That Lucky Old Sun studio album in spring?

[buddhahat]

There is a short and glowing piece about the TLOS shows in the What Goes On section of this month's Mojo. It ends with: "Expect a similar reception when TLOS is released next spring." which although not definitive, suggests there is a plan to release the album within the next 6 months or so. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later!

[Ron]

Yeah, it will be I'm sure... Brian Debuted SMiLE in Feb. 04 then released the studio album I think in the beginning of September 04.... I think.  If he records TLOS by Christmas (entirrrrely possible) then it'll be available by march or so. 

[pixletwin]

I actually hope with TLOS he takes a bit more studio time. As much as I love BWPS, I think the recording was a bit rushed. I want them to take the time... and most of all to get rid of those fake pianos. 

[PMcC]

....and some voice correction if he needs it. I can live with that.

[LostArt]

Here's the entire MOJO piece (I think), thanks to some guy named Gordon (and his wife, who typed it for him) from the BlueBoard.

...SUN ARISE

BRIAN WILSON'S NEW SONG-CYCLE ASTOUNDS! BY STEVIE CHICK.

"I love it too," Brian Wilson told Mojo of his newest work, That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative).
"Wasn't it pretty?" Just how pretty became clear on September 10, when the piece was premiered at London's Royal Festival Hall. Accompanied by his 10-piece band and the Stockholm Strings And Horns, Wilson treated his audience to Beach Boys favourites from Surfer Girl to Heroes and Villains, before a tension-builiding 20 minute break. Then he returned to perform the nine songs of That Lucky Old Sun, with periodic interjections from lyrical collaborator Van Dyke Parks' dippy poetic narration. Wilson's most ambitious new work since returning from the wilderness, the song cycle recalls Pet Sounds and Smile, not least in its playfully baroque arrangements - a playground riot of glockenspiel, tympani, strings and harmonies - and melodic nods to the Beach Boys canon, complementing the autobiographical bent of the lyric-book. It revisits familiar Wilson themes, albeit from a newly nostalgic perspective: Forever You'll Be My Surfer Girl gazes back on first love 40 years after the fact, while Midnight's Another Day references Wilson's darker days, opening with a projection of the Wilson brothers in their heyday giving way to a cold whire moon, "Lost my way, the sun grew dim," sang Wilson, accompanied by lone piano.
Southern California closed the cycle on a triumphant, redemptive note, recalling his dream of "Singing with my brothers in harmony/Supporting each other", declaring, "I'm glad it happened to me/nodded off in the band room, woke up in history".
A standing ovation greeted the song's final notes, preceding a medley of Beach Boys hits and an aching cover of She's Leaving Home dedicated to Paul McCartney. Expect a similiar reception when That Lucky Old Sun is released next spring.

[carl r]

I'm excited about this getting released. As the article correctly points out, its unusual for a 65-year old to generate this sort of buzz. But perhaps not unusual for a 65-year old genius ?

I know it may run a bit against Brian's pop sensibilities, but if he wanted to do an album of instrumental music after this (like the music in the background navigation on LOS) - well, that would also be very cool by me.

[Dr. Tim]

That's nice but like I asked elsewhere, WHO'LL ISSUE IT?  Brian says he is unsigned now.  Andrew Doe helpfully suggests Capitol release it.  That's astute, sensible, and something the execs there should really seriously consider.  Which is why they won't do it in a thousand years!  Of all the dinosaurs, they're the most troglodyte. All EMI can do these days is Beatle mashups and back catalog reissues.  They dropped Paul McCartney. The only new artists they've signed in ages are Interpol and the Decemberists.  I wouldn't hold my breath on them stepping up and doing the right thing -- or at least a good idea.  Happy to be proved wrong, of course.

[Wirestone]

Doesn't really matter. All the labels are in free-fall right now anyway. The age of the big record label is rapidly drawing to a close.

Although Rick Rubin has started to run Columbia, and he worked with Brian on the Neil Young album, so maybe they could do it.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

I wonder if a label like Elephant 6 would sign Brian.....that would be awesome!

[c-man]

Doesn't really matter. All the labels are in free-fall right now anyway. The age of the big record label is rapidly drawing to a close.

Although Rick Rubin has started to run Columbia, and he worked with Brian on the Neil Young album, so maybe they could do it.

Don't you mean Neil Diamond?  Or have I missed something...

[the captain]

I wonder if a label like Elephant 6 would sign Brian.....that would be awesome!

Elephant 6 doesn't exist. And it barely ever was a real label--it was always more a joke and "in-crowd" insignia among friends, usually pressed on records actually funded and distributed by other labels such as Kindercore, Cloud, Merge and others. But whatever it was, it officially disbanded in 2002. (Those musicians still tend to make music together anyway.)

If indie is the way he's going, Polyvinyl might be an option: Architecture in Helsinki, Headlights, Mates of State, Matt Pond PA, Of Montreal, Saturday Looks Good To Me and other pop-oriented groups are there. Merge would be another one, with Arcade Fire, Lou Barlow, Richard Buckner, Clientele, Camera Obscura, Essex Green, Ladybug Transistor, Music Tapes, Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel (technically, although they're unlikely to ever record another album), Radar Bros, Rosebuds, Teenage Fanclub, etc. Fact is, there are plenty of well-funded indies that could do a good job distributing the album. And many would jump at the chance, with Wilson a (or the) major influence on a lot of their artists.

But who knows what he'll do, or what he should do? Not me.

[Ron]

The deal with the record label isn't 'who will release it' but 'who will give Brian the most money for the opportunity to release it'.  He doesn't do deals with record companies because they're the only ones who will sign him or anything, he signs with labels because they promise him more money, or more promotion, or just an all around better 'deal' for him. 

WORST CASE SCENARIO (for Brian? maybe not) any smaller label would jump at the chance to issue the cd.  They likely wouldn't be able to give Brian as good of a deal as a major label would, and the distribution might not be as widespread.  So I'm sure Brian would probably sign with some major label but there are definately benefits and in some instances more money in the indie route. 

[PMcC]

Starbucks should handle the distribution of TLOS, if possible. They are putting out Joni Mitchells new music soon,  took care of Sir Pauls new one, why not Brian's?

[c-man]

In the major label realm, what about Arista?  Clive Davis was quite happy to relase Brian's Christmas album, even though he's Jewish, so you'd think he'd be interested in a regular studio album from Bri!  As long as he doesn't try to infringe on the artistic side of the deal, like he did with Kelly Clarkson...

[the captain]

The deal with the record label isn't 'who will release it' but 'who will give Brian the most money for the opportunity to release it'. 

Of course. But it can't just be a financial thing--they'll want to find a good fit, too. Labels with a stable of Wilson-influenced musicians but without major-label headaches (release dates and budgets long-since allocated, shareholders to answer to, endless corporate layers to work through, other, bigger names (because in the pop world, Wilson really isn't such a huge seller)) may be what he wants. A major might be the best option if it's really behind him, but if it's just going to toss him some cash for it and not do a decent job pushing the product, it's of no value.

The real goal, I think, would be getting this to people who won't buy it otherwise. There is a certain set of people--reading this post, probably--who are going to buy it whether it's online-only, indie, or major. They're here, and on the other boards, reading up on every detail. They're going to be ready to compare it to the demos and the boots. They're going to bitch about the use of a Kurzweil instead of a true piano, or pitch correction, or digital v. analog recording. They don't matter--their purchases can be assumed. (Wow, we seem unimportant in those few sentences.) I'd guess it's those older people who listened to the Beach Boys earlier in life but sort of lost interest along the way (I'm always surprised by how many people post messages along those lines -- "I didn't know BW was still making music!") or younger hipsters. And I assume that while the latter acquires and hears more, the former buys more albums. So chances that's to whom they ought to market.

f***, that's sad. Maybe it will be on Starbucks' label. Kill me.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Something to ponder, which may or may not be significant - back in the summer, Foskett was reported as saying that the slimmed down version of Brian's band (as played Reno & Vancouver) played for the Capitol execs, and they loved it.

Why Capitol ?

[XY]

Andrew, maybe he meant the accoustic 4 song Pet Sounds set they played for the 'Definitive 200 Classic Albums' & 'The Warmth Of The Sun' press conference at Capitol Studio A on March 7.

[Andrew G. Doe]

Thanks for that info - makes perfect sense now.

[kshane]

Hopefully Brian will followed the route forged by Radiohead in the last couple of days. In what amounts to a stunning death blow to the record companies, one of the world's biggest bands has decided to go it alone. They're putting out their new album on their own, via their website. You have a choice of ordering the download, paying whatever you wish and getting it on Oct. 10, or buying a deluxe cd box which will be available in December. I'll say it again...there is no label. There is no need for a label. The end of the major labels has been a long time coming, and for me it can't come fast enough.

[the captain]

Hopefully Brian will followed the route forged by Radiohead in the last couple of days. In what amounts to a stunning death blow to the record companies, one of the world's biggest bands has decided to go it alone. They're putting out their new album on their own, via their website. You have a choice of ordering the download, paying whatever you wish and getting it on Oct. 10, or buying a deluxe cd box which will be available in December. I'll say it again...there is no label. There is no need for a label. The end of the major labels has been a long time coming, and for me it can't come fast enough.

As I've said elsewhere, I think this is a great and very workable route for bands like Radiohead, and for Brian. They have markets already familiar with them, websites that are visited by their fans, most of whom are ready to buy materials digitally, or on hard copy, no matter who is helping to do it. (In fact, after WDtPoL, I advocated the online only route for Brian, thinking it could also help him get out of the pressures of writing, recording and finishing albums if he wasn't up to it. New song? Great: single. Record and release it online. Start to finish in a week or two. Three songs? Fine. Same thing. Ten? Ditto.)

For your average unknown band, however, that doesn't work because nobody knows who they are, what they sound like, or even where their websites are, much less why they ought to buy the albums.

[Dancing Bear]

For your average unknown band, however, that doesn't work because nobody knows who they are, what they sound like, or even where their websites are, much less why they ought to buy the albums.

Yeah. This is the cold truth about the new era of artistic independence from those damned record companies.

[Ron]

Hopefully Brian will followed the route forged by Radiohead in the last couple of days. In what amounts to a stunning death blow to the record companies, one of the world's biggest bands has decided to go it alone.

Um.... you realize they're not the first people to do this, right? 

[the captain]

Hopefully Brian will followed the route forged by Radiohead in the last couple of days. In what amounts to a stunning death blow to the record companies, one of the world's biggest bands has decided to go it alone.

Um.... you realize they're not the first people to do this, right? 

I'm certain kshane does realize this. But he's also probably aware that they are the first major rock band that is arguably still in its prime when it decides to do it ("It," of course, being not only releasing an album initially as download-only, and without a label, and letting customers set the price.) Nobody of Radiohead's magnitude has yet done that combination, and so it matters more that they do it.

Let's be realistic: I could do the same thing. And it wouldn't matter in the slightest bit. Radiohead does, and it does.

There--now I've spoken for kshane, which was entirely unnecessary and not asked for.

[pixletwin]

Smashing Pumpkins did it in 2000.

[the captain]

Smashing Pumpkins did it in 2000.

Machina? That was on a label, Caroline. Plus, they were hardly at the peak of their powers--probably four years past them. A lot of people who had liked them earlier already thought Adore was a step down. Granted, Radiohead may find themselves in a similar boat, but there is a lot more notice of their upcoming online release than there was in 2000 around the Pumpkins.