They just want to try to make the board a little easier to navigate.

They sure need to do something. The inability to thread messages is very annoying, and is why I stopped going there long ago. Read a message, back out, read the next one, so on....

Actually, you didn't have to back out and read the next one.  There was a link within each message, I don't recall what the wording was, but if you chose that link rather than backing out it put you right back in the board at the thread you just clicked.

Anything, that was a stupid thing to say.  It would have been nice to have someone classier, or at least more well respected, singing a tribute to Brian.  How about U2?  I have always wondered what Bono could bring to certain songs.  Maybe nothing, but at least he is well respected, fairly classy, and hip.  Hootie sucks, IMO.

Pretty classy event.  Not a big Lyle Lovett fan, but he is a respected artist and did his thing.  The choir at the end was a nice touch.  Would take anything over Hootie, that blew.

I was duped, I didn't realize this was an old thread.  Nevertheless, I do wonder if our friend has found any new music?!?

Depending on what you are all into, you might want to check out a band called The Explorers Club.  They are a new band with a serious Beach Boys vibe.  IMO, the songs are so good you'd swear you stumbled across a long lost gem from the 60's.  From their myspace page (www.myspace.com/explorersclub) you can listen to one song, Last Kiss.  If you go to www.hypem.com you should be able to find the others.  Their best songs are: I Lost My Head (PS/SMiLE era BW/BB), Forever, Don't Forget the Sun, and Last Kiss are all Today/SDSN era BW/BB (and there is lots of Phil Spector in Forever).  The music is derivative, it sounds a lot like the Beach Boys, but not in a Flash Cadillac sort of way.  More in a Gary Zeckley/Curt B./long lost BB tracks sort of way.  I love 'em, and I make no apologies - my favorite new band in the last 5 years.

One of these days someone is going to think I work for the band, I don't - in fact I have a hard time getting replies from them when I email...just a great band making great music - and it's not filthy like so much of what is out there today.

My intial intention was to keep it exclusively Brian Wilson...but I am not a thread-Nazi, so post as you please.

I am sure you've all heard of John Lennon's Jukebox - the songs JL borrowed from for many of the songs he wrote.  I have been thinking of a similar thing for BW/BB...I'll start us off with some easy ones:

Be My Baby - The Ronnettes & Don't Worry Baby
Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry & Surfin' USA
When You Wish Upon a Star - ? & Surfer Girl

Are there any particular songs by The Four Freshmen that Brian borrowed?  It doesn't have to be a complete lift (like Surfin' USA) - but feed me info about where his songs came from, his melodies, his ideas...

Would love to put together an extensive list but will need *lots* of help.

If you haven't done so yet, I highly recommend checking out the new song by The Explorer's Club called "Last Kiss."  If you like BB/BW-esque songs, this is for you.  Go to myspace to have a listen:  http://www.myspace.com/explorersclub

Certainly derivitive, but great tunes.

You can listen to What Love Can Do here:

http://music.download.com/newmusicfromanoldfriendsingersongwriterlegends/3600-8742_32-101016775.html

Could someone please post a different link to the song?  When I try to listen I get caught in an endless loop where the media player refreshes over and over and over...HELP!

NEVERMIND: It is working just fine now.

Reading the Peter Aims Carlin book, I really like it.  Up to this point (I'm in the 80's, Dennis has just passed away) it seems PAC is saying that Brian really just doesn't give a damn anymore (in addition to psychological/emotional issues).  It sounds as if he's had the life sucked out of him from those who want to use him to write more hits.  My question, for those who know or at least have an informed opinion: If Brian could find it in himself to care, could he write good songs?

It is a shame that the rest of the Beach Boys didn't follow his lead, and that he couldn't stay mentally healthy.  It is sad to sit and think about what could have been...

\And as for finding BBs sound-alikes, there are none.

Yep, it would be totally jackass to say that "Pale and Precious" sounds like The Beach Boys.

Don't know why I felt the need to go back to this, but I did.

Even Mike Love doesn't dance like Mike Love these days.
But Brian does. Spooky. 

Hmm...  I guess Brian has recently started to do a "seated on a stool" version of Mike in a sense, yeah...

I wonder if Mike could sue Brian for this?

The Polyphonic Spree is dissapointing on CD, but they're the best live act I've ever seen. And "Section 12 (Hold Me Now)" is one of my favorite songs of the last few years.

The Poly Spree is disappointing in as much as they are often touted as "sounding like the Beach Boys" - they don't.  As a band, not too bad...but I also agree that they seem to capture the same vibe/feel over and over again - Section 12 does the best job of capturing this feeling.

I guess I am agreeing with all of you.

Another group I've found dissapointing is The Polyphonic Spree.

Here, here!

The Magic Numbers, The Heavy Blinkers, The Raspberries (they also claim to have a Phil Spector production  ), The Vines (all the critics said the third album was Beach Boys/Beatles influenced), Big Star (everyone told me that Alex Chilton claims to be heavily influenced by the Byrds and the Who, two of my favorite bands, but I ain't hearing it), The High Llamas. That's all I can think of right now.

Well, yes, you did get screwed on these.  I don't hear it in The Magic Numbers at all - average "power pop" band in my humble opinion (and even the term "power pop" is way over used these days).  The Heavy Blinkers have a couple of tunes that have a Beach Boys feel to them but even those songs are more Bee Gees-esque.  The Raspberries have a few tunes that more "inspired by" than "sound like."  I have read the comment on The Vines record and I agree, I don't see it at all, ditto Big Star (though the opening riff of "Turn My Back On the Sun" steals the opening riff of "Wouldn't It Be Nice."

The High Llamas are a different story alltogether.  A lot of O'Hagan's music reminds me of SMiLE-era Brian Wilson stripped of all emotion.

I guess the difference between your experience and mine is that I listened to clips from these records prior to handing over my cash and saved myself a lot of money.  If you want, send me your mailing address and I'll send you a disc of songs that, in my opinion, sound like the BB...would be interested in hearing what you think.

Why did you spend money on product you haven't first listened to?  Why did you do it multiple times?

Would be interested in learning what you were told was influenced by the BB and was not.

Thank you for the post!  Check your email.

And or thoes looking for something BB-esque, check out the song "Soft Carousel" by Maple Mars - has a psychedelic "Feel Flows" feel to it.

Voxnut - I agree with what you've said, though my reaction to the more slavish copies is different than yours - if I like the song I am able to overlook that fact that it is a ripoff/slavish imitation.

The initial purpose of my AWoPS (A Wall of Pet Sounds) mix series was a reaction to some friends/co-workers who seemed to love a lot of bands influenced by The Beach Boys, yet they hated The Beach Boys themselves.  As I set out to prove a point I wound up discovering a lot of songs/bands I hadn't previously heard.   Even before the first mix was complete it had turned into something I was making for my own enjoyment (and I'd quit the crummy job which left me with no one to make the mixes for anyway).

So that's the story.  I'd still like to see what songs some of the other board members have discovered that sound like/are influenced by BW.  Post away...

I own the disc.  I have never been able to fully get into The High Llamas, but Hawaii is the one disc I by THL that I have in my collection (or should I say, two discs)...pretty good stuff, though not totally my cup of tea.

You may as well bow out.  By definition you are incapable of contributing to the purpose of this thread - if the idea is to find a song that sounds like the Beach Boys and you don't think such exists, how could you add anything other than contrary ideas?  Of course you are free to do so, but why poo-poo someone else's party, right?

Ironically, though, while acknowleding that there are "rip-off" bands and naming elements common to BB songs (even if sarcastically), you have acknowleded what you deny - that there is a "BB-sound" and that there are songs/bands that have that sound.  You may think it all rubbish, but you acknowledge it nonetheless.

You are free to your opinion and perhaps you are only able to enjoy the most elite artists (having perhaps convinced yourself that Brian is a modern-day Bach or Mozart), but sometimes a good little tune is just as enjoyable as a complex piece of music.

Ta Ta

>And as for finding BBs sound-alikes, there are none. There are great musicians who were influenced by them, of >course. And there are musicians of varying quality who try to do the most blatant rip-offs possible. But finding them >for the latter reason is a waste of time, in my book. A brilliant imitator of the Beach Boys is just a covers band or a >jukebox. Big fodaing deal. I'd take the former any day for the same reason that I don't listen to Beach Boys records in >order to hear the Four Freshmen or Chuck Berry.

I think we are talking past one another here.  If you mean that no one has reached the heights of Brian and the Beach Boys, and that to compare The Explorers Club, The High Llamas, etc. to them is an insult to the talent of Brian Wilson and the boys, sure, I agree.  If you mean that when you listen to one of these bands there are not a lot of similarities between their sound and the Beach Boys sound, then you just aren't being reasonable.  Are the songs as complex?  No.  Do the harmonies sound as good?  No.  Is the song as original?  Obviously not, they are purposely copying the Beach Boys.  Do the bands have half the talent BW has?  No.  Do the songs incorporate similar elements - similar melodies and harmonies though less complex, yes.  Similar rhythm?  Yes.  Similar "feeling" though not as deep/transcendent?  Yes.  When one hears, for example, Motley Crue, the music does not call to mind the Beach Boys.  When one hears Cosmic Rough Riders there is very little that calls to mind the Beach Boys, though perhaps more than Motley Crue.  When one hears The Explorers Club, it does bring to mind the Beach Boys, even if to a trained ear the similarities are on the surface.

To deny this is not sensible.

As for finding bands that "rip-off"/copy/imitate the Beach Boys just because they are rip-offs, I am not sure who has stated this reason for searching out such bands.  My personal interest in such music is that, generally, I like the music.  Sometimes for the talent, sometimes for the simple reason I enjoy the tune.  Not everything has to be Bach or Beethoven, sometimes I just enjoy a song because I enjoy the song - and I happen to enjoy songs that have a similar "feeling" as a Brian Wilson song.  Sometimes this happens even when the song is just a shadow of a Brian Wilson-type of song.

Ultimately, I am not interested in what this or that critic claims and why.  I am interested in finding music that I like - tending to like music with a BW/BB feel, I try to find such music.  At other times I am a big fan of soul music, other times folk, still other times classical (I especially like Bach and Handel).  The "I only like brilliant musicians" thing is unecessarily elitist.  There is something to be said for brilliance, but there is also something to be said for a simple tune that recalls a certain memory or makes a guy feel a certain way - and in this there is a brilliance, even if not musical genius.  To find it is not a waste of time anymore than listening to Brian Wilson.

Then you haven't listened to the band.  You may not think they exihibit the same level of talent as Brian, or the same level of innovation - and I would agree, Brian is head and shoulders about even Sufjan.  But to say they don't sound like the Beach Boys?  That is not being honest.

I agree with your assessment and have been burned several times.  While I more or less like The Thrills, the "Beach Boyness" is minimal.  Bands like Hal are, to me, more "twee" than Brian Wilson-esque.  With the Cosmic Rough Riders, I have no idea why they are compared to the BB.  Sean O'Hagan/High Llamas have been able to pull off some "SMiLE-esque" quirkiness, but the feeling of Brian's music just isn't there.

I have to admit, while I very much appreciate what Brian did - from the complexity in his music, to forging a new path in pop/rock, to the feeling his music evokes, I also enjoyh the music, plain and simple.  So when a band does write a good song that has the BB/BW feel to it, I can still enjoy it.  Take Flash Cadillac, for example.  The guys certainly are not hip, and they have a bit of a "cheese" factor - and goodness knows there is nothing original about what they are doing.  However, the songs are good, nice melodies, nice harmonies.  No reason not to just enjoy it for what it is.

I strongly recommend checking out  The Explorers Club at myspace.  These guys write good music and have great voices.  If you don't think "I Lost My Head" sounds like a Brian Wilson song you can ignore everything I post on this board.  Honestly, the first time I heard the song I thought it was a Brian Wilson song I'd somehow missed.  Also check out "Don't Forget the Sun" and "Forever" while you are there.  Forever starts out lifting the Phil Spector drum beat and quickly shifts into a Brian/Phil homage.  Really good stuff.

BTW, I only recommended one song by The Ruby Suns, Criterion, which does have a BB sound.  I do mostly agree about their overall sound though, which is why I didn't comment on any other songs.

Check out any of the *songs* I recommended, you may not like them, but they are clearly influenced by Brian and The Beach Boys.

Here is another one:

The Ruby Suns - Criterion.  Great song and it lifts directly from Sloop John B.  Pretty good stuff.

Also check out the songs "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" and "Only a Summer Away" by Spyderbaby (produced by Mark Wirtz).

For female sung BB soundalike, go to myspace and look for a band called "The Bird and The Bee" - the song "I'm a Broken Heart" has a BW feel to it.

Shelter - thank you!  I probably should have mentioned that I have scoured this site, but thank you, I had lost the link and now I have it again!

To get this thead moving a bit, I recommend the following, in case you haven't heard of them:

1. The Explorer's Club - best thing since the Beach Boys if you are looking for that "Brian Wilson" feeling.  Check them out on myspace and buy tunes at itunes.  Check out "I Lost My Head," "Don't Forget the Sun," and "Forever."

2. The Chymes - Last Gas.  Don't know where you can actually purchase this song, but you can hear it at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thechymes.  IF ANYONE CAN GET A DECENT QUALITY DOWNLOAD OF THIS SONG (128k or better) I'D MUCH APPRECIATE.  In fact, I'd take any download at all...I've tried to contact the band, but no response.  The song has a bit part that sounds like "Love and Mercy" mixed with Pet Sounds.

3. The Brother Kite - Waiting for the Time To Be Right.  You can get it anywhere.

Will list more if you like.