These two are very nice! Great chorus on "Unavailable", impeccable vocal work on both.

Lol. Only from Mike Love.

Get well soon Billy.

I gave that one a few goes and have mixed feelings about it... the rockers mostly didn't impress me, but on the other hand 'Carolina' is great.

Anyone tried the new Randy Newman album? I haven't listened to everything of his but there can't be much in the catalog as weird and wonderful as 'The Great Debate'.

[different]

This is why I left the board for the better part of a year.

Sigh.

But I'm going to soldier on for one point.

Making fun of Mike's work and saying he's a talentless hack is quantifiably different than the criticism that Brian or NPP received.

The criticism was and is different.

How?

Mike is treated, even by those who despise him, as a free agent. A man capable of making his own musical and professional decisions, whether we agree with them (now and then) or mock them (frequently of late). You attack Mike Love, you're attacking him. And sometimes, he attacks you back. It's clean, simple, professional.

But Brian is treated by many of his critics, on and off this board, as a puppet. A person incapable of making musical, personal or creative decisions. An album is an opportunity to lambaste the network of support that Brian has built over the past two decades. It is dehumanizing. It treats mental illness as crippling. It treats effective psychotropic medication as disqualifying.

And enough people on this board, by the time No Pier Pressure was released, had heard enough from people who directly know Brian -- Ray and Debbie and the band members who tour with the man -- to know that such criticism is false.

The line has still been parroted. Not just by folks online and the more ignorant critics, but by Mike himself.

Brian is, of course, dependent on a social structure around him and medication. Sometimes he agrees to do things that are misguided. Sometimes he's eager to avoid conflict and acts against his arguable best interests. No one disagrees about that. But he's still the author of his life. He's still deciding, even if it's deciding to let other people chart the day-to-day details. Plenty of other rock stars -- plenty of other ordinary people -- do the same.

So, yeah. That's the point. That's the crux of it all. Criticize Brian if you must. Criticize his taste if you feel like it. But don't treat him like a vegetable, because it's offensive to a fellow human being.

Yeah, pretty much bang on. To my mind the issue is that with Brian's reputation as a genius incapable of doing wrong, it's all too easy when handed something of his you don't like to give into instinct and say "this doesn't fit in with the Brian I've fabricated in my head, so even if other people like it he can't have had anything to do with the music." With all this bullshit over the past two years I don't even remember if that's what I used to believe about NPP, but I certainly don't now, and these days I do think it takes quite a bit of cheek to suggest otherwise. Brian had the final say on the album, and I didn't like it. Which is just fine.

This is and has always been a totally inconsequential discussion that clearly isn't going to end any time soon, and has increasingly less to do with Brian Wilson than the fact that most people involved on either board have gigantic egos and resent anybody signed up on the other.

As for "Do It Again '17", the track and the video: both bloody awful.

Hopefully it isn't a too tabloid style movie...

Tarantino's basically the most competent tabloid-style director in the game. He will toss any and all historical authenticity out of the window in the service of film homage. So I wouldn't put it past him to make this some sort of spaghetti-western kung fu epic that just happens to star the Manson family.

Very odd, I just had a dream that Brian and Al released an uptempo rock remake of "He Gives Speeches".

Nah, I'd be surprised to learn Mike even gives these sort of releases a second thought. It's just business as usual for him. There'll probably be another "Do It Again" in two years... maybe with Ted Nugent.

Jesus, there was another one already besides the C50 version? They must all sound completely indistinguishable from one another.

What are the Griffin sessions?

More than an albums' worth of oldies that Brian and various members of his band recorded at Gary Griffin's house in the late oughts. Foskett, Bennett and Gary are heavily featured. Endless Summer Quarterly published a rundown a year or so ago. None of the material has leaked, as far as I know. And as much as it pains me to say it, apparently we aren't missing much.

but i want it anyway

Aw. 

Cool news. "Some Sweet Day" is a good'un.

Spent most of the last year in Hong Kong and became not unreasonably attached to my flatmate's pets:





Absolute dumbasses the pair of them, but the sweetest kittens <3

Could I possibly be a part of this? If anyone needs any extra vocal bits? I could try making a backing track for whatever's leftover... can't promise anything would be great but it'd be fun!

Enjoyed this very much. Nice work.

I was gonna say, I was caught off-guard a little bit when this image showed up on my TV screen out of nowhere.  

This is really cool! It's nice to hear the songs re-interpreted so creatively - if I didn't know already I probably wouldn't even have been able to tell that was All I Wanna Do. I'm only mixed on the vocals, which I really like when they're blending in with the backing track (like on With Me Tonight especially) but I think they're weak when put front and centre like on ITBOMM.

If they thought Lucy Jones was eligible for release, anything is possible.

Ohhh I love the Raspberries. Positively irresistible cheese.
Reminds me, I gotta start spinning Fresh - that's a fantastic summer album.

Dear readers, I am forced to end this review and the listening of the album prematurely, though the music and its uncorrupted passages will forever exist in the space behind my eyes. When Zooey’s fiercely erotic vocals entered the song, my colleague fell into a state of silent reverie, and his face contorted into an unearthly smile of downy tranquility. After Brian's chant of “on the island”, a burning chill shot down my spine. The rain and wind began to beat against the window pane, and I shuddered a horrible shudder. Zooey returned with her lyrics about rent, the chair Bubs sat in began to vibrate vigorously, and a lizard-brained yell tore its way from between my teeth. The electronics began to fizzle, sparks flung outward from the outlets in the wall, and the lightbulbs above us exploded. But I knew in my heart of hearts it was a moment of righteous ecstasy. The whistling cut through the torrent like a knife, and a hole was punched through the roof. Rain and the brightest light I have ever witnessed poured through the new cavity at our heads, and Bubs began to hover above his chair. His last spoken message from this reality to the next one was to "take it slow,” and he shot through the hole in the ceiling, as if he were lifted up towards his salvation by the heavenly light to bask in God’s sanctitude.

As for me, I remain--vaguely. Following the holy transcendence of my friend, I, the only witness, have felt all the vigor leave from me. Where I once had fair, smooth skin, the canvas of my body is now dominated with meddlesome splurges of blotches and wrinkles. However, with these wrinkles has come a new world-weary wisdom. I am now old, and this is not the familiar world I once inhabited. My friends and all the familiar locations and spaces I have visited in life have shifted, and perhaps it’s time I do as well.

Such is the power of No Pier Pressure.

recently released. live albums. instead of cancelling NC shows, AC decides to release this instead. Very cool.
https://anmlcollectve.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-fonda-theatre-march-9-2016

fucking AWESOME

Closing thoughts.

Judd:   I can't stand how loud a lot of it is. the impression I get is that they're worried listeners will be bored if everything isn't CRANKED.

Bubs:   at least it gave us "In the Back of My Mind"

Judd:   oh, that's true, that's a great thing

Bubs:   why in God's name would they give us ItBoMM and L&M with this album? it makes this album look so poor

Judd:   to be honest, the version of L&M they include is a bit cheesy in a similar sort of way to NPP, but the ITBOMM demo, absolutely

Bubs:    the frankness of the lyrics to L&M are a great example of Brian doing his thing

Judd:   oh yeah. I think the closest this album gets to that might be Tell Me Why, lyrically. I like the opening lines

Bubs:   "a lot of people out there hurtin' and it really scares me." I BELIEVE HIM WHEN HE SAYS THAT

Judd:   me toooo

Bubs:   I don't believe NPP.

Judd:   no. I really hope NPP isn't his last album. I don't think time will be kind to it, even if it is his last album. Blah. RATINGS OUT OF… what was it, 5? LET'S DO TEN. I say a 3/10

Bubs:   let's see here… there's 16 songs, 5 of them are a mixture of okay/good. that's a little less than a third… so, 3/10 it is

Judd:   ah. Best song? Worst song?

Bubs:   Best song...

Judd:   I'll just go with Don't Worry: the only song on the album to wriggle its way into my heart

Bubs:   uuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… "This Beautiful Day," I guess

Judd:   oof, worst song… I am offended by both Sail Away and The Last Song

Bubs:   how do you only pick one

Judd:   shrug

Bubs:   "Our Special Love" and "Runaway Dancer" are currently having a knife fight

Judd:   Our Special Love is terrible but at least it's not trying to be anything more than stupid bubblegum. Sail Away and Last Song are worse for me because they're both so cold and insincere. I think I'll say Last Song

Bubs:   I'll say "Our Special Love"

Judd:   okey dokes

Bubs:   cuz you might at least be able to dance to RD

Judd:   if no-one's watching

Bubs:    I always dance like no one's watching

The End

Part 13: Not Part 12


The Last Song begins.

Bubs:   all right, get your hankies

Judd:   I fucking hate this

Bubs:   this one's gonna bring the tears

Judd:   there's something about those high piano lines. when the drums kick in it's doomed, and those la la las are stupid. STUPID. I loved the "don't worry"s but this is supposed to make me sad. that drum is so fucking tepid

Bubs:   the "la"'s are supposed to evoke so much emotion but the song really hasn't worked up to that moment yet, it's shown its hand too soon. it's like a movie killing the main person's mom in the first three minutes

Judd:   now it feels like a Seaworld nighttime show

Bubs:   the way they sing "la" is bizarre, too. it sounds more like someone taunting someone else

Judd:   taunting US. this whole song is just so unbearably stale

Bubs:   I want to be moved, but I'm not

Judd:   I don't even care

Bubs:   it just feels all calculated to pull at the heart strings

Judd:   calculated is a good way of describing it

Bubs:   it's like a computer using a formula to write a song

Judd:   it just plods along

Bubs:   “we'll put lone, high piano notes, and then it's gonna have some sad singing, and then it's gonna do a la la la, and then more sad, and then more la la, and then we'll mention loved ones”

Judd:   it's just the drums I really hate. what is that tempo, are they trying to do some weird marching band thing? godddddd it sounds like fucking Winds of Change off MIU

Bubs:   now that's a terrible song

Judd:   I'm convinced this is as bad. anyway, it sounds more like that than Surf's Up, in case that's what they were going for. this album pisses me off. it doesn't remind me of why I love Brian and his music so much

Bubs:   exactly. I think part of the reason it's so frustrating is because it's the fabled Brian Wilson

Judd:   he's not trying anything new because he's covering old ground except coating it in glitz in what feels like a desperate attempt at chart success… it feels so cynical and calculated

Bubs:   a man who managed to translate real emotion and life experiences into his music, and here there's nothing