The Lemon Twigs

Some ambitious artists labored to create self-styled equivalents to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, The Beach Boys' Smile, or Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything. But the precocious Lemon Twigs' 2016 debut album, Do Hollywood, seemed to approximate all three at the same time, and more. Long Island based brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario were The Lemon Twigs, though they fleshed the band out with a couple more members when they played live. Not only were Brian and Michael 19 and 17, respectively, when their first album was released, they were 17 and 15 when they penned its complex, highly sophisticated songs. It would seem that they came by their gift for elegant, '60s-influenced pop naturally-they are the sons of Ronnie D'Addario, who recorded some impressive one-man-band Beatlesque pop tunes in the '70s and '80s. The brothers, who gave their giddy, elaborate sound the tongue-in-cheek label "glam baroque," were signed by the renowned British indie label 4AD. Upon its release, their debut earned comparisons not only to The Beatles and Beach Boys but also to seminal power poppers like Big Star and '70s art-pop kings Supertramp. The record was cut in Los Angeles, with Jonathan Rado of West coast indie-pop heroes Foxygen handling the production chores. Between them, Brian and Michael played everything from the standard rock 'n' roll arsenal of guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums to horns and strings. In concert they were joined by keyboardist Danny Ayala and bassist Megan Zeankowski.