The Smiley Smile Message Board

Not really a BB-related question per se, just something I've been curious about: how did anyone here find this place? Carried over from a previous incarnation, or just through Google?

(Myself, I was looking up some detail about Sunflower and stumbled on the Desperpedia, which led me to here. I think I read Desper's entire thread in one night.)

i found this because i was looking up beach boys tattoo. I'm still trynna to find something to get that represents the beach boys but it's hard. :/

I think I found it when I stumbled upon the Al_Jardine-didn't-go-to-Ohio? mystery thread/report...4,5, or maybe 6, years ago.

Found it by looking up Beach Boys boards.  Wasn't too happy with the official one on the Beach Boys site and eventually stumbled here. 

I honestly can't remember. It's been way too long since I joined.

There was an invite only group called "Smile Research Laboratories" run by spomeone calling themselves April in the late 1990s. Then that dissolved and a stop gap group "Li'l Smiley Cabin" started. Around the same time "The Smile Shop" started which then evolved into this board. Can't recall when exactly, though.

I think I found this board when someone posted a link on the Shut Down board to an article here.

I used to visit the Smile shop website all the time in about 2001. Really wish there were some archived stuff from there around but thats a different topic.

Anyway, between that, Cabinessence, Ryan's smile site, Project smile etc I learnt a lot of what i know and love, then when the Smile Sessions was announced, I was compelled, after years of just reading to sign up and join in.

Like Aegir, I just can't remember. Googling probably. I know I lurked for like, 6 months before having the gall to ask stupid questions....

link from wikipedia's SMiLE page.

I was reading Beach Boys quotes on some site and started clicking on links, this board was one of them. At first I was sceptical of some of the names posting due to their BB connections (Stebbings, Carlin, AGD, Desper etc), when I realised they were the real deal I became hooked. I'm not sure why now, but I must have lurked for six or so months before I registered. I remember my first post was asking why Brian didn't complete Smile as a solo project back in 1967 - as I recall I kinda got jumped on by several people!!! You soon learn you've got to do your homework to run with the guys on here.

I used to look at the Cabinessence/Shut Down board, then the Nazis swamped the place.

 ;D

I can't remember...  I used to post at the old smileshop boards ten years ago, and I think I must have googled and found this place. 

Once again, my memory proves to be horrid. Was this board a direct result of a Smile board? I started at the blue board after hearing SMiLE (2004) and googling Brian. Then found this board or its predecessor while looking for more info about Brian and the BB. I've learned a lot here and am fascinated with the music and the overall story, but I don't really take a lot of interest in the minutia, so I'll probably always be fairly ignorant on many things Beach Boys.

I did a Google search for "Beach Boys 1973," as that was the first year I saw the band live & to this day I'm obsessed with info about the band during that time period. I stumbled on a very interesting thread here about some of the supporting musicians who played with the band during that time. I lurk here almost daily because there's always some great stuff here posted by folks who are even more obsessed - & knowledgeable - than me

I was an avid SMiLE Shop lurker back in the day, until it's demise.  Then a few years ago I was following a link (probably from the Hoffman board) and I ended up here.  I was a little put off by the name (Smiley Smile, really?) until I took a closer look and found it to be mostly about SMiLE (and other BB related things).   :)

I was a Cabinessence board guy back in the late '90s -- 'twas a fine place (hi Eric and Billy and Susan and other folks from those days).

Then it went down for a time and I looked at other places -- there was a green and yellow board, I seem to recall, where a lot of folks were.

Eventually I came to the Smile shop, which featured a lot of great folks. Eventually it imploded and changed into this -- I was too set in my ways to really move to another board at that point. And the change meant this board ended up dealing with a lot of other BB things ...

It has evolved too. The famous posters post less (looks like AGD might be the latest casualty), and the party line has shifted from Brianista to BBs-only. The tone is a little snarkier and simultaneously sillier. But it is still the Smiley Smile board. And that's a very good thing.

Me too, in fact I'm still there from time to time. When the Smiley Smile board went down for a while a number of people turned up on the blue board and that prompted me to check it out, the format of the blue board sometimes gets to me so I thought it was worth checking out a more conventional format message board. So this allows more in depth continuous discussion and memory, definitely more Beach Boysistas here and it seems more male dominated. It's an interesting place though.

I honestly wanted to talk about Smiley Smile with some other Beach Boys fans. So I typed in "Smiley Smile Forum" into Google, and got here.

That is a darn good question, but I honestly have no recollection.  Maybe through a reference in ESQ, or on the BBB board. 

There was a "yellow board" where Bruce Johnston used to post, a lot, before people were required to register.

Hey!  Yeah I started posting there...it was cool to find people who were as crazy about the BB as I was.  Then some rude things were said, and I bowed out of message boards in general for maybe 5 or 6 years.  I started visiting the Male Ego board, I really enjoyed that one, and that, along with the BBB board (where Bruce would post a lot), got me back into it.  The SS board went down briefly, then came back up here, and I followed it here.  2009 and 2010 and the first half of 2011 weren't years where I was particularly active on the board, but I still checked in now and then.  Now I'm back on here again, and enjoying it.

Turned left at Iceland.

I remember when this board was launched around the time the Beach Boys.com finally got off the ground; I can't recall if that linked into another significant release.  I opted out at the time, but have only recently cruised back to ensure for decent info as talk of the Smile Sessions info started to unfurl.

I'd moved away from the message boards (news) - I do remember the "old geezer" as a fairly regular poster on such news boards - where I can also remember a BB's author getting relatively bludgeoned in relation to delays on an independent re-publishing of one of his books - ah, the old days.

I may have missed this board's heyday, but having contributions from AGD, Jon S and Peter Reum + the occasional cameo from Stephen Desper + all of the amazing stuff from the hardcore types make this board unique - and plugged in - I hope those mentioned can find the strength to keep it up - cheers and happy new year - A

Can't recall the sequence but this board has, in my view, naturally succeeded the Smile Shop and Male Ego boards as the place to be for in-depth discussion, for picking up news, for good natured banter, for bad natured banter, for banter… as it also seems to be the most active board (rivalled only, perhaps, by the Bloo, which seems to be more concerned with some battle of the bands thread than genuine BBs/BW music appreciation), it's the first website I look at every day.

arrived here after the male ego board shut down.....whenever that was

There still is - Beach Boys Britain: http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?user=Bellagio

And as far as I know Bruce still visits the board frequently.

I found Smiley Smile through reading Brian Wilson's message board. I wanted to go to a Brian Wilson concert earlier this year when I was really getting into the Beach Boys. So I Googled "Brian Wilson" and found his website/message board. I started reading it pretty frequently, but I didn't really like it because it wasn't a Beach Boys message board per se, but a Brian Wilson message board with lots of worship of him. I like Brian, but wanted to post at a place that was more objective about his work and was more Beach Boys oriented.

One day earlier this year, someone on the blue board mentioned the Smiley Smile message board and I decided to check it out. I read this board for several months before joining. I didn't want to start posting without knowing the dynamics of how things go around here, who posts, how people get along, etc.

just post away...we are mostly equal here, we all get slammed by someone at some point   :)

Knew about the Smile Shop/Smiley board, mainly through gossipy threads in the Male Ego board. Some of the issues were carried over there in order to be treated with ME etiquette. Diablo Cody and Laurie Arleen were two such issues I can remember right now.

Never cared to enter until ME exploded. Been here ever since loving it.

I like this board, I feel quite comfy here. It makes being a Beach Boys fan a bit less lonely, (I was a teenage Beach Boys fan in the 80's, you can't get lonelier than that)

Happy new year everyone, anyway. I sincerely hope it's good for you.

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, "you're nobody if you haven't been slammed".......

Honestly, this place didn't evolve from or succeed The Smile Shop, in any way, shape or form.

True, dat - memory is misty and watercolored, but I'm pretty sure it evolved from a Cabinessence MB fracas.

It's a direct descendent. Lots of bad feelings, but the Smile Shop imploded in a mess of unhappiness and secret message boards. Then this started up, complete with all of the prior user registrations. I'm pretty sure I've never registered for this board -- it's all held over.

And I understand that Mssrs. Hunt and Lane have issues with the existence of this place, but that doesn't mean it didn't come from what it comes from.

I went to The Beach Boys.com board first, that place is massive, like 45 thousand members, yet this place is a lot more active  :lol

Somebody from there told me to come over here, never looked back  ;D

I somehow found my way here after leaving bretw's board. I think that place has about...10 members.  ;D One post every six months or so.  ;D

That isn't the history, man. Seriously.

Had a bit of a disagreement with the moderater over at another forum, was banned for a few hundred million years (seriously), after that I just came to the board which I felt had the least sycophants.

I dunno if this board was deliberately an offshoot of Smile Shop, but I came here because Smile Shop had itself exploded. Weird game-playing, power trips, sexually-harassing BB experts, and all sorts of weird stuff! Then: boom. Gone. I recall people floating on an internet raft at LaurieArleen's place for a bit (not sure where she ended up--she was one of the harassment victims at SS, so she prob'ly went farrrrrrrrr away...), then this place appeared, with many familiar faces.

Or at least that's how it happened for me.

I was originally on the mailing list called either Pet Sounds or Smile...can't recall which. It was a pretty good thing for awhile--Dave Prokopy was much in evidence, and a good, friendly resource. I unsubscribed when a major expert began treating members like crap, and I couldn't stand to read it anymore. Then gravitated toward Smile Shop as a result of Googling.

And the rest is history!

I met Pumkin Head, Andrew G Doe, and several other BB fans on myspace.com (remember that?). Somebody (Pumkin Head?) told me about this.

Actually, Laurie has become a fairly successful artist, with a few CDs to her credit and some radio airplay. A friend of Domenic Priore and Rodney Bingenheimer.  She was one of the high-volume posters in the early days of this board who staged a mass walkout after it was revealed that someone in charge was reading private messages. Those folks, who included Jon Hunt, John Lane etc., moved permanently to the latter-day non-BB topic exclusive Smile Shop. After that ended, those folks moved over to The Record Room, which is run by me and Jon. Most of the folks one finds in older threads here, such as the What Are You Listening To Now? one in the off-topic section, can be found on that forum.

That would be the board owner, Charles LePage. He's not active anymore; in fact, it's been a couple of years since I myself have spoken with him.



Yep! That's how I heard about the board. I know Charles had an issue with a few people over there, and IIRC some of it had to do with the old Flux threads. I actually joined up here just to see what I thought would be an upcoming board war...morbid curiousity I guess. Thankfully that never happened. I became a mod right after the exodus.

Yeah, that's cool. I have a lot of respect for this board, in that it actually developed into something more membership-prominent and long-lasting than the Smile Shop actually was. I still would never want to talk Beach Boys 24/7 like in those days, but it does seem like a nice atmosphere. Good on ya'll!

I was in touch with Chuckie when the board was hacked recently. To be totally honest, he didn't seem too bothered about it.

My recall is similar - this board first sprang up when there was a temporary technical fail at the Smile Shop, and many people there joined up here until that site was up again.  The two co-existed (cordially) for a time with shared members until the blow-up described by others and the snark feast.

Ian's site is a fun lurk to stay on top of non-BB things, and they have their own section for the BB.  Much of the writing is very good indeed, excellent analysis, their Zappa series in particular was archive-worthy.  But the principal posters are a bit prickly sometimes.  Don't want to step on toes and rile anyone up, I get enough aggro at the office, so I don't seek it on the web.  Better I just sit at their feet and listen.

Actually, it was the legendary "Professor" incident that caused the Shop to be temporarily shuttered, and LePage started this as a supposed "temporary" home for Shop patrons.
I'm sorry if you were offended by anything you may have encountered on the RR. Please drop by again and post sometime.

This IS a truly wonderful place, but my heart broke when Male Ego got ditched. It was a 24/7 Beach Boys lover's soap opera.

blah

Same here - Ego was the real deal. The supposed 'nastiness' that sometimes breaks out here would have been laughed off of Ego as a kindergarten spat. Ego was a cage fight with chainsaws and rattlesnakes.

My bad.

Found it via the Smile Shop site, which I found after trolling the net following an inspiring first read of AGD's utterly brilliant co-authored BBs guide. The Smile Shop was the only site consistently streaming Smile tunes in decent quality. I'd ration myself to one or two a day from my crappy dial-up connection! I kept returning, as I had no Smile material of my own, and one day found a message board there. I think I posted the first message there, under the subject 'launch pad'. Yay me  :afro. Ahem. But really, I was blown away by Jon & John's concept of 'Smile-as-pop-album', and equally stunned at the way the board took on this incredible sense of community so rapidly. I met many cool folks there, and got to meet many in person at the PS and BWPS tours. Great times!

Eventually that led to this board, which has also been an education. It recaptures the thrill of discovery of the Shop, and while it casts the net more broadly, and has the periodic moral crises that also surfaced on the ol' Shop board, it still has that all-important critical mass of really clued-up people on it, and fizzes with a sense of enthusiasm and discovery that should always accompany Smile. I feel really privileged to have experienced the release of TSS with the expertise and enthusiasm here. 

ive always used the beach boys fan club links site to find stuff then go from there..Been comin here since 1999.. Smile shop //smiley smile.. shut down 2 BBB.. etc..

"I know Charles had an issue with a few people over there, and IIRC some of it had to do with the old Flux threads."

Wasn't it more the case that people over there had an issue with Charles...?

[raises hand]

Aside from his reading other posters PMs, I and not a few others objected to having scripture pushed in my face. I want religion, I'll go to church.

Not just scripture but Conservative politics!  ::)

I loved it.  It's really too bad a couple of whiny pants's got their way with Junkstar and it was shut down.

That's different from my recall exactly how? A few details may have gotten lost in the mists of time, but I don't see how a "temporary board" started during the Smile Shop downtime (when said shop ultimately didn't return in its original form) isn't a direct descendant. I always thought the name "Smiley Smile" -- described the relationship to the original perfectly well.

And all these years later, I'm still bothered that the original shop posts seem to have been lost. There was some great stuff there.

More like reactionary extremism and he wasn't the only one. Once I started being compared to Osama bin Laden (not by him), I knew my time at Cabinessence was up. And now they wonder why no one posts there anymore.

I'll raise my hand too.  Got sick of that and the reactionary conservative politics

Yeah, you're right. I guess I was just trying to get across that it was never, and will never be, an official, "approved" descendant of the Smile Shop. But lo these many years later, who cares.

My recollection is similar to many others here.  I remember starting on the Blueboard, soon finding the old Smile Shop.  Others on here know the sequence of events better than me, but I do remember the Smile Shop just being gone one day, at which point I migrated here. 

I've perused most of the other Beach Boys related forums at various times, but I find that this one has the best discussions and a good cast of characters.  When the board was down for awhile last year, the thought of this board being gone forever was a frightening one for sure!  Glad we came out the other side and that we have such a great place to discuss all the big things headed our way this year.

Found the Cabin/Mike Wheeler site back in the mid to later 90's as I recall.  Used to visit the chat room there.  Met a lot of nice people, really good company.  Things changed and not so many people were posting and there were some people hacking and such, causing the board to jam up frequently.  On that site there was a links page and "web ring"  that listed other sites.  I think I got to the smile shop that way.  And it seems I found this site through smile shop/shutdown connections.   I still like the folks who post on the Shut Down site that Susan L. put up as a continuation of the Cabin  but there are few posts there these days.  Went to the RR a few times after I.  stopped posting here...(he seems to be back) but I land here 99 percent of the time.  I get my pms here.  Seems to me this is by far the best BB site on the internet.

Six months later I still can't remember.

does it annoy anyone else when RangeRover posts in old threads? it annoys me, for sure.

Can't you just get the indian on horseback logo? Evocative, enigmatic, subtle although immediately obvious to any more serious fans. That would be perfect for a tattoo, surely?

Sorry, that post was ancient!

I think I was a member (or lurking) on the smile shop (the one with the iron horse montage) just after the RFH Smile concert started my Smile obsession. Then that morphed into another smile shop that was more broadly focussed on music in general, then that imploded and I registered here.

I really think this is a great message board. There's a lot of talk of negative threads and belligerence here but I don't really buy that. For the most part people here seem pretty respectful of one another.

I wanted to find out how that pitch-shift shanana-part in She's Going Bald was made. Searched the net, found Stephen Desper's answer. Pretty soon I realized I had stumbled into a treasure trove of Beach Boys information.

this is a serious question..when did mike start losing hair? because i havent seen him in a picture without a receded hairline/hat on...has it been like that since the surfin safari days?

Even in the earliest publicity shots you can see that his hairline is pretty high, especially when compared to others. Even in his yearbook pic (from senior year, I believe). So, he started to lose it already back in high school. Man, that guy has some serious testosterone levels. Spreading the love!

(http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/12965111/The+Beach+Boys+1962.jpg)

this is a great example of that.

man that's sad...poor mike :/

compare his hairline to marks  :o

cool

real cool man

The Goog'.

Smile Shop holdover.  Came across that place whilst devouring every possible detail about the famed album.  Came here soon after the shop closed up shop.

I'm with RangeRover on this on Aegir.  I mean did you just read her explanation on why she loves this board? How can you respond the way you did to that story!

If I remember right, I emailed AGD a question about California Feeling on his website and he referred me here for some reason... I don't remember.  :lol

Joined here after Smile Shop closed up.

I started out right before I turned 17 in 2001 on (of course) the bluebored and quickly tired of it. I then went to the Wheeler board and thence The Nearest Faraway Place on Yahoo and pretty much stayed there non-stop until 2005. I was never a big poster on the Smile Shop but found this board by accident. And then we had whirled peas.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Simple. I was 100% Male Ego Board and then Junkstar pulled the plug. This is a wonderful place. Just not Male Ego-esque Board enough.

I didn't find it. It found me.

Remember, a FRoWN turned upside down is a smIle.

Stumbled on here while trying to find out info about the new album when nothing was known at the time. Next thing I knew I was sucked in and after over a month of lurking I decided to join in.  :smokin

I miss Ego...those of you who think the barbs here are rough wouldn't have lasted two minutes on Male Ego.

Typed 'Smiley Smile' in on Google and noticed the board. Lurked for a while until I decided to make an account.

i think i googled beach boys message board.

I have said that to Luther on this board but he just doesn't get it. Does he still post here?