The (eventually) MIC spoilers thread

[Matt Bielewicz]

More random observations from the asteroid of Mr Wizard as I hoover through other bits of the set I didn't alight on before...

The Alt mix of Rock and Roll Music isn't 'alt' enough to rescue it for me. But I never liked that song... It's a busier mix, but that doesn't help it. And the extra verse just makes it stick around even longer...

The alt mix of It's OK is really cool, though (but then I did always like that one). I love the extra little phrase on the start of the track before it starts - that really lifts the beginning for me.

Giving WIBNTLA my second listen. I actually like the 'repeating phrase' guitar vocal. Some say that's a placeholder part, but I can see it working as a finished solo. Dennis could still really sing well when he did this. Why couldn't he have finished Poops or Hubba Hubba or whatever it was gonna be called...?

OK, I *really* don't like the Sesame Street flute noodling at the end. That's getting faded out on my version of the set... and thank god it doesn't go on for the full seven minutes or whatever, as AGD said.

The 'alt' It's Over Now is great — running at a much better speed. And beautifully mixed, much better than on the GV box. The strings and horns really COOK. That melancholy string-and-brass-backed ballad approach now actually sounds like an interesting and vibrant stylistic direction the Boys could have worthfully pursued in the mid to late 70s, whereas when I heard the old mix on the GV set, I just thought "Er... WHAT? As in WHAT were they thinking...?" because it sounded so sluggish, Quaaluded-out and lifeless.

I didn't know It's A Beautiful Day before. It's an OK slice of upbeat sunny 70s rock, kinda reminds me of late 70s Supertramp, only with the wailing guitars up. It probably sounds good driving down an LA Freeway (ironically, considering the theme of the film it graced). But man, if I never again hear Mike sodding Love self-referentially quoting 'fun fun fun' in a song OTHER than Fun, Fun, Fun, it will be too soon. That especially grates here, as we've just heard him do it in Brian's Back... and a few songs later, he's at it again! Talk about diminishing returns, Mike...

[Fire Wind]

How's the early version of Amusement Parks USA?

[Matt Bielewicz]

Mono, or almost mono backing track, stereo vocals, not the same ones as the final mix. Missing a couple of overdubs - there's no 'Brian as crazy laughing woman' in between the verses. It's just... different, not a revelation or anything. Cool though. I like this one.

[Dunderhead]

How does You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling sound compared to boots? How's Barnyard Blues?

[Fire Wind]

Cheers, Matt.

[Amazing Larry]

Cliff - when this stream is done... well, how can I put this?

Good things come to those that wait...   

I'm waiting. Do I get something good?

[Mooger Fooger]

Dear God...the Smile Backing Vocals Montage is 8:32. Seriously. I don't own the Smile box (have the 2 CD download and the 2 LP vinyl), so I had no clue that they were wasting close to 9 minutes on something like that, especially given that it's previously released.

The "Good Vibrations" stuff that follows is also another waste of nearly four minutes. The biggest mistake of the boxed set is unquestionably losing 13 minutes of the rarities disc to Smile Sessions stuff. The only people this satisfies are those that are interested enough to purchase this six CD set and delve into the rarities and not interested enough to purchase the deluxe Smile Sessions boxed set. That's probably about 1% of this boxed set's purchasers.

Also, if you're going to include two sessions tracks that were previously released, why not just include stuff from the Pet Sounds box as well?

Going further, why the hell would you include two Smile Sessions pieces that weren't even good enough to make the standard Two-CD set? Again, probably because they're assuming there's enough people out there that purchased the 2 CD set and this box, but not the full Smile Sessions package. Either way, it's still a waste of time/money. We would've been better off with thirteen minutes of cuts that were on the previous career spanning boxed set that aren't on this one. "Still I Dream Of It" for example...

For some reason this post immediately made me think of the Israeli youth a few years back posting Nazi hate videos of themselves. Bizzaro even in its obscurity. What a world we live in to have someone bitch and moan about the shitty idea to iclude those crap Smile vocals eh?

[Dunderhead]

Dear God...the Smile Backing Vocals Montage is 8:32. Seriously. I don't own the Smile box (have the 2 CD download and the 2 LP vinyl), so I had no clue that they were wasting close to 9 minutes on something like that, especially given that it's previously released.

The "Good Vibrations" stuff that follows is also another waste of nearly four minutes. The biggest mistake of the boxed set is unquestionably losing 13 minutes of the rarities disc to Smile Sessions stuff. The only people this satisfies are those that are interested enough to purchase this six CD set and delve into the rarities and not interested enough to purchase the deluxe Smile Sessions boxed set. That's probably about 1% of this boxed set's purchasers.

Also, if you're going to include two sessions tracks that were previously released, why not just include stuff from the Pet Sounds box as well?

Going further, why the hell would you include two Smile Sessions pieces that weren't even good enough to make the standard Two-CD set? Again, probably because they're assuming there's enough people out there that purchased the 2 CD set and this box, but not the full Smile Sessions package. Either way, it's still a waste of time/money. We would've been better off with thirteen minutes of cuts that were on the previous career spanning boxed set that aren't on this one. "Still I Dream Of It" for example...

For some reason this post immediately made me think of the Israeli youth a few years back posting Nazi hate videos of themselves. Bizzaro even in its obscurity. What a world we live in to have someone bitch and moan about the shitty idea to iclude those crap Smile vocals eh?

To be clear though, it was a shitty idea.

[AndrewHickey]

Could someone who's managed to get it working let me know what Finnish proxies they've been using, and any other information I may be missing? I've spent three hours trying to get Spotify and the open proxies I've found out about to play nice...
(I'm using Debian GNU/Linux if that makes a difference -- and my copy of the box set has been ordered and shipped, so I won't be depriving Universal of a penny).

[Mooger Fooger]

Apparently the set is nothing but garbage so you might as well cancel your order. I mean, pick your topic and theres been a bitch and moan about it.

Guess my sarcastic review a few days ago was more art imitating life than I ever imagined.

Take your pick its sh*t because:

A. There are hits
B. There are B-sides
C: There are songs we've heard before
D: There are songs we haven't heard before
E: There are songs we havent heard before, we dont hear, but should have
F: There are songs we have heard before, we do hear, but shouldn't have
G: Invent your own POS idea and bitch about it.

Good effing vibrations indeed.

[Dunderhead]

Apparently the set is nothing but garbage so you might as well cancel your order. I mean, pick your topic and theres been a bitch and moan about it.

Guess my sarcastic review a few days ago was more art imitating life than I ever imagined.

Take your pick its sh*t because:

A. There are hits
B. There are B-sides
C: There are songs we've heard before
D: There are songs we haven't heard before
E: There are songs we havent heard before, we dont hear, but should have
F: There are songs we have heard before, we do hear, but shouldn't have
G: Invent your own POS idea and bitch about it.

Good effing vibrations indeed.

C? No, no, E!...Can I only pick one?

[TV Forces]

For some reason this post immediately made me think of the Israeli youth a few years back posting Nazi hate videos of themselves. Bizzaro even in its obscurity. What a world we live in to have someone bitch and moan about the shitty idea to iclude those crap Smile vocals eh?

What a world we live in where someone on the Internet can't just skip over an opinion he disagrees with, but instead brings up Nazi references.
Grow up.  Not everyone has to think the same about everything.

[Mike's Beard]

Apparently the set is nothing but garbage so you might as well cancel your order. I mean, pick your topic and theres been a bitch and moan about it.

Guess my sarcastic review a few days ago was more art imitating life than I ever imagined.

Take your pick its sh*t because:

A. There are hits
B. There are B-sides
C: There are songs we've heard before
D: There are songs we haven't heard before
E: There are songs we havent heard before, we dont hear, but should have
F: There are songs we have heard before, we do hear, but shouldn't have
G: Invent your own POS idea and bitch about it.

Good effing vibrations indeed.

Good to see your new boxset is bringing you so much apparent joy. I only hope when my set turns up it too elevates my mood to such blissfull heights as yours.

[Micha]

5:54pm, spent nearly 2 1/2 hours listening... Started with disc one, skipping very few tracks, and after the stereo Little Saint Nick I stayed with the unreleased/newly mixed stuff only.

WIBNTLA was better than I expected, (I feared it would be dull, actually), and it may be Dennis' best vocal ever indeed. It's really a transition between, say, Be With Me and his stuff on CATP. It would have been one of the best tracks, maybe even THE best track on the Surf's Up album...

BUT...

After 4 minutes it suddenly changes into a funk lounge rock thing that absolutely contradicts the mood of the song, and I don't like that part at all. Rhythmically and stylistically that part foreshadows POB, but does not fit here AT ALL. Disqualifies the song from closing the Surf's Up album IMHO.

I was more impressed with Mona Kana, actually, great backing track, too bad there are no vocals.

"Where Is She" is an unusual Brian song, but pretty good.

The mix of "Sail Plane Song" is very good, too. The mix of "Susie Cincinnati" is interesting. If that's your first listen to the song, you might prefer it to the other versions. Dennis tries to ruin the song adlibbing some stuff on the fade.

Interesting are the 1974 recordings as they show Brian's and Dennis' voices in transition. On the California Feelin' Demo Brian sometimes sounds like before, sometimes like after, his falsetto still sounds like it did in his heyday. On "Barnyard Blues" Dennis sounds more like his old voice, on "My Love Lives On" more like the gruff one, but nos as gruff yet.

The stereo mix of Do It Again adds very little, I'll stick with the mono.

The newly mixed WH tracks are definitely an improvement, the Smiley tracks not.

I don't like this mix of Fallin' In Love, only that it doesn't fade so early as the 1971 mix unfortunately does.

The book is nice, with interesting photos. Dennis emptying a trashcan on Carl with Mike cheering... probably the earliest photo of Bruce wearing shorts... probably the last photo of Dennis with the other boys, with the fabled greyish beard. Too bad he wasn't saved...
and a photo of Mike with no pants on.

Probably Mike's most positive comments on Pet Sounds and SMiLE ever.

That's it for now, didn't listen to the Paley tracks nor Goin' To The Beach and It's A Beautiful Day nor the live stuff yet.

I'll try to bitch a bit more next time.

[TV Forces]

Good to see your new boxset is bringing you so much apparent joy. I only hope when my set turns up it too elevates my mood to such blissfull heights as yours.

haha! no kidding.  who would have thought a beach boys fan preferring something new to something old would draw hitler comparisons by someone who apparently views himself as stable and rational?

[seltaeb1012002]

Could someone who's managed to get it working let me know what Finnish proxies they've been using, and any other information I may be missing? I've spent three hours trying to get Spotify and the open proxies I've found out about to play nice...
(I'm using Debian GNU/Linux if that makes a difference -- and my copy of the box set has been ordered and shipped, so I won't be depriving Universal of a penny).

Seconded! Any help would be appreciated!

[Mike's Beard]

Good to see your new boxset is bringing you so much apparent joy. I only hope when my set turns up it too elevates my mood to such blissfull heights as yours.

haha! no kidding.  who would have thought a beach boys fan preferring something new to something old would draw hitler comparisons by someone who apparently views himself as stable and rational?

Well let's see, in the last 2 days I've had a dressing down because, given the choice I'd rather not watch 2 homosexuals going for it full on in public and earlier today a guy who complained about the links not working was shown a picture of a starving African kid who is probably buzzard meat by now - so yeah a guy complaining about too much recycled Smile material being compared to a Nazi doesn't really surprise me that much at this point.

[SMiLE Brian]

Mike's beard, you just summed up the whole SS website!

[leggo of my ego]

Mike's beard, you just summed up the whole SS website!

 

Well if I stumble across a way to listen to some of MIC before my own copy arrives I won't feel guilty
a bit as I am plunking my money down for the official product. And if I cant listen in early, no biggie...
when the box arrives I am loading up the 6 discs and hitting the random play button for a hours-long
listening session. 

[The Shift]

Has Phil been freed yet?

[SMiLE Brian]

Can we have a week of Bliss before he comes back?

[Lowbacca]

Has Phil been freed yet?

His return will look somewhat like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1i-Yw7s-Pw

[Micha]

Has Phil been freed yet?

His return will look somewhat like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1i-Yw7s-Pw

I don't get it. Guess I'm dumb.

[Lowbacca]

Has Phil been freed yet?

His return will look somewhat like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1i-Yw7s-Pw

I don't get it. Guess I'm dumb.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=douche%20chill

"Douche chill" is an exclamation calling attention to the embarrassment of someone who has brought ill consequences on themselves.

 

[Matt Bielewicz]

5:54pm, spent nearly 2 1/2 hours listening... Started with disc one, skipping very few tracks, and after the stereo Little Saint Nick I stayed with the unreleased/newly mixed stuff only.

Great comments Micha, thanks! As someone who has received the ACTUAL physical set, as opposed to pretending to be Finnish all afternoon ( )... can you tell us if there are any hidden tracks at the end of the discs? These are sometimes left off the on-line versions...