aybe the Beach Boys just weren't made for these 'N Sync times, but The Flys still believe in Brian Wilson.
The Hollywood-based rock quartet scored a coup with its second Trauma/Delicious Vinyl album, "Outta My Way" (released April 18): The enigmatic Wilson granted permission for the band to sample two songs off the legendary "Pet Sounds" album.
Lead singer Adam Paskowitz still can't believe their good fortune.
"We were - at least I was - very influenced by Brian Wilson," Paskowitz said recently. "I had been listening a lot to the 'Pet Sounds' record, so we wrote some songs and I incorporated some of the vocals from the Beach Boys directly. I sent it to Brian Wilson, and my first goal was just to get him to say 'Yeah, you can use my voice.'
"I saw him play live and I briefly said hello, but the thing about Brian Wilson is that it's very unlikely he would remember you. The show that I was at, there were so many famous young artists there. To him, he doesn't know the difference between me or Eddie Vedder or me and Beck or me and anybody. That's why I was just so stoked when his rep came back to me and said, 'You know, he really doesn't do this, but he said okay. Go ahead.' Then I thought it might cost a million dollars, but he wanted nothing. It was incredible. The guy really is a genius."
As the sizzling opening track, "No Sad Story," trails off, a portion of Wilson's melancholic "Caroline, No" seeps through like an AM radio before ripping into the pop-savvy "Losin' It," the first single. The title track, meanwhile, takes bits and pieces of the "Pet Sounds" track "Here Today."
"He let us use some harmonies that weren't used before, and we used some tidbits off 'Here Today' that we found," Paskowitz said. "It's a very dangerous road to travel, doing the samples; that's why I'm so proud of this record to be able to use that stuff in a way that doesn't make you herbal or hippie."
Once Wilson gave the go-ahead, Paskowitz and the other Flys - guitarist Peter Perdichizzi, bassist James Book and drummer Jack Holder - were energized to complete what turned out to be a relatively painfree sophomore album.
"We went to Maui and recorded with some really cool Hawaiian guys (for the nine-minute track 'Hawaiian Dreams')," Paskowitz said. "Then Peter got the art together, and it galvanized us. He was doing the art the same time we were making the record, and the combination of that was the vibe. It's like, here we are, we're the new Beach Boys."
The Flys stayed close to home for the recording sessions with producer Chris Goss (of Masters of Reality). It suited them just fine.
"It was surf first and then record later in the day," Paskowitz said. "It was an enormous amount of fun. We had the car sitting there in the rehearsal studio. It took us three weeks to write and four weeks to record. It was a painless, awesome experience. If it gets easier than this, sign me up permanently."
The group made a big splash in 1998 with its debut album, "Holiday Man," which sold nearly 500,000 copies and spawned a Top 5 mainstream rock track hit with "Got You (Where I Want You)." That success didn't put pressure on them for the follow-up album, Paskowitz says; it just gave them the confidence they needed.
"We just jammed out and gave a representation of our lifestyle and that was it," he said. "If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it's like my dad says, 'If at first you don't succeed, do something else.'
"I hope the new one is going to be a successful record, financially and what not. But I'm convinced we made a great album. And it's subtle, though. It's a good subtle piece of work. It doesn't hit you as off as some of the other bands that are out there; it's more song based and that's where we come from."
More importantly, he hopes it renews interest in "Pet Sounds." In the liner notes for "Outta My Way," Paskowitz encourages listeners to seek out what many consider to be the premier pop album of all time.
"I'm hoping that if we talk enough about it, a few more kids will pick up that record," he said. "It's so fun and great, with the bongos and the orchestra and everything. The songs all kill ya. That's the real Beach Boys. We're not big fans of the Mike Love, 'Kokomo,' John Stamos era. That's not we're about."
THE FIRST RECORD I EVER BOUGHT: "It was 'Songs in the Key of Life' by Stevie Wonder. I loved it. My brother had it and stopped letting me listen to it, so I got my own copy."
THE FIRST CONCERT I EVER WENT TO: "The Gipsy Kings. They were awesome."
THE LAST CD I BOUGHT: "George Michael's greatest hits. And I'm not lying. It's funny as hell. To listen to those lyrics now, they're so gay, but he's talented, man."
BUZZ IS BUILDING FOR THE FLYS
By GERRY GALIPAULT
(Dec. 13, 1998)
Adam Paskowitz, singer of The Flys, is never one to leave a tender moment alone.
The Hollywood, Calif.-based rock quintet did some sightseeing during a recent tour stop in Washington, D.C. At one point, they were soaking up this nation's heritage at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial when bassist James Book turned to Paskowitz to make a comment that summed up the group's good fortunes.
"We're standing there, and all these kids started to recognize us from our video," Paskowitz said recently. "All these girls wanted to take pictures with us. James looks up at the monument and says to me, 'Man, it's really wild, nothing but Abes and babes.' Ha! That really said it all. Abes and babes."
Yes, Abe would be proud. Only in America could a collection of tattooed surf rats, skydiving maniacs, mountain bikers and self-professed "homeless James Bonds" who live in a van rather than maintain an apartment blast its way onto MTV and commercial radio with a hit song from a forgettable fright flick called "Disturbing Behavior."
For the record, even The Flys - Paskowitz, brother Josh (raps and rhymes), Book, guitarist Peter Perdichizzi and drummer Nicky Lucero - are scratching their heads over having a major-label deal (with Delicious Vinyl/Trauma), an album rising on Billboard's Top 200 ("Holiday Man"), a Top 10 modern rock track hit - "Got You (Where I Want You)" - an upcoming appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and, of course, all those babes.
"We jam, therefore we are," Paskowitz said. "We have no gloss. All these bands, like Hole and Lenny Kravitz, they're really professional business people. Don't let 'em fool ya. They shine like a new penny, but The Flys, we're more like fringe people who just wrote a song. We don't shine up like the others. Maybe it's the thing that catapults us into greatness or maybe people'll go, 'Ah, this band, they just don't have it.' "
But The Flys do have it. Their sweeping, supercharged sound - a combination of danceable heavy metal, Sly funk and barbed hooks - is a musical No-Pest Strip, a welcome diversion from the likes of Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain and Monica.
"We've been playing in L.A. for five or six years, doing these shows all up the West Coast in our van with our dog," Perdichizzi said. "We booked all the shows ourselves, drove ourselves there, set it all up, no crew. We did that for a number of years and we just kept going around, until about the 20th time around, people start coming to see you. You're not on the radio, you're not on TV, you're just very much an unknown band. But look at us now."
The Flys are the musical version of the X-Games: Adam and Josh Paskowitz have surfing and music in their blood - their father, who founded a surf camp in Orange County, hits the waves daily at age 78, while their mother is an opera singer; they spent much of their youth driving from one surf city to another in a bus, which explains why they prefer to live out of the group's van; Book also surfs, Lucero is a skydiver (that's him free falling on the album cover) and Perdichizzi mountain-bikes.
That carefree lifestyle prepared them for the real world in the music business: They can take whatever's dished out.
"We were the masters of our own destiny," Paskowitz said. "We made our independent record called '25 Cents' and sold about 25,000 copies of that. We went to Europe, then we made the second record with (producer) Chris Goss, from the Masters of Reality.
"Then we make a record that doesn't cost anything ('Holiday Man'). We make it at his studio in Palm Springs; it takes a month. Mike Ross, the guy from Delicious Vinyl, who has no money, he says, 'We'll print up some singles and we'll see what happens.' We get a couple of spins on some radio stations, and from that minute on, within three days, almost every major record company called us. Within three days, I was in Rob Hahane's office at Trauma Records and that was it. He said, 'Look, you can get a deal with a big advance from another company or I can do this now.' We looked at each other, thinking about No Doubt and Bush and the way he handled those bands, it felt like he knew what he was doing. And he was smart."
Paskowitz still can't get over it.
"Now we're going to commercial hit radio," he said, "and we are the most ridiculous people to be on commercial hit radio. I still live in my van, for chrissake. This is terrific. We played for Lenny Kravitz in front of 20,000 people and they're singing our song louder than the P.A., and Lenny's like, 'Who the hell are these guys?' "
Perdichizzi is glad The Flys earned their wings and didn't get handed a label deal, like some bands, before their first gig.
"If I had known 10 years ago going into this that it would take 10 years and that it was finally happening now, I don't know what I would've thought," he said, "but I thank God for that. It really gives you the insight and wisdom and the ability to hold back, make the right decisions. After you've been through almost everything as a band, all the crappy parts and all the highlights, you learn to deal with it all."