brother records 2fers cds

[The Shift]

... these twofer editions seem to imply the Beach Boys never made one great album from start to finish except for Pet Sounds...

Two other albums stand out as being released singly, that is to say, not as two-fers: the Christmas Album and Summer in Paradise (three if you include Still Cruisin', and I never have!) SiP of course has only been re-issued once to my knowledge -  also refered to as the European, or UK, version.

[Alex]

It stands for Her Majesty's Voice and is a popular music/film shop in the UK, or at least it was last time I was living there... Not to be confused with HIV.

If I'm not mistaken, I think they also have HMV in Canada.

And Australia too

How come they haven't come into the US yet?

[Shady]

Beach boys albums are simple to find in Ireand, all major stres always have them..lucky us 

[mikeyj]

It stands for Her Majesty's Voice and is a popular music/film shop in the UK, or at least it was last time I was living there... Not to be confused with HIV.

If I'm not mistaken, I think they also have HMV in Canada.

And Australia too

How come they haven't come into the US yet?

Not sure but in Australia they aren't even my preferred record store (out of the three major ones), that would be a store called JB Hi-Fi. I rarely shop at HMV because its so much smaller and there isn't much variety plus everything is so expensive comapred to JB Hi-Fi.

[Alex]

Not sure but in Australia they aren't even my preferred record store (out of the three major ones), that would be a store called JB Hi-Fi. I rarely shop at HMV because its so much smaller and there isn't much variety plus everything is so expensive comapred to JB Hi-Fi.

That bad, eh? I guess I'm glad HMV isn't in the states. Locally, I've got FYE (expensive-they seem to care more about sales numbers than actual music) and Borders (bookstore chain with a decent music selection), plus a second hand record store that just recently opened (They've got a good vinyl selection, not much BB though, cheap CDs, a small amount of new releases, smatterings upon smatterings of hair-metal DVDs and merchandise.....I did find a cassette copy of Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle" there for $1.00).

There was a really great independent record store that always had every single Beach Boys album in stock when I went there, bought about half of my BB CDs there, but it closed down last christmas. Now I'm stuck with mall stores or ordering online, though Borders is good in that if they don't have something in stock they'll special order it for you. Oh, I forgot, there's also Wal-mart, but they never have that great of a selection. All they ever have for BB albums are compilations. Wait...we've also got a K-Mart, but I never go in there.

 On a national level, I think that this company called Trans-World Entertainment pretty much dominates in terms of music chain stores, at least since the demise of Tower Records. Trans World owns FYE, Sam Goody, Musicland, Suncoast, and I believe a couple of other chains. Wal-Mart is the number 1 music retailer in the states, but I don't count them because they don't specialize in music.
Man, do I miss the local independent store.

[pendletone]

I recently bought "Today" a a single CD in a cardboard sleeve,  a mini-reproduction of the LP, no booklet - but still very nice. It claims to be stereo.

I couldn't find other single BB-CDs / repros... does anyone have info on that?

[Bicyclerider]

I saw the Sunflower/Surf's Up 2fer on amazon for $9.99!  The others are likely also that price.  An amazing bargain.  Have you noticed that CD prices seem to be dropping as the CD market continues to bottom out?

The original plan for the rerelease of the Capitol 2fers was to do a mono/stereo version with bonus tracks - remixing the multitracks where available into stereo, but then the decision to keep the 2fers was made.  Some of the Brother Rarities set made it onto Endless Harmony and Hawthorne - was a track list ever finalized for the Rarities set?

[Bicyclerider]

After the first series of 2fers went out of print some genius at Capitol decided to issue the Capitol CD's as single album CD's without bonus tracks.  These were replaced with the new remasterings of the 2fers.

I got the single CD of Smiley Smile with the Brother, not Capitol, label on the CD just because it's cool.  Same mastering as the original 2fers.  No stereo Today has ever been released - though Sea of Tunes issued a stereo Today/Summer Days Summer Nights with most, but not all, of the tracks in some kind of stereo (many were instrumentals though).

[Roger Ryan]

I believe the Brothers Rarities set was still under consideration after "Endless Harmony" came out, but was nixed prior to the release of "Hawthorne, CA". I doubt that any finalized track listing was established.

Regarding music stores: the last of the great independents would be Amoeba with three locations in California (Hollywood, San Francisco, Berkeley). I had the good fortune to visit the Haight-Ashbury district store a couple of months ago and their selection was incredible. The Beach Boys even had separate binmarkers for each of their albums!

[pendletone]

After the first series of 2fers went out of print some genius at Capitol decided to issue the Capitol CD's as single album CD's without bonus tracks.  These were replaced with the new remasterings of the 2fers.

Thanks!

I got the single CD of Smiley Smile with the Brother, not Capitol, label on the CD just because it's cool.  Same mastering as the original 2fers.  No stereo Today has ever been released - though Sea of Tunes issued a stereo Today/Summer Days Summer Nights with most, but not all, of the tracks in some kind of stereo (many were instrumentals though).

Hmmm... just checked - it says "Capitol Full Dimensional Stereo". Strange. Made me wonder, since I there's no way of mastering Today or Summer Days in real stereo. (I'm familiar with the SOT version, you're right - the vocals are missing, what a pitty )

[Bicyclerider]

Actually, there is a way to master these in stereo - the vocal multitracks for all of Today and Summer Days were recovered in the early 90's.  That's how the stereo "remixes" of Kiss Me Baby, Calilfornia Girls, etc. were done for hawthorne and endless harmony.  Sea of tunes did not have access to those tapes (their "transfers" were done prior to the discovery of the tapes).

I would still love to have complete stereo remixes of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey even more than Today/Summer Days - just because the mono mixes of those albums don't really represent the musical depth revealed on the multitracks used by sea of tunes.

[Dr. Tim]

Small addition to Andrew Doe's note on HMV and "His Master's Voice". The original painting the logo is based on shows the dog listening to a cylinder of his master's voice WHILE SITTING ON THE DEAD MASTER'S COFFIN.  That part of the picture obviously did not get used in later years but in early reproductions of the painting you can see the coffin lid.

The Victor company grabbed the logo for US use, the HMV company in England stole it before Victor could trademark it in the UK.  Just like the original Columbia record company in the US could not call itself Columbia in the UK as someone else had grabbed that mark first over there.  The history of all of this (and all the industrial shenanigans, international espionage, licensing deals, and suspicious litigation) can be found in many places, including books like From Tin Foil To Stereo.