There’s a 10% coupon code available in the official site: GET10OFF.

But I’m waiting for the box set to be available in the uDiscover store, because there’s a $25 OFF available coupon: SUMMER25

Just got the 4LP at uDiscover. SUMMER25 coupon knocked 25% off.

Is it only the 5CD that comes with a book?

Also wondering the same. I'd like to get the 4LP but I can't tell if the book pictured is the same as the one with the 5cd. Not mentioned in the item description for any of the non-5-cd products.

My gateway was definitely Wild Honey at about age 23 or 24. I liked the brevity and instant re-playability. Lot of newer rap/R&B/soul/indie/garage artists going back to that 23 minute album format, I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly why but I have some ideas. Soon latched onto Smiley Smile, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower Surf's Up, Love You, and the 73 In Concert big time. I had already heard Pet Sounds plenty before but it had never smacked me over the head. Since then I've absorbed all the surfin albums, LOVE Today, the Smile Sessions, and a little bit of the post Love You material. A lot of my friends also really love Wild Honey and Love You because they're GOOFY and fun. The production on Love You especially can be heard in tons of post 00s indie/synth sorta stuff. Most of those same friends aren't nearly as interested in exploring whole discographies as I am but they're at least aware that the Beach Boys have a lot more going on than even their parents probably know. There's almost a 'spread the gospel' aura surrounding them once you KNOW and then you feel compelled to let others know too and attempt to explain the convoluted history in digestible chunks. I can say for certain that people my age that play in bands and are into music as more than a hobby etc are much more likely to latch onto BB topics like Love You, Manson, My Solution, the sound quality + production techniques of Sunflower, and then hilariously bad stuff like the Nascar album than they are the surfing years and the flag-saluting perpetual oldies touring machine.

fantastic. gonna drop a line once more just to make sure i'm on the email list. somebody's about to pay $316 for the one on ebay if it doesn't go even higher in the next few days

Just watched a copy on ebay climb from 35.00 to 305.00 in 2 minutes of bidding. Could be a seller scam to jack up the price but either way I really wish Mr. Sharp would do a second print. I've emailed him once a year for 3 years asking for updates and nothin. Is there any way this forum can move things along?

COMMENT to vinyl collectors:   It begins (or ends).  As I stated, we will see pressing plants start to close.

Rainbow Records Pressing Plant Closes >>> https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2019/10/22/rainbo-records-shutting-down/

~swd

Couple more things:

Rainbo is (allegedly) closing because of a massive rent hike and prohibitively expensive relocating costs. This was a while before the Apollo fire. Whether that's the truth or not, still sad to see a plant of over 80 years go.

Some off-the-record hopeful takes by some industry execs:
https://blog.discogs.com/en/why-the-fire-at-apollo-masters-doesnt-mean-vinylgeddon/?utm_source=discogs&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=News_2020_02_13

Memphis Record Pressing employee here, feel free to ask questions or correct me on anything.

Lacquer cutting will definitely be endangered until somebody (cough cough price gouging major labels) hopefully decides to invest in new cutting tech. Direct metal mastering has been around since the 80s but everybody who developed it has passed on and not much paperwork was left behind. From what I have read, there are about 30 DMM machines in the world with most of them overseas and a few owned in the states by the Church of Scientology (not a joke, look it up). Otherwise the North American cutters are all old school lacquer cutting. Some of them have stockpiled and will be fine for a while but their supply being cut short for the foreseeable future will obviously have a big impact.

Vinyl is enjoying a healthy resurgence; I think it has a lot to do with it being basically the antithesis of an mp3 and many people enjoy having a physical relic of sorts to hold/collect/engage with on a much larger scale. Would obviously be a dang shame if it had to go away due to a sudden lack of resources. A big part of the boost in popularity has come from the product major labels are now pushing in big stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Urban Outfitters catching the eyes of those who "didn't know they still made those." Naturally the price of new records has gone up 2-3x more than they cost ~12 years ago. But there hasn't been much reinvestment back into the infrastructure to keep it sustainable. It took until a few years ago for any companies to start producing new pressing machines. There were only 2 lacquer disc plants, and now the one that produced an estimated 90% of the lacquers is gone. Direct metal mastering can sound just as good and doesn't require lacquer discs but at the moment is also in short supply as far as the number of machines that exist in the world.

I personally think everything will turn out fine but it's gonna need a huge investment in the infrastructure by those who have been pushing vinyl as a premium product for a while now.

I've been complaining about the price for new vinyl for quite some time now, and my fear is, the after effects of the fire will be prices going up even more.
Seems like it wasn't long ago I was getting new vinyl releases for around $15. Some stores charged more, but not a lot more. I didn't mind paying more for the vinyl than the cd because the packaging was so much nicer. But there's a limit to how much I can spend.

Same here, I'm a relative youngster, started buying around 2005 when i was 12? New records were scarcely found in south Mississippi but they were $10-15 for a single LP and maybe $15-25 for a double. Now it's more like $20-30 single/$25-50 double. I buy maybe 2-3 new records a year at this point. Would rather just save a little extra for older pressings in the case of reissues and avoid new albums until they start finding their way to used bins.

As for the prices of new records going up even more after this fire, I think it could go either way depending on a few things. Supposedly the percentage of sales increase per year is starting to plateau and level out. For new buyers who are into new pressings, Crosleys, and other beginner record players (which is a huge base sustaining the market), starting a 'record collection' is becoming less of a possibility since it costs around $100 to add just a few new albums to the collection. I think we'll see a big drop off of those customers as they get out of the hobby in the next few years. That's a big chunk of the major labels' market bowing out all over again like the cd/vinyl swapover in the 80s/early 90s. Demand going down would drive prices down. Again, all theoretical, mostly based on my opinion. Alternately, if the big money makers/spenders don't put some serious $$$ back into the infrastructure and attempt to provide a solution to the current short in lacquer supply, it could also mean it costs waaay more to make and buy a record. Board meetings are definitely going to be held about whether vinyl is worth keeping around or not. Small labels will continue to press as they always have but Sony/Warner/Universal will possibly thin their herd.

Memphis Record Pressing employee here, feel free to ask questions or correct me on anything.

Lacquer cutting will definitely be endangered until somebody (cough cough price gouging major labels) hopefully decides to invest in new cutting tech. Direct metal mastering has been around since the 80s but everybody who developed it has passed on and not much paperwork was left behind. From what I have read, there are about 30 DMM machines in the world with most of them overseas and a few owned in the states by the Church of Scientology (not a joke, look it up). Otherwise the North American cutters are all old school lacquer cutting. Some of them have stockpiled and will be fine for a while but their supply being cut short for the foreseeable future will obviously have a big impact.

Vinyl is enjoying a healthy resurgence; I think it has a lot to do with it being basically the antithesis of an mp3 and many people enjoy having a physical relic of sorts to hold/collect/engage with on a much larger scale. Would obviously be a dang shame if it had to go away due to a sudden lack of resources. A big part of the boost in popularity has come from the product major labels are now pushing in big stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Urban Outfitters catching the eyes of those who "didn't know they still made those." Naturally the price of new records has gone up 2-3x more than they cost ~12 years ago. But there hasn't been much reinvestment back into the infrastructure to keep it sustainable. It took until a few years ago for any companies to start producing new pressing machines. There were only 2 lacquer disc plants, and now the one that produced an estimated 90% of the lacquers is gone. Direct metal mastering can sound just as good and doesn't require lacquer discs but at the moment is also in short supply as far as the number of machines that exist in the world.

I personally think everything will turn out fine but it's gonna need a huge investment in the infrastructure by those who have been pushing vinyl as a premium product for a while now.

Howdy all, finally getting back into reading since I have a lot more stare-at-the-wall time than usual. Wanted to know what the general consensus is on BB literature, which books are the most in-depth to the best of their factual ability and cover all the ups and downs without bias. I'm anxiously awaiting the 2nd run of Ken Sharp's Dreamer but I'd like a depressing/uplifting/heartbreaking/life-affirming book on the Boys to dig through in the meantime.

just bumping this thread since there's been no activity in 3 months to say im EX CITED for whenever this stuff lands. especially for whatever's gonna involve All I Wanna Do and This Whole World.

I actually just finished Stax' book last week, amazing read. He clears up a few things in the book that have been asked about so far in this thread. The version of Salesmen on Apache is an unknown band recording with Mike Love and Craig talking in the studio control playback room, discussing vocal overdubs but obviously nothing else has surfaced.

Mike Love's management (I think Brian's too) didn't answer to being interviewed about Craig. I think this falls in line with them generally trying to distance themselves these days from Manson, drugs, anything potentially controversial.

There is a funny anecdote recounted by a brief acquaintance of Craig's where he and Craig were at a laundromat around 1969 I believe and Mike Love pulls up in a white hearse and takes them for a perilous ride. The mental image of Mike in all white and a cowboy hat in a white hearse driving to TM class and health food restaurants in late 60s LA makes me like him a lot more lol

It's really a great book, Craig was tied up in a lot of facets of 60s LA culture. Mike Stax revealed recently that Apache and Inca are in the works to be properly reissued for anyone interested

Hi all, first post. Yesterday my friend and I were discussing whether Queen was heavily influenced by the BB and we connected several points that are obvious but with more research found more potentially connecting dots. This is all conjecture, maybe coincidence, maybe nothing at all but it's at least been fun to dig through all this info. Highly encouraging anyone to add what they know to contribute

1. To possibly break this whole theory, Brian May and Roger Taylor have stated in interviews that the BB were not much of an influence so I'll point that out right off the bat.


2. May and Taylor's pre Queen band was called "Smile", formed in 1968. We all know Pet Sounds was a much bigger sensation in the UK and Europe, and that the BB retained a high degree of popularity well into the early 70s on that side of the pond. We also know that Smile was hyped up in the press and people were aware of its potential forthcoming existence in 1967. The Smile legend was cemented before it never even came out. So people in the UK would have known about it.

3. There are a few press photos of their band Smile that feature them holding cutout smiles over their mouths (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Smile_band.jpg). Could they have possibly seen one of the known existing cover slicks for the unreleased duophonic/stereo copies of the Smile jacket? Highly doubt that BUT you never really know. The original cover slick features the store front with smiles for sale, the one behind the man on the left looks exactly like the ones in the band photos (https://recordmecca.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Screen-Shot-2015-03-23-at-5.14.46-PM.png).
More wild theory than real speculation. Still fun to think about!

4. We noted that "Funny How Love Is" from "Queen II" is noticeably reminiscent of "I Can Hear Music" or at least something the BB could have made around 1969. While Queen was recording their first album in 1973 at Trident Studios in London, a producer Robin Cable requested Mercury sing on a Phil Spector-production-experiment single he was planning to release. Mercury requested May and Taylor also play on the tracks. "I Can Hear Music"/"Goin' Back" was released a week before the first Queen album hit shelves under the pseudonym "Larry Lurex." It's really the first release that Queen puts out, albeit under a different name. The recording is strikingly close to the BB version of the song from "20/20." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzA4OyalTuI)

ANYWAY this is probably all bogus BUT it was fun to research all this stuff. Maybe Freddie was much more into the BB than May/Taylor/Deacon but nobody ever bothered asking him about it. If you've got anything to add or take away please feel free to share!