[LET'S GO, mo'fos, YEAH!]

You forgot the most punk song the BBs ever recorded  : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS_uO7hVOn8

I really, really want this song to get a proper mix and have it in good quality too. I know it will never happen but, my god, this song is such a stomper. Ever wanted to hear what Brian Wilson sounds like after he railed an entire garbage bag full of coke? Probably like this! LET'S GO, mo'fos, YEAH!

Jeez, I'm glad I don't expect a lot from Brian Wilson's solo career otherwise I might be disappointed too. I'm just glad we get things like "Message Man" and "Being With The One You Love" and even "Somebody To Watch Over Me" or "Baby Mine" every so often. Otherwise I'm pretty lukewarm to the whole enterprise to be perfectly on the level. If I get blown away at some point by something he puts out, well, that'd be nice too...

I initially read this topic title as "Chick Tracts" and got really confused when I read its contents.

Why hasn't Nardwuar interviewed Mike or Brian? I bet he'd piss off Mike and Brian wouldn't know what to do with him, haha.

I'd gladly take "only" one disc of this material, jeez Wirestone! Why not pad it out with mid-to-late-'70s stuff and then everyone can be satisfied? I suspect the stuff from the '80s and '90s has been in the vaults for good reason -- what has been released on Made In California doesn't exactly make me want to hear more, at any rate. (I do like "Soul Searchin'" though...)

I was listening to Pet Sounds at one point and I thought to myself, "Man, it would've been really interesting to hear 1966 Brian Wilson do a drum'n'bass album!" since I think he had (and probably still has) a sense of groove or beat that isn't so obviously appreciated. He might not be funky, per se, but he certainly can get in-the-pocket when he wants to it seems...

Yeah, I like that idea. I think it's interesting that The Beach Boys never really seemed to mentor any other artists, at least as far as I know (maybe The Flame?), although they were obviously influential. I suppose plenty of people have expressed interest in working with Brian but either it hasn't worked out or the interest hasn't been reciprocated... Or it has and the results have been decent at best. Maybe that's why, hmm.

Mike has traded in Beach Boys song references in lyrics for Beatles ones. This song makes me laugh. Thanks, Mike!

Who is the Ron Wilson who shares the songwriting credit on this track - is it really the drummer of the Surfaris as suggested by Wikipedia?

According to AGD, no, and no one has ever been able to track down the correct Ron Wilson who wrote this song.

Well, my personal best would be: "Stevie", "Love And Mercy", "Melt Away", "Rio Grande", "Being With The One You Love", "Soul Searchin'", the demo version of "Midnight's Another Day", "Oh Mi Amor", "Message Man", and "The Like In I Love You". I still haven't listened to That's Why God Made The Radio which is why I've not included anything from that...

Honourable mention: "Little Children" because it sounds so dementedly happy, it's a relentless wash of synth, percussion and vocals!

I'd leave it to the canonical albums, which The Beach Boys as an organisation seem to believe is everything from 1962-1985. Although I don't ever listen to anything past Love You, I can deal with having those other four albums for the sake of completion -- and maybe I'd even end up listening to them and enjoy them to some degree! I don't care about The Beach Boys as a live band so that doesn't interest me, anyway. I'm looking at it from the perspective of not only what I would be satisfied to receive but also what would provide some proper critical reassessment of this group and possibly even sell too! I don't honestly think including a bunch of half-baked live recordings from 1965, Still Cruisin', or "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" would do that. However, I do agree with you about unreleased albums, as bizarre and half-baked as many of them are... I think those would provide interesting avenues for reappraisal and previously unappreciated wrinkles in the musical adventure that is this f***ed-up, messy, corny band.

They should just call it Group Therapy: The Complete Studio Albums 1962-1985 and have it be a psychoanalyst's chair or something, I don't know. I say these things but then I think it would be totally awesome if "Drip Drop" or "Rollin' Up To Heaven" showed up on a set like this. Maybe this is why I'm not employed by The Beach Boys to manage their discography.

Bandcamp also seems like a sensible distribution platform, and one which I prefer as a consumer over iTunes without question, although I don't know the specifics of how it works for the artists who sell music on it money-wise beyond that Bandcamp takes some percentage of sales. (Though even with free downloads on Bandcamp, people are more than willing to pay in support of the artist's efforts as well.)

Considering how well his last solo album (and so far only, Looking Back With Love [1981]) did commercially and was received critically, and how he has not released any substantial collections of solo material since then, I'm not surprised he's hesitant to do so. If Brian Wilson apparently has a tough time finding label or distributor interest, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for Mike Love... Perhaps Mike just doesn't see himself as a recording artist any more and is more than content with touring and keeping alive the summer the music of The Beach Boys? That honestly probably makes him more money than a solo album would anyway. However, if he does have an interest in getting his music out there, I would think EPs every so often would be more than doable: they're quick to put together, easy to get out there (independently or otherwise), and you're not risking a lot as you would with a full-length album.

Why not just release EPs if he can't do full albums?

They should've just released a complete studio albums box set (albums in both mono and stereo mixes, where possible; up to their self-titled 1985 album since that seems to be their official discographical cut-off point) plus some discs of bonus material (tracks orphaned from the GV box set and twofers that haven't yet reappeared) and be done with it. No fuss, no hassle. Then HDTracks could release that in a high-resolution audio format.

Oh, I didn't even know I had "signed" this since, of course, I didn't and I don't think I even use the email address associated with my account here any more.

The most serious indictment to be brought against non-empirical philosophies is that they have cast a cloud over the things of ordinary experience. They have not been content to rectify them. They have discredited them at large. In casting aspersion upon the things of everyday experience, the things of action and affection and social intercourse, they have done something worse than fail to give these affairs the intelligent direction they so much need. It would not matter much if philosophy had been reserved as a luxury of only a few thinkers. We endure many luxuries. The serious matter is that philosophies have denied that common experience is capable of developing from within itself methods which will secure direction for itself and will create inherent standards of judgment and value. No one knows how many of the evils and deficiencies that are pointed to as reasons for flight from experience are themselves due to the disregard of experience shown by those peculiarly reflective. To waste of time and energy, to disillusionment with life that attends every deviation from concrete experience must be added the tragic failure to realize the value that intelligent search could reveal and mature among the things of ordinary experience.

It's always funny seeing people's reactions to Piero Scaruffi's essay on The Beatles...

The fact that so many books still name the Beatles "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success: the Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worth of being saved.

I'm just waiting for Marilyn to release an album as good as Plastic Ono Band or Fly and then the Beatles comparisons for me will have obtained completely.

edit: Or should that be Melinda...

I think it's a little ridiculous to get so invested in a band that you actually get upset about them changing their name and disowning their earlier material? It's not like Surrealistic Pillow is in any way diminished by "We Built This City", just like how nobody really cares that "Hey Little Tomboy" is the same band that did Pet Sounds. And I say this as someone who really likes music a lot...

You sound like a lot of fun to be around.

I think without psychotherapy, that isn't likely to happen if Murry thought there wasn't any reason to feel culpable about his behaviour.

"All I Wanna Do", the same one as heard on Sunflower except released on The Beach Boys.

Theodore Graczyk, a philosopher of aesthetics, has discussed in his book Listening To Popular Music, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Led Zeppelin (2007, University of Michigan Press) whether or not Pet Sounds can be considered a work of art given the traditional criteria for the category. (If I recall correctly, it doesn't pass muster!) Beyond that, I can't think of any other sustained treatment of The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson from academics, though I imagine at this point there must be more than a few.

I really don't understand why people get offended or outraged when others don't get passionately interested in music.