MiC up for order on Amazon, August release

[Wrightfan]

From Brian's Site:

Do It Again is a true stereo mix made from the recently found 8 track master

Excuse me, have to change my pants now 

We've found the masters for Don't Worry Baby and Do it Again within the last five years. Maybe GV will turn up.

[Dunderhead]

if you don't like it don't buy it

Yes, I'm going to do that as well. But I'm also going to post here as much as I want explaining why I don't like it and why I'm not going to buy it so if you don't like that then you can just not read my posts.

Well you haven't heard it yet.  So not liking it is qualified - you don't like the track listing.

Besides taking negativity to a new level, besides you wanting to express your displeasure at Capitol and BRI,  you also want to repeatedly tell all of us why we shouldn't like it, which is just as boring as you claim this new box set is.  We read and understand your points, and we disagree.  Maybe check in after the box set is released to troll some more on how the box isn't selling and if they had produuced the box set you wanted they would have sold so much more (well, 1 extra copy I guess).

No sorry. I don't really care if you understand my points or not, or if you agree or disagree. I also don't want to tell anyone to do or think anything. You're all adults, and you're all responsible for passing judgement as you see fit.

So, no. Again, sorry. I'm going to keep posting here as much as I want as often as I want what I think. Approve of it or disapprove, agree or disagree, respond or don't, it ultimately doesn't matter, regardless I'm going to keep posting my opinion whether it upsets your delicate psychic constitution or not.  

[Dunderhead]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

[pixletwin]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

There is a line where what one is posting stops becoming about one's opinion and starts to become about the one posting. You are crossing that line I think. I could care less about your opinion but it's starting to smell like spam.

[Dunderhead]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

There is a line where what one is posting stops becoming about one's opinion and starts to become about the one posting. You are crossing that line I think. I could care less about your opinion but it's starting to smell like spam.

Get over it.

[Ted]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

Get over it.

[pixletwin]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

There is a line where what one is posting stops becoming about one's opinion and starts to become about the one posting. You are crossing that line I think. I could care less about your opinion but it's starting to smell like spam.

Get over it.

 

[Rocky Raccoon]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet but according to Brian's website, the live Help Me Rhonda features Dennis on lead vocals.  Awesome!

[TV Forces]

It was only with significant difficulty posters here wrenched out even the faintest acknowledgement that the entire thing hadn't fallen apart from the few "insiders" around here. Some of the hints that were dropped, like some of the information from Ponghit in fact painted a very different picture of this release I think from what we now know it to be.

You're supposed to forget about that.  Didn't you get the memo?  We're now all supposed to believe we've been on the edge of our seats for a year for a new hits box.  We all must now unite, speak with one voice, squash all discent, and act like this wasn't mentioned as a "deep cuts box."

if you don't like it don't buy it

Sorry, but that's not how discussion forums work.  When you read reviews on Amazon, do you only read the 5-star ones because you're too sensitive to handle other points of view? 

[Mike's Beard]

I don't really understand how we somehow knew that this boxset would be a letdown for months and months when the biggest source of frustration here for a long time has been the lack of any definite or official statement about the box. Speak for yourself but I didn't know anything really about this thing, and for months at a time the only discussion more or less occurring here revolved around vindictive dismissals of Phil Cohen for not having any faith that the elusive "career-spanning box" would eventually one day be substantiated as actual.

Information was spotty at best. "Career-Spanning" is a pretty meaningless designation in and of itself. To pretend that it's somehow analytic that the term necessarily meant all along that this box would contain primarily the tired-old fair isn't correct. A rarities box would also be "career-spanning", and the initial press release from almost a near ago now was pretty unclear what exactly would be on this thing.

It was only with significant difficulty posters here wrenched out even the faintest acknowledgement that the entire thing hadn't fallen apart from the few "insiders" around here. Some of the hints that were dropped, like some of the information from Ponghit in fact painted a very different picture of this release I think from what we now know it to be. What little else we knew seemed to mostly come from phantom, place-holder release dates on online retail sites.

I mean come on.

It's been said on this board time and time again that MIC would not be a 100% rarities set, that it is essentially an upgrade from the old GV box and would be the same style format. In fact until the other day the only thing for certain I knew about the set was that it be 6 discs and much of it would be standard previously releashed stuff. It seems like everyone knew this but you.

BTW I can completely understand why you are not willing to buy Barbara-Ann, Kokomo etc... again no matter how much they try to tempt you with rarities.

[Lowbacca]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

Get over it.

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Man, it's too bad they didn't make this boxset good. I would have really liked that.

Get over it.

I think he's being sarcastic by coming down several levels. Still seems to be above the heads of some though.

[grillo]

I'm super excited about this box set!
This message board on the other hand...
Why does anybody care if someone likes or dislikes what is on the box set? How can that possibly affect your life? Why does someone's opinion get them shouted down by relative newbie board members who take it upon themselves to be the arbiters of sensible posting?
Also, why do I care?

[Iron Horse-Apples]

Why does anybody care if someone likes or dislikes what is on the box set? How can that possibly affect your life?

I was thinking the same yesterday. For some reason some people seem very threatened by negative comments. I suggested it was because they feel their tastes and opinions are being judged by those being negative. Of course, its entirely the other way round, it's the moaners who are constantly being told they are wrong.

Anyway. I'm still seriously stoked by the "Do It Again" news. I think this box is going to be great.

[Paulos]

From Brian's Site:

Do It Again is a true stereo mix made from the recently found 8 track master

We're Together Again- is a new stereo mix with strings also from a newly recovered 8 track master

The live All I Want To Do is complete and contains elements not heard on the mix on the Rarities album

The live Help Me Rhonda features Dennis on the lead vocal

The live Wild Honey features Blondie Chaplin on lead vocal and guitar

What elements might these be, a live version of the tag?  

Good to see Blondie being given recognition and shows I was maybe wrong about the air-brushing him from Beach Boys history.

Hope we get more little bites of info like this in the lead up to the release, I'd expect an article from ESQ in the near future too.

[Jonathan Blum]

The thing is, all the personal dramas about "well they should have included *this* unreleased track that I've heard on a bootleg recorded with tin cans and string" are kind of missing the actual point of the box set.  It does have one -- even if it's not one that matters to those of us who already know the story of the band by heart.

Basically, it's an attempt to define the canon…  to say *these* are all the important works by the band, and *these* are pointers to some of the other delights out there if you keep looking.  It's not an "archival release" in the sense that they're throwing open the doors to their archives and inviting people to scrape all the remnants off the shelves, but in that they're packaging up a neat little archive in itself -- a time capsule of what the Beach Boys mean.
As such, it's aimed at the same niche as the "Good Vibrations" box set in 1993 -- it's replacing it just the way the new Greatest Hits replace the older ones, as a definitive statement. It's creating a narrative of what's important about the band's career -- an authorized history. And look at the kind of person who's interested in that sort of narrative: not the hardcore fan, but the neophyte one.

That 1993 box set was my first step towards becoming an actual dyed-in-the-wool fan -- I had a Greatest Hits CD with "Heroes And Villains" on it, and I was interested in the Smile stuff on the box.  Plus, it had "Getcha Back", and I really wanted "Getcha Back".  (And it didn’t *matter* that it was duplicating the Greatest Hits I already owned, cause there was a hell of a lot more new stuff than old stuff.  Including stuff from a whole bunch of out-of-print albums -- basically, everything from 1967 onwards.)

And that's one of the things people seem to be forgetting.  This box set is not primarily targeting people who already have a copy of "Sunflower" or "Carl & The Passions: So Tough" -- it's what will *get* them to buy those albums.  People will buy this box set off the back of a "Sounds of Summer" (or the tour) because they want to go deeper and see it as a one-stop Beach Boys shop.  But with luck, like me, it'll light a fire which gets them looking for more.  That's the sort of path the record company are looking at.

(Course, it may also have helped that I bought the box set five years after it came out, when prices had dropped significantly from first release. Again: think *archival* -- boxsets are released for the ages, not just for those of us who will be hungry for it on release date.  This one may be on sale for another twenty years, if they're lucky, on a similarly discounted long tail.)

<to be continued>

[Shady]

The "Do It Again" news is wonderful. Can't wait to hear it.

wow, just read about "we're together again", even more wonderful

[TMinthePM]

I would say (ducks a barrage of old shoes, pots and pans) ...

I would say that the remastering evidenced in the 2012 re-release of SUSA, SG, et. al. justifies this set, assuming that it will be the remastered versions of the classic tracks that will be included.

[Andrew G. Doe]

2. AGD's "press speak"? "I know not of this Made In California of which you speak.  " Over and over again. People were clamouring for an official confirmation and announcement of this and they were rebuffed with a lot of non-committal double-speak silencing for simply wanting to know what the deal was.

You're kin to Eeyore, ain'tcha ?  Assuming, purely for the sake of argument, that I did indeed know what the archive tracks were going to be, oh, last summer or thereabouts... you think I was sent that email with a PS that said "feel free to splash this all over the internet" ? That's a 100% guaranteed way to make sources dry up in world record time. Know why people (sometimes) tell me stuff ? They know I can keep a confidence when requested. Same goes for several other posters here. Exact same reason (but reversed) why no-one tells Eeyore anything. Tell you a fact: those further up the food chain initially found him amusing, but that rapidly turned into extreme irritation.

3. Ponghit initially was talking about it being an "archival project" or something to that effect. He talks about all sorts of songs being considered that seem to have been left off in favor of material the fans are over-saturated with already. He certainly didn't give a particular clear conception of what the thing was all about.

His sources and mine seem to disagree here - I've always been under the distinct impression that it was indeed an upgrade/reboot of the 1993 box from the very first: nothing more, nothing less. As with every such project there have doubtless been behind-the-scenes dramas and politicking: hopefully these tales will leak somewhere down the line.

Yes, there are tracks I'd have liked to be on there... YouTube's over there. Not like you've never, ever heard them before, and on this release there are a handful of tracks that hardly anyone outside BRI have heard before.

Bottom line - don't like it, don't buy it, and I say this in the exact same spirit of those who tell me, when I object to some of our more infantile posters, "don't like it, don't read it".  

[Freddie French-Pounce]

From Brian's Site:

Do It Again is a true stereo mix made from the recently found 8 track master

We're Together Again- is a new stereo mix with strings also from a newly recovered 8 track master

The live All I Want To Do is complete and contains elements not heard on the mix on the Rarities album

The live Help Me Rhonda features Dennis on the lead vocal

The live Wild Honey features Blondie Chaplin on lead vocal and guitar

What elements might these be, a live version of the tag?  

Yeah, it's this that really excites me. And hopefully they've brought the Guitar up in the mix. Put that and the live isn't it time together and you've got a great rockin' pair.

[Jonathan Blum]

So.  If the point of the new box is to make a statement about what the Beach Boys are…  what is it saying?

Well, again, let's start by looking at the story told by the previous box.  That one had a very clear agenda, at a time when most of the Beach Boys' artier work was out of print -- each disc aimed to show a different side of the band, a specific chapter in the narrative. Disc one was the songs that made California great, the whole start of the endless summer.  Disc two told the story of them becoming the greatest art-pop band in the world -- the flowering from "California Girls" (moved up slightly in the chronology to kick off disc two), to a bunch of "Pet Sounds" tracks in the years before the box set, and the Holy Grail of "Smile".  Disc three was there to tell you that even as the hits dried up they were still putting out creative gems -- kicking off with "Heroes and Villains" and running up through "Surf's Up".  And disc four had the specific aim of convincing skeptics that they still did good stuff after Brian Wilson flaked out… hence swapping the album order so it kicked off with "Sail On Sailor", the most powerful post-1971 hook they could imagine. That was really the whole point of the box set -- to rewrite an assumed public history of the band in which the Beach Boys petered out around 1966, had a couple more hits, then didn't do much of anything after their eighth year.

And in the twenty years' since then?  It's largely succeeded at that.  Brian Wilson isn't just the guy in the striped shirt who flipped out any more, he's a certified musical genius. "Pet Sounds" and "Smile" are *central* to the Beach Boys story now, as well as "Endless Summer" -- down my way, they're the only two actual Beach Boys albums I can find on the shelves at my local JB Hi-Fi, amidst all the Greatest Hits (and "Radio", but that's a special case).

Anyway. That's the story they boxed up for delivery in 1993.  But what did the story leave out?  Well, several key things.  For a start, David Marks was The Other Guy, a musical footnote.  Dennis too, in large part -- the '93 boxset gave us three *stunning* songs he both wrote and sang, which certainly whetted my appetite, but that was barely scratching the surface of his output.  Even the concentration of seven straight tracks from the Blondie-and-Ricky era gives them more of a sense of a defined presence in the band. Bruce…  well, he's the guy who did "Disney Girls". The band's live performances were barely represented.  And most tellingly, the 30th anniversary set only moved the date when the band petered out from their eighth to their sixteenth year… their entire output after 1977, six albums and a bunch of non-album tracks -- as much material as from "Sunflower" to "Love You" -- was reduced to six released tracks and one outtake.

So.  Now they've got a chance to tell the story again -- with an extra disc's worth of space.  So what are they telling differently?

Well… next post I'll start by looking at what they've taken away...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

[Shady]

Did Dennis often sing lead on Help Me Rhonda 

[pixletwin]

His sources and mine seem to disagree here - I've always been under the distinct impression that it was indeed an upgrade/reboot of the 1993 box from the very first: nothing more, nothing less.

If I recall correctly, ponghit gathered his impression from seeing an early draft of the playlist which may have been heavier on the unreleased stuff.

And yes, color me very excited to hear Dennis' lead on Rhonda.

[SMiLE Brian]

I would love to see the early draft of the playlist that Ponghit saw....

[pixletwin]

I would love to see the early draft of the playlist that Ponghit saw....

Me too.. but that maybe something that would take us down a darker path.