And who wears their own name on their hat?

I find the hat absolutely hilarious. It brilliantly encapsulates Mike's inordinate arrogance overall. I kind of want that hat-- if only to smirk at the irony.

I'm torn on this track. On one hand, I love the idea of Mike penning something a) new (novel freaking idea!), and b) sincere. He and the band played that live at a show I attended in SLC a few years ago and it was a touching performance.

On the other hand, the one aspect of Beach Boys/Mike Love history that I couldn't possibly care less about is TM and the Maharishi connection. I just don't care, and am thus quite nonplussed by a track about it.

I can't comment on the lyrics overall, as I can't understand most of them. The English lines are simplistic as always. The music and instrumentation are likewise simplistic and boring. It's not a great song.

And yet I bought the track yesterday when I heard this news. Probably because Mike's concert performance of the song seemed so genuine to me, and I've been longing to see something genuine from Mike for decades.

I guess where we differ is the idea of whether or not it's a truly disgraceful embarrassment or not.  And if you *don't* think it's a disgraceful embarrassment to both him and the brand, I'd like to know specifically what type of BBs or Mike release would qualify as such for you.

What would it take, if not this?  Honestly.  

Still waiting for kreen's reply on this...  

I'm not kreen, and I do think Mike remaking DIA over and over is definitely an embarrassment to everybody involved, but I'll go ahead and say something that amounts to utter blasphemy here:

I think almost the entire Love You album is an absolute embarrassment to the band, the brand, and all involved.

Mind you, I realized that Love You was creative, new work, etc. Not trying to compare apples to oranges. But I almost wish it didn't exist.

Let the old boy get his kix, I say. A few of the concert attendees who site Kokomo as their fav BB song will enjoy it and it will otherwise be forgotten. I don't think it's damaging to Mike's or the band's legacy. Ignore and it will swiftly disappear. It's also pretty irrelevant that "Do it Again" was re-recorded in 2012 already because that version has sunk without a trace also.

Incidentally, I played the original DIA recording and the new Mike single in the car with my kids (all 6, who range from ages 4-16), and asked them which version they like better. To my dismay, they chose Mike's new remake. Why? My teenagers said they preferred Mike's version because it had "more beats" and because the original release-- while they recognize that it features all of the original BBs-- "it sounds like crap."  So crappy autotune trumps crappy production in my kids' minds.  (The muddy sound of the original is my big beef with it, too.) Mind you, these are the kids of a Beach Boys die hard, who are a captive Beach Boys audience for at least several hours per week in the car.

But... BUT, then I played the 2012 C50 remake and that became their favorite version because a) Brian's voice is prominent and b) it doesn't sound muddy. 

"Why have we never heard this version before, Dad?"

"Because some idiot somewhere decided to only release it on the CD that came with the zinepack thing that you could only get at Target during a 3 month window, so when I finally got my hands on it online I had to rip it and add it to a playlist, which I had to side-load to my iPhone."

I couldn't remember if that was the ONLY release of that version, but my point was it was a throwaway track. My point (well, one of them) is that while we keep joking about DIA being redone and redone and redone, I'm not sure how relevant the far superior C50 remake is, since approximately 30 people in the world have ever heard it.

Interesting side note, though... After playing C50 DIA for them, I played the live 2012 version from the Isn't It Time EP.  The kids preferred this version better than any, saying a) Brian, and b) it was so much more alive than the C50 studio version.  Overall, there were no comments whatsoever-- good or bad-- about autotune on any version. It wasn't noticed and was not factor.

virtually everybody whose devotion to the Beach Boys lies above "casual" and beneath "diehard" considers NPP and DIA'17 to be equally disposable latter-day solo works recorded by septuagenarians.

That's a pretty ridiculous blanket statement and assumption. Please don't speak for any large group of fans.

I wouldn't say NPP is equally disposable as Mike's new turd-- not by a long shot, but do I think it's groundbreaking? Nah. Are those tracks among Brian's career best? No way. I listen to that album quite a bit, but I don't for a second think it's consequential to his career or legacy.

What's funny/sad about this new single is I couldn't find it on Spotify last night by searching 'Mike Love.' (Actually, searching Mike's name returns some other artist with that name.) I eventually found it by searching "John Stamos."

I appreciate the thoughtful context added by the interviewer here.  Gotta say, though, as much as I'd love to see the legendary rock n roll album come to fruition, I'm not counting on it actually happening. 

If you want to get really inside, end it with a zombie chase and something from Jan & Dean's CARNIVAL OF SOUND...

That would probably be appropriate! Carnival of Souls will definitely be represented-- if only in tone.  A lot of people base their perceptions of Saltair based on that movie, but what's interesting is that the film itself was inspired by the creepy feel of the place.

Not sure about the Carnival of Sound reference, though. Is there something on that record (aside from the title) that evokes Saltair?

Smiley Smile is weird as heck, but it has amazing vocals by the Boys. Love You? Not so much.

Exactly! In fact, the stripped-down nature of Smiley Smile really allows those vocals to shine. Brian still had his pure, early Brian voice, and the harmonies shine just like they did on every record prior.  Musically, Smiley Smile is superior as well. (I never factor in lyrics, since I've always felt most Beach Boys lyrics are cringeworthy on their own.)

Brian's voice on Love You is trashed. The harmonies are almost cartoonized, and the sound itself lo-fi-- and not in a good way. I have to believe that some fans' fondness for Love You derives mostly from their personal connection to it rather than its raw musical merit. There's a reason nobody outside this board has ever heard of it.

Then I started to think of it as a whole, as an artistic statement, and everything clicked.

So here's the thing-- for me I think it clicks. I get it. I'm listening with much more context now than I was years ago.  But Love You "clicking" for me happens to not translate into enjoyment of the album.

I thought of another-- perhaps more fitting-- analogy for why Love You doesn't even appeal to me even on a curiosity level. Aside from the fact that I don't remotely like any tracks on the album, my real problem with Love You is the way so many Beach Boys fans treat it on the same level as other Beach Boys albums.  Talking about  "Let Us Go on This Way" or "Johnny Carson" being potential hits, etc.  Treating Love You on the same level as nearly any other Beach Boys album is like treating a county fair Skee-Ball game played by Michael Jordan to any of his basketball performances.

THAT'S what Love You is to me-- Michael Jordan playing Skee-Ball. Fun? Meh. Maybe, kinda. Genius? Great? Worth my time? Nah.

I'd step through, buy up some land and sneak into a few recording sessions before coming back.

It's now been 5+ years since I became a die-hard Beach Boys fanatic. I remember re-listening to everything from the beginning during the course of a few weeks, and found Love You completely jarring. I think this was originally because I was consuming decades of work in a very short time frame and because it was nothing like my old favorites.

Now, after years of listening and re-listening with added context, my distaste for this album has actually grown.  I think it's because it neither capitalizes on iconic Brian Wilson strengths (arrangement, instrumentation, harmonies), nor progresses from prior work.  I hear no musical genius, no lyrical breakthroughs, no beautiful harmonies at all.  I'm not sure I'll ever come to appreciate this album.

What is Love You for me? A speed bump that could have been written and arranged by my 3 year old.

Thanks, Seagull! I'll PM you some specific questions. I'm primarily a video producer, but audio is new territory for me.

Since I first posted this request, I've been asked to write, film and produce a short documentary on Saltair by the owners of the current Saltair venue (Saltair III). I'd love to open this film with this audio piece. I'll start with the earliest concert recordings I can find, then end with parts of "Salt Lake City". The final seconds will be the words "Salt Lake City..." from the song, and this is one of the areas I might need help with. I want to pause on the last syllable of "City" and fade out in sort of a ghostly way.

The audio piece will run maybe 45 seconds. The purpose of the piece will be to tell a nutshell story of Saltair's history, ending with the Beach Boys 1968 visit. The resort closed after the 1958 season and sat stagnant and abandoned until it was consumed by fire in 1971.

Yes, I know the Beach Boys never performed at Saltair. In fact, they will be the only act included in the audio piece that didn't.  But it's important to point out that were it not for a perfect storm of sorts, the Beach Boys would have come up playing at Saltair, not Lagoon.  The two venues, which incidentally were both designed by the same architect, had been competing for decades. Lagoon actually started as "Lake Park" on the eastern shores of the Great Salt Lake, but smartly moved inland as the lake receded, while focusing on amusement + concerts rather than swimming + concerts.  Saltair stayed put when the lake receded, a water park without water, isolated on the southern shore.

Moving Lake Park to the Wasatch foothills meant no more sand or corrosive environment-- something that had plagued Saltair from day one. It didn't help Saltair that Utah's population exploded along the Wasatch Front, while the GSL's southern shore is still completely uninhabited. Why ride a train 30 miles to a defunct water park when you can walk to Lagoon? Saltair might have forged on, in spite of the forces against it, had a microburst wind not blown over the Giant Racer roller coaster, an icon of the resort. The writing was on the wall, and by fiat Lagoon became Utah's venue of note.

In hindsight, Bill Hesterman's suggestion that Mike and the boys visit the Saltair site on the day of their Lagoon concert was quite profound.  According to Bill's son, the band was quite aware of Saltair's past prominence and the trip was reverential in that regard. If not for that perfect storm, the Beach Boys would have been a staple at Saltair, and nobody would have ever heard of "the Lagoon."

Wow, that's quite an aside!

If you listen closely to the original 1965 mono version of "Salt Lake City," it seems like somebody yells the call sign for KNAK, their flagship station in SLC, at about the 30 second mark.  I can't quite make out whose voice it is.  I don't hear this call-out in the 2001 stereo mix.

a) Can anybody confirm that KNAK is being shouted, and

b) Does anybody know why it was edited out (or buried to the point of inaudibility) in the 2001 stereo mix?

As a younger and newer Beach Boys fan, there are very few Beach Boys related topics that I can claim to be an expert on. One of them is Saltair, the abandoned resort near Salt Lake City that the boys visited in 1968(?) with Bill Hesterman and photographer Cyril Maitland.  Here is the article I wrote about that visit:

https://bonnevillemariner.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/the-story-behind-those-beach-boys-photos-at-saltair/

(BTW, I welcome any corrections or new pieces of info on this event that you may be privy to-- I update it as needed.)

It was actually researching the old Saltair site that led me to rediscover the Beach Boys several years ago.  I'm currently working on a book about the resort's history.  You're probably aware that the resort's story is mostly a long, happy ride weaved with tragedy, and I'd like to put together a short audio montage that expresses that.

I'd like to do something a la Atticus Ross's "Black Hole" from Love & Mercy.  Not sure if I'll travel backward or forward in history, but on one end of the montage would be turn of the century ragtime. At the other end would be a Beach Boys track (probably "Salt Lake City"). I'll cut in subtle recordings of Great Salt Lake waves and various amusement park sounds, but the star here will be the music.

"Black Hole" is pretty much exactly what I'd like to emulate here.  Lonely, ethereal. A loving tribute but with darker tinges.  I've dabbled in audio editing before, but nothing halfway serious.  If you're the editing type, what software/tools would you recommend? What tips would you give me? What would make this project epic?

Must every nice moment be trashed?

I don't think I would have trashed this track had I not read Mayer's comment that this is a "beach boys thing," then waited with excitement til the work day ended...

...only to discover a very non-Beach Boys style track with sparse, buried harmonies that I never would have recognized as Al and Matt.  It's like telling a kid you're going to Disneyland, then stopping by the Disney Store at the mall and calling it good.

Bands make very,  very little from streaming.

Right. Which is why I didn't say the band should release them digitally. I think we established that Darian & Co. don't control distribution. I said I don't understand why the entity controlling the music (and who could profit from it) can't be bothered to spend 30 seconds to upload the tracks.

If you are listening via YouTube on a computer or cell speaker you won't hear the subtleties of the song. A more rewarding experience is to be had with a good pair of headphones.  Granted, the song is not in the California Girls vein.

Spotify at 320 kbps with Bose QC2 headphones. Al & Son still almost non-existent. Missed opportunity. If you have Al and Matt in studio, use them!

Their online presence is probably limited due to rights/ownership issues, as the controllers of the catalog probably don't see much financial interest in getting it out there.

This is what I find so frustrating.  How much effort/cost would be involve in selling the music online? Would this mysterious entity that controls Wondermints music make loads of money from Wondermints downloads? Maybe not, but they wouldn't make zero.  I have to imagine whatever cost is involved in selling mp3s would be far less than they'd make from posters on this board alone. 

Unfortunate that Al and Matt's harmonies are so underemphasized in this track. If I had heard this track outside the context of this thread, I probably wouldn't have recognized the Jardines on it.  I'm glad they're getting props (and I'm glad to see Mayer is a fan), but I wish they would have been showcased rather than an afterthought.

I am a big fan of Wondermints.  I have all 5 of their officially released ads as well as a bunch of bootlegs.  Good stuff.  For what it is worth I have an extra cd od their album Bali (signed by Probyn and Nicky) if anything has anything cool to trade for it.  PM me!

I've got nothing to trade for it, but that would be cool! Honestly, though, I'm all digital. If I had the CD, I'd just rip it and put it on my phone.

I appreciated it, too, though I'm not sure snark is exactly the word. (I could post the definition if you'd like!) Just a joke that, if I must say so myself, I found quite funny. Sorry you didn't.

I think being online for free is widely available, though. Maybe not widely available in the formats or at a quality you prefer, but certainly widely available.

Bottom line in my opinion to all of this is the simple economics of it all.

Dang these First World problems!

wide·ly
ˈwīdlē/
adverb
adverb: widely

    1.
    over a wide area or at a wide interval.
    "he smiled widely and held out a hand"
        to a large degree in nature or character (used to describe considerable variation or difference).
        "lending policies vary widely between different banks"
    2.
    over a large area or range; extensively.
    "Deborah has traveled widely"

I appreciate the snark. To me, when it comes to music, the term "widely available" means accessible for purchase/download from a number of sources.  Low bitrate YouTube rips and $60 CDs from Amazon, IMO, doesn't seem to fit the definition.

The music is on YouTube, by the way. It's widely available, if not in physical format.

Define "widely." Only some tracks are on YouTube. They're very sloppily cataloged, scattered amongst a dozen users, and most are low quality rips. I actually prefer digital format to physical (I don't even own a CD player-- come to think of it, I'm not sure I even own a PC with an optical drive).

But hey, if the band itself doesn't care about its own stuff, I guess shouldn't either.

I asked Darian about this a year or so ago after a show. He didn't go into specifics but mentioned something about licensing issues and rights.

This makes no sense to me whatsoever.  Again, I'm no music industry guru, but I'm not sure how a band can write, record and produce their own songs (save for the covers) and be forced into obscurity like this. I'd love to purchase those albums (especially the one with the cartoon spaceship and the one with The Party cover), but I'm not breaking the bank on them.

I just listened to the Darian interview linked to in another thread and realized that I'm quite unfamiliar with Wondermints recordings outside of Brian's albums.  Then I remembered why: unless you purchase the CDs off Amazon at outrageous costs, you're not going to be familiar with them. No iTunes, no Spotify-- nothing. Just nearly out-of-stock $50 CDs.

Forgive me if this is a dumb question.  Why does it seem like Darian and the guys are deliberately trying not to be discovered? I don't get it.  Aside from random (and mostly crappy) YouTube rips, where can I hear/download/purchase Wondermints tracks?