The Beach Boys have announced release details for their lost masterpiece, Smile. After 44 years as a secret passed between fans, three of the band's surviving members have collaborated on "an approximation of what was intended to be the completed" album, according to a press release. And if you spend enough, it comes with a surfboard.
The Smile Sessions will be released by Capitol/EMI on 31 October, available digitally and in a variety of physical manifestations – dual CD, double vinyl, or in box sets including 7in singles, shadow-boxes, signed lithographs and even a custom-made Hobie longboard. Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love have worked with engineers to polish off the Beach Boys' original session masters, which were aborted when the group began work on 1967's Smiley Smile.
Besides Smile itself, the Beach Boys are issuing four albums of bonus material, including demos, alternate mixes and studio chatter. There is also a 60-page hardbound book, including essays by Wilson, Love, Jardine and Bruce Johnston, who joined the Beach Boys in the lead-up to Smile.
Seeing as this is 2011, the Beach Boys are also, er, crowdsourcing. The sexagenarian band has launched an online contest asking fans to contribute 250-character video concepts, based on which they will shoot clips for Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains. The sweepstakes closes on 15 September.
