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201
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: New Jeff Beck interview. Discuss.
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on: August 18, 2014, 01:16:43 PM
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My brother is/was a huge RHCP/Frusciante fan and through him i heard albums like Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt. I saw a Dutch documentary once on VHS with Frusciante in a sad room and his teeth rotting out. My brother went off him a bit when he released 12 albums in 12 months and most of them were keyboardy/electronic kind of things, which would have been okay except they weren't very good.
Personally, I don't like either RHCP or Frusciante's stuff, but it's an interesting story at least.
Oh, I do like Flea, and his work with Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke.
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: New Jeff Beck interview. Discuss.
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on: August 17, 2014, 01:51:58 AM
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As AGD said, Jeff Beck has never been the most diplomatic sort of person. Perhaps, and this is possible, Jeff beck doesn't know as much about Brian Wilson's personal history as we do. Perhaps he's read the rumours in somewhere like MOJO of Brian being a quirky recluse or an eccentric genius, but knows no more than the quick soundbite. Perhaps Jeff Beck doesn't know much about dealing sensitively with people with mental health issues.
A Jeff Beck/Brian Wilson joint tour was never really going to appeal to the same audience, especially if there wasn't much onstage interaction.
A few sessions in the studio was worth trying but it didn't gel. Nothing wrong with that in itself.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / The Sandbox / Re: Cliff Richard allegations
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on: August 17, 2014, 01:44:14 AM
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Well, if the accusations are true, do you think that people in the UK will be surprised? Cliff has had to be very discrete with what he does in private, to avoid offending the faction of his audience that buys his Christian music. There have been long-standing rumors that he is gay, which he has neither confirmed or denied. He has only gone so far as to state that he lives with a man.
The tone of your post makes it seem like if Cliff Richard can hide being gay, then he can hide paedophilic sexual abuse, and that is not only spurious logic, but hideously offensive and possibly slanderous. You need either to rethink your own worldview on the subject or reword your post. The people in the UK would be very surprised. Everyone knew there was something wrong with Jimmy Savile, the general public just didn't know what. Rolf Harris was a quirky character, but that was a surprise. Cliff Richard is a cup of tea at your nan's house on a wet Sunday afternoon.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Thelonious Sphere Monk
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on: August 11, 2014, 02:53:23 PM
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I've been reading Stanley Crouch's new bio of Charlie Parker and so i've been listening to a lot of Bird recently. The bio only goes up to 1942. I don't have much by Charlie Parker, but i do have Bird & Diz from 1950 which has Monk on piano, and i love this album.
I'm pretty sure it was the only time the 3 of them played together (on record at least), but does anyone know if there are any other recordings with Monk & either Bird or Dizzy?
A bit more digging online and i've found some mention of jam sessions from Minton's Playhouse that have allegedly Parker and Monk, but i can't find how to hear them. On a related note, i did find some Charlie Christian & thelonious Monk recordings from Minton's 1941. Some of Charlie Christian's stuff is excellent. I have a couple of CDs of him with Benny Goodman, but he's very much hidden. I had no idea he was this good.
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Beach Boys in \
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on: August 11, 2014, 01:42:52 PM
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This them? I see the two hot girls on the sides, but who are those weirdos in the middle supposed to be? I don't what's wrong with you guys, but i clearly see Glen Campbell, Carl, Dennis/Alan/DavidMarks, and Jack Black. They were in the original line-up weren't they? Before the all left for dental school?
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Thelonious Sphere Monk
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on: August 10, 2014, 02:13:23 PM
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I've been reading Stanley Crouch's new bio of Charlie Parker and so i've been listening to a lot of Bird recently. The bio only goes up to 1942. I don't have much by Charlie Parker, but i do have Bird & Diz from 1950 which has Monk on piano, and i love this album.
I'm pretty sure it was the only time the 3 of them played together (on record at least), but does anyone know if there are any other recordings with Monk & either Bird or Dizzy?
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: *Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread
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on: August 07, 2014, 12:36:16 PM
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On past form, stalling at #28 would have to be regarded as a reasonable success, at least in chart terms:
Brian Wilson - 54 I Just Wasn't Made For These Times - did not chart Imagination - 88 Live At The Roxy - dnc Pet Sounds Live - dnc Getting In Over My Head - 100 Brian Wilson Presents Smile - 13 What I Really Want For Christmas - 200 That Lucky Old Sun - 21 Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin - 26 In The Key Of Disney - 83
I'm anticipating this album keenly. I think the discussion it will provoke here will be unparalleled.
An interesting exercise would be getting the actual sales numbers for each of those BW records and seeing what, for example, that 21 for TLOS would translate into on today's charts. I was thinking about that. BW88 sold something like 500,000 in the US and only made #54. That many sales these days cause a revolution. The new one won't sell near that worldwide. But i'm still looking forward to it, I think it'll be the last chance for a full-on Brian Wilson album where he can spend this much time, with these guests, on a major label. Although who's to say that an album of home demos with Brian writing and playing everything wouldn't be better? Bring it on
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: *Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread
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on: August 07, 2014, 08:28:20 AM
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Clapton and Petty are both mature (emotionally mature, not just in age) artists who appeal to a mature audience with a MOR kind of easy-on-the-ear melodicism.
The Beach Boys are a kind of gimmicky fun-in-the-sun act with hawaiian shirts, which is a popular angle to have but kind of limiting. The Brian Wilson brand seems somehow to be less than that. You take away the fun-in-the-sun angle, and what's left? Brian Wilson previously tried to take the Clapton/Petty mature route with Imagination (which i really like), but has since gone back to original material of cluttered plasticky pop songs. I think a core audience of Brian Wilson fans will buy the album and because record sales for the more superficial stars have fallen away, this will boost BW's chart placing.
It could do well. It could stall at #28.
Maybe i'm just in a bad mood.
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: Male Ego Board
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on: August 05, 2014, 01:23:41 PM
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I remember JohnB's Gold Board being the best message board back in the day. I think he still runs a Beach Boys yahoo mailing list.
When the Gold Board shut down three regular posters set up their own boards to try to continue the community: Junkstar's Male Ego board (black and yellow colour scheme), Sir Chocolate Thunder's Barnyard board (red), and Ken W set up a Sunflower board (i think it was Sunflower, with a yellow colour scheme).
Basically it was the same group of posters posting on all 3, and eventually two shut down through redundancy and Male Ego remained.
There were arguments and wars but despite its reputation the proportion of troll to genuine posts was very good.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Ariel Pink
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on: August 03, 2014, 09:17:46 AM
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I saw Ariel Pink supporting Animal Collective at the Middle East club in Cambridge, MA, back in about 2004/5 and he was awful. Crappy music and he spent most of his set having a go at the poor soundman who had no idea what he was on about. A rude and unpleasant person with no discernable musical talent. I listened to a couple of tracks from Haunted Graffiti when people were praising it but it didn't do anything for me.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Authenticity
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on: August 03, 2014, 09:15:13 AM
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I remember when i was much younger and reading something about how the jeans and sneakers and leather jackets look of a band (like The Strokes, back when people thought they were the coolest) was just as much a uniform as something like the BB's striped shirts. And, a point i find interesting, i like Tom Waits and i'm not a big fan of David Bowie. My brother has the opposite opinion, but we both have the same reason in that we are turned off by the obvious artifice. In Tom Waits' case, i'm willing to buy into the gruff junkyard circus barker act because i think he uses it to hit on some interesting ideas/lyrics/points of view. But i don't like David Bowie because he's a shameless fame hungry mime-turned-media whore with nothing original to say And as much as something like the NME loves their working class musicians, and they'll use (upper) class to bash anyone they don't like, Joe Strummer is a god to them and he was the privileged son of a foreign service diplomat. Authenticity matters less to me now as i get older. It's all an act but it's what you do with it that counts
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / The Sandbox / Re: Hidden Users
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on: August 03, 2014, 02:46:00 AM
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I'm in favour of more bans on here. Maybe if posters didn't think they could get away with posting some of the offensive and hateful nonsense they have, and not feel remorse, then this place would be more civilized. The ongoing feuds and pointless bickering are pathetic. I don't believe the internet is just "teh internet" and that there should be different rules of behaviour than "teh outernet". But that's just my opinion. Glad i'm not a mod
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Thelonious Sphere Monk
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on: August 02, 2014, 02:01:54 AM
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Last night I listened to the Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers & Thelonious Monk and Monk plays Ellington albums. The one with Art Blakey is superb. Monk is still Monk but the Jazz Messengers have such a strong musicality of their own that it's like a meeting of the minds. An instance of a collaboration being more than the sum of its parts. The Ellington album is also great, and, as the captain said about his playing on the Clark Terry album, there are moments of real prettiness, like thr first two minutes of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwfU3g_6rhUThe liner notes by Orrin Keepnews are on the mark when they say that the idea of an Ellington covers album was designed to allow an audience who were not raised on allnight bop jam sessions to appreciate how Monk can play around with melodies and themes by letting him play well known tunes.
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / The Sandbox / Infinite Monkeys
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on: July 27, 2014, 02:29:18 PM
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Completely unrelated to AGD's post, but it got me thinking…
If an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters given an infinite amount of time would eventually come up with Hamlet, then they would also come up with:
1. A version of Hamlet where every proper noun was replaced by incredibly offensive racial epithets 2. The lyrics to GIOMH 3. the entire Smiley Smile Message Board post history
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Non Smiley Smile Stuff / General Music Discussion / Re: Arcade Fire
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on: July 26, 2014, 02:33:37 PM
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I really like Funeral, but Neon Bible and The Suburbs passed me by. i was gripped at the end of last year by the single, and video, Afterlife. It really got to me. I decided to buy the album and i love it as much if not more than Funeral. A great evolution for the band, to shed some of their stiff indie rock and embrace a more danceable element. Of course it helps having LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy as the producer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKinnMXuKgthere's a great promo video for the album, directed by Roman Coppola, which shows the band have a sense of humour ("Just what the world needs, another Arcade Fire album") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fFAKrIntzY
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: M.I.U./L.A. 2-fer, Canadian
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on: July 26, 2014, 03:10:37 AM
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Sure, the MIU version sounds borderline-but-innocent-given-the-benefit-of-the-doubt, but if you listen to the outtake with the spoken word section, it puts it into a different light. Rather than creeping close to the edge of tastefulness from the side of innocence, the MIU version now sounds like they toned down the creepiness from a worse place. Leering, perving older men. And in today's climate that comes off even worse than it might have done in the 70s. I'm going to teach you to kiss? Help you shave your legs for the first time? Definitely dubious to me. i work at a university, and to me the undergraduates (18-21) look (and act) like children, so don't include me in that 14-20 age bracket. That's fine for you, but it doesn't apply to everyone. Just sayin'
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: *Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread
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on: July 26, 2014, 02:59:50 AM
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Here's an idea, let's try to appease all the posters on this thread, be they optimists or pessimists, with this premise... Let's all assume from this point onwards, a priori, without having heard anything from the album itself, that this new BW album will be the single worst listening experience imaginable of all time. The gaps of silence between tracks will be autotuned and it will be obvious to everyone. Even the autotune will have autotune on it. Each track will be a recycled, watered-down, guest-appearanced mess of Joe Thomasery that features no recognisable traces of BW. It will be a hardcore Frank Ocean rap album with autotuned sitcom stars and dinosaurs and brian will do interviews in which he not only denies knowledge of the guest stars but doesn't even realise he has an album coming out. Now, with that starting point, we have set the bar so low that anything, any single thing, even a split second of melody, that appeals to us will be a bonus and we can discuss it fruitfully on this board when the music does come out as intended. Agreed?
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Smiley Smile Stuff / General On Topic Discussions / Re: M.I.U./L.A. 2-fer, Canadian
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on: July 25, 2014, 03:11:16 AM
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I can't find the song on youtube (only the creepier outtake), but i have the line in my head as "let's try some cut off jeans"...?
I'm listening to the rest of the MIU jeff on youtube now at work and it reminds me what an enjoyable set it is. I'd be more than happy if BW's new one was as good as this. And if LA (Light Album) sounded as good as this, instead of the flat thing that came out, it would have been twice as good.
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