Brian Wilson performed some of his new songs about California for a hometown crowd Wednesday, the premier on U.S. soil for material that will be included on his Sept. 2 release "That Lucky Old Sun."
Event was the filming of a Yahoo! concert that will appear online on Labor Day, the day before the album's release on Capitol Records. Wilson and his band, featuring a new drummer and bassist, performed a quartet of Beach Boys classics before diving into the new material, which strives to evoke L.A. in the '50s and '60s when Wilson was growing up in Hawthorne, soaking up the music of the Four Freshmen and Chuck Berry. (Wilson and his band  debuted the material at a London concert.)
The new songs performed tap into  a post-"Smile"-era vibe: the tunes are lush and harmony-soaked, rich in dynamics  and shifts in meter, dominated by keyboards. The lyrics are wistful reconnections with the Beach Boys early days, pledges of allegiance to the sun, the surf, his late brothers and that surfer girl from long ago.
A number of interesting reference points crop up: "Forever My Surfer Girl" is a first cousin of the Four Seasons; the medley of "Can't Wait too Long" (a "Smile"-era remnant) and "Midnight's Another Day" is the sort of balladry that came to define Wilson at the time of "Pet Sounds"; "Going Home" is a blues at its core yet includes some fun-loving eight-vice a cappella singing; and "Southern California" is about the most sentimental piece in the Wilson songbook.
The Beach Boys founder also took questions from the audience and in his own unique way delivered short, emphatic answers - except for when he listed all the drugs he did in the '60s and '70s, noting "they didn't do me much good."
The one answer, though, that brought an instant hush to a crowd filled with fans who bought those early hits as they were being released on 45s pertained to the question about what song, besides "Be My Baby" did he wish he wrote.
He didn't have to think about. With no hemming or hawing, he blurted out " 'What a Fool Believes.' Doobie Brothers."  That's Brian for you.
(James Minchin III took the new photos of Brian Wilson).

The set list:
California Girls / I Get Around / Help Me Rhonda / Good Vibrations / Morning Beat / Forever My Surfer Girl / Can't Wait Too Long >  Midnight's Another Day / Going Home / Southern California Dream / California Girls / I Get Around