The vaults of every record company in the world fairly overflow with master tapes by groups, known and unknown, who tried to crack that seemingly impossible world of Pop Music and, for one reason or another just didn't break through.
The Brothers, more speculated about rather actually known about, were apparently a discovery of Warren Zevon who, in the mid-1960's held a promising career as singer/songwriter and had scored a major hit as Lyme of Lyme & Cybelle and the 1966 pre-psych classic Follow Me. His label White Whale, a small independent record company based in Los Angeles, was an up-and-coming label who boasted the Top-40 hit machine The Turtles as well as the aforementioned Lyme & Cybelle. Zevon discovered The Brothers, previously known as The Upsetters (a name claimed by numerous other bands at the time) and morphed them into a Pop music outfit with leanings towards Sunshine Pop/soft-psych. Zevon wrote material for the band, as well as another up-and-coming singer-songwriter Randy Newman.
Sadly, the group never scored any hits, but gained word of mouth via the Randy Newman classic Love Story which would be their second single.
Tonight it's their first single, Today Is Today, which was initially issued as the B-side of It'll Wash Away (with the rain), but then re-issed as the A-side. But neither side made it. The single has never been reissued in any form; either on CD or LP.
All the elements of a Pop hit with leanings towards Folk-Rock and complimented with good production, the song was only marginally played on Top-40 AM stations early in 1967 and was quickly abandoned for their second single, which was the Randy Newman classic.
However, the Randy Newman song also failed to chart, and with three singles turning in dismal performances, the group dissolved around 1970 and went their separate ways. Of the members of the Brothers, only lead guitarist Michael Ballew seems to have continued and flourished in music, leaving Sunshine pop well behind in favor of a career in Country-Western.
The world of Pop Music never ceases to amaze and occasionally baffle.
