New Beach Boys album - That's Why God Made the Radio

do you guys find that the beach boys' disappointing, later material affects your enjoyment of the earlier stuff?

Not at all. I still rep pretty heavily for the better half of their output even in spite of the existence of "Match Point Of Our Love".

production is definitely stuck in the early 80s

disagree, this is a digital recording. I know this battle's been over for years, but really folks, a lot of your favorite oldie artists would be making much, much better records if production styles hadn't shifted over to the digital domain imo - it changes the whole "culture"/atmosphere of the studio and you get lifeless, heavily comped performances. not that you don't do plenty of comping in analog but usually nothing like the "why does this sound like nobody cared" feel of so much we're-always-tracking-don't-sweat-it stuff now

do you guys find that the beach boys' disappointing, later material affects your enjoyment of the earlier stuff?

not at all. the long decline doesn't tarnish what they accomplished early on. honestly, i think of the beach boys as a band that existed in the 60s, and the stuff that came after as something else.

That fact suggests to me that you really need to do yourself a favor and take a peek into their '70s catalog.

i find it incredibly easy to not acknowledge near any long-time artist's shit years in remembrance of their great. this is pretty much the case w/ near anyone from 60/70s still doing their thing today. i think there's a term for this: you don't think of beach boys now and then as being the same continuation of the same people. b/c of being able to reference their younger selves in youtube, google images (etc etc) you sort of think of them as wholly separate, at least on some level of consciousness

like the fact that the frontman from happy monday's looks like fucking darth vader unmasked still doesn't prevent me from thinking the guy def had a cocky little swagger back in his heyday. and i can still enjoy their music, definitely.

"Oldie artists" make lifeless records now because there's more comping and they're always being tracked so they never sweat it?

I mean, I know I'm just reiterating your argument, but I guess I'm skeptical.

Title of the record keeps getting Paul Simon's "That's Why God Made The Movies" stuck in my head.

That fact suggests to me that you really need to do yourself a favor and take a peek into their '70s catalog.

maybe so! i like sunflower and surf's up, but don't know the stuff after that very well, and what i've heard i haven't liked much.

This thread is full of shit. 80s Beach Boys records are great. I grew up on Still Cruising' and the S/T one, in the days before music crit exposure tried to bend me towards the status quo of Pet Sounds as the peak of human creative endeavour. For my friends and I, swallowing up every cassette we could find on the shelves of Our Price or whatever, Pet Sounds was the worst one!

There is a tracklist on Amazon...

1. Think About The Days
2. That's Why God Made The Radio
3. Isn't It Time
4. Spring Vacation
5. The Private Life Of Bill And Sue
6. Shelter
7. Daybreak Over The Ocean
8. Beaches In Mind
9. Strange World
10. From There To Back Again
11. Pacific Coast Highway
12. Summer's Gone

Spring Vacation?!

You better not be hating on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QklGU9L61Ms

Also, that said, "That's Why God Made The Radio" doesn't sound bad at all. Surely it is no "Good Vibrations" or "God Only Knows" or "'Til I Die", but it's a fairly nice piece of Beach Boys pop updated for.... well... maybe not for 2012, but at least for post 1980. :)

― The GeirBot (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 5 May 2012 00:11 (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the worst song of all time

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Saturday, 5 May 2012 00:13 (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahahahaha

this sounds like it was recorded in a little studio in a caravan & they were all in there while a guy sat in the front seat and made the video with flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LE3dpoTOvA

Christ I love that song.

And it's written (mostly) by John the wolf man Phillips.

i hope "Pacific Coast Highway" is a Sonic Youth/Hole medley

It sounds kinda creepy, but it doesn't sound bad. I listened to it like 10 times the first day it was released.

This literally sounds bad. The question is: how bad?

a) bad
b) really bad
c) sooooo bad
d) OK, if you truly believe that any new Beach Boys is better than no new Beach Boys and besides, it's the Beach Boys!
e) worst song of all time

this is not good

ok, so it's probably not the worst song of all time (although it is (c) sooooooo bad), but it may be the worst song that's ever been discussed on ILX.

no worse than any of Brian's new material over the past 15 years, you guys ever hear his 'Imagination' album? yeesh

Think I vote D)

Genuine love for 'Its paradise when I/Lift up my antennae', mind.

"Oldie artists" make lifeless records now because there's more comping and they're always being tracked so they never sweat it?

I mean, there's more to it than that, but I absolutely think that the newer production style works against people whose training/experience was geared toward performing. The always-tracking infinite-tracks sew-it-up-later style of digital recording is pretty uninterested in performances - it's about getting enough material to make a performance in mix. Brian Wilson's always had a pretty visionary idea of how to fit many different pieces of recorded sound to make one big thing that sounds like a killer, gigantic performance, but the way he got those sounds was by getting good takes. And besides, he's not producing now, as far as I know. I do really think that most oldies types making records would make much better records if they were trying to nail a take instead of just sing through five or six times til the engineer says "I think we've got enough here, let me take an hour to put it together and we'll see what you think," which is how Pro Tools vocal tracking works most of the time.

It's supposed to be produced by Brian.

And the harmonies sound pretty good.

Also, I bet putting digital edition/production tech in the hands of old school perfectionists is a bad idea. It's very Lucas-y, in the sense that I bet some of them only see the limitations of their classic work and believe had they had digital tech back then the recordings would have been much "better."

This feels like a Brian solo record arranged by Bruce Johnston. That is all.

I don't remember any ilx discussion of Brian's last non-covers album, That Lucky Old Sun, which had some nice moments.

personally very excited about the return of the beach boys. one of my favourite bands

This feels like a Brian solo record arranged by Bruce Johnston.

This. A very "Disney Girls" retro nostalgia thing going on.

Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun - not much to go on here.

But is there a need for this type of music anymore, Geir?

Good music is timeless. Good genres are timeless. What was great in the 60s is still great today.

Still curious to hear your opinion on Still Cruisin' in terms of latter-day, Brian-including Beach Boys records.

i think of the beach boys as a band that existed in the 60s, and the stuff that came after as something else.

They exited up to 1971-73, which was roughly when Brian Wilson - for some time anyway - went to nuts he more or less ceased contributing musically to their albums. And Brian Wilson is and will always be the sole musical brain of Beach Boys. Even after he went nuts.

"Still Crusin'" is boringly retro in the wrong 50s rock'n'roll way. Obviously the brainchild of Mike Love.

"In My Car" at least is Brian, right?

But even that one is an uptempo one. Sounding more like Jan & Dean than the fantastic baroque pop and vocal harmonies that culminated on "Pet Sounds".

Wait, so the problem is tempo?

I mean, I'd agree that it's not as good as the slower numbers on that record, especially "Somewhere Near Japan," but I figured that was just a coincidence.

"Somewhere Near Japan" doesn't sound like Beach Boys.

"Still Crusin'" contains nothing sounding even remotely like "Til I Die", "Surfer Girl", "Girls On The Beach", "Don't Worry Baby", "God Only Knows", "Wind Chines" etc.

morbidly curious about "the private life of bill and sue"

Now, Brian Wilson's solo albums don't really either (except for the brilliant re-vamped "Smile"), but they are closer. Particularly the solo debut has its really great moments of pop perfection. And completely devoid of Mike Love surf and girls and beaches 50s rock crap.

The best (new) song on "Still Cruisin'" is probably "Kokomo". Which speaks volumes about the general quality.

When you say 'solo debut', do you mean the Eugene Landy album he did the vocals for?

Geir, since the Beach Boys formed in the 60s and recorded all their original, genre-defining work in the area of surf, girls and beaches during that decade, surely exploring "50s rock" is a legitimate new creative direction for them?

i just think when you find yourself having a conversation like: well, it's not as horrible as that other horrible thing he did...

that kind of horrible/boring by degrees or inches thing...

kinda sad, no?

i actually found myself defending the beach boys to maria last night. oof, i totally sounded like one of those people. it wasn't pretty.

Being sorta serious here, to the extent that it seems weird that to praise the late 60s/early 70s prog-pop side of the band, you have to tear down this other body of work where they were also pretty much sui generis and basically unmatched in quality. "I Get Around" is an amazing piece of songwriting, harmonies and recording - - doesn't it enhance the band that they have that feather in their caps?

As far as I know I can't be fired--that wouldn't be cool.

I don't know why, but it's funny to think of Brian Wilson saying lines like this like Brad Pitt in "True Romance."

Brian responds to Mike:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-brian-wilson-al-jardine-respond-to-mike-love-on-beach-boys-flap-20121008,0,6270223.story

Sounds like both of them need to get in a room together and talk it out, rather than hearing shit second-handed through PR guys.

What they need is another centralized PR guy to handle the PR.

Need Mike Love to intervene on Brian's destructive relationship with Joe Thomas.

did he produce No Pier Pressure? that's a really boring record

Mike's bitchiness about this record in his new book is hilarious