Jason Brewer is well aware that the Explorers Club’s songs bear a striking resemblance to the best the Beach Boys have to offer. He’s seen comparisons in reviews, write-ups and even press releases sent out on his band’s behalf. The guitarist and singer is OK with all that, but he just hopes the listeners hear more than that.
“We’re a vocal harmony band, that’s our thing. We try to be a continuation of a classic tradition,” he admitted in a phone interview late last month. At the same time, he continued, “I don’t separate what’s old from new. I just like great music.”
Of course, for a band like the Explorers Club, which specializes in vocal harmonies and sunny, West Coast pop, a Brian Wilson reference is pretty much the holy grail. Still, Brewer believes the music stands on its own.
“They’re new songs, and to me when you’ve got a new song, it might be influenced by other things, but it’s its own thing, its own melody,” he explained.
Steeped as Brewer and the band may be in the teachings of the Beach Boys — and the Beatles and the Zombies, and Weezer, The Ramones, the Clash and Oasis, too, for that matter — there’s still a unique facet to to the music they’ve been making over the past decade or so.
Fans in the area can judge for themselves in person on June 30, when Explorers Club comes to the Sellersville Theater. Or, they can listen in a few days earlier: The band’s new album, Together, comes out tomorrow.
It’s a bit more of an expansion than a step forward. Brewer said the band caught a little flak from fans who actually complained their last record wasn’t quite Beach Boys enough. The new record still retains a contemporary edge, with a little more attack than their ’60s influences, different chord choices and the occasional snarky or world-weary lyric, but also enhances their signature “classic” sound.
On Together, the Explorers Club’s distinct four-part harmony singing is, arguably, the strongest it’s been yet, at least in the studio. This time, they wrote the parts as a group before recording began and sang them together into one microphone. Previously, Brewer picked out notes on a piano and had the members overdub their parts one by one.
The new approach “gave it a more exciting feel, and a richer sound,” he said. “If you listen to a few songs from each album, you’ll see a noticeable difference. Vocally speaking, I think this one is a knockout.”
For a sneak peak, the Explorers Club released a video for the song “California’s Callin’ Ya.” It sounds exactly as the title indicates — Heller even jokes that the lyrics, written by a friend of the band, would make the song a great sell to the state’s tourism board for a commercial.
“I wanted the lyrics to be a travelogue, moving east to west,” said Brewer. “Very typical, very simple.”
But the production itself was a surprise even to the band: Brewer mentioned the song’s potential to a videographer, who took it upon himself to rent the red convertible seen in the movie Pulp Fiction and film two actors riding around in it while visiting Los Angeles landmarks.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe0RESujmqM]
“All of a sudden, he just started sending me stills,” said Brewer. “It tells a little story of a girl picking up her friend at the airport and sightseeing. It really came out great.”
Explorers Club will perform at the Sellersville Theater, 24 W. Temple St. in Sellersville, on June 30. For information, visit www.explorersclub.com.
