The Smiley Smile Message Board

You can hear this one in his new cd 'Alone II: Recordings of Rivers Cuomo'...its really cool, sans the gritty recording...but i guess thats the idea!

This is a very good cover, especially if you're a fan of early, fuzz-heavy Weezer. I hope that his Surfer Girl cover makes it on to Alone III!

I'm psyched that more SFTBH stuff is out. I'm going to have to re-do my mix of that now.

The cover version is great! This Alone II is a lot better than the first compilation. This feels more like the Weezer album we should have had instead of the ones produced by Rick "guaranteed to make your music suck" Rubin.

Has anyone heard Neil Diamond's new Rick Rubin-produced album? It put me to sleep. The folky sound just didn't do it for me, and it also sounded a little too bland and soulless. Kind of reminded me of Don Was's treatment of Brian's stuff on IJWMDTT. I think it would've sounded a lot better with Spectorian wall-of-sound arrangements.

I haven't, but interestingly, both albums include keyboardist Benmont Tench.

Does playing for Tom Petty not lucrative enough for Tench to pay the bills or something?  :lol :lol

Really though, who wouldn't sound better with wall-of-sound arrangements?

True dat. ;D

A lot of people, I'd say. It's pretty one-dimensional and overpowers music intended to be more nuanced. For example, I hate the Leonard Cohen "Death of a Ladies Man" album which wasn't just wall of sound, but Spector-produced (and co-written). Cohen was much better with John Simon or Bob Johnston's production. Or can you imagine how horrible Nick Drake would be with wall of sound style production? Hell, I think Pet Sounds would've sucked if it were true wall of sound style, as opposed to just being influenced by that sound.

The Beatles. Or Merzbow.