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I was just reading an interview with Mike about Stamos joining, Hal Blaine's death, and other topics... I was surprised to see that Mike is working on a new album. Here's an excerpt from the article:
He also is working with Sam Hollander, who has written and/or produced 20 or more Top 40 hits including "High Hopes" by Panic! at the Disco. His songs have more than 4 billion streams, something that wasn't considered when the Beach Boys were having "Fun, Fun, Fun" years ago.

Love and Hollander are working on a "couple of my songs" for a forthcoming Love album, which will have a summer release date.

"Just starting it," he said.

Weather you like UTL and Reason For The Season or not, you have to admit that Mike seems to be very productive these days. One album in 2017 and another in 2018, recorded during Mike's crazy touring schedule. Very impressive for a guy who just turned 78.

Sam Hollander's work with Mike is very refreshing to my ears. He co-wrote the new original songs on Reason For The Season, "Celestial Celebration"(which has great BBs feeling production, featuring Pet Sounds-esque tic-tac bass) and "Must Be Christmas". These tracks I'd say are some of the better ones on the album. They aren't soaked in autotune like the Michael Lloyd produced tracks on UTL and "Little Saint Nick" on Reason. Sure, there's vocal pitch correction, but it's no more offensive than NPP or TWGMTR (for better or worse I guess :lol)

The prospect of Mike and Sam Hollander working on a full project together excites me. The tracks on which he participated on Reason For The Season, sound very clean and modern, but still have that classic Beach Boys sound.

Hopefully we get some new originals with contribution from Mike. We should be thankful for every new piece of music we get, from any of the guys. Mike also mentioned a summer release, so I'd be thrilled to get something that soon. I'd also like for Bruce and Mike's current band to be involved, and just based on the personnel on Mike's last two records, I think we can assume they will be on the album. It's unlikely that there will ever be a live album representing what I call the "Scott Totten" era of Mike's band, in which their sound improved drastically. People on this board like to give Mike's band sh*t, but I think no one can deny that his band has seriously improved since 1999. UTL Disc Two kinda suffices as a representation of the, then, current group, but the questionable autotune and compression choices suck the life out of what would have been great performances. For example, I think "California Girls", "Fun Fun Fun" and "Kiss Me Baby" are all examples of tracks on UTL that feature great performances, but horrible production/mixing.

Thoughts?
https://www.reporternews.com/story/news/local/2019/03/14/beach-boys-ba-ba-ba-ba-back-abilene/3155706002/

Oh for christ sake!  ::) Doesn't this guy ever get the message that no one gives a sh*t about his horrible recording output? I would suppose that he somehow enjoys being ignored by people who buy or subscribe to new music and they definitely are not looking in his direction for his "latest release". There has to be someone who's encouraging this clown to waste his time trying to be relevant but I love that each new disaster infested, way less than mediocre release is met with public complacency.

he is

quichenight, that made me laugh out :lol :lol :lol

OSD, if no one cared about Mike's music, like you say, Reason For The Season wouldn't have been #4 on Billboard Holiday charts and #6 on independent album charts. We can all agree there isn't a huge market for Mike's solo material, but you gotta give credit where it's due man. 77 years old (when Reason For The Season came out) and nearing the top two billboard charts isn't too shabby,.

That was awesome lol

Thanks for the heads up. Another reason to skip the M&B show this summer as you know he will plug the album with a  flop...song or two.

Some anti Mike Love are so horrible here... so sad...

Yes, agreed it is a bit much. Don't get the level of anger directed toward him. 

Mike is a bit of a douche and I leave it at that.   
 

Granted I wont buy it or give it much of a listen most likely, but I have to give Mike credit for continuing to put out new music.

On a side note we need a delete button , dont see a way to discard posts.

 Wanted to go back and combine my last 2 posts but dont see a way to do it on this board. Or am I just not seeing something?

I'm actually somewhat hopeful for this. It'll probably be trash, but the production on those two tracks on Reason For the Season was tolerable and "Celestial Celebration" was by far my favorite track on it. Maybe we'll get one or two decent tracks out of it.

thatjacob,

That's exactly what I'm saying! Mike Love and Sam Hollander's collaborations might be the freshest sounding solo music Mike has ever made. Hollander is certainly a qualified producer with a plethora of hits, so I can only assume that he'll push Mike to make something special, like the two tracks on the Christmas record.

I used to float between what us Smiley Smilers would call a "Brianista" and "Love Apologist"... The older I get, I realize these men were just normal people too. Everyone does shitty things in their life. Mike's happened to be documented. None of The BBs are perfect people, I don't understand why some people on here talk about Mike like he's the devil.... I mean, he's the lead singer and one of the principal lyricists of our favorite band, yet half of the people on here seem to be literally angered by idea of him releasing no music. Mike has done bad things. Brian has done bad things. Dennis has done bad things. Let's just enjoy the music!

And people talk about UTL like Imagination never happened... :lol Both Brian and Mike have been victims of weak production.

Personally, I can't wait for the new record. Who's to say Mike doesn't have another "All I Wanna Do" or "Warmth Of The Sun" in him? If Brian can still arrange beautiful harmonies, I'm sure Mike could still pen some great songs.

It seems like some people on here would rather have no new Mike Love music again, than have albums released and there being a chance of a really solid song or two.

 :lol :lol Yeah, and Nate, it would be a good idea to dispose of the Brianista talk. By now you should be well aware of the fact that there are those who either love Brian to death or hate Mike till the cows come home. It's all opinion anyway so either read the post and chill and move on to the rest of the thread, ok? And by ther way, I respect your opinion even if I don't agree with you but we all need our space. As far as Imagination vs UTL, there can be no comparison about the quality of the material and Brian's fantastic return to singing well again. Face it, Mike will always be in Brian's shadow. :bw

Just because I am completely uninterested in any new Love recording does not mean it can be simply written off as me being "anti-Mike Love".  I'm not.  His product just isn't...interesting.

I mean, there is a difference between not caring about Mike's projects, and acting like every project he does is a personal attack on you...

I respect that Mike has been willing to put out new music over the last few years.

I hope he won't include any remake on the new album, though I'm 90% sure he will. I think remakes of old BB hits were huge drawbacks on Unleash the Love/Reason for the Season.

DO IT DO IT LETS DO IT WOOOOOO

Exactly. I had a bunch of songs playing yesterday, including two of Mikes songs from the TWGMTR album. Seven years later they are still the weakest. Probably one of the best on the album was ‘Summers Gone’ sung by Brian, yet it would be just as great sung by Mike IMO.

Mike pretty much always sounds best when singing in a hushed tone, the way he sings his few lines on From There To Back Again, Meant For You, and dare I say, Kokomo. Especially at his age, when he tries to sing in his "upbeat" nasal old school way, it is not advisable, especially when it's slathered in Autotune. Ew. I kinda expect lots of the ew voice on his new stuff though, because I think he thinks the "young Mike voice" is what he "needs" to still attempt to sound like.

They're never getting back together are they

#

A couple points aimed a few posts made in this thread:

1. I think fans of Mike Love's recent output try way too hard to sell his music. Which may explain why people attempt to swing the pendulum farther away in the opposite direction. After reading above how "Celestial Celebration" is one of the better tracks from the Christmas album, I checked it out last night. I wasn't even going to comment on what I thought, but after reading the above post, I do want to interject some reality in case someone gets swayed to buy this based on the glowing reviews. If CC is one of the better tracks on the Christmas album then I can't even imagine how the rest of the album sounds. CC is appallingly littered with autotune. It's somehow as bad, if not worse, than the C50 Live album - in fact, much of Mike's recent output sounds like Mike stole every last piece of Joe Thomas' autotune contraptions, put every dial on "max", and proceeded to record. And the fact that it's a slight handful of people who adamantly push this music, it's kinda odd to the rest of us.

I'm beyond grateful that Mike is recording now, it's giving him something to do other than ramble about Brian's prescription meds - he was starting to sound like Prince talking about chemtrails for a while there. So I'm all for him hitting the studio, but I think a lot of us don't get the adulation for his work. And the comparison between UTL and Imagination? There is a gulf of difference between the two, in songwriting and production - as in, Brian almost sounds like he's in his 20s on 'Sherry She Needs Me', among other moments of really solid recording - where that kind of magic is sorely missing on any of Mike's recent solo outputs.

2. People angered by Mike Love: Lets say a family member sues you for millions of dollars, Nate, and in that lawsuit basically rips to shreds any work you did for 3-4 decades...claiming all you did was lay around in bed collecting checks and doing drugs. That is exactly what Mike did to Brian just over a decade ago. The list goes on, quite frankly given how many times it has been discussed here, I’m surprised that a handful of posters forget why exactly Mike Love isn’t looked on too highly amongst some fans. And again, I think the adulation Mike receives on these forums by some fans irks those who hold these rather logical opinions about the man.

Much like you Nate, I have shifted my views a bit in recent years. Mike has definitely become more chill these last few years. Having lived a decade since my first major dive into the Beach Boys world, I too have realized that people mess up in life. It makes me more sympathetic and forgiving because of this. I mess up, Mike messes up. The odd thing is though: those of us who mess up usually ADMIT we mess up. When has Mike ever apologized for the way he talks about Brian in the media? When has he ever publicly apologized to Brian for suing Brian’s wife, friends, and business partners over a silly picture on a FREEBY CD? When has he ever publicly acknowledged his 2005 lawsuit flat out lied about Brian? This is exactly the reason why there is a lot of anger directed toward the man.

I can still look past all this and appreciate all the good things that Mike has contributed to the world and to the music of the Beach Boys. But I also wish that when some fans express annoyance/anger at Mike that others wouldn't be surprised that those emotions are grounded in reality.

 :thud :thud :thud :shrug :shrug :shrug   ??? ??? ???

I suppose people's argument against Mike is totally legitimate, but I don't think it should be brought up when talking about his music.

Taking Paul McCartney for example, in Japan in 1980, he was arrested for possession of marijuana and was put in jails for ten days until he was deported. In the same year, he released a song on the album McCartney II which has an obvious racial slur as the title ("Frozen Jap").  As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong), he never publicly apologized for these offenses he committed.

Then, is it okay to criticize him as a "racist" or "criminal" when Beatles'/Paul's music is brought up as the topic subject? I don't think so - as much as what he had done was wrong, I think we should avoid ad hominem when discussing music, because it's simply distracting, and isn't likely to contribute to the reasonable appreciation for the music itself.

I'm not saying that we can't criticize Mike for what he's done - I do think it is completely legitimate to criticize him for what he's done, unless it goes too far to the point it's just a slander. That being said, I'd say let's keep these discussion out when discussing the music.

Ok, I agree that the way Mike went about the lawsuit was ridiculous and uncalled for. The idea that Brian just layed in bed blah blah blah, was probably encouraged by Mike's lawyers, yet it was ultimately his decision to go with that story. He was definitely behaving inappropriately as a family member of Brian's. He was totally out of line. There have been other times he's been completely out of line too! But am I going to hate Mike for this? Nah... He can be narcissistic and condescending as we all know, but I honestly think the man means well. I think the way he sees things- he is the frontman of The BBs and it's his job to spread their music. Of course, he thinks he's better off doing it with his band, and without principal BBs, but if you just try to put yourself in Mike's shoes his touring operation makes more sense... And oh boy, I met get eaten alive for what I'm about to say.......

The Beach Boys, as a studio group, was Brian's until the 20/20 era where things became pretty democratic until SIP, where Mike seemed to have total creative control, but the control fell back in Brian's hands with the 2012 record.

The Beach Boys, as a touring group, was Brian's in the beginning (as he was obviously the driving force behind everything the band did). Once Brian quit touring, the responsibility fell onto Carl. And as the 70's turned into the 80's, I'd say the touring group was equally Carl's as it was Mike's. Especially considering Carl left in the early 80's. So when you include Brian quitting touring, Carl leaving in the 80's, Denny playing on and off due to substance abuse, and Al/Bruce/David/Blondie/Ricky all coming and going, Mike is really the only one who has consistently been in the group for the last 50+ years. (Yes, I know he missed shows here and there, but I'm talking big picture). Even though Mike goes on and on about Kokomo, how he wrote it, how it was #1 blah blah blah.... I think Mike must know that, as a studio group, in their hey day, Brian was in charge. Mike often talks about Brian's brilliant vocal arrangements with great gratitude... But with Mike being the only real consistent touring member, it makes sense that he sees the touring operation as his. Not to mention it literally became his after Carl's death. Of course I wish Mike had all of the guys in his group, but like I said, these guys are human. We know that Mike and Al haven't necessarily seen eye to eye since the 90's, and who the hell knows what Brian and Mike's relationship is really like. There are quotes and anecdotes from both Brian and Mike that, some indicate that they love each other very much, and some indicate they can't stand each other. Knowing that, it makes a little more sense why Mike, a normal human being like all of us, wouldn't want people he has animosity with in his group.  ....Or he could just be an attention wh*re like many on here call him...

I understand why many of you don't care for Mike as a person. I'm not blind to his faults.


I feel like this thread is going into a spiral of arguments and negativity, so I'm gonna try to take this in the direction I was initially hoping for by asking this.... What what YOU like from a new Mike Love album? No autotune?(an opinion I think we all share!) tell me your thoughts. Let's talk music. That's why we're here.

When Carl was ill, the last year, Brian saw him only once. Isn't it more horrible than a story of lawsuit, which is very useful in the US? Do you hate Brian for this???

Nate, I totally respect your opinion, so I personally am not going to devolve this thread into an argument. And I completely concur that Mike is human and humans make mistakes. Just like Mike is imperfect so are the members of this forum. So when we should be forgiving, sometimes we hold onto anger because of how much others have negatively affected us and those we care about. Many here really care about Brian, some of us see him as an imperfect but brilliant person, and some here see Mike as a great lyricist but also a bully (up until just a couple years ago was still making nasty comments about Brian/family in the media).

Just like you ask others to put themselves in Mike’s shoes, put yourself in the shoes of OSD who grew up with this band from the start and, from his perspective, watched the band crumble to pieces in part because of Mike. Put yourself in the shoes of Melinda who has to read about Mike saying she’s like Landy part 2 who controls Brian with drugs. Put yourself in the shoes of Brian’s hopeful business partners who one day received a letter they were being sued over a pointless freeby CD (and the worry and anxiety that must’ve caused those people for weeks/months/years). The shoe thing goes both ways (whether for Brian or Mike, Melinda or Jacquelyne, right down to all of us fans).

I would like to respond to Wata here: OSD, Pretty Funky’s posts were solely an opinion about Mike’s music. Whereas Mustomax, Senator, and Nate initially brought up the Brianistas and Mike being supposedly hated on because he’s Mike. This was solely an on topic music thread until those defending Mike brought up non-music topics (Brianistas, Mike being a douche, etc).

Nate, I completely respect why you feel the way you do. And I appreciate that you’re willing to explain in detail your thoughts. I’m sure others will respond to your thoughts on Mike’s touring and when Brian effectively no longer had control, I will steer clear of all that.
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As for Mike’s music. Frankly, I would hope the guys would get together to make a “That’s Why God Made The Radio” boxset. I think TWGMTR is the most perfect last album for this band, so I kinda don’t want them to get back together in the studio to make a totally different final album. But I would love for them to polish up the songs that weren’t released, to finish up the life suite and release it on its own disc. For one disc to be made up of post-TWGMTR recordings - for Mike to contribute a couple of his own songs for Brian to sing on. And for Brian to have Mike sing on some new Brian songs. For another disc to be demos, piano recordings, a cappella versions, backing tracks, etc.. and finally make a small EP of new recordings as a short and sweet new mini-album.

That is what I hope would happen with Mike’s music. As I know that’s probably impossible, I do hope that Mike just does what he feels happiest doing. If he wants to sell more records, I would recommend that he lay off the auto tune, and perhaps don’t rely on musical acts like Hanson or Mark McGrath.

You nailed it. I think a lot of this stuff is ridiculous.

But he is a major douche and proves it over and over.

Well stated...

Not wanting another shitstorm, I'll just say this to add my 2 cents to what's been said already. Regarding the "reunion" and TWGMTR reunion album and all the 50th anniversary reunion activities:

Mike chose to walk away from it when three of his bandmates who were playing in the Wilson's music room in Hawthorne expressed a desire to continue in various capacities ranging from recording new original music to additional live performances as the C50 unit. In various interviews and in his own book, Mike expressed something less than enthusiasm and positivity regarding the C50 tour and the creating of the TWGMTR album, not to mention the performance of said TWGMTR album and the performance of said C50 tour, which Mike in his book claimed was losing money (among other claims).

So when Mike did get back together with Brian and his bandmates, it didn't come out positive according to Mike, and he wasn't happy because among other things it didn't go the way he wanted it to go...from the writing process, to the album itself, to the live shows, and even the setlist and execution of those shows.

Mike wasn't happy about the C50 experience, in fact he seemed pretty bitter about it.

Yet the majority of fans thought C50 overall and the year 2012 up to September was easily one of the latter-year highlights of this band's almost 60-year history. Easily the ultimate band highlight of the years since Carl's passing.

And Mike wasn't happy about it.

That pretty much sums it up.

a. We don't truly know how many times Brian saw Carl in that time. There may be some public stories that we're aware of, but doesn't mean we were there to actually know.

b. I'll certainly concede it's indeed possible that Brian only saw Carl once during that time. But Brian is a chronic avoider, and has shown a history of being afraid of confronting really tough emotional stuff. He also didn't go to his dad's funeral. Give the guy a break. That might make it a tragic occurrence, but it doesn't mean he's a douche for it.

If Brian indeed didn't come see Carl more than once, I *highly* doubt it was out of spite.

On the other hand...

Mike's lawsuit was unquestionably a vindictive, petty, spiteful, and very much "on purpose" type of maneuver. Filing it was an action that had to wholly and completely be initiated and approved by Mike himself. And all of the awful stuff that the lawsuit put forward about Brian had to have been approved by Mike himself.

Whether or not Mike The Wordsmith wrote those words himself, he let his lawyers go ahead and slander Brian, where stuff was utterly falsified and made up about Brian being lazy, and about him not doing any work on music (during years which Brian actually wrote entire albums).

Plus, remember, in this lawsuit, there was a fake person that the lawyer(s) on purpose had pose as a "wronged" eBay purchaser of the freebie CD, in order to create the illusion of consumers being upset. No way that Mike was unaware that his lawyers were going to pull that type of thing. It's so utterly embarrassing to Mike, and he probably doesn't want a TMZ article about the details of it in the wake of celebs doing falsifications like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman; I'm sure the utter embarrassment and failure is why his book completely ignores this failed lawsuit with all sorts of slanderous and literally lying shenanigans ever even happened. That's how desperate Mike's ego was to not lose his lawsuit; allowing his lawyers make up fake people.

Yet if Mike had won the lawsuit, I'm sure Mike's book would have had a chapter dedicated to bragging about it. The whole thing is really despicable. I enjoy and value many of Mike's contributions to The BBs, but this was a truly awful action that is unconscionable behavior. No way to defend it whatsoever.

Completely different, apples and oranges type of situation trying to tie in Brian not visiting Carl enough to satisfy what you think would have been appropriate; your argument of comparing these actions of Brian to Mike holds no water, sorry.

Side note: I was listening to Sumahama yesterday, and it hit me that Mike sings a line he wrote about "never having met her father", which is pretty rich for him to casually sing, considering he had a daughter who he was completely ignoring the existence of at the time. So yeah, there really is no way to compare how Brian and Mike conduct themselves as people. Neither is perfect, Brian is not perfect either, but Mike regularly acts in ways that are ethically baffling to even people who truly want to give him break after break.

This is true as well. And it's really the only reason I have somewhat negative feelings toward Mike. But for me, it's not even that he broke up the band, but that he makes up excuse after excuse for why he isn't (something in his book about not being able to re-write the score after it's been written or something like that - what a bunch of sh*t), instead of being honest.

The fake person in Mike's lawsuit is news to me. That's awful. I understand that Mike was on total bullsh*t with the way he went about the suit. He let his lawyers do irresponsible things.

The Beach Boys' music is that of positivity. I don't think any of the BBs would want us to take sides, or talk sh*t about certain members. They all are courteous to each other, wishing eachother happy birthday on FB (probably via managers, although I think Mike and Al write their own posts it seems like), and the town hall this summer was a fine example that there doesn't seem to be animosity between the actual Beach Boys at this point in time. I recall hearing something like Brian saying "Mike, I love your Rock N Roll!!"  I know we like to dig deep and try to disect things like three guys wearing Mike's shirts and the others not... But it's all pretty irrelevant when, they were all there     (and I kinda remember reading that Mike brought some for Brian and Al but they didnt wanna wear em or something.... It's such a little detail to lose sleep over... not criticizing those who do, I'm obsessed with The BBs too)

The point I'm trying to make is if the music is all about positivity and love, maybe we should try to embrace that too.

I'm not saying we should live in a fantasy world where we pretend everything they do is absolutely perfect, but we maybe need to keep a "Cool Head and a Warm Heart"


Yes I know that was cheesy as F*ck but I couldn't help myself   :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

And this is all true, too. I think the Wilson brothers (in particular) learned, from having such a dysfunctional and abusive dad, to essentially take abuse, take unconscionably bad behavior from a narcissist, and let it keep sliding and forgive the person who did it, even if the perpetrator doesn't apologize. They (especially Brian) kept doing it to their own detriment. So I think it becomes a matter of fans from the outside not wishing estrangement between these people (at least I don't wish that), but wishing that there'd be actual peace and reconciliation, and above all admitting of sh*t behavior in a public manner, as opposed to seeing (from our point of view) terrible behavior simply pushed under the rug and "happy birthdays" said in social media, etc.

But like you said, it's complex and complicated, and we'll never know the real story of how their relationships work. But there's obviously tremendous dysfunction. I for one feel able to appreciate the music of all members while also at the same time not feeling any less disgust for particular actions by them that I feel were awful. I won't just pretend that some action isn't unconscionably awful just because I love the band. Mike Love can be a talented fellow and also someone who I feel has done some pretty damn unforgivable stuff (yes, even if his IMHO unbelievably way-too-forgiving cousin has apparently forgiven him).

That said...

If Mike would release a new album of material in the vein of Cool Head, Warm Heart, stuff that's nicely produced without Autotune, I'd be totally down with it.

At the same time, OSD and Pretty Funky offered their opinions solely about Mike's music. Were they harsh opinions? Perhaps they were. But they could have been ignored. Again, it was the people defending Mike who spiraled this thread towards Mike's personal life...OSD and Pretty Funky (and others who negatively commented on his music) were basing their opinions on Mike's music itself.

If we're trying to bring positivity to the forum, perhaps we should sometimes ignore the opinions we find offensive. And instead of questioning the motives of those harsh opinions in every thread, just accept that Mike has pissed off a lot of people (and the people pissed off have a pretty good case for being pissed off). And when it comes to Mike's music, people probably really dislike the music because they really do find it unlistenable and not because people just dislike Mike personally.
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Not to go too off-topic, but the C50 Live album is a complete disaster for those who wanted a real sounding "document" of the reunion tour. If you listen to the Chiba concert, it sounds friggin incredible and I don't think I've heard one trace of auto-tune on it. Joe Thomas decided to take some really good concert tapes, and completely destroy any heart and soul they had. And this is how I feel when Mike uses this "effect" constantly. He probably has a solid base of song somewhere in his recordings, but you'd never know it because your ear can't wrap itself around how his voice electronically gyrates like he were singing through Peter Frampton's guitar-vocoder being amplified by an original Gameboy speaker.

Imagine if Johnny Cash used autotune for his American series. They would have never ever become the classics they have become. They would have been laughed at and forgotten. And how quickly did we, some of the most ardent fans of the Beach Boys, completely lose interest in Mike's recent recordings? There are like 2 people on any of the forums who get excited about his music anymore.

Again, I'm beyond glad that Mike has been recording, but if he wants to sell some records (and have people consistently listen to his music), he needs to go the Johnny Cash route - perhaps the same is true for Brian too. People like the real. They don't like the fake. And auto-tuning your voice when you're in your 70s is about as fake as it gets.

I think if you're able to get past the auto tune, UTL has a lot to offer. Crescent Moon, Daybreak, Too Cruel, and Cool Head are all fantastic songs that fit really nicely into my Beach Boys playlist. I was shocked when UTL came out, and quite frankly disgusted by the amount of autotune, considering that Mike and co. are qualified singers. I can't imagine, given his comments about autotune, that Mike is the one pushing for it's use. Who the hell even knows is he's aware of the fact that his vocals are being autotuned.  Mike probably isn't the most technical guy in the studio, and if Michael Lloyd or an engineer perhaps told him they were using "pitch correction" or something, it would've gone over Mike's head. Maybe I'm thinking way too hard about this. Maybe Mike gave crappy vocal performances, that were attempted to be saved by autotune. I can only hope, just based on listening, Mike knows that his voice is being heavily processed. Nonetheless,. any concert of Mike's you attend will sound much better than UTL. The autotune did more damage than it did good. Getcha Back or Fun Fun Fun sound a million times better, even on lossy youtube concert videos.

I see the autotune as a gross filter put on top of the music, but it doesn't mean the music is bad. An artifact of the recording, not a representation of the song---Kinda like the talking on Here Today (which I've grown to love) or the clipping on moments of Pet Sounds  or even the loose/false start version of Im Looking Through You, if you're a Beatles fan. Poor mixing choices doesn't equal bad songwriting. And quite frankly, I find myself humming Crescent Moon more often than The Right Time. I'm Not saying Mike is a superior solo artist, BW clearly is. I do think, however, that Mike's songwriting and arrangments on UTL, shouldn't be overlooked just because of the autotuned vocals. For example, Daybreak Over The Ocean has a great string arrangement. Getcha Back has a cool xylophone playing the falsetto melody at the end. There are nice touches on UTL, that are totally overlooked. WIBN features a confident lead from Foskett, less soaked in autotune than most of the other vocals on the album.

If you can't get past the obnouxious autotune, I understand. It sounds weird !! But if you can, like I did, you might find yourself enjoying some of Mike's recent output. Then again, like I always say, I'm a die hard BBs fan who can appreciate even the most hated albums... SIP, Royal Philharmonic, Goin Public all have moments of greatness. Something I learned with The Beach Boys is sometimes you gotta dig a little to find some precious gems.  

I actually dig quite a few songs from the Philharmonic album - I wish some wouldn't completely brush it off because Sloop John B and In My Room are incredible, even if most of the rest of those songs aren't the best.

Unfortunately I don't think I can get past the autotune - it is just laid on so thick. Hopefully Mike eases off of it for any future recordings.

Excessive use of autotune and pointless remakes are the two major factors, and I do hope Mike will get rid of both this time. (I'm not holding my breath though. Seriously, I think he should take fans' advice on making albums.)

Even knowing the fact that many of the "new songs" had been written long ago, the songwriting/selection for UTL Disc1/Reason for the Season are decent (especially when compared to genuine disaster like SiP). I really hope he'd try to make the most of the material he has.

If he makes you crazy everytime Mike love releases a album i hope he releases a dozen more  :lol

Some updates on Mike's upcoming album (hopefully I'm not the only one who cares  :lol)

Looks like it'll be called 12 Sides of Summer, and feature probably feature It's OK w/ Hanson, from last summer, as well as another re-record, On and On And On. My guess is that it'll be just a collection of some upbeat summer songs. I'm certain there will be BBs re-records. I really liked Mike's songwriting work with Sam Hollander on RFTS, so I'm really hoping we can some new Mike originals on this one! Even more so, I'm hoping we get the Big Sur 4/4 that was teased in 2016! That version sounded great!!

I was reading a thread about this upcoming album on the Endless Harmony board, and people were discussing the inevitability that there will probably be BBs re-records on here. It was mentioned that it wouldn't be so much a problem, if he perhaps tried out some of the deeper cuts he co-wrote like All I Wanna Do, Aren't You Glad, Let The Wind Blow... I mean, if he's gonna re-record either way, maybe give those ones a shot. With the right production, they might sound pretty cool.  Although, some, if not most people, probably don't want any re-records at all. Which I understand to some degree; the idea of the artist just repeating themselves. But considering the fact that someday it'll be impossible for there to be a new BBs related album, I'll be thrilled, and at the least thankful, for whatever new music any of the guys come out with.

Mike doing re-records to the extent he does with his own former Beach Boys classics is like going to McDonalds and buying a Big Mac, then going to Burger King to buy a Whopper, and putting only the pickles from the Whopper onto the Big Mac, then throwing the Whopper minus the transferred pickles out the car window. As in...why bother, and what purpose does it serve to do it?

Does someone think Mike remaking old Beach Boys songs is what audiences beyond his diehard followers (however many that number is) would want to hear? One or two is fine, but this whole blurring of the name-licensed "Beach Boys" cutting soundalikes versus someone buying the original BB's albums is absurd.

Thanks for the update. Sounds great even if they are solo or BB re-recordings.

I still don't get why people are so annoyed by studio remakes of the old songs. When the guys play live - Mike, Brian, Al, etc - people have no complaints that all or most of the songs are old.

Speaking only for myself, but I don't see the need for studio remakes, regardless of who does it, unless it's bringing something new to the song. And by new, I don't mean terrible production! Not the same as live IMHO, where there's a certain vibe from actually being there

guitarfool2002,

I think Mike does the re-records simply because he enjoys doing so. Here's Mike on recording Do It Again in 2017 - ""The whole song's about getting together with old friends and sharing good times and talking about the old times... That fact that here we are decades later, recreating it with old friends, having a great time -- it doesn't get much more organic and perfect and fantastic than that."

He clearly just has fun doing it. Seems like Brian enjoys playing rock n' roll music right now, that's why I'm totally happy to hear him saying he's making a rock n' roll album. Originals or covers? I don't really care.

I'm just happy and thankful for any new material we get from these guys while we still can.

How much does anyone want to bet that he will try and shop his BB remakes to film, TV and commercial producers like Jeff Lynne has done?

I mentioned that back when "Unleash" came out a couple years ago. But I haven't really seen any evidence that he has succeeded in getting his stuff sold to those type of projects, if he is in fact attempting to do so.

Jeff Lynne has a couple things going for his remakes that Mike Love doesn't. First, Lynne owns the ELO name and his re-recordings can still be billed as "Electric Light Orchestra." Whereas, of course, Mike's re-records can't use the BB name. Secondly, Lynne's remakes sounds *pretty friggin' close* to the original recordings. I defy anybody to find another artist that could re-record their tracks 30-40 years later and have them sound *that* close to the originals. Yes, they aren't indistinguishable to studious fans, but they're closer than anything I've ever heard. Which is more miraculous considering Lynne does nearly all of the instruments and singing himself.

Lynne's re-recording of "Livin' Thing" just appeared in the newest "Toy Story 4" trailer (the previous trailer of course used the original "God Only Knows").

Meanwhile, Love's re-recordings sound *nothing* like the original tracks.

Also worth noting is that part of what Lynne was trying to do was circumvent Sony making all the money licensing the original masters out. But subsequently, Lynne re-signed with Sony again (via Columbia). So, while he would still make more money licensing his own masters out, he probably has less motivation to circumvent Sony now that he has an ongoing working relationship with them again.

The difference is that Jeff Lynne was more or less the "Brian Wilson" of ELO and was the mastermind behind those recordings and sounds. So Jeff could - and did - go back into the studio and recorded all the parts himself, where he could, minus instruments he simply didn't play. Just like certain BB's tracks from the 60's had vocals which were a wall of Brians or 90%-plus of those vocals were Brian overdubbing himself. It's not a knock on him or a critique but Mike Love is not that kind of musician and he was not the guy in the band who could do that, or who did it originally.

So when people are fans of Jeff Lynne's or Brian Wilson's or Todd Rundgren's *production*, they want to hear that production from these guys who made the records originally. Hell, I'll add John Fogerty into that mix...would fans of CCR or of Fogerty's production and musicianship be as warm to the idea of one of the other CCR members (not named Fogerty) who tours as a version of CCR with backing musicians cutting an album of CCR remakes, or would they be more receptive to Fogerty himself cutting an album of CCR remakes?

The answer shouldn't be hard to divine in that case. Or the others. It's the difference between the guy who actually envisioned and created the original records in the studio remaking his records versus another band member who played a lesser role doing it.


PS - "Soundalikes" are done and have been done in the film/TV/media industry for decades for mostly, if not strictly, financial reasons. Productions whose budgets aren't as big can license a soundalike for much, much less than the original mechanical recording and related rights/fees. If Mike is putting however many of these soundalikes into the market, maybe he's trying to turn a buck or two by trying to make these copies available rather than the originals.

Because ultimately as Billy said so well, the live experience of hearing these songs is far, far, far different than buying a studio soundalike featuring Mike caked with Autotune and his backing band trying to recreate some of the finest pop records ever made. I still fail to see the purpose of this beyond trying to somehow sneak in a few bucks in some way with these remakes.

But that's just my opinion.

Do It Again, Surfin USA, California Girls, Its OK, etc... are all really fun songs. I'm sure Mike has fond memories of recording them, enjoys playing them live, and seems to have a fun time re-recording them (see my above post for a quote)

I don't know why everyone gets all upset about Mike doing these re-records... Sure, nothing will compare to the original, but I see them as pretty harmless. It's not like we've heard the UTL versions of Help Me Rhonda or Fun Fun Fun in the media, as opposed to the original recordings. Sure, ticket buyers of The Beach Boys concerts can buy the CDs, and often get them included with the purchase of their tickets, but we might be over analyzing the effect of an album like UTL, for example.

When I was at a BBs show in August 2018, there was a huge ad for UTL on the screen, showing the album cover and track listing (as well as the RPO album too). I heard lots of people taking notice, but not getting confused weather it was Mike or a BBs album. People were saying "Do you think he's going to play his new stuff?" or even laughing about the album cover. They weren't going "Oh my gosh! A new Beach Boys album!!" People aren't dumb. I really don't think Mike is trying to con people into buying his album, and make them think it's a BBs product. I don't think he's trying to blur the lines, as some suggest. Even having the famous Dean Torrence BBs logo on the album cover originally, was probably just to make people aware of who Mike is, at a glance. Not too much different from BW using the iconic Pet Sounds fonts and styling for his shows. (Yes, I know the logo is trademarked, and there was some legality issues I assume, and that's why it was removed)  If people buy UTL and get a kick out of it (like I did), then why should anyone be upset? I think anyone who's going out of their way to spend over $15 on a CD or seek out Mike's digital catalog, is a fan and knows what they're in for. Keep in mind Brian is compensated for the songs he co-wrote being sold or streamed.

I wonder if at least some of the people who seem to happily celebrate Mike re-re-re-recording Beach Boys hits wasn’t a fan during much if any of the era when the Beach Boys actually wrote, recorded, and released *new* songs on a regular basis. *Constantly* re-recording the same old hits is not art. I’m not interested in doing the “art vs. commerce” debate in excruciating detail, there are not hard definitions. But creating and writing was (and for some members still is) a major feature of the Beach Boys. So when some fans are bored to tears (if not offended by lack of quality) by re-re-recordings, maybe it’s because they recognize that the Beach Boys used to not need to regularly resort to such things. And other artists, even contemporaries of the Beach Boys, manage to side-step re-recording *dozens* of their old tracks.

To boot, many of Mike’s re-records (most in fact) are not only the same songs that have appeared on a THOUSAND compilations, they are songs Mike sings HUNDREDS of times per year. Mike has also previously re-recorded some of these same songs going back to the 90s with Adrian Baker.

And, the answer to why Mike re-recorded songs for “Unleash the Love” was answered by Mike himself in an interview. *The record label asked for it!*

Which makes total sense; the *recognizable* song titles are things that the label (and I would guess Mike) would recognize would draw more potential sales and interest.

I don’t know why there is a need to try to do pretzel twists of reasoning trying to assert that Mike had no other motivation than simply keepin’ the summer alive! and having a rockin’ good time recording songs he likes. He sings these songs all year, every year! He’s largely also not doing altered arrangements of the songs to give them a new twist.

This ain’t rocket science.

Now, with the exception of some questionable labeling and marketing concerning featuring the “Beach Boys” name on packaging, I view Mike’s recordings as innocuous. In concept anyway. The insult to injury is that, by any measure, they are *poor* recordings in my opinion. They add nothing new, and are slathered in autotune to the point where Mike Love and Mark McGrath are nearly indistinguishable from each other on a track like “Do It Again.” Foskett’s falsetto sounds like a moog synthesizer it’s so processed.

I think it would be funny if the studio work of older acts like the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney mirrored their live work in recent decades. "Paul McCartney is releasing a new album this month that contains brand new versions of Hey Jude, Let it Be, Long and Winding Road, Can't Buy Me Love, Back in the USSR, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, plus 2 brand new songs that nobody cares to hear". lol. Maybe that's what Mike is doing now. Brian's done it too - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, Pet Sounds Live, Brian Wilson Presents Smile, Live at the Roxy.
It doesn't upset me because I know these guys are long past the point where a new song of theirs is going to be a hit. I know that when Mike or Macca play their new songs in concert, people will run to the concession stand or the restroom.
And that's why I just wasn't made for these times. I hate to see these guys become museum pieces. I want to turn back the clock to the time when they were vital creative artists. I mean, think about the Wings years. They played all of 5 Beatles songs....5 Beatles songs...in a 2 hour show. Can you imagine Paul going out now and devoting most of the show to songs from Egypt Station, Flaming Pie, and Chaos and Creation?

He could...but it wouldn't be to 20-50,000 seat venues with multi-night engagements...

Sir Paul could exclusively play Paul McCartney music and still sell out average size arenas and amphitheaters simply because he's Paul McCartney.

But it's not really a fair comparison...if Mike or Brian tried that, they'd be selling out the types of venues Al hits on the Story Tellers tours...

I'm all for Mike recording another album for no other reason than it's just there for anybody who wants it just like a Ringo Starr album...nothing more, nothing less.
And now that the world is online it'll be easier to find the album than having to wade through the cut-out bins that stores used to have.

I loved the cut out bins! Got a lot of good music that way, especially in the years vinyl was being phased out. Found gems like America's first album, George Benson's Weekend in LA, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Gord's Gold Volume 2, Frank by Squeeze, several Marshall Crenshaw albums, Yo Frankie by Dion, More Greatest Hits of the Monkees.

michaels covering the Ramones??!?!?!?   the song "rockaway beach" actually could work in beach boys style,--- but omg-- no way mike thought this up on his own--

Oh the nasality of Rockaway Beach!

I wonder if he'll remake Rockin' The Man In The Boat...

https://twitter.com/MikeLoveOFCL/status/1133512372952403970 (https://twitter.com/MikeLoveOFCL/status/1133512372952403970)


Mike's been prolific lately - wonder how his next record turns out to be.

Well, this is interesting.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8513452/wme-signs-the-beach-boys-mike-love-bruce-johnston

Found this 38 seconds clip of "Rockaway Beach" on Endless Harmony Forum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A-f1Ho-9F0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A-f1Ho-9F0)

The album is now on amazon.co.uk:

www.amazon.co.uk/12-Sides-Summer-Mike-Love/dp/B07S28TLT3 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/12-Sides-Summer-Mike-Love/dp/B07S28TLT3)

Tracklist:
1. California Beach
2. It's OK (feat. Hanson)
3. Surfin'
4. Calfornia Sun
5. Surfin' Safari
6. On and On and On
7. Here Comes The Sun
8. Girl From Ipanema
9. Over and Over
10. Keepin' Summer Alive
11. Summertime Blues
12. Rockaway Beach

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91192H8htBL._SL1500_.jpg)

Mike’s covering GIRL FROM IPANEMA? ???

This album cover makes me wish Mike would just lean into the Getcha Back, Kokomo, Summer in Paradise style of production rather than the bland, generic sound he's currently going for. Getcha Back is basically a re-write of Hungry Heart, but at least it sounds different because it's so heavily electronic-based. And I love Getcha Back.

I'm not a Mike hater, but I'm not going to pretend I listen to his solo stuff. If it's not going to be good anyway, then I'd prefer he at least make his covers his own. And a SIP-style Rockaway Beach certainly would at least be funnier than what I'm hearing in the 38-second sample, which just doesn't really need to exist, as is.

Certain songs on Summer in Paradise (Still Surfin', Lahaina Aloha, title track) are guilty pleasures of mine because a. they're catchy and b. because of the kitschy production. Those songs wouldn't really be interesting at all without the datedness of the electronic drums and 80s/90s guitar tone.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but that album cover certainly doesn't fit what I'm hearing from the 30-second sample of Rockaway Beach.

Well, at least it'll be interesting to compare his "California sun" to Brian's (which is pretty good):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auJ0h9jnsK0

Surprised a new "Sunshine Remix" of Pisces Brothers didn't make it onto this thing...

...Of course now Mike will have "Here Comes The Sun" available to further enhance the threadbare George Harrison connection when he goes for the heavy/reverent/pious moments at his shows.

Mike should stay far away from Beatles covers based on previous efforts after the Party album, but I digress.

Oh, and just allow me a moment to rage for a bit, then I'll put the soapbox away...

How many more fucking covers and remakes of "Surfin" do we need to endure from Mike??? None of them has ever been good, none has ever come close to the magic of even a half-second of the 60's tracks...so yeah, let's get another remake of Surfin' out there.

For "fun", right?  ;D

So this appears to be all covers as far as I can tell: Covers of other artists (California Sun, Here Comes the Sun, Girl from Ipanema, Rockaway Beach), Beach Boys covers (Surfin’, Surfin’ Safari, It's OK, Keepin' the Summer Alive), covers of *previous covers* (On and On and On, Over and Over, Summertime Blues), and I'm guessing a cover/re-recording of one old unreleased outtake ("California Beach").

As I recall, "California Beach" was a re-write of "Skatetown USA" (or vice versa).

Also interesting in that Mike's current live arrangement of "It's OK" has its intro borrowed from "Skatetown USA/California Beach."

I'm surprised Mike didn't dig into a few of those "originals" from the Adrian Baker late 90s/early 2000s albums, like "Camp California" and "Summertime Music."

God i get the terrible feeling half these songs will end up in the Summer Beach Boys setlist....

(https://i.imgur.com/ytktY2q.jpg)

A pretty safe assumption. The only question is how many "Unleash" tracks will get displaced because of it.

Will he finally put "Pisces Brothers" out of its misery?

Thanks for linking that, Wata! I love how the description for that video is solely "Mike Love please do not sue me!" Quite the reputation ;D

The production on this sounds SO much better than the last couple albums he has put out. There is no jarring autotune, I think there may be some there, but it's not to the level it was on Unleash The Love. Mike pretty much sounds like Mike should, and it sounds like he's having fun. I think 'Girl From Ipanema' is a great choice, especially if Mike does a duet with Ahmba (pardon if spelling that wrong) for that tune. I completely agree with Guitarfool about 'Surfin' - I don't really see the appeal outside of hearing the original song (granted, I feel this way about most covers).

My biggest hope for this album? That it would inspire Brian to get into the studio. If Brian is done with the studio, then more power to him. But for all the talking he does about a "rock and roll album" there is sure a complete lack of progress on it. In the time Brian has talked about Pleasure Island Mike will have released 3 studio albums (probably more than that, depending on how far back Brian started talking about this thing).

I really think Brian could do something so unique with a rock-and-roll album. Make it into a concept album revolving around classic radio stations from the 60s. Get a DJ to do interludes every 3 songs, interview Brian on it with a few Brianisms thrown in. Get Paul McCartney to guest doing a duet of 'Girl Don't Tell Me' with Brian. End it with Brian doing a minute long solo piano cover of 'That's Why God Made The Radio'. Get it produced properly and it would be a small hit, methinks.

Anyways, don't mean to hijack the thread and make it about Brian. I think a friendly competition between both Mike and Brian would be a neat thing to see...and perhaps this will be the album to spark that....I can dream....

Man, this song makes me imagine an "Onion" headline:

Sole Fan Who Always Wanted to Hear Mike Love cover The Ramones Finally Gets Wish

I think Mike's glut of albums is down to having an ongoing deal with a label, and both he and the label realize these albums are cheap and easy to knock out (and it seems many of the circulating copies are getting moved by being thrown in as freebies alongside concert tickets). No offense to the people putting in hard work to record them, but there is *very little* new writing across all three of these albums.

Mike's basically doing what he did with Adrian Baker in the late 90s, only with higher production values (but also more autotune).

Brian and Al and company could easily knock out albums like this. But do I want an album full of stuff that sounds like Brian's "California Sun?" Not really. That track is fine and solid, but unremarkable. I've always had little interest in hearing 50s and 60s oldies covered by Brian across an entire album. Maybe if Al sang all the songs, then it would hold *some* interest.

But I'd rather see a "Brian all by himself" album (Brian and a piano with just enough editing to make the songs full/complete, but otherwise untouched), or even another "No Pier Pressure" type album rather than oldie covers. If Brian *had* to do an album of covers, I'd rather see a thoughtful, somewhat esoteric selection. Stuff more like "Wanderlust" and less like "Good Golly Miss Molly."

Am I the only one who is excited about this release? The Rockaway Beach clip sounds crisp and clear and upbeat and fun. I remember thinking just in the last week or two that Mike should eventually release a studio version of Summertime blues, with the current band rather than the version with Adrian that has been in circulation. I'm also excited to see California Beach get  released after all these years! I always thought that would have been a great song for KTSA. Speaking of KTSA, I'm not sure if that's a remake of the same song (the wording of the title is slightly different), but I've been putting in requests with Scott for years for John Cowsill to sing that one live! So count me as one long time fan who is excited about this! Much more than UTL and RFTS.

While I find this hilariously true :lol I'm also glad that Mike is doing his own thing here. He could've done a cover of 'Kokomo' (which we'd all be expecting), but this is kinda different, which is refreshing.

I mean, if I had a say in it, I would want Brian to being recording original tunes as much as he could too. But Brian has stated about 1000 times now that he wants to make an album of rock and roll covers. It's about the only consistent statement he has made for the last decade (or two) during interviews. I believe he has gone as far as saying what songs he would like to see on the album. My post above was ideas that would make an album of covers by Brian unique...so it wasn't the same-old same-old like we're getting from Mike.

And regardless of the reason behind Mike's albums, fact is that he is still getting in the studio and recording them. They are nothing I listen to, nothing I will ever listen to outside of an initial listen and I usually forget about it soon after. But he is spending time in the studio, and from what I gather, it's far more time than Brian has spent in the studio recently. Whatever the reasons, I hope that Brian gets a spark of inspiration from it.

Brian has been in the studio recording the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary...so that will be a treat to hear when it comes out. Hopefully that too will spark some inspiration for him to get into the studio more.

I suppose that 38 second clip has less immediately evident autotune (though it still sounds present to me), and covering a Ramones song is certainly going to get one away from rather limp production and arrangement values. But, not to be hypercritical, I genuinely think it's okay to say that Mike Love's voice has rarely or never been suited to sing a Ramones song. I think Mike had a little bit of that type of grit in his voice back in the "All I Want To Do/Sweet and Bitter" era in 1968/69/70. But I haven't heard that type of singing from him since then.

And yes, it's quite possible "Keepin' Summer Alive" is different than "Keepin' THE Summer Alive"; I assumed at typo but it could be a new song. I can't say writing a NEW song but titling it nearly identically to the title track from a 1980 Beach Boys album sounds particularly original or interesting (I'd say the same for something called "Really Still Cruisin" or "Another Summer in Paradise", etc.)

I'd take hearing the album in full just to never have to hear "Pisces Brothers" live in concert again.

 :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol So far, the best remark made about this thing. And if the 30 second snippet is any indication of what this thing is all about, I'll be shocked  :o if it even charts. Next.

I definitely wish Brian (and really more so Al than any of them) would get more active in the studio. Covers, originals, rejiggered outtakes, whatever man.

It's certainly true, however workmanlike and conveyor-belt style he's doing it, Mike's recording and releasing stuff. Al has a literal pro recording studio at his literal door step, so I definitely wish he could get more out there.

I think both Brian and Al have more "in the can" (including stuff recorded in recent years) than we know. I don't know if I'd want three albums of covers from Brian and Al over the course of two years, but releasing something would be nice.

I guess we'll have to see the production credits, but I wonder if a few of the old BB covers on this new one were recorded back during the "Unleash" sessions.

In all fairness, that clip of Rockaway Beach comes without context, it could be a rough mix or a leftover from previous sessions, so who knows until further info comes out what that is.

However, judging *that clip* of Rockaway Beach...it sounds like it came from an episode of "Saved By The Bell" from the 90's when the kids decide to start a rock band and play at a school dance until Mr. Belding threatens to shut them down...then Mr. Belding's old neighbor Mike shows up to save the dance and sits in with the kids on an old number.

I'm truly ambivalent about the album cover; there is actually part of my brain that doesn't mind slick, simple cover designs. But the album cover does remind me of stuff like this:

(https://timelife.com/system/cover_images/images/000/000/816/full/70sGREATLOVE_LoveWillKeepUsTogether2CDUni.jpg?1534170706)

(https://timelife.com/system/cover_images/images/000/000/046/full/350_prd_moyl_d01.jpg?1340799669)

(https://vision-play.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/EASe-1-front.png)

Bonus points if someone can determine whether elements of the album cover are taken from stock image beach photos.....

(https://static3.bigstockphoto.com/4/8/2/large2/284075512.jpg)

While it's a lost cause/non-issue at this point clearly with BRI, I do continue to be a bit dismayed with the blurring of promoting the "Beach Boys" tour vis-a-vis Mike's solo album. You get concert promotions like this:

(https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/60716079_10157211140529035_599995450803617792_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=bb25d45a49c1abfb04727a200e0d4a5d&oe=5D5FA3F3)

From this website: https://www.pne.ca/event/the-beach-boys/

Of course, what else is new? Was anything less than that expected from Mike? Mike has an album "12 Sides Of Summer", and we get a BEACH BOYS 12 SIDES OF SUMMER concert promotion complete with that Dean Torrence logo. Even though it's not the Beach Boys. BRI doesn't seem to give a sh*t, unless they just don't want to get mixed up in a legal shitstorm with Mike. If fans paying to see the Beach Boys won't mind Mike plugging his own solo efforts as The Beach Boys and playing his own stuff at concerts rather than actual Beach Boys songs, what else is there to say. It's ridiculous but so is a lot of what Mike pulls.

And this is coming from a guy who sued his cousin in 2005 over what he termed "brand confusion" or something like that. Unbelievable hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is the nicer way to describe it.

Adding more to the blurring of Mike Love solo versus The Beach Boys...There are promotions where people buying Beach Boys tickets online will get a free digital download of Mike's solo album "12 Sides of Summer". Mike "doin' it again" in terms of piggybacking his solo stuff onto the Beach Boys name.

And the tour in some places is indeed being promoted under the same name as Mike's solo album, like this one:

https://www.facebook.com/events/bold-point-park/the-beach-boys-12-sides-of-summer/621232551634436/ (https://www.facebook.com/events/bold-point-park/the-beach-boys-12-sides-of-summer/621232551634436/)

Again, I guess BRI either doesn't care or doesn't want to get into a scrum with Mike's lawyers. But it is hypocrisy considering Mike's previous legal actions, and a cheap way to use an iconic band name to self promote. IMO.

You know startBB, you actually kinda nailed it there. A lot of us have complained over the years about the '79 version of "Here Comes the Night", The Beach Boys '85 and Summer In Paradise, along with some giving Brian Wilson '88 some grief as well (though I personally love it).

It seems like so many of us wanted a return to a more "natural" recording, and with that we'd get more "classic" tunes. But really, and maybe it's just me, but I'd take the craziness of "Crack at Your Love" and it's recording over something like the more "natural" sounds of most of Gettin' In Over My Head just like I'd take the insanity of Summer In Paradise or that crazy '80s bombast of "Getcha Back" over Mike's new "Rockaway Beach" cover or "Make Love Not War" or whatever crap that is.

Now for material like That Lucky Old Sun, That's Why God Made The Radio, No Pier Pressure (excepting "Runaway Dancer"....yeesh) and yes, even Mike's "Cool Head, Warm Heart" and his solo version of "Daybreak Over the Ocean", these are (in my opinion) well written and well-recorded songs, at least instrumentally (as I know there are many about the vocal processing on both guys solo records) and therefore we are lucky that he weren't recorded in a super dated or tacky style.

Regarding the 2005 lawsuit and this new tour/album thing: I can not see how anyone back in 2005 would get a free CD of Brian Wilson recordings, thinking it would be the Beach Boys because of a tiny picture on the cover (as one of Mike's or Mike's lawyer's associates claimed), but I can totally see someone thinking the new album would be the Beach Boys after seeing the tour poster, even though Mike's name is printed in big letters on the cover.

This is 100% observational on my part, but I'm guessing BRI isn't/wasn't completely blind to how Mike is promoting the solo projects in conjunction with the BB name.

As folks here helped to document, after initially releasing "Unleash the Love" with a sticker that used the BB trademark logo and referred to Mike as "lyricist of the Beach Boys", when it hit vinyl the sticker was redesigned without the logo and changed the reference to "a lyricist of...":

(https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/30124188_2010557735880913_4028526637296610924_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_eui2=AeGOTol9ZxxsuqfE-vihwxcjhYvcLH9ybpImq_JkAfX22PHG7WmEN_3cZp9eZXQjPYreuTdHcWvguuku4q2Ymot2Bn4VLekdxJt7Tc7Toyk9rg&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=9ae0be73c85586b976eff3107d35c477&oe=5D591CEA)

happy to see my photography live on ^-^

Hey, you took one for the team, buying *multiple* copies of the album!

I am glad someone is looking at that stuff. Whats funny to me is that some fans are still adamant that the "Legacy" of the Beach Boys just can't be altered in any way, shape, or form anymore. Yet that Mike was forced to change that sticker is evidence enough that people who are in an official position to make such calls obviously see the harm Mike can do by placing a Beach Boys logo on the less-than-stellar UTL.

And keep in mind that the 2005 lawsuit was also about Brian re-recording songs co-written by Mike and Mike not having any say in those songs being re-recorded. Yet Mike is clearly doing the same nonsense here too. There is hypocrisy from every angle when you look at the 2005 lawsuit.

 However, isn't it "revised" band logo actually in the Pet Sounds font?

It's sort of in the Pet Sounds font, but it's probably not an issue because it's a publicly-available font and not an original copyrighted/trademarked logo.

Makes sense.

Coming soon to your local PBS telethon...

The only thing I have any interest in here is "Keeping The Summer Alive"...I'd always hoped they'd add that to the set with Cowsill on lead...maybe this will get the band thinking in that direction?

I've been asking Scott for on and off for years to suggest it to Mike! I feel like it would fit the band's vibe very well. Hopefully they'll add it to the setlist!

"Rockaway Beach" is now on Spotify (Europe)

"Rockaway Beach" is now "officially" up on YouTube in full:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1B8Xm3dsv0

This is about as awful as it gets. The voice, that wasn't very good to begin with, is shot to hell from 649 concerts a year(talk about overexposure!). No one, absolutely nobody cares what Mike Love is trying to do these days, and are probably surprised he's even still around. He's a friggin' parody of himself in yet this geezer still thinks he's has major importance in the world of entertainment. Sad. Just sad that's all.

I'd be lyin' if I said I loved it...

Love the new track.  Great, unpretentious fun.  The Ramones would have loved it!

This is actually pretty good. His voice sounds pretty good without all the excessive auto tone and certainly not worn out by all the concerts he plays. I have to say it's interesting to see what Mike Love is trying to do these days, and i'm really happy he's still around and trying to put out new music. It's a pretty good friggin' cover of a different song/genre while he stays true to himself and his sound this is very solid work by Mike and he's defiantly staying out there and relevant.  Excited. Very excited to see what the new album brings. Way to go Mike!  :lol :lol :lol :lol

I'm pretty loathe to assume a band whose primary/original members are *all* deceased would have liked something.

I don't think Mike's music could often much be framed as pretentious, so "unpretentious" is his standard setting. Which obviously isn't inherently a bad thing.

Sometimes unpretentious can translate to insubstantial.

I'd say with some key exceptions, most covers (certainly among the band's solo output) tend to be among the less substantive material in the catalog.

But, I'm not into going after the low-lying fruit of Mike's solo output. This album doesn't appear to be hurting anyone. I don't think Mike's voice is suited at all to a Ramones song.  

If Mike absolutely must continue to release stuff, I'd just as soon see him reissue the Celebration albums, or at least "Almost Summer", which I'm stunned he hasn't revisited *at all* either in the studio or live in concert.

I genuinely believe if he had just put out that circa 2004 comp of solo material (with some minor track selection tweaking), fans and critics would have liked it much, much more.

I certainly would buy that he (and others involved in the album) have heard the complaints about autotune and dialed it back, but it's still there to my ears.

While Mike's voice certainly qualifies as "not too bad for a guy pushing 80 who tours all year, every year", his voice most certainly, again in my opinion, *has* been strained for many years now by excessive touring.

While this Ramones cover isn't doing much for *me*, if he had released this as a single and we *didn't* know what else was coming on the album, I'd think "yeah, maybe he's got something more interesting up his sleeve." But nope. The album has remakes of "Surfin' Safari", "Surfin", and other Beach Boys tracks. It's literally like outtakes from the second disc of "Unleash the Love."

It's not a glowing review when the most interesting potential track name on the list is a re-recording of a late 70s third-tier Beach Boys outtake that's not even in the Top 20 of unreleased tracks from the late 70s. I'm about as excited about Mike remaking "California Beach" as I was when I found out Brian was remaking "Saturday Morning in the City."  :lol

The Rockaway Beach cover is pretty bleh to my ears. Just kinda lame and generically bad.

However, the bar has been set so low with autotune-heavy atrocities like Do It Again with awful Mark McGrath, and the embarrassing/offensive curry line in Ram Raj, that it actually makes Rockaway Beach seem like a breath of fresh air by comparison.

I do, however, appreciate the idea of covering a Ramones song. At least in theory it's kind of a cool concept. There are glimpses of Mike's voice sounding acceptable in this cover version, but overall the vocal is really stilted, awkward, and strained, and feels like it was really cobbled together out of "the best that they could do" or something like that. Sort of like Brian's often apathetic vocals on parts of GIOMH, it sounds like Mike absolutely didn't labor over making it the best he could.

Aside from Mike's vocals, the backing track itself is mediocre; not awful but most certainly not particularly great. Again, considering how low the bar has been set, it makes it actually sound better, and I'm tempted to say it's "okay" even though I'd shrug and say it's pretty meh if I wasn't comparing it to anything else.

I feel like Mike dialed down the autotune (thankfully) due to the amount of criticism he received online for it on recent projects. In fact I'd be utterly surprised if that wasn't the precise reason for it being less offensively present here.  

I really enjoy Mike's new version of Rockaway Beach. Sure, he doesn't sound like a young man, but to my ears to auto-tune seems to be more subtle this time around (still there, just less offensive) and the production is pretty lively. If the rest of the album sounds like this, I think I will enjoy it. People who are trying to analyze and nitpick every note and aspect of this record are just creating unnecessary stress for themselves in my opinion, it's clearly supposed to be just a fun collection of summer songs, not to be taken too seriously. I'm hoping some of these songs will make a nice addition to my Beach Boys playlist. I've wanted to hear a proper, more 'ballsy', studio version of Summertime Blues from the boys. Neither the Surfin Safari nor Adrian Baker versions really do it for me. The song sounds great when they play it live, so hopefully we get another cut in the vein of Wild Honey from UTL- meaning, pretty live sounding, all things considered. On that note, since Cowsill's Wild Honey definitely stole the show on Disc 2 of UTL, I'm hoping we get a studio version of KTSA with a Cowsill lead, and maybe get that song back in the tour repertoire. I'm not even in love with that particular song to be honest, but it's very fun to hear live and I think Cowsill would nail it. I've also always wanted to hear Beach Boys style harmonies on Here Comes The Sun, so we might be in for a real treat, that song could definitely go either way.

This is what I thought too. It's a fun song overall, more hard-charging than we've generally heard from the guys in recent years (decades?)... which is great! But there's something clumsy about the vocal phrasings, particularly right out of the gate with the first few lines. He sounds somewhat better as it goes on, but he probably needed more takes to really sound comfortable with it and find the groove. 

Agreed.

The funny thing is, on this song, the fact that less autotune is being slathered on on Mike's voice actually has the effect of making Mike sound *younger* because it no longer feels like a robot is being used as a crutch for a voice that is barely there at all. That's the false impression one gets when autotune is leaned on so heavily. In reality, Mike still has an ok voice, although it is overly-strained due to over-touring... that said, his voice on this sounds WAY better with less/no autotune compared to other released stuff we've heard lately.

When hearing this song, I actually said to myself "well Mike certainly doesn't sound great, but his voice is still in waaay better shape compared to what one might be led to believe hearing him being turned into a robot on Do It Again and the like".

IMO Mike should be doing leads like Cool Head, Warm Heart, in his Meant For You/Kokomo type voice. I'll never understand why he didn't lean into that vocal style more often.

Keep a tally of how many replies use the term "fun" when describing this track. Seems to be a trend surrounding Mike releasing covers over the past few years.  ;)

I think Rockaway Beach is can good! It's better than I expected. I'm all for Mike doing another album, as long as the remakes and autotune are at a minimum. I'll no doubt be given up for completely insane for saying this, but I honestly believe that "Ram Raj" is better than the majority of Brian's NPP.

I think the track itself sounds good, but frankly Mike's voice is showing its age. I agree with others here that it's a relief not to hear heavy Autotune (the bane of modern music, imho).

What stands out to me is how Mike with the Beach Boys especially during the earlier years up to 1964-65 was part of the direct link to what became the sound of the Ramones in the 70's. Watch live clips of the BB's doing "Papa Ooo Mow Mow", watch them on the TAMI Show, listen to other live tracks from 64...*That* is a major part of the sound that became the Ramones. Listen to Dennis - especially live - just playing the sh*t out of his drums. That, right there, is pure rock-and-roll, pure energy, the proverbial ticking time bomb of a beat that threatens to explode at any second, and it's the driving force. Yet it is a simple, straight 8th rock and roll beat...rock and roll stripped down to the bare essentials and played by young guys like Dennis who would go balls-to-the-wall and play the sh*t out of the songs.

Then there are Mike's vocals, again check out the earliest record they cut in a studio, "Surfin'", seek out a rip of the Candix 45. It's basic, stripped down rock and roll, and Mike's lead vocal is delivered with that "x factor" of an attitude and a drive that overdrives and distorts his microphone...and the effect is essentially that same attitude and undefinable drive that ended up appearing again on Ramones records and live shows.  Listen to "Papa Ooo Mow Mow" on the live versions from the 60's which we do have available, and consider how many nights went unrecorded and are lost to time when Mike or Dennis may have kicked off the tune a little too fast, maybe the adrenaline combined with a wild audience kicked in and they just played all out...And *that*, right there, was the same electricity that The Ramones would tap into and amplify even more at their live shows.

I hear so much of Dennis Wilson, early-to-mid-60's, in Tommy Ramone's drumming. That all-out, muscular, straight-8th bashing of the drums that was the hot-rodded engine driving the band. The Ramones stripped everything down to its basics when they played live. No long guitar solos if there was a solo at all, basic bass patterns, straightforward rock and roll drumming, but on top were great melodies and the whole package was delivered with an attitude that cannot be defined in words...but you know it when you see it and hear it.

Watch TAMI Show or Papa Ooo Mow Mow from "Lost Concert"...Dennis has it. Listen to Mike's vocals on the original "Surfin'" 45, and Mike doing Papa Ooo Mow Mow live (or on the Party album)...Mike has it.

Then watch some original Ramones concert footage, when Tommy Ramone was still the drummer, 1978 and earlier...They're doing a lot of what the Beach Boys were doing live in 63-64, only amped up and cranked up...and stripped down to pure rock and roll even more. It can be glorious in its energy, it can be like watching a trainwreck about to happen...but it's rock and roll.


So here is Mike in 2019 dropping a cover of Rockaway Beach. He was part of the original - OG - group of young guys who inspired the Ramones to do what they ended up doing.

What I don't understand is, if Mike is going to cover the Ramones, or other similar songs and artists, why doesn't he embrace some of that same attitude which practically gave birth to all the later sounds which the Ramones and others refined and turbo-charged, instead of trying to make a "clean" record out of a song like Rockaway Beach? I can't express how many times I wish the Beach Boys in general had cut loose, gone all-out, balls-to-the-wall and played rock and roll...and captured it on a recording somehow in these later years. They were the forefathers of those sounds, yet we get clean and almost sterile records like Rockaway Beach when the songs are screaming for that kind of energy we see from Dennis at TAMI and hear from Mike on Surfin'.

But alas, and of course, Dennis is gone and Mike is no longer a young man. None of them are, so does that mean the pure abandon and pure joy of playing rock and roll too loud, too fast, and experiencing the sheer joy of plugging in an electric guitar, turning it up to 10, and letting rip on an A power chord is gone too?

I hope not. But Mike's new single release doesn't give much hope, if any hope at all, that we'll see what pure fun in rock and roll really is from some of the originators, and how it's done. Maybe it truly is a young man's game.

I am a Ramones fan and I know that they respected The Beach Boys. It sounds like Mike is trying too hard to enunciate every single work, and that works against him a bit, but I think it is a fun song, and it fits the Beach Boys sound. And Mike's. I hope we see a lot of airplay this summer and if nothing else, people would appreciate the original. 

Great perspective! And the feel you describe is part of why I actually do like the choice of Rockaway Beach as a cover, even if the execution could perhaps be improved upon.

I'm also okay with pointing out that, while it's kind of a reverential joke at this point, it's absolutely true that The Ramones re-made the same song over and over and over and over. Their stuff has never interested me. It doesn't mean they suck, and I guess not *every* single song sounds *exactly* like "Rock n Roll High School." But a bunch do, and the three-chord thing with that same singing over and over has never been something I was into.

So while a Ramones remake isn't the most obvious thing Mike could have done, musically it's less substantive than even some of Mike's other solo material. I'll listen to "Cool Head" over "Rockaway Beach" any time.

As much as people have ragged on "Looking Back With Love" over the years, it's frankly more listenable on *many* levels than a ton of later stuff. It's at least *his* voice, and it's competently produced (even with that sterile late 70s/early 80s Eddie Rabbit-sounding production), and the title track wouldn't be too bad with a different set of lyrics. I'll listen to "Paradise Found" over his new stuff any day. LBWL is essentially "MIU Album II" minus the other Beach Boys, which is frankly more interesting, enjoyable, and substantive than his later solo output, with the exception of some of those 2004 solo tracks.

Mikes voice did and does have a place in the modern writing/recording world. I'm not even like a HUGE fan of *all* the Paley sessions material, but Mike singing some lines on something like "Chain Reaction of Love" is where he's best suited. And the low end on the harmonies on stuff like the intro to "Pacific Coast Highway."

Remember when Mike said in the aftermath of C50 that he and Brian had initially some time previously discussed an oldies/covers album, and how he seemed disappointed that project never happened.

Does this new album resemble at all what he was thinking back then? Imagine the first new Beach Boys album in 20 years in 2012, and seeing a re-re-recording of "Summertime Blues" and "The Girl from Ipanema" and stuff like that.

Some guy named Jorah posted this on that other board. A boardie over there thought it was by HeyJude under a pseudonym (which I definitely took as a compliment). But anyways, I've been permission to repost by Mr. Mormont. So I figured I'd throw his thoughts in here if anybody cares...

Wow. Michael sounds pretty wobbly on this one. I applaud him for trying to "rock" a bit more but I have to say that in the studio, perhaps Mike shouldn't be doing leads like this kind anymore. It's kinda like Brian on the verses of 2017's "Run, James, Run" in that these quicker rockers are just too wordy and energetic to get truly great performances from these guys anymore. Just as Brian voice is better suited to ballad type material these days ("Please Let Me Wonder" live, "Summer's Gone", "Whatever Happened"), Mike is now at his best when he's doing a "Cool Head, Warm Heart", "Daybreak Over the Ocean" or "Kokomo" type deal. It's Alan Jardine who is best doing the uptempo leads these days. Or the least having Alan double Mike like he did on "Beaches In Mind". And all this is yet another reason that Brian, Mike and Al should at least be recording together. But hey, that's their choice(s).

Lastly, it kinda makes me feel a wee bit uncomfortable when they are doing work with artists/cover artists that they have no knowledge of. I myself would be incredibly surprised if Mike Love knows a single Ramones song and/or has ever heard of them, outside of seeing people where their tee-shirt. Same for Brian. Though I could see both actually kinda liking music like "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and maybe even something like "Judy is a Punk" I just don't think Mr. Lifestyles-of-the-Rich-and-Famous, jet-setting, PMRC supporting Mike Love has ever given more than possibly a few thoughts of the Ramones. Just as I can't imagine Brian truly being able to name a pop star who came to prominence after, say, Phil Collins or Lionel Richie. For whatever reason, the guys don't seem connected to contemporary music after around the mid-'80s. Honestly, as far as influences, you don't hear much past the late '60s for Brian, while with Mike you usually have your doo-wop and early rock influences, though I suppose Buffett's "trop-rock" may have been an influence for later work.

But then sometimes I get surprised, like when you have Brian talking up Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which I never thought he would like, or Mike's Bruno Mars love (though I get the feeling Mike saw him on TV and just kinda put a wish out there to work with him, I never got the feeling that Mars was ever approached by the Love camp, nor would he likely accept. For whatever reason, probably the best Mike could do is these days is Hanson, who ain't so current). Al and Bruce eem to be a bit more plugged in (in their own respective ways) with Al occasionally singing the praises of relatively newer groups like the Fleet Foxes and Bruce (ugh) talking about modern day country (which let's be honest, mostly is a massive corruption of the great country music that was made during the 20th century).

Lastly, sorry for going way off track there. But the idea of any of The Beach Boys covering a punk tune kinda made me snicker and I had to post. My b.

Mike could have done "Beat On The Brat" easily enough, but it is missing that "summery vibe".

Last I checked fun was still a good thing?

I don't post on the "Endless Harmony" board and never have. I read it sometimes. But I don't post on that or any other BB board under pseudonyms or otherwise. I've been on the BB interwebs for coming up on 25 years and haven't thus far been dragged into *that* particular accusation.

I've reached out to someone via e-mail on the other board and asked them to let that poster on that board and any other needed parties over there know that whoever that is on the EH board, it isn't me. If anyone here could also help me let folks on that board know, that would be much appreciated.

Trust me, nobody wants to drag me into this sort of BS. Bad idea.

Golly HJ, I think you took that a bit too seriously. Obviously it was myself posing as Jorah on that board and I outed myself as that poster on that board.

I was simply paying you a compliment by saying that somebody thought that I was you. I suppose from now on I will no longer try to good naturedly engage you. My apologies, seriously. Did not want to drag anybody into anything.  :-\

If you're not the person who implied I was posting over there, then I have no problem with you!

My issue was with whomever offhandedly asserted I was posting over there under a pseudonym.

Article on "Rockaway Beach." Spoiler alert: Those who attend shows be on notice, it looks like you're going to get "Rockaway Beach" in Mike's setlist!

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8513671/the-beach-boys-mike-love-ramones-rockaway-beach-cover

Mike Love wearing a Mike Love hat. I know that is nothing new, but to see it plastered in a huge pic in a Billboard article, it's just so... weirdly hilarious  :lol  "HEY GUYS, I AM MIKE LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE.... DID YOU HEAR? MIKE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE"

(http://i63.tinypic.com/29g2a0j.png)

Also... when reading this article, it is also so weird how it talks about Mike Love having a new solo (cover) song recording, but then goes straight into talking about him performing it live as The Beach Boys. It's just brand confusion central.

I can think of no parallel (either a famous person constantly wearing a hat with their name on it) or a "solo artist" weirdly releasing all their songs under one label, then marketing them live under a different label, and a major publication talking about this as though this is a normal situation.

It's just the weirdest stuff. Nothing new, of course. Just every now and then we're reminded of the weirdness of this band and the weirdness of Mike Love's hats.

I'll admit, as a marketing angle, "The Beach Boys" being associated with a Ramones cover is kind of cool on paper.

Well, I was going to point out that they're clearly just re-using the art from his 2017 single when the new "Mike Love" hat first started to appear:

(https://mikelove.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Mike-Love-FINAL-1222.png)

But then I forgot the horseshoe mustache came later, plus he's wearing a different shirt. So yeah, this other photo is newer and he's still sporting the Mike Love hat. Which I suppose is preferable to cases where he's worn "Beach Boys" regalia while doing solo stuff:

(https://img.discogs.com/Qy3DD5HD-wYzFu8y3xRnw0YVmUE=/fit-in/500x490/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1477527-1222630612.jpeg.jpg)

(https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/61313086_2282233665379984_569470413856309248_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_eui2=AeH87gk2swt-4sRL40gfS-P1HLQAWShfNKiZvlQiZjm7-c_DscbAgybbWsNo8wXQSQFqmTMfKKRtU9rmIJZop7FckDRWn0rAc4WUzyetTzS7kA&_nc_oc=AQloXzS-ZgGmhJnXJ_-CN-iXkhag7SILWTjk_5r43CrpY4clut4GUASI98meuHCq0W4&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=95e630a7d94f100785819e93d968c9dd&oe=5D9E1813)

(https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/223509793660_/MIKE-LOVE-DEAN-TORRENCE-Listen-The-Air.jpg)

I didn't realize there were all those instances (probably many more) of Mike promoting solo product while wearing a BBs' logo hat. I suppose some fan needs to file a class action lawsuit for the resultant brand confusion. Is the statute of limitations expired from the early '80s?  :lol  I still can't get over the fake "wronged fan" from Mike's 2005 lawsuit who turned out to be a plant by Mike's lawyer. Honestly, if we are to talk most laughable maneuvers in the history of this band, one would be hard-pressed to top that. How did that even come to surface?

Maybe it got lost or nobody cares, but doesn't anybody else kinda find it lame that Mike is covering a song (and probably band) that he has never heard/heard of? Maybe I'm being too hard on him, but I don't know.

And yes, it's the same feeling I had about Brian working with Lana Del Rey (like....why? Whats the point?)

The Ramones are a massive band. They're essentially a brand. They started 45 years ago, when Mike was 33. They covered The Beach Boys, worked with Phil Spector. They're one of the most recognizable American bands. There's no possible way Mike hasn't heard of them nor heard I Wanna Be Sedated or Blitzkrieg Bop. They're also a band that borrowed enough elements of early rock and roll that Mike very well could be into them, or at least certain songs.

It's not like Mike is covering The Descendents. The Ramones are a very well known band.

With that out of the way, there's really no reason for this cover to exist, but it's fine.

 I tend to agree. Especially considering how popular a band The Ramones were, and they were specifically very influenced by The Beach Boys, and not just any era of that band, but the era that Mike considers the golden era where he was "king"… It would stand to reason that he would be familiar with them at least on some level.

But then again, who knows.

Hey startBBtoday, I totally understand what you are saying. I agree that pretty much everybody at least probably in American and Britain probably know at least one, two or even three Ramones songs. They are a brand. You can probably buy their tee-shirt at Wal Mart or Target. But still, these are The Beach Boys we are talking about. And I can definitely imagine a world where both Brian Wilson and Mike Love have no fucking clue who the Ramones are, or maybe at best have only heard of them, but couldn't name a song. Perhaps I'm selling them short though, and it's more than possible you're right.

I still stand by the fact though that Mike probably had never heard of "Rockaway Beach" until somebody recently played it for him though.

I bought Unleash the Love, enjoyed it, was glad to see Mike finally get some of his own music released. I'm much less interested in an album of covers. I've got nothing against him doing it, but I probably won't buy the new album.

I have never felt more animosity for Mike, and just as importantly, his band and producers (outside of Cowsill's mostly noble attempt), who have totally castrated a sacred bull.

I would much, much rather have seen him attempt a Descendents cover in his style, lol.  Honestly, a move like that probably would have been surprisingly good for his career too.

It's interesting that Mike hasn't sought out a Terry Melcher-type collaborator to continue to write new material that much. Yes, there are a few actual originals (or newly polished-off songs) on the recent albums. But beyond the glut of cover versions and BB re-recordings, most of the "originals" on the albums have been songs written decades ago.

One would have thought that Mike's continual stated desire to "write songs from scratch" alone in a room with Brian would have sprung at least in part by a desire to write new music in general. Yet, we don't see him seeking out alternate avenues to write a ton of material with other writers (at least in terms of what's released). It tends to reinforce the feeling some fans have that Mike's "alone in a room" thing with Brian had more to do with taking issue with *others* writing with Brian and getting writing credits/royalties.

It's interesting to break down the tracks across these recent three Mike albums. There are a total of 49 tracks across these three albums. Of the 49 tracks:

- 33 are cover versions of songs previously released (including BB songs, standards, etc.)
     - Within this category approximately 24 are covers of songs Mike has already released as part of the BBs or solo
- 8 are re-recordings of unreleased songs known to have been written and recorded years ago
- 3 are previously released tracks more or less unchanged (Cool Head, Pisces Brothers, Alone on Christmas Day)
- 5 are as-yet-unheard-of originals

This is not an exact science; there is some overlap in these categories. I'm not counting the "It's OK" remake as previously released, even though it was aired a year ago. I'm assuming on those five seemingly "new" compositions; for instance, "All the Love in Paris" is a co-write with his old collaborator Paul Fauerso, so it could actually be older as well. Also, one of those "originals" isn't a Mike co-write.

Agreed that it's a shame that now that he is finally putting out new albums that he either hasn't written new material to put on them, or at least taken older unreleased stuff and reworked it for this new one. Whatever we wanna say about Unleash The Love, at least he was finally getting some of his his own better material finally out there on his own album ("Cool Head", "Daybreak" in an arrangement more like the First Love version, "Too Cruel" and "I Don't Wanna Know"). One would think that he has more unreleased (or at least super rare) material that is work another look, but perhaps not, and that's why we end up with one "new" original that is around 40 years old ("California Beach") and a bunch of covers and re-records (and even some re-recorded covers apparently).

I can only guess, in part, Mike doing mostly covers is an outgrowth of his evident preference when it comes to music in general. He tours all year playing a group of mostly the same songs, and  has not done comparatively a lot of studio recording (and has stated in interviews he prefers live shows to studio work, which he has said he finds tedious), certainly once he hit the 80s and 90s and on.

The more labor intensive things to do would, arguably, be writing/creating new music and then recording it. For whatever reason, whether continual advances from the record label or something else, he has released more music in the last few years. But he has skipped the labor intensive writing of new songs, and is doing mostly covers and then digging out ancient unreleased material dating back to the 70s. In some cases, he's literally dusting off old recordings (e.g. "Cool Head") and just sticking them on albums.

In the case of "Cool Head" I will say it's one case of Mike getting it right. He got a good recording of it, which is probably his best "solo" song in like 2003, and released it on The Beach Boys' Songs from Here & Back in '06 and instead of screwing it up over a decade later, like he did with some of the other material from around that time, he left well enough alone.

+1

Which original is not a Mike co-write?

The internet would explode if Mike re-recorded Rockin' The Man in the Boat.
I think he should do it.

Not that it matters, but the Mike Love logo on the hats are just photoshopped on there in both promo shots. Poorly, too.

I didn't notice that, maybe my Photoshop eye skills aren't as attuned as my Autotune detection skills  :lol  If this is true, I wonder if it was a BBs hat logo that didn't pass legal muster and had to be replaced with a ML logo? But in my opinion, I think it's a non-Photoshopped actual ML hat worn by ML.

 I'll say this much… While Mike's cover might not be particularly great, it has led me down a Ramones wormhole which I am grateful for. I quite dig their music and I hadn't listened to them for quite some time. That album they did with Phil Spector was pretty cool. Unbelievable how influenced they were by this band.

Unleash the Love was Mike's artistic statement. I consider most of those songs new, since the majority hadn't been released before. He said what he had to say in those songs, and doesn't really have anything to add to that statement; hence, the remakes and covers. Either way, I have no problem with it. I don't see either Brian or Al (or Bruce!) rushing into a studio to do ..well, anything these days!
I guess my problem is, I don't hate Mike Love. I may not have always agreed with decisions he's made, statements he's made, but he hasn't murdered my children or raped my wife.
I save my hatred for the real scum in the world.

Hahaha, it is not creepy enough as it is?  - Mike's weak, shaky old man voice would really take it to the next level though.

Well, it would have been too much to ask for Mike to cover "Blitzkrieg Bop," now, wouldn't it?  :hat

One thing GF overlooks in his comparison of early BBs and the Ramones is the massively greater emphasis on melody and phrasing that accompanies even the most stripped-down of early BBs rockers. And that was part of the greatness of the early songs--Mike's singing is much more dimensional that any of the songs that became "anthemic" for the Ramones. "Rockaway Beach" doesn't have much melody to work with, so there is little that Mike can put into it--it has to cleave closely to the blueprint of the original. The backing harmonies are paint-by-numbers--not even any room for modulation as in "I Get Around."

I mean, if he wants a punk-rock song in the set, what's wrong with "Roller Skating Child" (aside from the lyrics in the age of me-too, that is)??  :police:

I didn't overlook that aspect as much as I ran out of time (and space/interest) to expand on it!  ;D

The thing with The Ramones is - call it a bottom line if it fits - they started making music that sounds like it did because they would turn on the radio and not hear those early 60's style songs and sounds that they loved, so they decided to make a band and do it themselves. That element of the band's entire foundation was what won me over. Forget what happened as they became big and had T-shirts, movies, etc...they started making music together because they weren't hearing that music which they loved on the radio.

It was also an almost direct reaction to what had become overblown and pompous progressive rock, singer-songwriter type material that started to get more and more "safe" as the early 70's went forward, and a general sense that rock music may be forgetting that joyous feeling I mentioned earlier of strumming an A power chord at full volume and having something melodic on top. And lyrics that did not have to mention knights, hobbits, and fucking mysticism and wizards or other similar topics in order to get released.

I think the Ramones basically went back to 1961-63 and stripped it down even more to the bare bones essentials, along with a turbo-charge to the tempo overall, and began to rock out on their terms.

Regarding the vocal phrasing and harmonies and all that: The Ramones live were Joey on all the leads and little interjections from Dee Dee. That's it, the other two Ramones didn't sing. Listen to the earlier live recordings of Rockaway Beach, Dee Dee barely sings anything as a backing vocalist, surely no harmony.

But that lines up with the stripped down ethos which the Ramones lived by. It worked. The energy or focus was not solely in the melody or lead vocal, it was the overall sound and group energy which drove them. I'd argue the songs were the vehicles for the Ramones, as utilitarian as the little wooden spoons they used to give out with cups of ice cream. The focus was the ice cream itself, the spoon was something you'd use for a few minutes and discard. That's why a Ramones concert had an incredible number of song titles in the setlist...they played so many, so fast, that most clocked in at 2 minutes or less.

It's not like the live Grateful Dead or even the Beach Boys or Pearl Jam, Phish, Springsteen, etc where fans would discuss the merits of "Eyes Of The World" from JFK Stadium versus Winterland and all that. It wasn't the focus, of the band or the audience.

That, too, would lessen the importance of precision phrasing and delivery of vocal melodies with Joey Ramone...it wasn't necessary nor was it a part of their style to be as focused as the early Beach Boys on those musical elements. The gist of the Ramones was the overall energy and effect on the audiences, not the technicalities of the individual musical elements.


PS - If anyone doubts the influence of the Beach Boys on the Ramones...What I've actually done in lesson plans in the past was play the three most familiar versions of "Do You Wanna Dance", Bobby Freeman, Beach Boys, Ramones...and listen to how closely the Ramones modeled their version on the Beach Boys, even Dennis' vocal delivery. That is proof, along other examples that aren't covers, of how much the Ramones loved and took cues from those earlier 60's Beach Boys records. What Brian did with Do You Wanna Dance was shed all the pseudo-Latin elements of Freeman's original hit and streamline the overall pulse and groove into that straight 8th, rock and roll machine-like rhythm section pulsing under that track, and also streamline some of Freeman's melody and vocal phrasing/delivery into something Dennis could sing and deliver with less ornamentation and detail. More rock and roll, less technical delivery.

It's the template of the Ramones, minus of course the layers of Wall Of Sound. Strip it down to the basics of a rock and roll song.

My *partial* bad. I was thinking of "Must Be Christmas", which is on Mike's XMas album and is not co-written by Mike. But I guess that one is technically a "cover" of a track recorded a few years prior by the "Band of Merrymakers" seasonal group fronted by the song's writers.

 I'm sure there are several people who care about Mike Love's current activities, possibly thousands. I don't recall Love proclaiming his "importance in the world of entertainment"; he's simply doing what he's been doing since 1962. You don't have to love Mike's Endless Summer but you certainly hate it with relentless passion.

 Mike rubs me the wrong way at times...always has. But I rejoice that he is still standing. Check out his show if they come to your town...you may enjoy it in spite of yourself. 

:hat 8)

“California Beach,” the second single off the album: https://youtu.be/ENJ3LkHMMzw (https://youtu.be/ENJ3LkHMMzw)

Tell your Teach, we're gonna make it out to California Beach? OMG.....UGH!

Someone call a tow truck to try to pull Mike Love out of the 60's. This 2nd single is further proof that he should stick with singing Brian's songs and forget about trying to show the world that he's a competent songwriter as this entry is another embarrassing exercise in mediocrity.

Well that’s 22 seconds I won’t get back. (All I could manage)  :thud

I actually sort of enjoy the new single. Sure, it's corny as hell, and the *interesting* drum mixing gives me flashbacks to SIP, but I have to admit, it did get stuck in my head. At first listen I was a little underwhelmed, but after a few listens I can say it definitely hits the spot in a way. It's not perfect, but I'd still take an ok Mike Love song over many other artists. Hearing all of Mike's new stuff really makes me curious what Brian, Bruce, and especially Al have in their back catalog, or 'vaults'

Mike Love is an anal bead. The end.

I don’t want to find fault where there isn’t any but I’m not sure what to make of this:

I’ll tell my boss why don’t you tell your teach...?

Am I reading too much into this or is this about a working aged man and a girl in high school?

EoL

I have a real soft spot for the original, so can't help but enjoy this version. It has the same catchy chorus, but I miss the guitars and faster tempo of the earlier version.

So I'll be the first to say it, I don't hate the unreleased "California Beach" as recorded in the late '70s by The Beach Boys. It's that kinda harmless fluff like "It's a Beautiful Day" that I'm sure the group could still knock out in their sleep if they wanted to. But this remake, egh, I don't know. I feel like a lot of the songs Mike are doing these days are being recorded at slower tempos because his voice isn't up to the challenge for the more "rocking", up-tempo things. But regardless, it definitely pulls back on the punch that the original "California Beach" had. I suppose I need more time to fully decide how I feel, but I think it's fair that we put this song in the "Mike Love trying recapture 1963" bucket with "Camp California", "Goin' To The Beach" and a handful of others.


That lyric also caught my eye/ear but I guess I forgot about it kinda quickly. But yeah, kinda weird. But not so weird considering this a song originally recorded (and therefore likely composted) not long after "Lazy Lizzie" and "Hey Little Tomboy" from the same group.

Download/streaming services appear to be using the album artwork for this single (instead of the single artwork from Mike’s video). If anyone sees a version for sale on a download service using the single artwork, let me know. (I have a problem.)

You can always just snag the artwork and then tag your music with it (this particular one I just randomly grabbed would require some cropping of course):

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ENJ3LkHMMzw/sddefault.jpg#404_is_fine)

Probably. I'm sure a lot of 20-21 year old guys have girlfriends still in high school.

I don't think it's a big deal. However, this is the same Mike who, in his mid-50s, released an official Beach Boys album where he wrote a line about fornicating in a swimming pool with some babe. And Brian is the guy who wrote 'Hey Little Tomboy' and 'Roller Skating Child' - let's face it: in the context of their ages, these guys have written and released some creepy stuff over the years.

As for this song, I think some are basing the context of this song off of the overall surf genre that we're used to Mike singing about (young adults enjoying courtship on the sunny beaches of the West Coast) and not the song itself. Mike could be singing about a 60 year old man working at McDonalds dating a 50 year old woman attending a community college...we'd never know because the lyrics leave a lot to be desired. So I think it's best to not read too much into this.

I will say that this is the problem with never moving on - constantly being stuck in the same formula: a near-80-year-old man singing from the perspective of young surfers finding love isn't something you hear everyday...it's why 'Beaches In Mind' (a song kickstarted by Brian, I believe) from TWGMTT doesn't seem genuine to me...yet the life suite feels completely real to me.

And whatever, if it gives Mike enjoyment and makes his life more positive, that's what he should do. Brian himself says he wants to record songs from the 60s, and more power to him. But in the post #metoo era, I don't think it should be surprising if people start questioning lyrics about dating potentially underage girls that are sung by elderly men.

Is there anything particularly morally objectionable about gentlemen in late middle age having sex in swimming polls? Asking for a friend.

Not that I'm aware of.

If it’s solo....yes!  ;)

Maybe only if said gentleman proudly boasts about it in a song only a couple years after standing behind the censorship-hungry PMRC, then it's just a bit...weird

Funny you mention that. I was at my doctor's office the other day, and she said "you need to stop masturbating". Well, of course this puzzled me, so I asked "Why?" and the doctor replied "because i'm trying to examine you!"  :lol :lol

Oh very well done 👍.

I remembered this straight away.

https://youtu.be/jdOliYDY-LM

 :lol :lol :lol Classic  :lol :lol :lol

Four producers: Courtesey of new ESQ

Michael Lloyd: It's OK
Sam Hollander: California Beach, Over and Over, On and On and On, Surfin', Surfin' Safari
Scott Totten: Here Comes The Sun, Rockaway Beach, Keepin' The Summer Alive, California Sun, Summertime Blues
Paul Fauerso: The Girl From Ipanema


I'm hoping that since Surfin' Safari and Surfin' are by Hollander and not Lloyd, they might be a bit more listenable than the UTL remakes...

That’s awesome that Mike and Paul Fauerso are still collaborating, even if it’s not on an original.

I can’t help but think this album would have been a great opportunity for Mike to reclaim “Almost Summer” and bring it back into setlists. Not that a 2019 recording of “Almost Summer” would be particularly revelatory, but it would at least be more interesting than another remake of “Surfin’” and could have introduced casual fans to the song.

It's really, really weird how Mike has excluded that song from pretty much all areas when he has gone back to the well for so many inferior old songs. It's as if he's forgotten about it, or feels it has the cooties. Almost Summer is a surprisingly solid tune, although some of the lyrics probably didn't age all that well.

Agreed with both of you guys. I'm of the opinion that "Almost Summer" is the best "solo" tune of Mike's, though I guess it should be pointed out that a certain Brian Wilson and Alan Jardine also wrote the track. Overall it's nuts the the original recording is not available via iTunes or any of the digital music services, nor any Beach Boys, Brian Wilson or Mike Love compilation. But The Beach Boys have proven themselves to not always be the most sensible bunch.

From what I've heard, Mike owns the masters to the "Celebration" stuff.

BRI/The Beach Boys have no control over that material. There may be some grey areas in terms of outtakes from that era, as there often has been with other similar types of material (e.g. Dennis solo outtakes vs. Dennis-Beach Boys outtakes).

But it would be up to Mike to get the "Celebration" stuff out there. Last year, the BB SiriusXM channel *did* play "Almost Summer", thought that apparently didn't portend any additional things happening with the material.

I get the sense, especially now that old material has been cannibalized for Mike's recent albums, Mike may well have no interest in putting "Celebration" nor "Looking Back with Love" back out on the market place.

All of this of course doesn't explain why Mike doesn't do "Almost Summer" in concert; indeed, it's pretty surprising considering the general type of material he likes as well as the type of material he tends to resurrect from the back catalog or outtake bin (e.g. "It's OK", "California Beach", "Goin' to the Beach", etc.).

Anyone know if 12 Sides of Summer will be released on vinyl?

Are you never tired???  I am, after reading your refrains! You talk about Mike, but you always sing the same songs too... sad...

The ad for the album on the back of the latest issue of ESQ says “CD/DIGITAL/VINYL,” but I haven’t seen any pre-order links anywhere for a vinyl version.

Being a Mike Love apologist is a strenuous career choice. Either cut back your hours or get more sleep.

Who is a Mike Love apologist? I'm a Beach Boys apologist; And I don't consider being a Beach Boys fan is a career but a passion; I don't  always speak badly of the same guy, behind a computer screen. (but this IS YOUR CREER CHOICE it seems...) Man, you really have a problem...

CREER choice?? Huh? Who has a problem?? And, just to clarify, I usually sit in front of my computer screen as it tends to be a bit easier. But really Musto, stop worrying about me as much as you seem to do. I'll be alright, but I appreciate your genuine deep concern.  :wave

Mike’s voice is dust these days...

I don't think anyone remembers "Almost Summer". It's never been included on the compilations. Do you recall what label it was on?  I recall seeing one album of Celebration on Michael Nesmith's Pacific Arts label.

MCA Records

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_Summer_(album)

The irony is that the cover photo for Almost Summer was taken in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Within a year before or after, I can't remember exactly, the Eagles had their album Hotel California with a cover photo of the Beverly Hills Hotel.  Both cover photos were quite good.

Just a long as you do it before forking out any hard earned dollars for a movie....just in case you get shot down!

Anyone overseas enjoying 12SOS yet? ;D

I switched the settings on Spotify so that I use the Australian version.  12 Sides of Summer wasn't cringey  or unplesent to me, but it felt unnecessary because all the songs are ones we've heard before, done better.  The version of Surfin here wasn't as bad as the Summer In Paradise version, but it can't hold a candle to the original.  The re-dos of the songs from looking Back With Love aren't better than the ones from 40 years ago.  His version of "Here Comes the Sun" sounds more like "Everyone's In love With You" than George Harrison original.  "Keepin the summer Alive" was never one of my favorites, but this version makes me appreciate the original a little.  The worst was "It's O.K", but that was released last year.

I don't know why this pic is in the emojis, but I'm using it :billy2

Smart move. I’m just going to wait till midnight my time to be disappointed :lol

As Brian Wilson said in my favorite song:  "Midnight's Another Day".  They don't make songs like that anymore.

Just listened to the album. Overall, I actually really like it. Mike's age definitely shows in his vocals, but that's expected for anyone nearing 80. Overall, it's a great effort. I'm glad Surfin Safari wasn't an exact note for note remake, the new groove is pretty cool. Here Comes The Sun actually sounds really nice on here, better than it did in it's live debut. I really enjoy Summertime Blues and Rockaway Beach. KTSA is pretty good, but I would've preferred Cowsill to take the lead, but Mike's is pretty good. It's not high art, but this album is definitely a lot of fun.

I don't plan on picking this one up, save for downloading a few tracks.  For what it's worth I do like his cover of "Rockaway Beach".  Mike provides a pretty good vocal and gives that song the "Beach Boys" treatment while still being faithful to the Ramones' recording.  If he wants to keep making music (even mediocre music), more power to him. 

Still surprised BRI allows such blurred lines between "Mike Love" product and "Beach Boys" product.

They're selling "Beach Boys" merchandise at shows now that is entirely designed based on Mike's solo album title and cover art:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_bUTwxXoAE_exl.jpg:small)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71kMZaWUO8L._SY355_.jpg)

Apparently, BRI doesn't care and Mike has no shame.

Can you imagine: Memory Almost Full, The Beatles.

It's the name of the tour, right?

https://www.thebeachboys.com/tour/ (https://www.thebeachboys.com/tour/)

It appears so. It's just a clear case of Mike using the BB touring license to directly promote his solo album not only by performing songs from the album and selling the album at shows (which isn't a problem usually), but naming the *Beach Boys* tour after the solo album and literally using materials from his solo album with a "Beach Boys" logo dropped on top of it.

It certainly blurs the line and goes beyond what I would view as the purview of a touring-only license.

To be clear, as I understand it, anything sold at shows with the "Beach Boys" name on it is something which Mike pays BRI for in some form or another. I would imagine Mike's touring company and/or another clothing distributor essentially pays for a "merchandise" license from BRI, and/or in conjunction with that BRI gets a cut of any "Beach Boys" branded merchandise sold at shows.

I'm frankly surprised Mike doesn't *leave off* the BB name on "12 Sides of Summer" stuff so that he *doesn't* have to give BRI a cut of that particular merchandise. But I would imagine "Beach Boys" merch sells better than "Mike Love" merch at Mike's BB shows.

As we said many times before, Mike has no shame and BRI doesn't give a flying f*** anymore, so it seems. Or else they just don't want to spend any more time or money dealing with Mike in a legal capacity if they do challenge this nonsense. War of attrition, or something like that, where Mike's legal actions have come so swiftly and in such great numbers in the past, they don't want to deal with it.

Speaking of numbers...How many of these products actually sell at Mike's concerts? Fans may not know the ins and outs of all the history, but they're not stupid either...They know the difference between "The Beach Boys" and a Mike Love solo project.

If we say that, we're "haters" or "toxic" I guess, even though it's pretty smarmy to do. But again, Mike keeps doing it.

So how much of this schwag does he actually sell? Is anyone buying it?

I can only speak from the shows I've been to, but I was quite surprised last year when I was seeing The BBs in Milwaukee, most of the merch was sold out by the end of the night- a couple keychains, very few t shirts, and reportedly there good UTL sales (I asked, I was curious)

Top of my want-list is a Mike Love keychain, for sure...or would that be a Beach Boys keychain promoting a Mike Love solo album? Hmm.

It always comes back to the question why can't Mike Love just play it straight down the line, and do his own stuff as "Mike Love" while following the license and doing "The Beach Boys" material on its terms and legacy. Selling T-shirts and merch with Mike's solo album cover graphics and title on them as Beach Boys t-shirts, with a Beach Boys name and logo? That's nuts.

If there are fans buying them, I guess it's no surprise considering how many people bought the pet rock in the 70's.

It really makes one wonder what album content Mike Love might release under The Beach Boys name if he had full legal right to do so. I imagine UTL, 12 Sides of Summer, and perhaps a slew of even more content unworthy of the brand name would be happily paraded around as Beach Boys Product. I think Mike would be more prolific with releasing more, more, more under the brand name if he could.

The current situation, while not quite as bad, is still unbelievably infuriating considering how much Mike bemoaned "brand confusion" in 2005, and saddled his cousin with legal garbage as though he was going out of his way to spoil Brian's BWPS triumph in a time period when Brian was finally getting some 40 years of emotional baggage off his chest. It seemed so incredibly vindictive and intentionally spiteful. I cannot stand that hypocrisy when compared to Mike's current actions with his solo album conflated with his "Beach Boys" tour, nor can I understand how it simply doesn't bother some fans. I concur that everyone in BRI probably just stopped caring to fight legally with someone who is going to be a legal bully, which is seemingly why nobody challenges this stuff anymore.

12 Sides Of Summer was number 17 on the UK Independent Album Breakers Top 20 this week (a chart for artists who haven't had a top 20 album).

Mike has been openly parading his own solo material as "Beach Boys" material for years now. How many TV appearances were billed as The Beach Boys only to see them performing one of Mike's solo releases? Too many. And for the average person watching these things, they see Mark McGrath shouting "DO IT!" and mugging for the camera with Mike and think that's The Beach Boys.

Now it's Mike touring his solo release using the brand power of the name Beach Boys to help hawk the solo stuff and related merch.

I join you in not understanding how it simply doesn't bother the fan base any more than someone gave the example of McCartney or Ringo billing his solo stuff as The Beatles. Or selling his solo merch with "THE BEATLES" label on the items. It would be so crazy it would be an international joke.

Well, pop the champagne bottles!

Two quick points: Mike's album is 6 positions behind the new album from cartoon character "Peppa Pig".

And it's jarring in a way to see the other entries on what most would say are truly independent labels, while Mike's label is listed as "BMG", which is of course the name of one of the largest music corporations in the world. How is a record on "BMG" an indie release?

Obviously it isn't an amazing achievement. But, it's not like any of us, including Mike or BMG, was expecting it to top the charts. By getting into that chart it can be presumed it did better in the UK than either UTL or RFTS did, so they'll be happy.

Still, kids TV show music is big business - Bob the Builder has had as many number ones singles in the UK as the Beach Boys did...

Also, for whatever reason, BMG is counted as an indie by the OCC - number 9 in the main Independent Album Charts is also on BMG. Its not the only one on the list - WaterTower Music is a Warner thing and Rise Records is also BMG owned and both are also in the Indie Breakers list.

It just adds to my suspicion that this "chart" is a sham, when you have these labels that are under the umbrellas of the largest music corporations in the world being listed on an "independent" chart. It's pure crap! The true indie labels and artists that are on this ersatz chart, more power to them...but c'mon, calling releases that are under the BMG or Warner umbrellas "indie"? 

I'm well aware of the power and success of kids TV music, in fact since it's been 20 years or so I wonder how many people realize Simon Cowell made a name for himself by getting a Teletubbies record on the popular charts back in the day.

And Peppa Pig, yes that is a franchise that has grossed and brings in literally hundreds of millions in revenue...so what's it doing on an "indie" music list if it's a multi-million grossing franchise?

Makes no sense.

They have an rules enquiry email address, so I'll ask them. https://www.officialcharts.com/who-we-are/contact-us/

Still I was similarly confused and did more digging and it seems that the rules are basically just if its not owned by Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group or Sony Music Entertainment.

BMG is actually BMG Rights Management. It is not owned by Sony.
It was formed out of the parts of Sony BMG that Bertelsmann kept when Sony acquired the rest. So its not owned by Sony anymore.

Similarly, the label Peppa Pig came out on isn't on a major record label - its on eOne Music, a label owned by the TV/film company that own Peppa Pig. eOne is apparently the largest indie label in America.

In fact even that WaterTower Music that is owned by Warner is owned by the WarnerMedia - which doesn't own Warner Music Group anymore.

So while all these are owned by multibillion dollar companies, they aren't owned by the three multibillion dollar record labels so don't count as major label it seems.

Hey, at least the 2019 version of Surfin' has some instruments on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvvOo4308s

 Mikes album is currently Number 616 on the Amazon CD Sales Chart. It has not charted on the Billboard Top 200........Amazon and Billboard Top 200 are the respected industry standards for charts in my opinion.  Along with Sound Scan which is not readily available to the public.. As memory serves, TWGMTR was Number One on the Amazon Chart for many days. TWGMTR debuted at Number 3 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. I remember reading somewhere, maybe Mikes book that Mike thought that while a number 3 debut was ok, the album  ( TWGMTR) didn't get any higher than Number Three so it wasn't that big of a deal !  Or something like that. If I remember correctly  NPP also peaked in the Top 15 of the Billboard Top 200.  Having said that,  there are many sub charts in both Amazon as well as Billboard. For example Top Country , Urban , AC, etc..... The Indie chart was usually reserved for Alternative  albums released by companies that had no major label distribution.   BMG is for certain a major label. I would guess that to qualify  Mike has a  label imprint with BMG and is not signed directly to the BMG label. So if you really  analyze this, the chart position as an Indie release would be technically correct. Although once again, Mike becomes his own worse enemy If he indeed were to boast that his solo record was TOP 17 because of this Indie qualification while saying that The last Beach Boy Record wasn't that well received. The sales difference between the two charts are miles apart. Even these days , or in 2012  a Top 3 Billboard Record would be somewhere north of 70,000 actual sales! I would venture to guess that Mikes solo album has sold less than 5,000 units to date. Im still happy to hear new music from Mike and compliment him that at age 75 plus he still cares enough to at least try. But lets cut the B S  as far as chart position.

If they are selling the cd at the Beach Boy concert concession stands, they are likely selling a few hundred each night. 150 shows a year works out to another 30,000 units. not sure if Billboard would have a way to count that in their total. not mindblowing but SIP numbers will likely be surpassed over time.

Let me just say this, repeating something I think I posted recently in another thread. The CD as a format that people buy new is pretty much dead at this point. I honestly don't know too many people who buy "new" CD's, or brick-and-mortar record stores which still stock and sell CD's in any significant number. If we're talking about Mike selling CD's at his Beach Boys merch tables, I again have to question how many people are actually buying them, and if those sales would even put a dent in any kind of sales/chart numbers anyway.

Just take an informal survey among friends, co-workers, or fellow shoppers at record shops and see when the last CD they bought really happened, or even ask if they still buy CD's over vinyl or downloads/streams. It's pretty eye-opening, but I think it relevant if we're discussing how many CD albums Mike has been selling.

Also - Wasn't there a lawsuit brought up years ago about counting albums given away with concert tickets as actual sales to be tallied for chart positioning? I can't recall the details, something tells me it involved Prince? Can't remember.

Prince. Musicology. I like the album a lot but it was included in the ticket price and had gotten him his first number one album since like maybe Diamonds and Pearls or something. And after this Billboard changed the rules apparently.

No lawsuit as far as I know though. Just Billboard changing the rules.

The last line in bold, agree 100% with that. The chart system overall in terms of where it is in 2019 is FUBAR. It's so segmented, watered down, and ridiculous that it's nothing like it was even a decade ago, let alone where it was in the 60's which is what many of us including Mike would use as a reference. The sales chart biz is an industry that still has not caught up with technology or listening habits, and instead puts out useless stats like this "indie" chart referenced above.

Cool, thanks for the info! I thought there was legal action taken...maybe that was something more recent that referenced Prince, someone like DJ Khalid filing suit because of the way his sales were tallied and how he didn't get a #1 placement? I'll look it up when I can, but thanks for the info!

If Mike is selling his solo CDs at "Beach Boys" shows, then all of Brian's solo catalog should be for sale at the merch booth too...

They better be selling David Mark's Work Tapes too...

Absolutely! The only fly in the ointment being that Brian would have to sell Mike's awful CD's as well and I wouldn't want to see that quite honestly.

Ah. I did hear about Khaled going into his label offices and kicking up a fuss that he lost the number one spot for his latest album to somebody else. Maybe Tyler the Creator or somebody. Can't remember. But I did not know that there was a lawsuit. I haven't been paying attention to Khaled. I'm a decent hip-hop fan, though I really prefer artists who started in the '80s and '90s (Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Beastie Boys, OutKast), but admit a lot of the current stuff just doesn't do it for me.

For a new record, there has been very limited conversation about this release in any of the usual online BB's places.

Really seems to be little interest which kinda surprises me as there is not much else happening in the BB's world.

Talk of chart placings seems pointless when even hardcore BB's fans are not particularly bothered.

In fairness, I think most people have given up trying to have a serious discussion on anything Mike does (not just here but in most places) because we all know what most of the responses will be and its not worth the hassle...

I like the album, its a nice easy listen and a fun summer album.

I think the Scott produced tracks are probably the highlights and hope Mike looks towards using him more on any future albums.

The Hollander tracks didn't involve any of Mike's band outside of backing vocals (even the vocal arrangements are outsider work), which makes the covers of Surfin' and Surfin' Safari at least a bit more interesting than if they just used the live arrangements.

Was it a mistake to license the Beach Boys name to Mike? I've seen other acts who had to append or revise the band name, due to changes in lineup, etc. I've seen "Joey Molland's Badfinger" - I think that's fair; it can't be the original Badfinger, because the other core members are deceased. Creedence Clearwater Revisited? Subtle, right? I hope everyone that goes to to their shows knows that John Fogerty is not part of the band. Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone….as opposed to the Herman's Hermits their drummer tours with in the UK. The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddie. Although last I heard, Eddie was not touring, due to health problems.
We could have Mike Love's Beach Boys (Mike, Bruce, Jeffrey, etc); Brian Wilson's Beach Boys Band featuring Al Jardine; both bands are doing essentially a Beach Boys show (even if Mike does throw in a couple of his own songs - 2 songs out of 30 or 40?).

I agree that there has seemed to be much discussion of this album.

And I think the reason for it is that there isn't much "there" there with this album. I bought it. I'm a weirdo. I like that there are still new solo albums coming from members of The Beach Boys. However, as far as this one is considered, I think a lot of us could've jokingly guessed the track listing before seeing it and gotten pretty close. When the the biggest surprise to me is the fact that the album contains "California Beach" and "Keepin' the Summer Alive" things are looking iffy. It just seems that Mike doesn't want to challenge himself or his audience at all. Now I'm not expecting him to put out something like Dylan's "Love And Theft" or McCartney's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard at this point (or really at any point), but it'd be nice that if he is gonna do solo albums after all this time, Mike could show his supposedly still supple songwriting skills (how's that for alliteration). Nobody needs a new "California Sun" no matter how cute Totten got with the arrangement. And though I actually don't mind the new "Surfin'", what's the point? Or "Summertime Blues", why? It kinda just seems like Mike is kinda proving his detractors right with albums like this. A smattering of remakes, covers and last but not least, covers of songs he's already covered on other albums, almost 40 years ago. With a large coating of surfin', sun and fun.

If you look at all the legal stuff that went down due to the BB name use issue in 1999/2000 (and beyond), I don't think something like this was ever possible.

There are a bunch of old threads on this so I won't go deep into it again, but when Carl died and then Mike and Al stopped touring together, initially *nobody* was cleared to use the BB name. Mike started touring around the Spring/Summer of 1998 under his "California Beach Band" name, Al initially didn't do anything, and Brian was ramping up touring solo.

Carl's estate, according to court documents, proposed at some point in 1998 to offer everybody (meaning the three actively touring corporate members: Brian, Mike, and Al) a non-exclusive license. They weren't simply all handed the name to use, but rather were all essentially "eligible" to get a non-exclusive license if they wanted to pursue it. I may be remembering this incorrectly, but court document from that time indicate Mike may have voted against this, but in any event, this was how the initial license roll-out happened.

Presumably, as far as I've ever been able to tell, there would have been no constraints on the naming, no qualifiers added. All three could have theoretically gone out as "The Beach Boys." While Al's later band naming is debatable as to what confusion it could have caused, I don't think anyone can deny that having two (or three!) bands out there simultaneously touring literally as "The Beach Boys" would have been crazy. It would have caused true confusion, and it would have led to multiple bands diluting/cannibalizing the trademark.

In the immediate though, it wasn't an issue. Mike obtained a non-exclusive license and started touring in the summer of 1998 with Bruce (and Dave) as "The Beach Boys."

It was only at the end of 1998, and more so into early 1999, where injunctions and lawsuits started. Al went out touring under the name "Beach Boys Family & Friends." He did so throughout 1999, with the courts later saying it was unclear whether Al had a valid license to do so or whether he even *needed* a license to do so.

The reason it all got turned on its head and Al was boxed out of using the name is when, by the end of 1999, BRI gave Mike an *exclusive* license. Al continued for a while to try to argue he didn't need a license, that the name was descriptive of his origin, etc. I don't think anybody was confusing a band with two or three female lead singers up on stage as *THE* Beach Boys. But it didn't matter. By 2000, Al had to drop any use of the name even in modified form.

I think two or all three of the guys going out as "Mike Love's Beach Boys", "Al Jardine's Beach Boys", etc. would have caused all of these same problems.

The only way such a modifier would work is if they had essentially *retired* the unmodified name and had Mike (or any one entity) using an exclusive license and still touring under a modified name like "Mike Love's Beach Boys."

But that never happened, and now never will.

I've said for many years now that if, in the aftermath of C50, nobody flexed any muscles to change the licensing set up, then it'll never happen. The only way anything will change in the band members' lifetimes is some extreme event like Mike being charged and/or convicted of some serious crime or something of that nature. And even then, if something *extreme* happened where BRI finally felt it had to do something, I'd say as long as Mike was still able and available to continue touring, things could get tied up in litigation for the rest of the band members' lives.

I think Mike made his artistic statement with Unleash the Love. The majority of songs on disc one were new songs - at least to fans like me who don't have access to every bootleg or unreleased tape. I bought Unleash the Love, and enjoyed hearing what Mike could come up with this late in the game. I listened to the Christmas album, but I didn't feel I needed to add it to my collection. And the new one, not really interested. Wondering if maybe Mike had a 3 album deal and recorded this one just to get something out? Whatever, I guess it's impressive that he's putting stuff out. I don't see Brian or Al rushing to get anything new out. How long did it take Al to record Postcards? Maybe we can expect a followup when Al's 90.  :-\

My guess with Mike's recent glut of albums is that they are made on the relative cheap, and the whole thing may be folded into or related to his book deal from a few years back, as I think both the book's publisher and the record label have the same parent company. Mike is able to knock these albums out pretty quickly in between busy tour dates/legs; in particular the last two were able to be knocked out pretty quickly because they're mostly covers and no time was needed to write new material.

It's ironic, about the only person in the Beach Boys at this point where I'd find some value in their knocking out a glut of albums filled with covers is Al Jardine, because his voice is so amazingly intact. There's still some value in hearing him sing stuff even when it's not super interesting material, because he's still such a great singer. Whereas, with Brian or Mike, I'd need some other hook (e.g. good *new* songs or truly uniquely inspired choices of songs to cover) to get me interested, because I don't pursue their material first and foremost for their lead vocal prowess at this stage.

So there's irony in that Al has been the last productive of the three in terms of releasing material. Considering how long it took him to get "Postcards" out, and how he's *still* kind of working that album almost a decade later (and seems stalled out on the reported "expanded" reissue of it even), I've always just gone under the assumption we'll never get another album from Al. Then, if one materializes, it'll just be a pleasant surprise.

Though, interestingly, Al and Larry Dvoskin just posted a few days ago that they finished off another of their old songs with Richie Cannata in the studio, a song called "Waves" (which I'm *desperately* hoping is not just yet another stab at reworking the now thrice-released "Waves of Love").

It absolutely is another version of Waves of Love

where was it posted?

https://www.facebook.com/ESQEditor/posts/10157325039287487

I would think any album containing a bad "curry" dialog line/joke spoken in a bad fake Indian accent would disqualify itself from being the best solo album. Can you imagine if Mike did a Mickey Rooney-esque Japanese impersonation talking about eating a fortune cookie at the end of Sumahama? Well that's basically what Ram Raj has.

Plus the Autotuned Help Me, Rhobot cover on Disc 2 is so unbearably bad, I would bet no fan has actually listened to it (for legit enjoyment, and not for ironic reasons) more than 1-2x max.

Despite the really, really awful "Good Vibrations, assassinations" lyric, I vote Looking Back With Love is the best Mike Love solo album. That whole album is kind of a guilty pleasure, perhaps just for the early 80s production. It has its moments, and at least Autotune wasn't invented yet.

Probably. But geez, I hope it's something else. "Waves of Love" is a nice song, but there are THREE versions of it already released, all of which sound more than reasonably "finished."

I mean, if they got some deal to get the song in a movie or TV show or something and went it do a new remix with maybe some new overdubs, I've got no problem with that. But Dvoskin is posting about this thing like it's a NEW song *finally* finished after 26 years. So they put not one, not two, but *three different unfinished* versions of the song out back in 2012?

If they're really trying to sell this as a new thing, to the point of even giving it an alternate title, that's a pretty big bummer. Is this the only song Dvoskin has written with Al over all these years? Are they not aware Al's fans are very familiar with this song already? It's additionally infamous for being batted around and then comically sadly rejected for the 2012 reunion BB album.

But then again, Al has a precedent for rerereworking the same thing over and over, often after the track lies dormant for years. "Loop de Loop" went unreleased for 30 years, and then we got *three* variations on that one released in 1998. We got FIVE mixes of "PT Cruiser" when that was released on a CD single.

And hey, if "Waves of Love" was like the only thing Al had in the vaults, I'd sympathize with trying to work with limited source material. But he's got TONS of songs in the vaults we've never heard.

I think the 2004 loose collection of Mike songs that floated around for years is easily his best solo "album" (using that term loosely since it was presumably not a fully sequenced album; the McCartney home recording certainly would have never been released), but apart from probably just reusing "Cool Head", everything else on "Unleash" that comes from that 2004 collection is markedly worse in every way. Autotune is the most problematic; but the re-recordings just sound more shrill and screechy and artificial compared to the 2004 collection, which maintains at least a little warmth. I'm not even like a die hard fan of Christian Love's voice, but I think his leads on "Too Cruel" and "I Don't Wanna Know" sound much better than either Mike's 1978 or 2017 leads.

I actually also thought the still unused reworking of "Everyone's In Love With You" from the 2004 collection wasn't that bad, probably the only time Mike has re-recorded something that isn't way, way worse than the original. So of course that went unused on "Unleash." Which is even weirder considering back in the 2000s I think Mike actually added that reworked version to his setlist occasionally.

I wonder if Al got this Reworking A Song To Death tick from Brian after witnessing Brian's neverending reworking of songs during the SMiLE era.

There's gotta be a reason why Al got to be this way, and I think it has to do with either a perfectionist instinct from Brian that rubbed off on him (Al's vocal performances are generally certainly pretty damn perfect, and he's rarely if ever let a subpar Al vocal performance slide into a song)... or maybe Al feels the need to live up to the standards (to the best of his own ability) that Brian set in his peak era.

Maybe he's trying to prove something. Hard to say.

Certainly non-linear, non-destructive editing has made it harder for indecisive people to ever finish and be happy with a song when they can keep on working on a song endlessly, and without any real additional cost.

It's somewhat of a mystery. But something just occurred to me also: Everyone (including me) has pondered how Brian gave a stellar-for-the-era vocal performance on Match Point of Your Love in 1978. Well guess who produced that track? Alan Charles Jardine, that's who. Did Al cajole a very unusually solid vocal out of Brian? Was that an early example of Al striving for perfection in the studio? Probably not, but who knows...

I completely forgot about that - it's crazy that the ONE song I thought had some originality to it on that album ends with some risqué racial* "humor" - in this day and age someone should've caught that immediately and trashed it before it left the studio. I remember when that first emerged - it took awhile for someone to notice it because barely anyone was listening to the tracks all the way through :lol

*before I get flayed alive, I want to say while I don't think it was racist in its intent at all, it is "humor" at the expense of a race. Ironic that the title of the album is Mike Love Not War - clearly no one who worked on that album would walk up to an Indian person in real life and do such an impression to their face, so why on earth do it on an album that is touting the virtues of love and peace?

Okay, I read about it all over this board, then I got the cd and finally heard it, and my reaction was "what was all the fuss about?" Have we really gotten that hypersensitive these days?

Would you say the same line in the same way directly to the face of an Indian person?

If no, then why? Could it be because it is perpetuating a stereotype and generalizing an entire race by mimicking an accent? And if yes, would you also be cool with Mike releasing an album with a vocal snippet of someone mimicking an African American and stereotyping the food they eat? Why would that be any different?  

If that's "hypersensitivity", guilty as friggin charged. What you call hypersensitivity I just call not being a prick.

edit: Again I'll say, I don't think the intent was ill-natured at all...Especially in an age where we all have probably seen more than one episode of the Simpsons. But I think we should still ask the question, is it cool to mimick accents and continue to use racial/cultural stereotypes? No, it's not. When you get down to it, what is the purpose of mimicking someone's accent and stereotyping their culture? Is it bringing that person up? Or is it bringing them down? Because it's doing one or the other and I'm fairly certain it's not making a positive impact on their lives. So why even have such a thing on an album that is supposed to have a positive impact on the world?

On Doe's unreleased page, it has this entry:

Life's A Wave (Alan Jardine - Dvoskin - Brown)

Maybe it is that instead?

http://www.bellagio10452.com/vaults.html

Listened to the album...for the most part the production is pretty good, the whole thing in fact is miles better than Waves of Love for the most part... but Mike’s voice is horrible. It’s shot...he’s trying, and I will give him all the credit for that, but the songs don’t really suit his current voice...

Except Girl from Impanema. Holy sh*t was this great. I don’t care if anyone disagrees with me but I’ll have it in my top ten Beach Boy solo tracks that aren’t from Pacific Ocean Blue (or BWPS because that doesn’t really count) . THIS is the type of stuff Mike should be doing these days, and I loved every aspect of it. Bravo


Keeping The Summer Alive? Less said about that, the better.

Rockaway Beach was actually pretty good again minus Mike’s voice. Had they done something like this back in, uh, 1995, it would’ve been great. Mike though brought it down. Not for lack of trying...just doesn’t have it in that style of singing.

Only my opinion.

https://cheddar.com/media/the-beach-boys-mike-love-previews-new-album-sides-of-summer (https://cheddar.com/media/the-beach-boys-mike-love-previews-new-album-sides-of-summer)

Link is to a 4 minute interview Mike gave on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to promote his album.

Fitting location, I suppose.

I actually really like the overall production of the version of "Here Comes The Sun", from a musical point of view. It's an interesting different approach to the song.

When they brought that out at the Albert Hall I wondered if all the band were in the same key

UEF,

The Albert Hall performance was rough, but the studio version sounds great, and it seems the band has gotten better at playing the song. When they played it at Ravinia on Sunday, the harmonies were great.

“The only way anything will change in the band members' lifetimes is some extreme event like Mike being charged and/or convicted of some serious crime or something of that nature”

Wouldn’t his solo albums qualify as that?

:lol

Does anyone else think "California Beach" sounds a lot like a lesser Jan & Dean track? Along the lines of "Malibu Beach," "Waimea Bay," or  "Horace, The Swingin' School Bus Driver," but with less oompf to it?

 :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol You' got that right!! :woot :woot :woot :woot :woot

positivemusic,

As a huge J&D fan I actually agree with you on that one. California Beach to me actually sounds like something they would've done in Phase II. It would fit nicely with the stuff on Port To Paradise or Second Wave. Most of the Phase I J&D stuff really rocked, which California Beach doesn't, but Phase II had some more mellow soft rock tunes like Ocean Park Angel, How I Love Her and She's Dancing.

Nate, I can definitely see that fitting in Phase II, as well. Another good comparison might be with "Hawaiian Mirage," though I do like that one better than "California Beach."

I'm also a big fan of the much under-appreciated Jan & Dean!

How, how I love her may be the greatest "love song you never heard".

I can get behind that. But, personally, I'm pretty fond of "That's The Way It Is" and "Love Her Tonight."

Man, those are all super overlooked cuts.

How How I Love Her is a masterpiece in my opinion. The arrangement is splendid, and you can feel the ache in every chord change. Especially in the chorus. The strings blasting, harmonies locked in, the lyrics. I love the dynamics in the song, and the interesting pickups.

That's The Way It Is is another classic. I love the way the electric guitars, bass, and cellos all work together. I've always felt a real emotional weight with this song. Super nice arrangement quirk, how when Jan sings "I hear violins softly in the night", the violins come in. This song has great dynamics- going from quiet and soft to loud and rocking- something Jan had really mastered in the mid 60's and continued to use. Spector's productions were like a constant booming sound, whereas Jan's tended to have dynamics and built from soft to loud.

Love Her Tonight may be the last true Jan Berry classic (even though I really enjoy most of the songs on Second Wave). The chord changes are sublime, and those strings and backing harmonies really tug at the heart strings.

Jan's obviously struggled to varying degrees, vocally, on these songs, but he sounds comfortable and confident on them. You can tell there was still music in his heart that he needed to express after the accident; nothing changed in that respect. The complex, almost Classical-like arrangements were still there in his head.


Anyway, maybe the reason I'm actually enjoying the 12 Sides Of Summer as a whole, is it definitely has a J&D Phase II feel all around. Soft summer rock. Some tender moments, some fun moments. Nothing too serious, but cool attention to musical detail. Call me a heretic, but I actually find myself enjoying 12 Sides Of Summer (and UTL) on the same level that I do NPP, Postcards, and TWGMTR. They're not perfect albums, but I couldn't be more thankful to have new studio albums from any of the BBs, in any combination. Mike and Brian's recent solo efforts have suffered from autotune and synthetic sounding production, but 12 Sides Of Summer sounds wayyyy more natural than UTL or NPP in my opinion.  To me, it's just a really fun BBs sounding lp, with some cuts that I've been wanting for years, and some new surprises. I don't think anyone involved would want you to take 12SOS seriously as an important work of art, just blast it driving in your car, or mixed in with some of the upbeats 70's and 80's material, and you might find yourself enjoying it.