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

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Billy needs a profile picture of him wearing a cowboy hat!

  I want to see the whole shebang featuring cowboy boots, studded belt, and chaps all the while singing "Long Tall Texan". 

Lol that's about as likely as me sprouting  wings

[SMiLE Brian]

Fear to stop being a cowboy....

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Lol

[SMiLE Brian]

Kreen started it....

[CenturyDeprived]

Missed it aa I rarely pay attention to lyrics.  Wow...that's just...yeah.

"I'm outraged by this racial slur I hadn't even noticed until somebody pointed it out to me."

I'm French Canadian and I sure get offended when people refer to us as liking maple syrup. Even though, you know, we do...

It’s not a slur, just a mind-bogglingly pointless characterization. How would you feel if Mike covered a song originally made famous by a black singer, with Mike then miming the voice of stereotypical 1930s black butler talking about grits and watermelons? I suppose that would be perfectly fine and not the least bit cringeworthy either?

[tpesky]

It's almost like a joke that should have been edited out that never was.

[Pretty Funky]

Interesting reading the Goldmine story in another thread where Mike makes comment about not being a studio guy, hasn’t been involved in various releases, never read Brian’s book but had sections read to him, never listened to Brian’s album. He has said similar over the years for various later projects. Skimming over them basically. The C50 live album, TWGMTR etc. Happy to get a credit as executive producer or the like, but is there in title only.

So here is a theory out of left field. He didn’t realise that was on there out of pure ignorance.

[Pretty Funky]

Oh, and for the record. When it comes to the mystic east vibe he is trying to get on Ram Raj? His Pisces brother George Harrison did it so much better.

[SMiLE Brian]

The whole mystic “eastern” vibe is honestly just to pick up women....

[kreen]

It's pretty miraculous that Mike Love got a record deal in the first place to release an album of new material. Old-timers from the Sixties are usually told by the industry these days, "either rerecord the old hits as duets or make an album where you cover famous songs from other artists". It's obvious the second disc had to be included in order for the company to agree to release the new material, but we can just disregard it and at least we got a whole LP of new material!

It's ok of course to not like the CD but I do wonder: will those who wish the CD didn't even exist be happy when ML and all of the other BBs are dead -- which will be the case in just a few years -- and there can never be ANY new material from any of them, including Mike? I think it's great that there even IS new solo BB material being released; even if it's not grade-A music, it's better than what awaits all of us as fans, which is no new material, ever, when they finally pass away.

[Jim V.]

It's pretty miraculous that Mike Love got a record deal in the first place to release an album of new material. Old-timers from the Sixties are usually told by the industry these days, "either rerecord the old hits as duets or make an album where you cover famous songs from other artists". It's obvious the second disc had to be included in order for the company to agree to release the new material, but we can just disregard it and at least we got a whole LP of new material!

It's ok of course to not like the CD but I do wonder: will those who wish the CD didn't even exist be happy when ML and all of the other BBs are dead -- which will be the case in just a few years -- and there can never be ANY new material from any of them, including Mike? I think it's great that there even IS new solo BB material being released; even if it's not grade-A music, it's better than what awaits all of us as fans, which is no new material, ever, when they finally pass away.

Sure sound pretty thoughtful about this whole issue.

It's funny cuz the rest of the time it seems you're dedicated to trashing Brian. I wonder why you weren't typing that last paragraph when constantly talking sh*t about recent Brian material and accusing him of not even writing his own stuff.

[Lonely Summer]

It's pretty miraculous that Mike Love got a record deal in the first place to release an album of new material. Old-timers from the Sixties are usually told by the industry these days, "either rerecord the old hits as duets or make an album where you cover famous songs from other artists". It's obvious the second disc had to be included in order for the company to agree to release the new material, but we can just disregard it and at least we got a whole LP of new material!

It's ok of course to not like the CD but I do wonder: will those who wish the CD didn't even exist be happy when ML and all of the other BBs are dead -- which will be the case in just a few years -- and there can never be ANY new material from any of them, including Mike? I think it's great that there even IS new solo BB material being released; even if it's not grade-A music, it's better than what awaits all of us as fans, which is no new material, ever, when they finally pass away.

Well, i'm glad to have new music from Mike. Glad Al finally got his solo album out a few years ago. We're lucky these guys are still with us.

[CenturyDeprived]

It's pretty miraculous that Mike Love got a record deal in the first place to release an album of new material. Old-timers from the Sixties are usually told by the industry these days, "either rerecord the old hits as duets or make an album where you cover famous songs from other artists". It's obvious the second disc had to be included in order for the company to agree to release the new material, but we can just disregard it and at least we got a whole LP of new material!

It's ok of course to not like the CD but I do wonder: will those who wish the CD didn't even exist be happy when ML and all of the other BBs are dead -- which will be the case in just a few years -- and there can never be ANY new material from any of them, including Mike? I think it's great that there even IS new solo BB material being released; even if it's not grade-A music, it's better than what awaits all of us as fans, which is no new material, ever, when they finally pass away.

I am glad Mike is trying to release new music, I just wish he would avoid Autotune and not be a gigantic hypocrite about the issue. And the curry line is beyond embarrassing.

Any response to my comparison of the curry line and a watermelon/chitlin comment? That type of reference done in a stereotypical black butler 1930s type voice would be perfectly fine in your eyes too at the end of a song by Mike?

[Michael Edward Osbourne]

I have some good neighbor friends who are middle eastern and sometimes we play music for each other. So naturally I was curious how they'd feel about Ram Raj so I somewhat reluctantly played it for them and to my surprise they loved it and they thought the curry thing at the end was funny. Considering that Ram Raj is one of the only songs I like on Unleash, I felt better about it when my friend Fuwaad was cool with it (because yes I questioned the curry thing after reading some of the posters opinions on it). So I just wanted to share that with everyone. I can't stand most of Unleash but I'm still digging Ram Raj.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

BTW, has this piece of fertilizer charted?

Seriously, though, does anyone know if this *thing* has charted yet? 

[HeyJude]

While there are some articles mentioned the new albums chart results (e.g. the top performers) today, it looks like the actual "Top 200" chart on the Billboard website still refers to the previous week's charts. So I don't think the full Top 200 for the week Mike's album premiered is viewable yet.

But I would still guess it's unlikely to chart given its performance on Amazon's charts in relation to how other Amazon chart performances have resulted in corresponding performances on the Billboard chart.

[rab2591]

I mean, the Middle East doesn’t include people from India (which is the culture being stereotyped in the line in question), unless my knowledge of geography is very flawed. In your defense, I wouldn’t expect too many people, from India, to get offended by this line either. If anything they’d probably be left scratching their heads. Like I don’t get offended when I hear the term “cracker” in a movie or like how Kreen doesn’t get offended when he’s constantly reminded of maple syrup.

What’s odd is the absurdity of the line being left in the album. Imagine Brian Wilson throwing something like this in one of his albums. You can’t. It just wreaks unprofessional...if the autotune didn’t already give off that vibe the curry line will.

@Kreen, what’s hilarious about your recent post is that you crap all over Brian Wilson in nearly every one of your posts but as soon as your boy Mike Love takes some deserved flack it becomes “all about the music!” It’s always the same thing with you Mike apologists. I think people have been more than fair about Mike’s album given the quality of the content. Perhaps you can adopt this newfound positive attitude next time you decide to write some snide post about Brian Wilson.

[B.E.]

Seriously, though, does anyone know if this *thing* has charted yet?  

Yet? You're expecting it to chart?

Here's some background recently posted by HeyJude (I wonder what Playback's highest position on Amazon was?)...

Back to the "Unleash the Love" album, it'll be interesting to see whether it charts, and if so, where it gets on the charts.

Right now, one week out from release, it's #1,547 on the Amazon CD chart.

In comparison, the now nearly two-month old Brian "Playback" compilation is still ranked higher, at #1,274 (and keep in mind that "Playback" didn't even chart apparently).

Sounds of Summer is #665
The weird 2012 "Greatest Hits" CD is #1248

Going back to "Sunshine Tomorrow", it ranked at #22 on the CD sales chart a few days prior to release, and ended up at #145 for its debut on the Billboard chart.

So I'd guess based on these (admittedly rough and incomplete) stats, it might be hard for Mike's album to chart unless it sees a huge uptick on the Digital sales side. Not sure how likely that is considering it's currently ranked #33,839 on the "Paid Albums" digital chart on Amazon.

Unleash The Love is currently at #830 on Amazon's CD/Vinyl chart (#397 on the Rock CD/Vinyl chart).

[Gabo]

What’s odd is the absurdity of the line being left in the album. Imagine Brian Wilson throwing something like this in one of his albums. You can’t. It just wreaks unprofessional...if the autotune didn’t already give off that vibe the curry line will.

Well, the curry guy was once in the band that put out "Bull Session for Big Daddy" on one of their albums...

[CenturyDeprived]

I have some good neighbor friends who are middle eastern and sometimes we play music for each other. So naturally I was curious how they'd feel about Ram Raj so I somewhat reluctantly played it for them and to my surprise they loved it and they thought the curry thing at the end was funny. Considering that Ram Raj is one of the only songs I like on Unleash, I felt better about it when my friend Fuwaad was cool with it (because yes I questioned the curry thing after reading some of the posters opinions on it). So I just wanted to share that with everyone. I can't stand most of Unleash but I'm still digging Ram Raj.

That's good that he wasn't bugged by it, and I am not trying to say that every person who hears it will be offended. Not every person of Indian descent is offended by Apu either.

But it's perplexing that it was put on there nonetheless, and I also don't feel that anyone has the right (not referring to you, by the way Mike Garneau) to tell a person they don't have the right to be offended by a stereotype. It's just really, really inane, and it's inviting problems.

Like if Bruce did a version of Barry Manilow's I Write the Songs, and added a spoken gay impersonation at the end of the song. It's just a big "why on earth would you do that" type of situation.

[rab2591]

What’s odd is the absurdity of the line being left in the album. Imagine Brian Wilson throwing something like this in one of his albums. You can’t. It just wreaks unprofessional...if the autotune didn’t already give off that vibe the curry line will.

Well, the curry guy was once in the band that put out "Bull Session for Big Daddy" on one of their albums...

I thought of that as I wrote it (More specifically the skit from Shut Down Vol II). The difference, for me, being that their skits from the 60s don’t include cultural stereotypes that could offend some people. Brian recently did “Yo-Ho, Pirates Life” for his Disney album which was all around incredibly quirky (which I would compare more to the skits from the 60s). Long story short, it’s the cultural faux pas that makes the curry line unprofessional.

[Lonely Summer]

Seriously, though, does anyone know if this *thing* has charted yet?  

Yet? You're expecting it to chart?

Here's some background recently posted by HeyJude (I wonder what Playback's highest position on Amazon was?)...

Back to the "Unleash the Love" album, it'll be interesting to see whether it charts, and if so, where it gets on the charts.

Right now, one week out from release, it's #1,547 on the Amazon CD chart.

In comparison, the now nearly two-month old Brian "Playback" compilation is still ranked higher, at #1,274 (and keep in mind that "Playback" didn't even chart apparently).

Sounds of Summer is #665
The weird 2012 "Greatest Hits" CD is #1248

Going back to "Sunshine Tomorrow", it ranked at #22 on the CD sales chart a few days prior to release, and ended up at #145 for its debut on the Billboard chart.

So I'd guess based on these (admittedly rough and incomplete) stats, it might be hard for Mike's album to chart unless it sees a huge uptick on the Digital sales side. Not sure how likely that is considering it's currently ranked #33,839 on the "Paid Albums" digital chart on Amazon.

Unleash The Love is currently at #830 on Amazon's CD/Vinyl chart (#397 on the Rock CD/Vinyl chart).

If Mike's cd is sold at his concerts, that's where most of the business will be.

[B.E.]

If Mike's cd is sold at his concerts, that's where most of the business will be.

Sure, but that's a lot of ground to make up.

[HeyJude]

CD sales at concert merch stands *can* be submitted, but there are a bunch of guidelines that must be followed. (Heavily discounted CDs and ticket/CD bundles for instance can't be counted).

I'm not sure Mike's operation would jump through all those hoops, and I'm also not sure the sales would be enough to jump them that high up the chart.

[HeyJude]

If Mike's cd is sold at his concerts, that's where most of the business will be.

I would guess not. He's been selling this on Amazon (and other outlets) for a month going back to when it went up for pre-order. I think everybody in the country buying online (especially downloading/streaming) would outnumber the amount of people that bought the CD at the only three shows that took place during the album's first week:

•Nov. 17 — Hagerstown, MD (Maryland Theatre)*
•Nov. 18 — Pittsburgh, PA (Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts)*
•Nov. 19 — North Tonawanda, NY (Riviera Theatre, 2 p.m.)*

I'm always shocked by how many people at concerts don't care about the albums/music and just buy shirts. I'm not sure how many of the folks in a typical Mike crowd would hear "Pisces Brothers" and "All the Love in Paris" and rush over to buy the CD.