The Beach Boys And The Satan

While this documentary does talk about both The Beach Boys and notorious murderer Charles Manson, it really doesn't get into their relationship. You'll actually learn more about that from the two page booklet included with the disc than you will from the film itself. It's definitely more about The Beach Boys and the music scene of that time, which is a bit of a swerve.

If you can get past that, though, it's a great little doc with great interviews from Brian Wilson (which doesn't contain anything about Manson), producer Don Was, Pere Ubu frontman Dave Thomas, Bomp Records founder Greg Shaw and, best of all, the always entertaining Kim Fowley, the ultimate scene-maker from the '60s. His raps on the history of the scene, backed by Chris Darrow (Kaleidoscope, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) on acoustic guitar, are worth the price of admission alone.

There's some neat old footage too — especially the stuff from the infamous Fire sessions, in which Wilson had the band all wearing fire helmets and burning wood in the studio, taking things to the extreme trying to create the sounds in his head. He was so confused at this point that he thought a local fire that took place down the street the same day was caused by the demented sounds he was creating.