand the Beach Boys growing up--those voices just grated on me, and every song seemed so simple and syrupy, like the '60s equivalent of Radio Disney. But then as I got into college, I was shocked to find out that the Beach Boys were actually critical darlings, and Brian Wilson was regarded as a musical genius. You're probably familiar with that work, too--Pet Sounds, "Good Vibrations," "God Only Knows."

After that, it's standard "Behind the Music" material: Way too much LSD, band falling apart, getting involved with a hippie murder commune, untimely deaths, lawsuits, reunions, a return to the charts, a few decades doing the Boomer nostalgia circuit. But there's more...oh yes, there's more.

Get to know: The Beach Boys' psycho, trippy, drugged-out, falling apart period. Yes, they actually tried to make music during this period, and some of it was actually pretty good. "Darlin,'" with its soulful Carl Wilson vocal, hardly sounds like them at all on first listen, but still retains their trademark flair for hooks. You hear a little more of that soulful, quasi-shouter style on "Wild Honey," along with some of that synthesizer trippiness Brian was playing with at the time. But the strangest and most compelling hit of that era is "Heroes and Villains." It's like "Good Vibrations" from some parallel, darker universe. The structure is similar, the production is similar, except where "Good Vibrations" pieces together perfectly, "Heroes and Villains" feels disjointed. Don't get me wrong--it's still an amazing song and a fascinating listen. But it feels like a brilliant idea Brian had in his head that he just couldn't quite communicate to the rest of us. And it feels like a perfect example of what the post-"Good Vibrations" Beach Boys could have been. Friends don't let friends do mountains of acid.