Mike Love - Unleash the Love - Due November 17 - w/ 2nd Disc of BB Remakes

[HeyJude]

Wow. The covers are quite pointless.

Al and Brian's cover songs on their solo albums have been criticized to be pointless very often. But most of them had something to make it worth listening to.

But, as far as I listened to the samples, there was no such thing in Mike's covers. Too similar to the original, in other words, Obviously very little efforts were made for the recordings of the covers.

I'd rather have a full live album of The current Beach Boys.

Al re-recording BB songs for his "Postcards" album wasn't the most inspired choice of all time, but he did indeed do different arrangements for the songs for the most part. "Rhonda" was done in a blues arrangement (somewhat closer to the old 70s BB live arrangement), "California Dreamin'" was done in a pretty cool stripped-down arrangement, etc.

[HeyJude]

What I'm noticing as I listen to more and more of "Unleash the Love" is that, perhaps more than any album I can recall, even modern albums from pop artists, there is zero deviation or subtlety in how autotune is used on Mike's album. It sounds like it's cranked to the exact same level/intensity on everything at every moment.

Say what you want about past uses of autotune and other forms of vocal synthesis on BB/Brian projects, but they've always had some amount of thought and work put into them. Even the C50 studio and live albums vary from song to song. "Spring Vacation" is more impacted, "Summer's Gone" for instance less so. "Don't Back Down" on the live album has noticeable autotune (perhaps the most *glaring* use prior to Mike's upcoming album), while "Getcha Back" was relatively unscathed.

"Unleash the Love" sounds like the producer found a setting on autotune, left the room, and had Mike cut all of the lead vocals in one single session in a single day. I honestly find it truly bizarre.

I've heard stories of Mike and Bruce implying they were taken aback by the sound of the C50 live album. How Mike could complain about *that* but then put *this* solo album out, I have no idea. I suppose it's unfortunately just more indication that his main issue/beef is whether *he* has control over something.

[KDS]

Watamushi(Polly Poller)- ME TOO! I would love a proper live of album of the currrent BBs band. And no autotune!

As cool as that would be (especially one of their recent UK shows), under the licensing agreement, I don't think they can release any new product as The Beach Boys, including live albums.

And as it should be. It's the only thing, even if sort of my accident, that is forward-thinking about BRI's "Wild West" set up for their licensing agreements.

It's also more a case of semantics I suppose, but there's probably nothing *in* the licensing agreement that even addresses recordings. Rather, the licensing agreement pertains solely to touring. The easiest way to look at it is that BRI owns the name, not Mike, and he pays for the right to use the name for one single purpose. As opposed to Mike having any broad-reaching rights to the name with only specific exceptions (e.g. recordings).

I wonder if the BRI agreement would allow Mike and Bruce to offer free downloads of their concerts.  Since it doesn't constitute actual product on the shelves with "The Beach Boys" on the label, I think it would be cool if they offered that.  In fact, I'd love to see both Mike and Brian offer soundboard downloads of recent shows. 

Mike could release recordings of his live shows anytime he wants, on any format he wants. He could have done this at any point since 1998. He just can't use the "Beach Boys" name for it. That would certainly include free items, and downloads.

Heck, Al did shows as "Beach Boys Family & Friends" in late 1999 and recorded them, but by the time he was able to release it he had to rename the band "Al Jardine Family & Friends."

It's possibly Mike wouldn't want to draw attention to his limited-scope usage of the BB name by performing a show as "The Beach Boys" and then releasing that exact recording under a different name. More likely, I just don't think Mike has ever had strong feelings about recordings, especially in the last 25 or so years, whether we're talking new BB recordings, archival BB recordings, archival solo recordings, or new solo recordings.

Even if the downloads were officially put out as "Mike Love and Bruce Johnston," I personally would rather see that than a disc full of pointless re-records.   Especially since Mike's band is doing some great shows these days.  And for all the touring that's been done over the last two decades between Mike, Al, Brian, the C50 reunion, there's are surprisingly few live products, and even fewer live products that are actually worth owning outside of completists (I'd say Al's album, Live at the Roxy, and maybe Brian & Friends are the only really worthwhile ones). 

[HeyJude]

I don't know if Mike just has no interest in releasing live recordings (seems like the most likely or at least prevalent reason), or if there's something else behind the fact that he hasn't officially released on record a single note of his live band in the last nearly 20 years.

I do know that, in my opinion, he has on a few occasions tread closely to confusing labeling/marketing. There was a dissection in the last year or two of some of the videos/songs featured on the USB drives given away as part of ticket packages at Mike shows. In particular, one instance of his re-recording of "Sloop John B" being dubbed over the original, vintage BB promo film, was an example of blurring the line between Mike's use of the name for touring, versus his solo recordings, versus vintage BB material.

Normally, I wouldn't be so nitpicky about such things. But Mike supported a relentless and vigorous pursuit of Al and Brian separately in lawsuits in the previous decade, with Al being pursued on the absurd idea that a band with Carnie Wilson and Owen Elliott would be confused as "The Beach Boys", and Brian being pursued for simply re-recording songs *he* wrote ("Smile" 2004) and for a freebie CD that featured a few pics of the old band.

The fact that Brian nor Al, either individually or through BRI, have bothered to go after Mike for doing some very similar things that Brian and Al were sued for, tells me they're either being a bigger person about it, or they have lazy lawyers or something.

[KDS]

I don't know if Mike just has no interest in releasing live recordings (seems like the most likely or at least prevalent reason), or if there's something else behind the fact that he hasn't officially released on record a single note of his live band in the last nearly 20 years.

Could be, as there isn't exactly a live of official tangible BB live releases as a whole. 

I wouldn't mind seeing more live releases from Brian too.  For a while there, McCartney was doing a live release to commemorate every tour, and with usually full sets.   To date, I think Live at the Roxy is the only full BW concert available (and you have to seek out the import to get every song). 

[CenturyDeprived]

The fact that Brian nor Al, either individually or through BRI, have bothered to go after Mike for doing some very similar things that Brian and Al were sued for, tells me they're either being a bigger person about it, or they have lazy lawyers or something.

I think they are being bigger people about it, plain and simple.

Life's too short for them to spend a bunch of time bitching, moaning, and dissecting the actions of Mike Love. That's our job.

[HeyJude]

Having now heard the entire album, I have to say Mike should have just put out (more or less) that 2004 collection that floated around. Sonically and in terms of production, that stuff sounds much more organic and mellow and warm, and all the vocal work sounds better. Christian Love (whose voice I've always been rather ambivalent about; I don't think it often sounded as much like Carl's as some suggested, but he certainly has a fine voice) sounded better on the old "First Love" tracks, and Mike's voice sounded better without the autotune.

I don't even think Foskett (it sounds like him on most of the falsetto stuff anyway) even makes the rather anonymous-sounding backing vocal stacks sound any better than the stuff with Adrian Baker all over it from past years. Baker's solo falsetto voice was always pretty grating, but within a vocal stack it was never nearly as bad.

The vocal stacks on the 2004 stuff, similarly to the 1981 LBWL album, were one of the weaker elements of those sets because they sounded so generic and anonymous. Sadly, the backing vocal stacks on Mike's new album are by default some of the least problematic elements now, because they're not as drenched in autotune.

Apparently, instead of using Michael Lloyd, Mike should have just let *Al* produce his album, because "Postcards" sounds like a warm, fuzzy, analog dream compared to Mike's stuff.

Beyond the autotune, a lot of the stuff on "Unleash the Love" sounds very choked out and claustrophobic. I don't know if "recorded in a closet" is the best analogy, but something like that.

[Rocker]

Just in case you haven't seen it and are interested, our member The Real Barnyard just posted the following in the Pro-Shot-Concert-List thread. Mike & Bruce two days ago, professionally filmed. And they play "Unleash the love" near the end. Maybe more, but I haven't watched it

The last 90 minutes of this video include The Beach Boys performance at the American Airlines Sky Ball XV Gala in Dallas. November 11, 2017.

Amazing sound and performance!

https://skyball.play.livearena.com/Live/4e8d62f821944525fb7048a41b92f99e

[Lonely Summer]

Wow. The covers are quite pointless.

Al and Brian's cover songs on their solo albums have been criticized to be pointless very often. But most of them had something to make it worth listening to.

But, as far as I listened to the samples, there was no such thing in Mike's covers. Too similar to the original, in other words, Obviously very little efforts were made for the recordings of the covers.

I'd rather have a full live album of The current Beach Boys.

Al re-recording BB songs for his "Postcards" album wasn't the most inspired choice of all time, but he did indeed do different arrangements for the songs for the most part. "Rhonda" was done in a blues arrangement (somewhat closer to the old 70s BB live arrangement), "California Dreamin'" was done in a pretty cool stripped-down arrangement, etc.

I thought those remakes were very good, although, yes, I wondered why Al didn't come up with more new songs. But I get it now. These are the songs the guys sing night after night in concert, so I guess it makes sense to have new studio versions of them. And maybe some casual fans will buy the cd's if they see some familiar titles on them.

[Gabo]

Watching/hearing Mike Love fall face first for 25 days in a row has been such a great pleasure. I'm eagerly anticipating the critical and commercial failure this double "album" of remake atrocities has in store. For some reason, I have no sympathy for Mike, who seemingly has no clue what a laughing stock he is making himself bringing Mark McGrath, John Stamos, and autotune into the fray. But it's somehow commendable he's so determined to DO IT! DO IT! DO IT AGAIN!!!

[oldsurferdude]

Watching/hearing Mike Love fall face first for 25 days in a row has been such a great pleasure. I'm eagerly anticipating the critical and commercial failure this double "album" of remake atrocities has in store. For some reason, I have no sympathy for Mike, who seemingly has no clue what a laughing stock he is making himself bringing Mark McGrath, John Stamos, and autotune into the fray. But it's somehow commendable he's so determined to DO IT! DO IT! DO IT AGAIN!!!

Gabo, you rock with that post!!

 

[doc smiley]

https://skyball.play.livearena.com/Live/4e8d62f821944525fb7048a41b92f99e

at the 6hr 20minute mark perhaps the worst Kokomo performance I've ever heard...

[RubberSoul13]

Just in case you haven't seen it and are interested, our member The Real Barnyard just posted the following in the Pro-Shot-Concert-List thread. Mike & Bruce two days ago, professionally filmed. And they play "Unleash the love" near the end. Maybe more, but I haven't watched it

The last 90 minutes of this video include The Beach Boys performance at the American Airlines Sky Ball XV Gala in Dallas. November 11, 2017.

Amazing sound and performance!

https://skyball.play.livearena.com/Live/4e8d62f821944525fb7048a41b92f99e

Amazing sound and performance?

It's a kick ass band, that's about the only nice thing I have to say.

Weak vocals from Mike, "Unleash The Love" is embarrassing, and Bruce looks bad. Did it ever come out as to why he was off the road for awhile? It looks like he's aged ten years since he bitched me out in August.

[NateRuvin]

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, Bruce's age is really starting to show. His vocals were good though.

[Gabo]

Just in case you haven't seen it and are interested, our member The Real Barnyard just posted the following in the Pro-Shot-Concert-List thread. Mike & Bruce two days ago, professionally filmed. And they play "Unleash the love" near the end. Maybe more, but I haven't watched it

The last 90 minutes of this video include The Beach Boys performance at the American Airlines Sky Ball XV Gala in Dallas. November 11, 2017.

Amazing sound and performance!

https://skyball.play.livearena.com/Live/4e8d62f821944525fb7048a41b92f99e

Amazing sound and performance?

It's a kick ass band, that's about the only nice thing I have to say.

Weak vocals from Mike, "Unleash The Love" is embarrassing, and Bruce looks bad. Did it ever come out as to why he was off the road for awhile? It looks like he's aged ten years since he bitched me out in August.

Weak vocals indeed. His rerecording of I Get Around is akin to the gasps of a dying man cut off from the ventilator.

[HeyJude]

If anybody knows how to download that video stream, let me know. I think it would be much easier to watch this thing on an actual TV, etc. It's the first full pro-shot document of Mike's show in some time as far as I know.

Having checked out portions of this on the computer, I'm surprised that they sound rather ragged here. Musicianship-wise, I suppose it's fine. But it's not sounding so great vocally. My guess is that this is over-touring more than anything else.

The tour schedule shows they did something like 14 shows in 15 nights between October 21 and November 5, and then did the "Malt Shop Memories" gig, and then this "Skyball" event. They sound pretty beat vocally. Foskett in particular sounds like he's lagging; the falsetto is flatting in some spots and he just seems to lack energy. The entire band seems kind of tired, assuming this isn't their usual on-stage demeanor/energy level.

This was the first time I had an extended listen to Ike singing. He has a perfectly fine voice, but it's also super generic. He sings the lead on "Then I Kissed Her" like it's a job. I used to think the touring Beach Boys of the 90s were on autopilot and didn't care. They definitely *were* on autopilot, but they never seemed so "meh, whatever" while they sang.

Al Jardine literally sings "Then I Kissed Her" at age 75 with more energy and vigor than Ike does in that clip. Really weird.

But more than anything else, I'm guessing some of what's going on is that they're doing too many dates. I'd be kind of disappointed if I got *this* sort of show at the tail end of like 27 shows in 30 days.

[KDS]

Right, I think it would be best if Mike scaled back the number of shows his band does.  Guys half his age don't play half the amount of shows that Mike and Bruce play in a year. 

[HeyJude]

Right, I think it would be best if Mike scaled back the number of shows his band does.  Guys half his age don't play half the amount of shows that Mike and Bruce play in a year. 

And it's really going to tend to be the backing guys that suffer the most. Yes, Mike and Bruce are older, but the rest of the band does the musical heavy lifting. Mike does have to sing a lot of the leads of course, and I think his voice also sometimes suffers because of it. Bruce (who ironically talked in 2012 about the band not being able to keep up to his touring pace) adds little vocally or musically, so apart from health issues, he shouldn't have problems. But guys who have to play instruments and doing four/five-part harmony are going to start sounding ragged when they do 14 shows in 15 nights.

And, some of the guys in Mike's band aren't exactly super young. Foskett has to be nearing 60 I would guess. Cowsill is 61. I'm guessing Totten has to be in the range of 50 or so. Same with Bonhomme.

[KDS]

Right, I think it would be best if Mike scaled back the number of shows his band does.  Guys half his age don't play half the amount of shows that Mike and Bruce play in a year. 

And it's really going to tend to be the backing guys that suffer the most. Yes, Mike and Bruce are older, but the rest of the band does the musical heavy lifting. Mike does have to sing a lot of the leads of course, and I think his voice also sometimes suffers because of it. Bruce (who ironically talked in 2012 about the band not being able to keep up to his touring pace) adds little vocally or musically, so apart from health issues, he shouldn't have problems. But guys who have to play instruments and doing four/five-part harmony are going to start sounding ragged when they do 14 shows in 15 nights.

And, some of the guys in Mike's band aren't exactly super young. Foskett has to be nearing 60 I would guess. Cowsill is 61. I'm guessing Totten has to be in the range of 50 or so. Same with Bonhomme.

Foskett is 61, turning 62 in February.  And it's not like these guys are doing short shows either.  They also do two shows in a single day sometimes in the summer (in Ocean City, MD this summer, they did two shows in one day). 

Other artists that have been touring since the 1960s taking much longer breaks, and play far fewer shows. 

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

If anybody knows how to download that video stream, let me know. I think it would be much easier to watch this thing on an actual TV, etc. It's the first full pro-shot document of Mike's show in some time as far as I know.

Having checked out portions of this on the computer, I'm surprised that they sound rather ragged here. Musicianship-wise, I suppose it's fine. But it's not sounding so great vocally. My guess is that this is over-touring more than anything else.

The tour schedule shows they did something like 14 shows in 15 nights between October 21 and November 5, and then did the "Malt Shop Memories" gig, and then this "Skyball" event. They sound pretty beat vocally. Foskett in particular sounds like he's lagging; the falsetto is flatting in some spots and he just seems to lack energy. The entire band seems kind of tired, assuming this isn't their usual on-stage demeanor/energy level.

This was the first time I had an extended listen to Ike singing. He has a perfectly fine voice, but it's also super generic. He sings the lead on "Then I Kissed Her" like it's a job. I used to think the touring Beach Boys of the 90s were on autopilot and didn't care. They definitely *were* on autopilot, but they never seemed so "meh, whatever" while they sang.

Al Jardine literally sings "Then I Kissed Her" at age 75 with more energy and vigor than Ike does in that clip. Really weird.

But more than anything else, I'm guessing some of what's going on is that they're doing too many dates. I'd be kind of disappointed if I got *this* sort of show at the tail end of like 27 shows in 30 days.

It's just the same old tired shtick from the King of All Insincerity, myKe luHv, trying like hell to *prove* himself in front of a world that has no or very little interest in him or what he has to say. Yes, I did listen to the clips of the irrelevant remakes and the highly uninspired new fodder which left me with the feeling that this trainwreck of an album will attend it's own funeral in little or no time. Unfortunately, it's to hell with the legacy and wherever there's a buck to be made, he'll be there front and center all the while watering down the BB name until there's nothing left. Pull the license? Nah, just let this clown keep on grinding himself and the legacy down to the bone. In all honesty, it's rather fun to watch.  

[HeyJude]

Right, I think it would be best if Mike scaled back the number of shows his band does.  Guys half his age don't play half the amount of shows that Mike and Bruce play in a year. 

And it's really going to tend to be the backing guys that suffer the most. Yes, Mike and Bruce are older, but the rest of the band does the musical heavy lifting. Mike does have to sing a lot of the leads of course, and I think his voice also sometimes suffers because of it. Bruce (who ironically talked in 2012 about the band not being able to keep up to his touring pace) adds little vocally or musically, so apart from health issues, he shouldn't have problems. But guys who have to play instruments and doing four/five-part harmony are going to start sounding ragged when they do 14 shows in 15 nights.

And, some of the guys in Mike's band aren't exactly super young. Foskett has to be nearing 60 I would guess. Cowsill is 61. I'm guessing Totten has to be in the range of 50 or so. Same with Bonhomme.

Foskett is 61, turning 62 in February.  And it's not like these guys are doing short shows either.  They also do two shows in a single day sometimes in the summer (in Ocean City, MD this summer, they did two shows in one day). 

Other artists that have been touring since the 1960s taking much longer breaks, and play far fewer shows. 

All the indicators I see suggest to me that Mike wants the money and other perks that go with touring, and as long as *he* can keep up, that's all that matters. He could very well continue to swap out band members for younger band members, and otherwise make changes if any members can't "keep up" the pace. This also has the fringe benefit of having more guys to hand leads off to.

Mike sings plenty of leads at his shows still, but he has the other guys singing a good hunk of the show as well.

I see Mike standing back in the backline and letting Ike take front stage for "Then I Kissed Her", and I'm thinking Mike now has no problem literally presenting the band as a tribute band.

[rab2591]

A few thoughts to add to this topic:

- the concert video posted above is pretty blah, but Jeff does sound damn good on Darlin.

- KDS mentioned on the PS forum that he’ll treat the second disc of re-recordings like the IJWMFTTs album. I have to agree that it will be similar in nature...I mean, IJWMFTTs is more genuine in its production sound imo, but it’s still nothing I play over the originals unless I’m curious about listening to it once in a while. But it got me thinking; IJWMFTTs was more like therapy for Brian, alongside OCA it was kind of a therapy to get him comfortable in the studio again. I wonder if Mike is doing the same thing with this album? Like I said in a previous post, Mike has seemed to be a lot happier in interviews lately.

- the latest re-recording samples are atrocious. Like honestly how the hell could you be in the studio booth and hear the lead vocals for IGA played back to you and think “yes, this is what we want the world to hear”?

- I can’t get over how odd it is to re-record ‘Brians Back’ but it’s the best sounding sample I’ve heard thus far.

- comparatively the first disc seems like it will be a fun listen...I’m not a fan of the production at all but at least it’ll be original songs with a new sound to offer.

- I really wonder what Mike’s intention is with recording all these songs.

[HeyJude]

I don't think IJWMFTT and Mike's disc or remakes are particularly analogous.

Brian's collection was mostly deep cuts (including several solo songs, and one old demo), while Mike's is mostly well known songs.

Also, Brian hadn't performed many if not most of the songs on IJWFTT in decades, in most cases since they were originally recorded. Mike's remakes are largely songs he has sang literally *thousands* of times and still sings every night.

Also, Brian's CD featured moderately to severely altered arrangements compared to the originals, for better and worse. Mike's remakes are apparently purposefully mostly note-for-note copy attempts of the originals. (Sidenote: YouTube recently threw random "suggestions" at me that included some of Mike's 90s stuff with Adrian Baker, which I hadn't listened to in quite some time, and I was surprised that his new 2017 remakes actually sound somewhat similar to the Baker stuff. The new backing tracks are a bit better, but the vocals are worse due to the autotune).

I think Mike did the disc of re-records not for therapy or to reacquaint himself with the studio (he's been cutting this solo stuff on and off for a decade, and more noticeably over the last few years), but to entice and/or secure a record deal for his "new" stuff.

I'm also curious if Mike and/or his team are going to attempt to sell the re-records for use in movies, TV commercials, etc. Similar to what Jeff Lynne did with this ELO re-records from a few years ago; Lynne put the CD out, but clearly the main motivator had been to re-record stuff and directly license it out to circumvent Sony. The difference of course would be that Lynne's re-recordings were well-made (shockingly similar to the originals) even if needless, and Lynne owns the ELO name so he can still bill the new recordings as "ELO." Mike's re-records don't sound that great, with autotune are much more obviously *not* vintage recordings, and he can't use the BB name when licensing them out.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised in the coming year to hear one of these Mike re-records in some movie or trailer or commercial; some producer somewhere will need to cheap out.

[guitarfool2002]

IJWMFTT and Mike's latest album project are apples and oranges. Don Was performed with Brian and saw what he felt was something really special hearing Brian perform and wanted to capture that and share it on film. It did turn into therapy of sorts to help reacclimate Brian to recording and playing his music after the Landy years. Brian wanted to perform with the Beach Boys - the lawsuits prevented Mike from being in that film even though Don and Brian wanted him there. Don assembled his A-List of session players and got Brian back into the game. The fact they tackled some very challenging and personal songs Brian had not touched in years was icing on the cake.

Above all it was a soundtrack to a film which tied directly into Don Was' original concept and spark of an idea for a film - To capture Brian as he saw Brian when they shared a stage at a charity concert and show whatever magic Don felt to a wider audience. It became much more than that, and the soundtrack was not an attempt to cash in on old Beach Boys tracks redone decades later as remakes. It was a *soundtrack* of performances done specifically for a film.

Why is Mike doing remakes now, in 2017? He's been doing the same thing for decades. Literally, for decades at this point. He amped it up even more after Carl died and released multiple collections of synth and drum machine laden sequenced remakes of BB classics, each of which sunk like a stone and didn't sell at all. Some couldn't because they were given away or sold with a fill-up of gas or something.

This one? I have to think again it has as much to do with ego, and a desire for Mike to have the less knowledgeable (in terms of the band history) fans who go to his shows consider Mike as The Beach Boys. I think he's been chasing that windmill for years, the notion that people think "Beach Boys" and think of Mike Love as the standard bearer in more than license fees alone. Now he has his own recordings of songs that are Beach Boys songs and stone-cold classics existing on iTunes, Pandora, and wherever else alongside the Real Beach Boys recordings.

It sure isn't a financial decision, is it?

[HeyJude]

With the disc of BB remakes, Mike has certainly tread as *closely* as he can to recording his own "Beach Boys" album. Almost all of the ingredients are there: It's Beach Boys songs, and there's a classic "Beach Boys" logo on a sticker on the cover.

Again, I have no doubt that had Al Jardine in 1999 released a disc of Beach Boys re-recordings with a classic Torrence-designed "Beach Boys" logo on a sticker on the cover, he would have been sued into oblivion.