The Explorers Club, The Carolinian Suite EP

By Cait Brennan

The Grand Hotel is still under construction . . . but your complimentary suite is ready.

It’s been three years since Charleston, South Carolina’s pop revivalists The Explorers Club released Freedom Wind, a peach of a debut record that sounded for all the world like a Great Lost Beach Boys masterpiece. I’ll never forget the first time I heard that album’s “Last Kiss”—speeding down the 101 through Hollywood, right as the Capitol Records tower came into full view, all sunshine and blue skies and ocean breezes. The perfect soundtrack to a perfect day. Somewhere, Brian Wilson was smiling.

Three years is an eternity for a young band, and one could be forgiven for wondering if The Explorers Club had wandered off the map. Thankfully, they’re back and in fine form with Grand Hotel (due in spring 2012 from Rock Ridge Music), a sweet set of new retro-classics mixed by Mark Linett, the legendary engineer and producer whose most recent career highlight was resurrecting the Beach Boys’ “Smile” sessions for Capitol Records

In advance of Grand Hotel, the band is releasing three EP “suites,” each featuring a classic cover song and two bonus “under construction” originals from the forthcoming record. October 25 saw the release of The Californian Suite (a free Amazon exclusive, currently number six on Amazon’s chart) featuring a suite cover of Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s “Walk On By,” as well as the pre-Linett mixes of two lush originals, “Weight Of The World and “Summer Days, Summer Nights.”

The Carolinian Suite (another free Amazon exclusive released November 22) features a note-perfect cover of the moody, soulful Dennis Yost & Classics IV hit “Stormy,” with some playful solo flourishes demonstrating the guys aren’t taking the cover, or themselves, overly seriously. Early versions of the band’s “Sweet Delights” and “It’s No Use” round out the set. Still to come is The New Yorker Suite, which will feature a cover of Vanity Fare’s 1970 gem “Hitchin’ A Ride” as well as Explorers Club originals “Anticipatin’” and “Run, Run, Run.” The Linett-mixed version of “Run, Run, Run” will be released to radio as the lead track from Grand Hotel.

While the Pendletones-to-Pet Sounds vibe on Freedom Wind was impossible to miss, pigeonholing The Explorers Club as a mid-60s stripey-shirt revival act is shortsighted. If anything, Chief Explorer Jason Brewer’s songwriting often seems as much influenced by the Beach Boys’ oft-maligned yet much-loved ’77 classic Love You as by those sixties summer days (and summer nights). Listen closely and you might hear traces of the Grass Roots; Crosby Stills, Nash and Young; Jimmy Webb; Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass; and a host of others. At their best, the Explorers Club takes all those classic influences and makes something new that’s completely their own, with hooks and harmonies that are irresistibly catchy and engaging. This band loves classic songs, they’ve learned from the masters, and they’re making music worthy of that legacy. Simple as that. Check them out.

To find out more about The Explorers Club, check out the band’s website. You can order The Californian Suite and The Carolinian Suite from Amazon.com