One of my hesitations with the Jones Beach show is that there are two other bands on the bill, but the show has a normal (7:30) start time and shows there typically end no later than 10:30/11. I realize we are a bit spoiled here, but Jones Beach is kind of a trek to make from NYC if the BBs set is not a full set.

How many more chances are you going to get to see 4 of The Beach Boys on the same stage?

It's a good question and more than fair. I love these guys and if the show were in Manhattan it would be a no-brainer. As it is, Jones Beach is about a 2-hour trek for me each way (subway > two LIRR trains > spotty local bus service), thus the overall time commitment is a bit more to juggle. Believe me, would love to be there and will if I can.

Where are you coming from that makes for such a rough trek? There's gotta be an easier way (short of hitching a ride w/ someone on the board from a more central location).

A friend texted me the other day to tell me he heard Surf's Up (BWPS) in BJ's Wholesale Club...That one struck me as being more than a little odd...

Bruce Johnston has a Wholesale Club?

Gotta have something on the back burner for when Mike eventually dials it down to only 280 shows a year...

A friend texted me the other day to tell me he heard Surf's Up (BWPS) in BJ's Wholesale Club...That one struck me as being more than a little odd...

If you choose to decide to not care about the inaccuracy that's fine.  But it's another thing to say that the judgement can't be made from the video in question, regardless of what it was shot on.  It's clearly a different vehicle, different poses etc.  I think people want the movie to be good, and I understand that desire.  But choosing to ignore glaring inaccuracies and writing them up as some sort of limitation of cellphone video recording capabilities?  That's a new one on me.

These are all fair points - however, that little snippet can't say anything about the film as a whole. I agree that the Surfin' Safari photo shoot is integral to the band's history but it could be the only factual error found in the movie, we don't have other evidences.

As I've just pointed out, we do. And... suppose a Macca biopic featured a scene of the band walking the wrong way across a zebra crossing in Lancaster Gate ? Never hear the end of it. This isn't an obscure thing like the fire hat - it's portraying an important album cover seriously incorrectly.

That's very, very true. But you know, the Abbey Road photo shoot had some outtakes that takes the band entirely out of context and paints a different picture than what the iconic shot ended up being.

In addition to this being the wrong car, it's also not "dressed" like the pickup was with the palms nor is the surf board even in the correct place. But here's the thing, we don't know that there won't be an on-screen "director" for the photo shoot insisting "Oh no, this is all wrong. We need a different car!" since we have absolutely no context for this. We also don't know what role those girls will be playing. More to the point, we don't even know how, or if, this will make it to the final edit.

So, did they potentially "screw" up an iconic shot? Yes. Do we have any idea whatsoever how the shot might be used? No. And it seems a bit odd to me that they'd screw up something like that while putting as much attention as they have into other areas that we've seen photos of...

Man, Mike Love just can't get  a break. He gets  a well deserved award, brings in JF, makes happy with Al and David (even playing a gig(s), and Rolling Stone puts this up today:

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/son-of-a-beach-peter-matthew-bauer-on-kevin-loves-kokomo-problem-20140530

I am no ML lover but this really is OLD news.

Well at least Mike Love can take solace in the fact that this BB fan stopped paying attention to the NBA a few years after the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era, so I don't know what the hell this writer is taking about. And those old Mike quotes are hilarious. Those are the fun quotes. If Mike always gave interviews that read like that, that would be awesome.

"It was only recently brought to my attention that Kevin is, in fact, the nephew of #1 rock & roll villain Mike Love of the Beach Boys!"

Well he is rocks number 1 villain

Phil Spector killed a woman. Lostprophets singer was a pedophile.  Badfinger's manager drove Pete Ham to suicide. Don Arden sicced his dogs on his pregnant daughter and caused her to have a miscarriage.  Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend. Mike Love is not even the number 1 villain connected to the Beach Boys, that is either Charles Manson or Eugene Landy.

Mike is kinda sorta a dick, but so what?

Bigger Villians that immediately spring to mind for me, are people who.. you know.. .actually HARMED somebody, like the ones you mentioned.  Mike ran his mouth a little bit but hasn't hurt anybody who wasn't psychologically fragile to begin with, and even that's overstated.  I mean, how about Ike Turner beating Tina Turner's ass every day for 10 years?  I'm a little pissed about that.

How about Chris Brown beating Rihannas face against a car window for 15 minutes while they drove home from the grammies?  I'm still a little pissed about that.  Or hey, how about Kurt Cobain Cobaining himself and leaving his daughter alone with a psychopath for the next 15 years of her life?  I'm still a little pissed about that, too. 

If somebody wants to tell me that Mike Love hurt Brian's feelings... um....  well.  Who gives a sh*t?

People will go on for pages and pages and pages of why Mike's a dick because he browbeat Brian into scrapping SMILE or something while Murray actually physically beating Brian up gets hardly a mention into why Brian is damaged.

To be fair, Murray doesn't have 50 years worth of film footage on YouTube that people can comment on...

One of my hesitations with the Jones Beach show is that there are two other bands on the bill, but the show has a normal (7:30) start time and shows there typically end no later than 10:30/11. I realize we are a bit spoiled here, but Jones Beach is kind of a trek to make from NYC if the BBs set is not a full set.

My guess for set times:

7:30 - 8:00
8:15 - 9:00
9:15 - 11:00

Getting a bit back on topic, despite adding Al and David, w/ two other legacy bands on the bill and with the upper section closed, they've barely sold 20% of the tickets for the show thus far. I've also heard commercials for the gig on local radio...Clearly, if they want to graduate up to the bigger venues again they need the big guy on board!  

Does the venue or promoter actually release sales numbers? I’m curious how we know they’ve only sold 20%. In any event, if this is in fact the case, it presents a couple of theories (very much just theories): Did Mike add Al and David to the show because sales were sagging? I’m not even sure of the timeline in terms of when tickets went on sale, so I don’t know if this is an actual possibility. Also, if publicizing (to some degree; I don’t know if Al or Mike have even announced this on their facebook, etc.) Al and Dave being added has not helped ticket sales, I do wonder if that would reinforce the idea to Mike that there’s little or no economic benefit to adding those guys to the band.

If you go on the Live Nation website, you can "pick your own seat" and get a sense of how undersold it really is thus far.  As far as the advertising, my first email about the show happening had Al listed, but not David. The radio ad I heard didn't mention either of them.

Yeah, but then he's sounded thinner in 1988. And then not. It varies, it seems. And, for whatever reason, his sound has improved in the last 5-7 years.

Could be the monitoring situation, humidity, all sorts of stuff. For whatever reason, these videos really struck me more than others have for some reason.

A search on the internet learns that Quadim Mastering Studios probably no longer exist. The url does no longer work, there is no social media for the studio etc. The cds are probably not very new!

Plus they had an AOL email address.  Indeed...probably very old.

Surely a bit more searching of this AOL address would've lead us further down the rabbit hole:

http://www.singmastering.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/musicconnectionSINGMastering.pdf
http://www.dnamastering.com
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/david-donnelly-mn0001638277
http://www.indiepromix.com/mastering.html
http://studiocity.patch.com/listings/dna-mastering

I may have gone a bit overboard...

Getting a bit back on topic, despite adding Al and David, w/ two other legacy bands on the bill and with the upper section closed, they've barely sold 20% of the tickets for the show thus far. I've also heard commercials for the gig on local radio...Clearly, if they want to graduate up to the bigger venues again they need the big guy on board! 

Re this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Ndp9xItZg&list=UUYSLKpmPGeiyCI_qmtm8LtA&index=1

Great mix, free of board echo. Mike's backing vocals are nice and prominent in the mix.

The Beach Boys, in their usual non-C50 state, are a cooler, leaner, more straight-tone blend. On In My Room, Mike and Jeff really blended well (sep. In My Room), and anchor the harmonies. Now that Jeff's voice is all over TWGMTR and everything in the C50 tour, his voice adds authenticity and familiarity to the MB band. This is the best I've heard the MB band's vocal blend sound. Never thought I'd say that, but they sound fantastic.

Brian's band has a generally warmer vocal blend, and Brian blends much better with them than he did 10-15 years ago, because of how his voice recovery really took off after 2004. Foskett never really fit the blend at any point, valuable as he's been in many ways. Matt Jardine in Foskett's place will be the icing on the cake.  

I really think this fixes the vocal shortcomings of both bands. And personally, I would now actively seek out tickets to MB, rather than being relatively ambivalent.

While I heartily agree with how nicely Jeff's voice slots into the vocal stack with M&B, I have to say, Mike's vocals are really sounding a bit thinner than I remember over the past few years. Granted this is an isolated show, filmed from the audience...

I'm sorry, but I think the bass playing on that is very amateur. But it is cool to see Brian so loose and actually trying to play bass.

I kind of get the feeling this is the way Brian behaves most of the time when he's not in the public eye and being judged as Brian Wilson.

So, did Mike invite just David and Al, or Brian too?
If so, did Brian decline?
Hmmmmmmm.

If an invitation was issued - and remember, it was for the Regan 100th show - I doubt Brian declined.

I think he is meaning the Jones Beach Show, not the Reagan bash. David wasn't at that.

AGD is aware of that.

What he meant was that Brian WAS invited to the Reagan thing so it`s not outside the bounds of possibility that he would have been invited to the Jones Beach Show.

More likely Brian already had the UK date booked and wasn't exactly about to cancel that. FWIW, it looks like they're not opening the upper deck of the JB show, bringing the total capacity probably down somewhere between 9K - 11K. It didn't quite sell out in 2012, but I'd put that down to the ticket prices and the fact that it was like their 5th or 6th show in the NY/NJ/CT area at that point.

His first two tour dates are at venues I've never heard of. But maybe they offered the most money for the least expenses.  No dealing with major promoters as they did for the Beck tour.

This is a University arts center which I would imagine is much easier to deal with than Live Nation. Not sure what type of budget they have, but it looks like an absolutely gorgeous theater that probably has some pretty high-end amenities. Plus it's a (relative) short travel time to and from LA so I'm sure that brings the expense down a bit.

I know, it's rather shocking. Though maybe not surprising given the direction of American journalism. That researcher really is not doing her job. Jason Fine is not doing his, either. "Smile" is a pretty important part of the Brian Wilson story, and they're already botching it from the get-go, when people still have so many unanswered questions about it? I have a feeling this book will be about as accurate as the Landy "autobiography."

I think her chosen form of communication is more reflective of a generational shift in manner of communication (not that I think she should've reached out that way) and less reflective of the quality of work that Jason Fine (17 year editor at Rolling Stone, 3 years at Men's Journal) might be capable of. Research doesn't mean that they're necessarily just starting the writing. There are more than enough public statements from VDP (and others) already available about SMiLE that could've formed the basis of what they're putting together. They could be in the "fill in the blanks" or "fact-checking" stages of that part of the project...

To touch on a few of the other recent comments...From the original PR, we hardly get the sense that Brian will be doing the writing himself:

In his memoir Wilson, who will be working with Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal editor Jason Fine, will describe for the first time the epic highs and lows of his life—from his tumultuous relationship with his father, the loss of his mother and brothers, his fears about live performance, the struggles he faced to lead the Beach Boys away from surf music into groundbreaking, experimental terrain, to his remarkable personal and professional comeback from drug addiction and mental illness with the support of his second wife Melinda. In this memoir Wilson will share a new level of emotional honesty never before expressed in earlier books about him.

At the end of the day, very few people of Brian's  stature end up writing their own memoirs. Brian will offer direction with his own memories, the writer will follow the crumbs to other sources, come back to Brian and they'll reconcile the differences or similarities, attributing where appropriate. Brian can and should be held to a certain standard in the context of what he does (music), but are we really going to fault him for not "writing" his memoirs? Every major memoir goes through professional writers, multiple editors, lawyers, etc. I wouldn't expect Brian's to be any different. And remember, most people writing memoirs don't have Mike Love's legal team to worry about! ;-)

[Yes]

… do you think that the Jones Beach show, which is the largest show of the tour by far, was booked on the July 4th weekend for a specific reason? Call me crazy, but a NY show including "America's Band" (and two other well-known "bands" of the era) in a 15k person amphitheater overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the Saturday of a holiday weekend might be a decent draw for a promoter. Is it possible that Mike, knowing he has to sell a lot of tickets, called up Al and David (who specifically lives in the area) and said "Hey guys, how would you like to join us for this one special show?".

Being British I'd missed the 4/7 element… it's a no-brainer for America's band to come together on that date. I'm sure old differences can be overlooked or the sake of such a holiday.  Which means that what happens after is anyone's guess… again!

Especially given that they'll be singing about cars and surfing in an amphitheater on the beach overlooking the ocean...

Would it be nice if this was a sign of more BBs dates with Al and David to come? Yes. Does the current evidence (the press release, BW+AJ working in the studio together, Matt joining BW's band, etc.) also suggest that it isn't? Yes.

It's possible that Al and David decided to break away from Brian when he insulted them by not inviting them on the few dates he's doing this summer. I'm not sure why they were excluded unless Brian truly had no plans to use them on the fall tour, either.  If he did, it seems like an oversight that he and his people couldn't be bothered to get them visas and pay them for the summer shows. I don't think it's a coincidence the show they're doing with Mike coincides with the time Brian will be doing shows without them on the other side of the globe.

Wow you've kind of upped the emotional ante a bit, haven't you? Do you know what the promoter presented to Brian's team for the show(s)? Do you know if they said "We can only afford one Beach Boy...not three!"?

On the other side of the equation, do you think that the Jones Beach show, which is the largest show of the tour by far, was booked on the July 4th weekend for a specific reason? Call me crazy, but a NY show including "America's Band" (and two other well-known "bands" of the era) in a 15k person amphitheater overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the Saturday of a holiday weekend might be a decent draw for a promoter. Is it possible that Mike, knowing he has to sell a lot of tickets, called up Al and David (who specifically lives in the area) and said "Hey guys, how would you like to join us for this one special show?".

You're working off of very little information and extrapolating to the point of accusing Brian of "insulting" Al and David, knowing very little in the way of fact. Meanwhile, we saw Al happily in the studio with Brian a few weeks ago...

[Is Foskett still a part of Brian's recording team?]

Is Matt playing Foskett's former role (i.e. recording a rough sketch of the vocal arrangements)? Is Foskett still a part of Brian's recording team?

Let's hope not...

I'm sure he still is though. I have nothing against Jeff, and he definitely helps Brian out in the live situation. But studio wise, he annoys me.

Why does he annoy you in the studio?

Because sweetdudejim has trouble harmonizing with Jeff's mighty falsetto.

And trying to play the old substance abuse/failing memory card just doesn't wash with me in 9 out of 10 cases because it's simply not applicable, it's the biggest distraction and cop-out short of changing the subject entirely. If anything, a failing memory reasoning can be applied to anyone at any time, which is why I think it's such a bullshit excuse.

And blaming drug use or substance abuse would discredit the overwhelming majority of musicians and the rock music community in general up to the present day, so let's discount everything they say and blame it on "the drugs" when a quote disagrees with someone's opinion.  

I don't know how factoring in 50 years of time into evaluating the validity of the memories of a bunch of 70 year old's is BS...If this was 1972, maybe, but it's 2014 so the passage of time is certainly a reasonable factor to consider.

Anyway, I was suggesting that time, substance abuse and/or personal bias has probably clouded the memory of all parties involved. Most of the people in the BB world are in the "legacy writing" stage of their lives right now. Keep that in mind over the next few years is all I'm saying...

On the other hand, VDP consistently says he only wrote lyrics.

On the third hand, is the eyewitness always infallibly reliable? Their memory may just be off. Tricky.

Are you suggesting that time, the occasional substance abuse and personal bias may have had an impact on the memory of a bunch of 65-70 year olds?

Regarding the VDP/Smile collaboration, total agreement with Guitarfool; when it's clicking, the lines merge. It's not like Tony Asher was singing melody lines for Pet Sounds, whereas Van Dyke obviously has his own melodic ability. I can easily see how each party may interpret the sessions slightly differently.

What puzzles me is how all these comments are dribbling out nowadays. Surely there must have been some hard feelings over the box set release. VDP got slighted somehow and the nitty gritty hasn't been fully revealed.

VDP got a lot more credit for Smile back in '04 than he did this time around, which probably didn't sit very well. But really, BWPS and TSS are two very different things, so it makes sense  that VDP was pushed to the side a bit with the box set. TSS is a historical document of recording sessions, released under the Beach Boys name. It's as much about "Smile" as it is Brian as producer, The Beach Boys as vocalists, and The Wrecking Crew as studio musicians. If I want to learn about how they made their recordings, vocal technique, and the evolution of the songs in the context of recording, I put on TSS and set a few hours aside. If I want to enjoy a completed piece of art by BW and VDP, considered by many to be one of the greatest albums ever completed, I'll go put on BWPS.

But back on topic, this change seems like a good thing for everyone. Jeff gets to play more shows with less stress (he's earned it), Christian gets to get off the merry-go-round and enjoy cutting his own path a bit, and Matt returns to the fold (as he should, given his vocal talent).

Musically, I really like Matt better than Jeff. And it seems like Brian will be fine, he's a grown man and he's lived through more than most people have...he's tougher than he seems.

For Mike and Bruce, it's a really nice improvement to what was already a good band. Jeff is an unofficial Beach Boy anyway, like Zak Starkey is an unofficial member of The Who.

I agree in preferring Matt. As to those who'd be astonished to see Al, David, Blondie and Matt out on tour with Brian, based on Howie's artucle a while back, good chance we will see that in support of new Brian's album. Al is just doing one gig with Mike and Bruce, but still recording with Brian. All this means is that the vibe is good again  in the Beach Boy family. And I rather like that!

I don't really understand why it's that far fetched quite frankly. Post C50, which Brian wanted to continue, Brian has done two separate tours with David and Al while also recording a new album with their involvement (to some extent). He also hired on Matt, who also plays a major part in Al's band and Surf City All-Stars. I know there's a lot of other stuff at work in these decisions, but wouldn't all of that logically (a silly word in BB universe) point towards Al and David joining Brian back out on tour again? And that doesn't even touch on the emotional component of having Al, David and Matt (who I imagine is like a nephew to some extent) on-stage with him...

I'm really curious where Al lands in this game of musical chairs.    will Al be the odd man out again?

I think most likely we'll see David and Al joining Brian, Matt and the rest of the band. Maybe a bit of Blondie to boot.

I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if that happens.

They should just name themselves Beach Boys Family and Friends.

I'm really curious where Al lands in this game of musical chairs.    will Al be the odd man out again?

I think most likely we'll see David and Al joining Brian, Matt and the rest of the band. Maybe a bit of Blondie to boot.

In some ways, this looks like an intervention. One of those events where family and friends gather around to tell someone they need to change. Maybe Brian does need to stop touring for his own good. Al and David were there for C50 and the Beck tour. They could have been seeing things they didn't like. Jeff, of course, would know better than anyone if Brian didn't seem up to touring anymore. It could be their way of giving Brian and his organization some tough love.

An intervention? That seems to be a bit of an overstatement for me. Al and David are only confirmed to be playing one show, which is the Jones Beach show. It's worth noting that the Jones Beach show is easily the largest venue on the tour. I'm guessing what most likely happened is that Mike and Bruce were offered JB by a promoter and then had to scramble to figure out how they could make the show as authentic as possible to sell 15k tickets. Having 4 out of 5 Beach Boys is a good way to do that. Ironically, the band were supposedly offered similar gigs post-50th (MSG for New Years, Wrigley Field, etc.) and Mike was the one who didn't want to do those (so we're lead to believe).

Now, as far as Brian's health, I think we all tend to extrapolate quite a bit so I'll do my own extrapolating. I saw BAD shows in 2013 - Atlantic City, Westbury and the Beacon. Atlantic City, although exciting as the first show of the tour, saw Brian looking a little less than good during the second set. By the Westbury and Beacon shows he seemed like a changed man; better than any show I've seen of him going back to TLOS tour. The show at the Beacon in particular was the best I've ever seen Brian. He was happy, engaged, singing fantastically and energetic. Things might've been different back stage, but how anyone could reasonably walk away from that performance at the Beacon with a negative impression of Brian's (relative) health is beyond me.

For all we know, the upcoming fall tour for BW may include Al, David and Blondie, which would render this all a bit moot, wouldn't it? I think Jeff has been a godsend for Brian, but there's no reason to believe that other members of his 15+ year band (Paul, Darian, Scott, etc.), let alone Melinda, Al and David don't provide what ever comfort and support BW needs to get on-stage. Perhaps Ray, if he's comfortable doing so, could speak further to that.