I'm going to pop in again here and say that this is absolutely fantastic! Whether or not the new stuff is thirty forty or twenty five percent of the new box set...it seems that the Beach Boys are finally serving their long time, dedicated fans.

Having said that, this darn thing comes out two days after I go to college. Wouldn't It Be Nice (To Live Again) better be on iTunes.   

Haven't posted in a while, but decided it was worth saying that this tracklist is fantastic!  I'm really excited that we're getting a purely audio live album.  Time to relive the memories!

And here I had convinced myself I could live with a Japanese booklet. 

I don't find the packaging particularly cheap at all.  They've got the front cover, the back cover, some photos, and the track-listing on the back of the CD case, as well as the accurate representation of the original label on the disk.  The only difference between these and the "glorious" Beatles stereo remasters is another flap with a few more pictures. 

Well, he certainly had no problem resuming his solo career...

I expect eighty-seven f***ing pages filled with anti-Brian sentiment. If you're going to bitch about Michael doing the same thing BE f***ING CONSISTENT ABOUT IT.

well...he wanted to continue the Beach Boys tour, Mike would have any of it so he kinda has to resume what he does....? Correct me if I'm wrong. I still have hope that this 'rocknroll album' of his with the other Beach Boys will be worked on in the coming  year!

Maybe he should just tour his solo material on his solo tours?

Brian's shows aren't very well attended as it is, very, very few people would see him if he was only performing solo material.

Does the new remaster of Today! use a lower generation tape for the mono mix? Reason I ask is because Please Let Me Wonder sounds crystal clear compared to the 1990 and 2001 two-fers, both of which are covered in that patented Today! muddiness. Not complaining...just curious.

That's so funny - I think PLMW in mono on the new remaster is the worst thing on that whole cd. It sounds rechanneled, like the tape head wasn't alligned correctly when it was transferred. I'm listening to the Japanese release, so unless they fixed it, I can't see how you'd prefer that to any other cd release of that song.

Are you hearing it to the left a little bit?

Yes. I shouldn't have said rechanneled, it's not that extreme. Just that it doesn't sound like pure mono.

No, I agree with you.  It bugs me.  The left channel dominates the right, the "phantom image" I perceive is certainly a bit left of center.

Does the new remaster of Today! use a lower generation tape for the mono mix? Reason I ask is because Please Let Me Wonder sounds crystal clear compared to the 1990 and 2001 two-fers, both of which are covered in that patented Today! muddiness. Not complaining...just curious.

That's so funny - I think PLMW in mono on the new remaster is the worst thing on that whole cd. It sounds rechanneled, like the tape head wasn't alligned correctly when it was transferred. I'm listening to the Japanese release, so unless they fixed it, I can't see how you'd prefer that to any other cd release of that song.

Are you hearing it to the left a little bit?

(apologies if this has been mentioned already)

Only had a chance to casually listen to Surfin' USA and Today! so far.  I have a question regarding the mono mix of Stoked.  Is it me or is the "S" cut off at the beginning and sounds like Mike is singing "TOKED"?  Was it always like this?  I am only familiar with CD releases so I hope those with original vinyls can answer this.

Thanks!

I notice that as well, but don't have the original record to answer your question.  Just wanted to let you know it's not just you!

When will dolts like the man who wrote that inflammatory article realize that Mike has always acted out of the utmost concern for Brian. By suing Brian over being wrongfully denied songwriting credits of some of the Beach Boys most iconic songs, he freed Brian of the guilt that must have undoubtedly eaten away at him for decades. Brian, mismanaged for decades by wacked out psychotherapists and greedy wives, could've never fixed the oversight himself - his psychotherapists and wives had vacations that needed to be paid for, obviously. So Mike fixed the situation the only way he knew how.

He sued Brian.

And it worked.

Now Mike and Brian have a perfectly healthy familial relationship thanks to Mike's lawsuit.  Yes, Mike decided not to do any additional tour dates with Brian, but again, that was out of LOVE. Mike LOVE, to be exact. He wanted to protect the special image of the Beach Boys. He didn't want to the reunion to become something mundane and regular. No - when the remaining Beach Boys get on the stage together, it should be a grand spectacle, not another leg of never-ending tour of irrelevance.

Mike has always protected Brian. Without Mike's lyrics, which textually captured the energy of youth and the American spirit, Brian quickly fell off the ball. Brian made it - what?- a year or two without Mike before he bombed commercially? Brian is melancholy. He's "Til I Die." Mike is "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", and "Kokomo" - you know, all the songs people still demand in concert today.

Sometimes I even wonder just how talented Brian is. Yes, he can arrange great harmonies. But what else is he really good at? The Wrecking Crew or the band came up with most of the good stuff. Brian would just say "hey, I need a real good 12 string guitar here", and someone else did the heavy lifting. And in terms of chords, he'd just mess around a bit with routine chord changes, just changing a thing or two there.

For that matter, when's the last time Brian wrote and arranged something great without someone holding his hand the whole way? Forget about the lyrics - I'm just talking about the melodies and arrangements. It's hard to say. To be honest, I'd take "Cool Head, Warm Heart" and "Daybreak Over the Ocean" over almost anything Brian's written in the last 40 years.

For a minute, I've got to be honest, you had me going.

STAMOS LOST A HAND HE CAN'T PLAY GUITAR ANYMORE YEAH! 

It was really wonderful to see the Beach Boys with four or five slots filled with single albums at Best Buy, of all places.  Finally, I feel as though their catalog is getting the respect it deserves.

Just the thought of a concert at MSG and a New Year's concert makes me all the more upset over this.  Whatever the situation may be, the full band doing those kinds of shows would be absolutely unbelievable.

Jeff mentions its related to PBS at the start of this clip from the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GulPkzOC_qA&playnext=1&list=PL882B9D56749232AE&feature=results_video

I think we have dissed...discussed PBS before?

WE CAN'T ELECT MITT ROMNEY OR ELSE NO MOAR PBS GAR! 

Anyone notice the question mark that is now part of the title?

Gotta say I dig the original. This version is harmless enough, save the awful processing on the  "isn't it time to be lovers" bit, and though I prefer Mike's bridge over Jeff's, the single is a really good song as opposed to this version which is, in my mind, mediocre.

So uh, has Mike replaced Bruce as the most hated Beach Boy currently?

I still feel the slightest tendrils of shame for loving the Beach Boys so much, especially loving them over the Beatles. I also feel ashamed when people ask me what I'm listening to on my headphones I lie. I know this is wrong. But I know the faces I get for this love.
I used to work at a movie theater some years ago and at the time I had been reading Carlin's BW biography. As I was getting off work and leaving with book in hand, one of the assistant managers asked me what I was reading. I said a bio about Brian Wilson. She said, "who's Brian Wilson?" (cue mental facepalm) I said he was the main songwriter and leader of the Beach Boys. She said "oh" with a face I'll not forget. It was one that kinda said "seriously?"
I'm trying to be more upfront and proud about my love for my favorite band, but then I think of that look...

Honestly, I should have just said that it was a bio on the baseball player of the same name... 

Or you could have told her to chew on tin foil for giving you such a look. But naw, continue with the feeling shame thing.

Alternately, you could have screamed my current username at her (and the lyrics that follow), an octave higher and only roughly in key, until she went away.

What inspired this name change runners?

I dig the new clarity this brings to the song.

Strange - sounds worlds more muddled than the album mix, to me. IMO!#$

I suppose I mean certain aspects. The vocals sound sharp, and besides the poorly mixed bass so do many other aspects.

Wild-Honey, upload your photos to Imageshack and then posting them here 

I dig the new clarity this brings to the song. The only thing that really bugs me are the effects on Al's vocal and the "lovers" bit.

Rocky Racoon is one of my favorite Beatles songs. It's comparable to say, Roller Skating Child or Solar System, though in my mind superior.

AUTOTUNE really pisses me off because I do all my recordings clean and live, I spend hours on vocals then these modern assholes sh*t out a vocal and AUTOTUNE it and people buy it.

It's nowhere near as easy as it sounds. If you are going to try to 'fix' pitches, well...the person actually has to be a decent singer in order to have it come out right. The idea of taking a terrible singer and performing 'studio magic' and making them sound like they are a good singer...well, it's a myth. Most of that comes from comping vocals, and that's been done since the 70s.

Now, if you're talking about the auto tune effect , well, that's a different animal entirely. All over the net, you can find different settings to use to get that 'T-Pain' effect. Thing is, the person doing the vocal actually has to deliver it 'differently' in order for it to sound right.  Many times, it takes LONGER to get it to sound like that than it would be in order to get a good 'regular' vocal.

Search, Kesha without Autotune, and I think you may change your opinion.

So...50 Big Ones suddenly becomes more appealing to the diehard fan base, no?

Pet Sounds came from within Brian. I feel Smile came from around him. I'd have to say Pet Sounds though based solely on the really personal lyrics him and Mike wrote.

Except Tony Asher wrote the lyrics.

Easily the best set list since the US leg of the tour. Hopefully the folks in Australia will get to enjoy some of the same.

I dig the new version. Note the lack of Jeff's "isn't it time" falsetto, that phrase is now shared by Mike and Al.