The Smiley Smile Message Board

Listening to the new LP tonight, I am smitten.  It is , in my mind, finally a new band fully realized.  Not the Beach Boys, not Brian wilson, but a musical entity unto itself.  As I listen, I visualize Brian, Taylor, Paul, Scott, Darian, Jeffrey and the entire band performing this material as I once visualized the Beach Boys as an entity.

It feels like I just opened a fresh lp by my favorite band back in the day, relishing each new cut, appreciating each members contribution.

I can't wait to see this live.  Especially after last fall's exceptionaql performance of the "greatest hits".

Ever since I hear the Roxy album I've been saying that they should come up with a group name. They're just to good to be "Brian Wilson's backing band".

They do have a group name! It's 'Wondermints'! (http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-v.gif)

Naah!

(Yeah.  Mints a big part definitely)

But the whole unit has morphed into an entity.....The Brian Wilson Orchestra.

I take my stand.

Brian Wilson's Endless Beach Party Band but also Orchestra Album Recreationists

The Brian Wilson Orchestra is appropriate....and could continue after Brian decides to retire.

Sweetie - the whole connotation of "orchestra" (even though it might be completely appropriate) where most of the players "sit down" to play, is so contrary to the whole "stand up and groove while you rock" that guitar.  Stuff got "pluggged-in" and electrified as a result of rock and roll. 

It might lose its "edge" because of that "old timer (my grandmother's Lawrence Welk generation) music" connotation.  That said, I would love to see the Boys play with a symphony orchestra, but, only in maintaining their own rocker identity.  It is nice to "crossover" with another style, as long as it is not a permanent "aged out" scenario.   

Brian stood up and rocked that guitar with his brothers and Mike, David, Al and Bruce. 

Brian's band is more of a "sound machine" [not to steal from Gloria Estevan] - especially if you have seen them "stand up"  like Nelson Bragg doing his awesome percussion thing.  We have to find a better term or maybe coin a new one!

As for me; l I still want them to "swing right into" the catalog of the Beach Boys...but not become a "swing band"   ;)

Brian Wilson Combo?

The Brian Wilson Pistols?

The Brian Wilson Juke Box?

The Brain Wilson Tribute Band?

Brian's Wonderpints?

Sons Of The Beaches?

They need a really cool name... because that's what's important.  Being cool.


The Joe Diffie Strings (country redneck singer)

Merle Haggard and the Strangers (I'd like to introduce my band, these are the strangers)

Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadors

George Strait and the Ace in the Hole band


All the good names were taken up by the country singers years ago. 

Brian Wilson and the Ironic Hipsters.

I've got it. 



wait for it....





wait for it...


Brian Wilson & the Formula

First album will be called "Fuckin' With The Formula".

 :lol make that: Foda With The Formula...

Brian Wilson and Rollin' Up To Heaven?
Brian Wilson and the Shortenin' Breads?

Brian Wilsbone Ash.

game - set - & - match

Brian Wilson and the Murder Junkies

On another, and more gloomy note, what do people here think will happen with the band in the future? Say, ten years from now?.

I'm just thinking, this group has been together for so long now that it seems they could go on making great, original music in the Beach Boys / Brian Wilson mold should they so desire without Brian, either if he at some point (god forbid) quits recording / touring at his own will or because of health, illness etc. It's been quite some time since the Wondermints and Foskett issued anything new on their own and even though some of the other group members have had more recent projects maybe they would consider staying together in some loose group constellation that could consider recording & performing? In my opion that would be awesome and a great way of carrying on the torch, securing that this kind of music could live on many years from now. Whether or not it's realistic is of course an entirely different thing.

The current band are only 'together' when Brian's recording or touring: they all have their own lives and, aside from the former 'Mints, those lives don't seem to intersect much. It's a much looser aggregation than most folk imagine.

And of course the more pertinent question is not if they could carry on making music a la BB/BW (that's a proven) but rather if they would want to.

Prediction: after BW retires/dies, they will continue to perform as The Brian Wilson Band.

I don't think so - It would be pretty disrespectful to Brian to carry on. Sure, if they like they can form their own band and write their own tunes, but playing the BB's stuff without BW?

I would expect a Wondermints album soon after, because they must be sitting on what, 8 years worth of material if they've kept busy? But Jeff, Scott, Taylor, and Mertens will probably go their own separate ways, and that's ok with me.

If performing deceased musicians' material is disrespectful, there's a lot of disrespect going on in this world, especially in the classical and jazz realms. And in the latter case, Basie, Mingus, and Ellington in particular, I believe, have officially bands on the road. I don't see it as disrespectful at all. More likely it will be personally and artistically unsatisfying for them, though. It's one thing to study at the feet of the master (if we can stretch our imaginations to pretend that's what's happening); but at a certain point you'd rather put that knowledge to use on your own.

doesn't matter if they carry on, who would watch that?

I'd go, no question about it. Brian is the least impressive part of his shows--by far--unless the music isn't important to you. His instrumental contributions are nil, his vocal contributions are shaky. It's funny to watch him, and there's a certain car-wreck / feel-good part to the whole thing. But in terms of quality performance? I love his band despite Brian Wilson. Mike Love's recent comments about the Beach Boys possibly carrying on because of the strength of the material are dead on. There will be a market for that music forever.

I'd go...Darian is one of my heroes for his role in the BW band alone :)

I'd go for sure.  Without Brian they might even feel free to integrate some of their own original material into the shows.  My hunch though is that this particular band would not stay together without Brian, they just have too many creative interests of their own.

well i guess this is where you'd find the people who would

They almost certainly wouldn't because, as AGD said earlier in the thread, they aren't a band other than as hired parts of BW's tours.

They almost certainly wouldn't because, as AGD said earlier in the thread, they aren't a band other than as hired parts of BW's tours.
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True but as some have pointed out in reviews of BWRG, it can be argued they've become a band.

Become a band in what sense, though? Group of people who have become familiar with one another? Sure--many of them have played together now for a decade. But become a band in the sense that they work together on original material, or would have some reason to exist other than that they are paid by the Wilson org.? I doubt it. Let's not romanticize things. Wondermints were, and maybe still are, a band. Simons, Mills, Bragg, Foskett, Bennett, and Mertens aren't. (Gregory, sometimes, as a part-time 'mint.) I'm not saying they couldn't be a band. I'm not saying they won't want to be a band. But right now, that group of people are a collection of hired sidemen, and if they weren't, someone else would be. Sure, they could tour as a Wilson cover band, and especially if they were made official via the Wilson or BRI organizations, I'm sure they'd do just fine financially. But they are what they are.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra has toured without Glenn Miller since he died in 1944.  Another example, local to me, is the Sun Ra Arrestra.  In the rock world, there's too many examples to count; tribute bands have become big business.  When Mike or Brian retire/die, that will not stop touring BBoy bands.  Guaranteed.  And it wouldn't surprise me if BW's band continued to do official shows, sanctioned by BRI.

It would be disrespectful to Brian & his music to not carry on.

Brian Wilson & The Futher Muckin' Buck Futters

Brian Wilson & The Ass Bandits

I still think his next album should be strictly gay country. It would certainly confuse his critics and it might be a stronger statement than an album of Disney covers.

Not sure I follow. Last thing I heard, if you want to hear Brian Wilson's music, you can buy it on these new-fangled things called CDs, MP3s or even records. It's not like, I dunno, Mozart or Bach or something where you can only hear the music via a modern recording or going to a show. You have the man's body of work, as he originally intended (which i certainly don't think was in a concert scenario), archived and preserved in the vaults, and available for the populace in easily accessible formats. His music won't suddenly stop existing or go out of print or fall off the map if his band (which I love, btw) hang up the guitars after he dies.


I've tried answering this topic a few times since Luther's original answer without much success. I guess I just don't like tribute bands. The idea of the Count Basie or Duke Ellington bands carrying on after the death of their leaders does seems a little.... phoney. I guess. I'm turning it over in my head, and I just don't like the idea of it. By all means, they can do tribute shows, write their memoirs, join other bands, write new material, cover BB's songs on their albums.... But the Brian Wilson Band without Brian Wilson isn't The Brian Wilson Band, in my opinion.

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d9/wademagnuson/Gay_country.jpg)

This BAND, as a unit,  has a SOUND.  Like Chicago Transit Authority, BST, The Dead, The Beach Boys, Spector, Motown, etc.   They at least should have an identity as much as the Heartbreakers or Crazyhorse.

This manages to be on target and off target at the same time.

The one thing that binds this disparate group together is Brian and his music. They're more proficient, certainly, than their sometimes awkward leader. But that group exists to back him / cover for him / enhance him / spur him on.

To see the group when Brian is on fire -- as he is every other tour or so -- is to see a radically different group than when they're merely propping up a bored or scared BW. They go to another level -- and it's why, to me at least, the group wouldn't quite work without him.

My guess, and of course that's all it is, is that an "on fire" BW doesn't take them to another level so much as the scared and stiff and awkward BW drags them down a level. And without him, they'd be able to do a better job of really pushing every night without fear of the reaction of the guy seated at front-center stage.