"Though they never dipped into the heavy stuff, the Beach Boys were a totemic influence on punk, particularly punk that hailed from their SoCal backyard. Their early work was the touchstone: compact rock and roll singles trafficking in teenage angst and idle pastimes. Surf-rock's instrumentalists summoned the sound of pipelines and breaks, influencing acts like the Slickee Boys and Agent Orange in the process. But the Beach Boys filled in the map. Possibly no one outside of hip-hop lodged so many place names on the charts: Rincon, Malibu, Huntington Beach, Laguna, La Jolla, Manhattan Beach, Doheny Beach, Tresle Beach. It didn't matter that Dennis Wilson was the only Beach Boy that surfed, nor that their choice of subject matter was often influenced by paterfamilias Murry Wilson. What mattered, as usual, are the songs.
"And the songs found true champions in the Ramones, whose Beach Boys fetish could be observed from Rocket To Russia's 'Rockaway Beach' all the way to Mondo Bizarro's 'Touring.'"
Brad Shoup at Stereogum explains "how Brian Wilson helped spawn punk."
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