It was really just a way to fill the pics section before we had even rehearsed as a unit... But I have always been someone who loves MS Paint, and am shy of pics...so it worked out. (It's a self-portrait.)

f***, yes! MS Paint is the greatest form of art on earth. Check my band's myspace...

www.myspace.com/thebeaumondes

I don't know if any Beach Boys fans will like this...it is a cover of a David-Ivar Herman Dune song I did this afternoon after work. He's a Dane (or Swede or some such thing) who plays solo and in a band called Herman Dune. I happen to love what I've heard, but I know it is pretty idiosyncratic. Anyway, have a listen. Enjoy or don't!

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=8AC3E31961ABF2F7

I loved it, just as I have loved all of Wes Anderson's movies so far. Owen Wilson said something in a recent interview about "going to India with my friend Wes to make a movie" recently. I haven't heard anything else, but I am pretty excited for whatever it might turn out to be.

Jim Noir's new album,

I'm annoyed by what little I've heard, including "Crazy." Just not my thing. I was very amused when Of Montreal performed Crazy in their encore in Mpls a week or so ago.

What the f*** ever. Defend BW at all costs. I love Brian's music, but to cut him slack for the same things a person would condemn others because "it's Brian" is ridiculous.

"Ol' Man River."

It isn't like Brian is the only musician to do this. Frank Zappa's entire catalogue--a big one--is littered with Louie Louie and Petrushka, which makes for quite a pair.

...The New Pornographers.. Their three studio albums contain the most consistently great pop/rock material of 21st Century so far.

I agree that they're good, but wow, that seems like hyperbole to me. They're good, but I wouldn't rank them above Belle & Sebastian's 21st century output, or Of Montreal's, or the Shins', or Beachwood Sparks', or Voxtrot's, or Bill Ricchini's or even Rogue Wave's. And that's just staying around that same basic subgenre.

I saw New Pornographers open for B&S on their Life Pursuit tour several months ago, and I have to say, it was obvious who the better band was that night (and I think that's the case on record, too).

It's funny how often people say Zappa's stuff is better if you're stoned, etc., considering he was so anti-drugs, even in the late '60s.

As for his attitude--I get horribly sick of it, and I love his music. I thought, especially by the end, he was such a sad combination of cynical, crude and offensive (in the name of humor, admittedly, but it seemed like a thin disguise to flat-out meanness) that it got dull.

FYI, the intent of the question wasn't to pick a song that sounds like another specific song, but that sounds like it could've been written and recorded by the other.

The movie is on Sundance right now. I've had the album for years, but am just seeing the movie for the first time. Um..ahahaha. I guess exactly what I expected. Wonderfully horrible, or horribly wonderful. One of the two.

While re-watching the Anthology DVDs again the other night, I started thinking about how most pop writers and fans seem to use the Beatles and Beach Boys almost as a single entity. For example, they'll write that some current band that uses vocal harmonies is inspired "by the Beatles and Beach Boys."

But really, in my opinion, there are very few Beatles songs that sound as if they could've been Beach Boys songs, and vice versa. Which of each band's songs do you think could have been written and performed by the other band without it sounding like a stretch?

DON'T USE the oft-cited examples of "Girl Don't Tell Me" or "Back in the U.S.S.R." Too easy.

dontcha mean "ticket 2 Ride"?

No. And I'd never use a "2" for a "to" or "too" unless I were Prince. And even then, I'd feel bad about it.

Well since Mike Love is an unaccredited co-writer and the inspiration for "Back in the USSR" it is obviously going to sound like a Beach Boys song.

Uncredited.

And I said other than...

While re-watching the Anthology DVDs again the other night, I started thinking about how most pop writers and fans seem to use the Beatles and Beach Boys almost as a single entity. For example, they'll write that some current band that uses vocal harmonies is inspired "by the Beatles and Beach Boys."

But really, in my opinion, there are very few Beatles songs that sound as if they could've been Beach Boys songs, and vice versa. Which of each band's songs do you think could have been written and performed by the other band without it sounding like a stretch?

DON'T USE the oft-cited examples of "Girl Don't Tell Me" or "Back in the U.S.S.R." Too easy.

I figure--with demos, at least--just throw 'em against the wall, fast as I can. Who cares if they suck? That's why they're demos. Get the idea down before I forget it, missed notes, sloppy rhythms and bad drum machines be damned. It can all be done far better later.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=9C7E0E2744600DDE

And by the way, I need a singer who doesn't lisp to do this. It goes by too fast and my tongue can't get off the Ss. Stupid speech impediments...

Here's the one I wrote and recorded today: "Church Pot Luck Supper." Again, very rough, just to figure some things out to teach the group.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=7CA09C7D50EC2FF7

Ah, the fun of afternoon demos VERY rough recording, just a scratch to get the ideas down before I forgot them. I did this after work this afternoon. Note the great (awful) drum machine.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=D554F1176EB6CDA4

It was maybe the 7th or 8th since 2002, when I first saw them on their Adhils Arboretum tour. This was in the main room at 1st Ave--the building that Prince made famous in Purple Rain. Brilliant show. High energy. Good song selection. Costumes, props, great music...and as an encore, bandleader Kevin Barnes said "we ought to play the hit of the summer of 2006, don't you think?" and they played Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." (G.B. had been here a few days ago and played the same room."

What a show. I really believe they sit, joined by only the Shins and Belle & Sebastian, at the top of modern pop music. Wow.

"Good Timin'"

Is that Dennis? I hope not, cause that's probably the most boring drum track ever recorded... It sounds almost like one of those pre-recorded rhythms in a cheap toy keyboard.

So do most of the other BBs drums from the late 70s onward. Of course, some of them basically were just that (albeit from EXPENSIVE keyboards).

Finally bought it today, and am about a third through it. I'll post my thoughts once I'm done. PRetty excited to have it, though.

Drums are the death of us all! The "Lines" I did this morning includes a drum track my drummer recorded for one of my songs -- Sleeping is Fun -- edited to fit the part i needed. (Shhhh, don't tell.) I have natural drums here, but I can barely play them at all. That's why on my tracks, you'll get great drums (my drummer), awful drums (me) or aux percussion!

Lots of fun (as that song has to be). I don't love drum machines, but other than that I really enjoyed it. All the vocals are very cool, definitely in the right spirit.