TS: The High Llamas vs The Beach Boys (no, really)

Snowbug for tunes
Hawaii for soundscapes
Cold & Bouncy for a compromise

The only song from Buzzle Bee that caught my attention was New Broadway. The rest of the catalog I skipped for whatever reason (sans Santa Barbra, which isn't really relevant to this thread)

Let us know if a year from now you think this stuff hold up...

I'm not going to take sides. I'll say the Beachwood Sparks are dud though.. haha.

If anything, I found the Beach Boys comparisons for all those bands not only highly innacurate and inappropriate, but insulting to the Beach Boys, and, what's more, struck me as opinions based upon a very narrow exposure to the Beach Boys' music. I have never heard a single E6 song that really sounds anything like the Beach Boys, with the possible exception of OTC's first single off "Black Foliage", which was terrible. (and fwiw I am certain I was not the only person deeply into the Beach Boys stuff prior to the mid-90s "revival" hoohah).

Brian wrote melodies that stick, and respected the idea that short pop song structures maintain the listener's interest more often than not.

I discovered non-hit Beach Boys when a copy of Endless Summer was dumped on me in 1987, which was well before the indie-rediscovery of them. Let Him Run Wild still floors me. Near tears each listen.

Shakey Mo Collier hit it OTM upthread:

[[[Really all O'Hagen does is ape a very, very narrow slice of the Beach Boys' bizarrely varied ouevre (specifically "Let's Get Away for Awhile" and the like), stick some vintage synth blippy-bloopy sounds over it, and repeat ad nauseam for 50-minutes. There is way WAY more to the Beach Boys than just tropical-vacation orchestral 60s pop...]]]

Some like blippy-bloppy sounds though; I do to some degree. No hatred over that. But I see more depth and layers in the Beach Boys catalog.

New Thread: Endless Sumner...

I won't bother arguing that Wilson is overall a better orchestrator and, more importantly, melodically inventive composer than O'Hagen. Certainly his songs are fucking catchier.

x-x-xpost

For the most Beach Boyish E6 song, check out "Marking Time" on Dusk at Cubist Castle. It's a great, great song, and sounds like a facsimile of Smiley Smile Beach Boys.

A lofty goal! And I think, for the most part, one that was successful.

I have nothing much against High Llamas, but O'Hagan is no match to Beach Boys

O'Hagan was approached by "Brian's people" to do some stuff for the Beach Boys in the mid-'90s. He went to LA; first thing he saw was Mike Love bearing down on him asking if it were true that all Englishmen were "faggots." Exit O'Hagan stage left quicksnap.

This is important!

I have never heard the High Llamas though, although I am a very big fan of Microdisney. So he gets pretty much carte blance from me.

!?HUH?!

I never heard that about Mike Love. I guess there's more reasons to dislike him.

-- 99 der leuft balloonnnss (dododod...), May 5th, 2005. (later)

Yes, told in a 1997 Uncut feature w/ Brian on the cover. We have Sean O'Hagen's squeamishness to thank (in part) for never getting one last record out of them. I mean, as a huge fan of the Beach Boys, it must have come as a great shock to him to learn that Mike Love was actually a jerk.

There are a few cases of him managing to write good songs. They are called "Checking In, Checking Out" and "Giddy And Gay", both brilliant songs.

But generally, you are kind of right.

Love the High Llamas. Sean O'Hagan is a wizard. The more of his (and Cathal Coughlan's) songs I chord out and present on a website I've been building - COUGHLANOHAGAN.COM - the more I see just how great O'Hagan was and remains (as well as his songwriting partner from Microdisney, Coughlan).

I've loved O'Hagan's music for a long, long time. In fact, it was one of two reasons why I launched a website around his music https://coughlanohagan.com/.

knobhead