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

in response to tim's enthusiasm, i listened to it a couple more times. while they aren't great, it's not the lyrics that are tripping me up. in fact i appreciate the creepy, angel-zombie earnestness. the harmonies are sweet and the basic melody serviceable, but the whole thing sounds lifeless to me. that's the problem. it's nostalgic, but in this freeze-dried, joyless sort of way that makes me think of an online funeral parlor more than anything else.

i did realize that if this were a beach boys pastiche by someone i'm more in the habit of forgiving (jeff lynne, say), i'd probably have at least a few nice things to say about it. wouldn't make me like the song though.

aw this is totally not even that bad

It's About Time: Beach Boys Poll Results

^^^ results here. somewhere there should be a link to the Spotify playlist, too!

BTW, unless I'm wrong, I don't think I've seen you around here much before, Pat Finn. Welcome aboard!

"that makes me think of an online funeral parlor" is the new "this sounds like a museum," that is amazing

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.

― scott seward, Saturday, May 5, 2012 12:06 PM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't resist it! you are one of those people!

thanks doctor casino. i started posting yesterday but i have lurked for a while. the beach boys poll looks awesome and its seems like there are a lot of convenient youtube embeds. i remember reading through the jazz poll last summer and feeling thrilled with how many great albums i discovered there. it was like taking a masters course in the history of jazz. really great.

xpost They should have gotten Jeff Lynne to produce this. That would have been a good start.

Honestly, the Beach Boys are one of the few acts I wish would work with someone as theoretically radical yet oddly sympathetic as Brian Eno. It would never happen, of course, but it has more potential than, say, Paul Simon.

Like, think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5RYptkzbjY

Honestly, I'm surprised they've never done a late-career "unplugged" type thing, with "you're there in the room!" production. Something in the Nigel Godrich vein (a la Chaos and Creation, not so much, y'know, Radiohead or Sea Change).

Yeah, I could get with a Beach Boys Party...Again!.

Still Partyian'

Honestly, I'm surprised they've never done a late-career "unplugged" type thing, with "you're there in the room!" production. Something in the Nigel Godrich vein (a la /Chaos and Creation/, not so much, y'know, Radiohead or /Sea Change/).

Just saw the set list from the first show on their tour - forty-two songs.

Out of their mid 60s uptempo stuff, I'd rather rep for "California Girls", "Would't It Be Nice" or "Here Today" than "Help Me Rhonda".

Just saw the set list from the first show on their tour - forty-two songs

Two and a half hours, 42 songs - they're like the Ramones. Of course, the caveat, per the Rolling Stone review:

many of them medley-style

Onstage, Mike Love was a low-key kind of showboat, stepping back and forth with the beat, miming the revving of a motorcycle engine on "Little Honda" and hugging his elbows when he sang "and the northern girls with the way they kiss, they keep their boyfriends warm at night" on "California Girls." Brian seemed placid and stone-faced, sitting at the bench of a large white grand piano. "Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Wilson," Al Jardine said after "This Whole World," at which point the crowd rose to their feet in reverence as he sat, blinking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_581oQjCwnE&feature=channel&list=UL

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

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

Even if it falls short of those lofty standards, what with the lyrics and Brian's latter day Ozzie Osbourne tenor, for a group that for all intents and purposes has nothing left to offer, it could be a lot worse. In particular, the chorus has been lodged in cerebral cortex for the last day or so.

I agree, that initial track sounds surprisingly good...

Single is more Beach Boys 85 than 'Goin' On' level of quality (high)

I'd completely overlooked this song until last year, never mind though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obzB_8P1fcs

I'd completely overlooked this song until last year, never mind though:


Yoikes

Plenty of sweet harmonies and Brian Wilson's patented unexpected chord changes; too bad about the banal lyrics and generic production which sounds like something that could be cobbled together with GarageBand given an hour or so. At least they splurged on the video production!

Well at least this is a better way to go out than Summer in Paradise or Stars and Stripes or whatever their last album was

xxxp wow goin' on is great ... now i'll have to finally check out keeping the summer alive.

Speaking of Summer In Paradise, never knew this before: The quasi-rap number "Summer of Love" was originally intended to be a duet, albeit one with Bart Simpson.

Jeeeeeeeeesus fuck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBFsJk6PWu0

oh my god, wow, i had never seen that! Frightening on a lot of levels. Everything I've ever sort of disliked about Mike Love kind of crystallized right there.

Hah. Mike Love is the mack daddy.

You got the "daddy" part right, at least. He's like your friend's dad who, like, wore jokey mesh caps and stuff but never made any attempt to be at all friendly when you were at his house.

this is kind of a charming interview on fallon
http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/beach-boys-took-over-fallon-last-night.html

i don't watch or listen to modern day beach boys unless uncle jesse and the rest of the full house cast is involved

the harmonies and melody lines in the chorus are really beautiful

but yeah sounds cheaply recorded and the lyrics are terrible

the bridge is horrible

Kinda cool album cover.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61K4lQ1qzqL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
haha yeah, not the direction i would've expected, but cool!

I can't hear "I Get Around" anymore without thinking of HoverRound, how depressing is that

whoah that sleeve is great!

well except for the logo

such a cynical ploy to get people to think of their fave beach boys album
http://www.vinylsurrender.com/Graphics/AlbumCovers2/The%20Beach%20Boys%20-%2015%20Big%20Ones.jpg

More like four big ones and whatever Mike Love's got packing down there.

I love that 'Summer of Love' is on this thread twice now. Can I see you and raise with an ill-advised rap adventure?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0SnpN_O00

Carl sounds amazing on that "Goin' Out' video above, I'd never heard that track before.

smart girls! love that one.
this is great too -- dylan's cameo is for the ages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckqImMGwxKw

whoever played guitar on that song should've been spin's #1 guitarist of all time.

More like four big ones and whatever Mike Love's got packing down there.

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1:39 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol XD

The new album cover is kinda AnCo, the band the BBs merely warmed up music for

More like four big ones and whatever Mike Love's got packing down there.

Yeah, but Mike Love is a big dick.

^^^

beat me to the joke i was thinking up while scrolling down

Not that I have been expecting otherwise, but all of the reviews of the current tour have basically been reviews of "The Beach Boys," rather than this Beach Boys. Surely no one has ever doubted the merits of the group's catalog, but it is weird to read these pieces that neither compare the current tour to the band's umpteenth past tours sans Brian, or note how the return of Brian does or does not change a thing about the group as its been for years. I mean, the current Beach Boys uses Brian's band - does that make a difference? I'm sure they sang Brian songs without him - does it matter that he's there? It's all sort of a disingenuous approach to a group that's been ignored, critically, on the nostalgia circuit for decades.

The new album cover is kinda AnCo, the band the BBs merely warmed up music for

Why don't AnCo and BB do a collab album? It will break the indiesphere.