Wilson, Jardine, Marks, Nash, and Young........

Okay, Nash and Young aren't involved.... as far as I know. But this hilariously doctored version of the back cover of the Beach Boys' "That's Why God Made the Radio" album does signal that the Brian/Al/David lineup appears to be enough of a future going concern that they're publicizing it on Brian's internet hubs (Facebook, etc.).

Fans were of course quick to spot that the photo is, well, photoshopped. Some fans have been quick to wag their finger in shame as the strange exaggerated defense of Mike Love continues. Somehow, this doctored photo is as heinous to some fans as Mike nixing more reunion shows and continuing to use the "Beach Boys" name.

In any event, it continues to be an open question as to whether this is just three buddies joining together for some shows, or some sort of salvo in a passive-agressive post-reunion Beach Boys era.

Someone over on the Smiley Smile board posted some hilarious and (hopefully) bogus "Breaking News":

The State of the Beach Boys in 2013......

 

The theoretical debates of the reunion tour's aftermath are now beginning to become less theoretical, as the group's 2013 plans are beginning to come into focus even if the actual members are staying relatively silent.

So what do we know about plans for 2013 so far? The long-awaited "career-spanning boxed set" is apparently being prepped. That project, if done well, could end up being the most exciting event of the year. Let's hope it's light on the hits that we own a hundred copies of and heavy on rarities and unreleased tracks.

As far as tour plans, while nobody has yet come out and specifically said "no reunion shows in 2013", the writing appears to be on the wall as it pretty much was before the reunion tour was even over. The Love/Johnston contingent now has more than just a handfull of shows booked for 2013. If there had ever been a chance of somehow weaving reunion shows into that fold, that chance would seem nill in light of how disastrous it was when the reunion tour butted up against Love's "Beach Boys" tour last year, literally to the point of finishing the reunion tour and heading out the next day for a "non-reunion" Beach Boys show featuring only Love and Johnston.

If there ever is another "reunion" show or tour, I would imagine they will space the two tours out much more (which, I'm well aware, was the original plan with the 2012 tour as well; although I would argue even giving it a month or two as was the original plan was probably not enough spacing).

Meanwhile, the plans of the other three Beach Boys, who don't feel compelled to peform 100+ shows per year, are not quite as apparent. But we may well have a glimpse of what is in store. Brian did a couple of solo gigs in late 2012, capping the year off with a very short set peformed in L.A. with Al Jardine in tow.

Just days ago, word got out of a solo Brian Wilson show in Ohio, billed as "Brian Wilson with Special Guests Al Jardine and David Marks." So what could this mean? At this point, it's literally one show. It will be interesting to see if Brian is going to do an actual "tour" this year, meaning at least a dozen or two shows strung together. If he does tour, will Al and David be in on all of the shows?

The less functional and more gossipy question is, what does Brian touring with Al and David mean in light of the full "reunited" group's dynamic, not to mention the corporate setup concerning Mike's license to use the Beach Boys name? Is Brian's camp making some sort of passive-agressive move here? Is there any implication that Brian and Al will move to vote to strip Mike of the license to use the Beach Boys name? Are Brian and Al simply trying to send a little shot across to Mike to motivate him to get back to the reunion lineup? Perhaps it's as simple as Brian, Al, and David wanting to continue to perform (as they did with the reunion last year), and then simply deciding to tour together in the fullest possible contingent.

Even if Brian touring with Al and David is not meant as any sort of message or shot across to Mike, it's hard to argue against the idea that putting together a three-member Beach Boys contingent touring under their own names while a two-member contingent uses the name "The Beach Boys" is something that will not make Mike look good in the media. We may be able to count the days until some media outlet points out that there are two Beach Boys in "The Beach Boys" while there are three Beach Boys in a different band. One of the few things in PR terms that Mike has had going for him in past years using the Beach Boys name is that no other touring contingent was able to scrape together more Beach Boys (or even two Beach Boys, aside from a few Brian/Al shows in 2006/2007) to compete. With Carl gone, Brian disinterested, and only Al in the way (who at various times may or may not have wanted to even peform with Love), Mike could throughout the 2000's contend that he was presenting the only version of "The Beach Boys" that was available and willing to perform together.

This no longer appears to be the case. Brian, Al, and David all by everybody's admission were ready and willing to do more reunion shows in 2012 and/or beyond. Even as the members split back up into multiple parties, Mike is now faced with at least the possibility of another indirect (and perhaps unintentional) competitor in the form of three more Beach Boys performing together. Realistically, this doesn't mean much. As with the ruckus of late 2012, Mike may see a bit of negative PR. But as long as he uses the "Beach Boys" name, no other Beach Boys-related band will pose any threat in terms of Mike's ability to book shows and generate income.

The only thing that would have more broad implications is the prospect of Brian and Al moving towards voting to change the licensing setup for use of the band's name. Some fans have continued to point out that Brian and Al may want to continue on with the full reunion lineup, but their inaction in doing anything about the licensing arrangements havs shown no strong desire to keep Mike from using the name. In terms of the future, this may or may not be true. It's too soon to tell. We just don't know enough about the machinations of the inner-workings of BRI or enough details of the licensing agreement. Brian and Al may want to act, but are unable to do so until a specific point in time. They may not want to act, and are touring in at least symbolic competition to Mike's "Beach Boys" to imply that they could move in that direction. Or, as I've said, things may be a bit awkward or strained but still friendly, and Brian, Al, and David may just be touring together because they want to or because it sounds like a good idea. Perhaps the full reunited lineup will record in the studio at some point this year, and perhaps they'll work up more joint live shows at some point.

The idea of a permanently reunited Beach Boys was dead before the idea was brought up, and was certainly dead as soon as Mike started booking his own "Beach Boys" shows in 2012. Given the current setup, it appears the best we can hope for is that the full band will still be able to co-exist with seperate touring groups. When bands break off and do solo stuff, this is often quite easy to pull off. The problem the Beach Boys are having is that one of the members wants to continue to break off but continue to use the band's name. If they can somehow resolve this issue to everyone's relative satisfaction, my small shred of hopefullness still leads me to believe we may be able to see a scenario play out where Mike and Bruce tour in 2013 as "The Beach Boys" while Brian, Al, and David tour with their setup, while all five simultaneously record in 2013 during downtime from touring, and then perhaps they can put a new album out in 2014 and maybe even tour behind it again as a reunited five-piece group.

Mini-Review: The Beach Boys "Ultimate Christmas" CD

It may be the least original idea ever, but a timely look at the Beach Boys' Christmas Album isn't a bad thing. I tend to enjoy holiday season music; I'm certainly not annoyed by it as some seem to be. One of the few things I actually pull out of my collection each season is the Beach Boys' Christmas Album, and the most thorough stab at putting out a Beach Boys Christmas compilation came in 1998 with the "Ultimate Christmas" CD.

The centerpiece of the CD of course is the band's 1964 "Christmas Album" itself, which is great fun. One of the relative few "big" artists to actually pack nearly half of a Christmas album with original songs, the Beach Boys' take on the holiday season is definitely one filled with some novelty material. But it's fun, and they sound great vocally as always.

While I miss the original "Christmas Album" artwork (the cover for "Ultimate Chrismtas" is a cool pic, but the title and overall look do make it look kind of like a cheap compilation), the copious amount of bonus tracks more than makes up for it. The bonus tracks begin with the "single" version of "Little Saint Nick", presented in a new stereo remix courtesy of Andrew Sandoval. Its main differences from the "album" version consist of sleighbell and a few other overdubs. Nothing hugely different. We also get a version of "Auld Lang Syne" minus voiceover, as well as the always odd "remake" of "Little Saint Nick" in which the song's lyrics are adapted (to varying degrees of success) to the old backing track to "Drive In." Fleshing out the previously-released material is the rare 1974 single "Child of Winter", seeing its first ever CD release here. It's not terribly engaging, and its main riff was later recyled in the unreleased 1977/78 track "Mike Come Back to LA" and eventually the 1980 track "Some of Your Love" off the "Keepin' the Summer Alive" album.

The most interesting "new" material on the disc comes in the form of seven tracks from sessions for the band's rejected 1977 Christmas album. When the band convened in Iowa in 1977 at the "MIU", their original goal was to finish off their Warner Bros. contract by quickly rattling off another Christmas album. They dusted off a few old tracks and re-did the lyrics and vocals, and cobbled together new recordings of songs with varying degrees of Christmas themes. Warner, not surpringly, rejected the album. For reasons that have never been explained outside of the obvious explantion of laziness, the band then "un-Christmas-ized" some of the songs, added some other stuff, and cobbled together what eventually became the "MIU Album."

For "Ultimate Christmas", we get only select tracks from the sessions. The band is notoriously difficult and oddly sensitive about releasing outtakes from the 70's and 80's apparently. So some previously "booted" tracks such as "Go and Get that Girl" and "Alone on Christmas Day" from these sesssions did not make the release. We get alternate seasonal versions of "Loop de Loop" ("Santa's Got an Airplane"), "Belles of Paris" ("Bells of Christmas"), "Kona Coast" ("Melikalikamaka" aka "Kona Christmas"), "Peggy Sue" ("Chrismastime is Here Again"), along with Dennis' "Morning Christmas", Brian's "Winter Symphony", and a novelty bit with "I Saw Santa Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Brian and Dennis' tracks are most interesting. The aforementioned outtakes not included on this set may be slightly stronger tracks. Nevertheless, the '77 tracks are great to have here.

Rounding out the collection are some spoken-word bits and radio advertisements. Brian's brief 1964 interview shows how lucid the guy was back then at 22.

This is certainly the definitive collection of Christmas tracks from the band. The CD version is apparently out of print (though still available to purchase via download), though among the mess of numerous truncated budget releases of the band's Christmas album, you can find "Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys" which deletes only one track from "Ultimate Christmas" ("Christmastime is Here Again").

The only drawback to "Ultimate..." is the lack of inclusion of any version of "The Lord's Prayer", which was the b-side to "Little Saint Nick." This was not an oversight. The lack of inclusion is allegedly a remnant of the canceled/rejected plan the then-in-place reissue team had for the group's catalog. Presumably, "The Lord's Prayer" was going to be included on one of the planned expanded reissues of the group's other 60's albums. While that never happened, you can find the track on several releases, including the original US CD release of the "Christmas Album", and in the form of a stereo remix on the 2001 "Hawthorne, CA" collection.

Full Review: "Beach Boys 50 - Live in Concert" Blu-ray

The Film:

The first document of the 50th Anniversary tour dedicated solely to concert footage is here, and what we have is a "better than I expected" but far from perfect article.

Culling 21 songs from the band's stop in Phoenix during their 2012 "50th Anniversary" tour, the unimaginatively titled "Live In Concert" delivers excellent video quality with solid peformances.

The main bone of contention among fans here was the fact that the release contains only 21 songs, despite the band putting together a setlist that started out around 44 songs, then quickly built by the end of the tour to shows showcasing up to 50 songs or more per show. It even culminated in their gig at the Royal Albert Hall where they performed 61 songs, touching on every single song they had peformed over the course of the tour.

A few fans were so angry that they posted negative reviews of the release on Amazon prior to having even seen it. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the edited nature of this release. Whether budgetary concerns or time constraints or any other factors played a role, what we have here is a 21-song setlist.

On the plus side, they surprisingly managed to include at least some non-obvious selections. When fans heard we were only getting 21 songs, most of us imagined the 21 most obvious hits would be selected. But mixed among many obvious hits, we also get more interesting fare such as "Heroes and Villains", "Sail on Sailor", "All This Is That", "Marcella", and two songs off the new album. How they came up with the track selection is a mystery, as we get some major hits, but also somehow "Rock and Roll Music" instead of something like "Surfin' Safari" or "Surfin' USA."

As for the performances themselves, they are pretty solid overall. This was done after the band had been on the road for a couple of months, so they sound pretty tight. The backing band is top notch as always, and the lead vocalists (meaning mostly Mike, with some Brian, and a bit of Al, and then no leads from Marks or Johnston) sound about as good as they're going to get. There is a bit of audio fudging on the two songs off the new album. The fudging (in the form of elements of the studio versions playing alongside the live performance) is less prevalent than on some of the other things we've heard/seen, but it's still there.

The audio seems to be largely live and from the actual show we're seeing, but there seem to be some vocal bits either overdubbed or flown in from other live recordings, as on occasion the visuals don't match the audio. Thankfully, this was not too prevalent.

"Help Me Rhonda" also reaffirms yet again that Al has the most intact voice of any of these guys; it's a shame they couldn't get another Al lead vocal or two on this thing.

As for the camera work and editing, it's surprisingly tame. Most noticeably, there are *not* excessive crowd shots, and the overall editing pace from shot to shot is not too bad. The camera angles are largely fine. The use of a slight fisheye lense look from one of the cameras (perched at the floor of the stage) is a bit distracting, as is the almost exclusive use of extreme close-ups of Brian. Some wider shots of Brian and his piano would have been nice. The actual angle choices used in this edit aren't always the best pick. We probably get a bit too much in the way of extreme wide shots taken from the other side of the arena, and a few shots from the band's behind that don't seem to serve a great purpose. The editing usually focuses in on the correct vocalist or person of note, but occasionally goes a bit off. This is all rather nitpicky stuff, though. Compared to what I anticipated (see, for instance, Paul McCartney's horribly-edited "Back in the US" DVD from 2002), this was a nicely put together presentation.

The main drawback by far is the paucity of songs. More songs would have made this thing a killer release instead of just a really nice souvenir of the tour.

Video Quality:

The show was shot with multiple HD cameras, and the footage looks pristine here. With only 68 minutes of video content and no extras, there shouldn't be any compression or loss in video quality, and that is definitely the case here. The varied lighting throughout the show is rendered faithfully here. Occasional crowd shots sometimes look a bit murky due to low lighting, but this has to be hands-down (and sort of by default for lack of much else out there) the best *looking* Beach Boys concert we have on home video presently.

Audio Quality:

The disc comes equipped with both 2.0 and 5.1 soundtracks. Both sound quite solid. Surprisingly, considering recent trends with live audio and video releases, there is not excessive reverb/echo or crowd noise here. In some cases, the mix is so dry and upfront that it's surprising that what we're hearing was peformed live. You can hear acoustic guitars during "Marcella" for instance. The balance is adequate overall. Foskett's falsetto is occasionally mixed a bit low. As previously mentioned, a bit of sweetening is present on a few songs, but this soundtrack at least does a better than usual job of making it all sound relativey cohesive.

Extras:

Once again, none! If the presence of only 21 songs and no extras isn't enough indication of the apparent low-budget nature of this release, also witness that this Blu-ray disc is not even authored with a pop-up menu to navigate between songs while the film is playing as most Blu-ray discs are. Further, it literally does not even have a static "home menu" to navigate songs/chapters. The menu screen offers a "Play" option, and an "Audio" option. You literally don't even see song titles anywhere on the screen or menu. If you didn't have the actual case the disc came in, you wouldn't be able to get song titles. Again, as I mentioned with "Doin' It Again", this is allegedly/hopefully only a "sampler" ahead of further, more substantial live video releases coming in the future.

Some Thoughts on the new ESQ.......

 

 

OR

In the new issue of ESQ, they take the interesting step of printing both Mike and Brian's letter to the LA Times from a month or two back, during the media hoopla surrounding the non-firing "firing" and the at least temporary disintegration of the reunion band.

Following that, the issue gives us a thoughtful editorial on the matter. Pick up the issue to read it of course. The editorial does walk the fence in putting the blame on the media firestorm on everybody involved. I have to agree in that sense. These guys should have had it all planned out and ready to go so something like this didn't happen. I don't know if they made all the calls or they need to fire some of their PR folks.

The editorial also does take the first even remotely critical stance towards Mike touring with only Bruce under the "Beach Boys" name that I've seen in any of the issues I've ever read. This was a bit surprising. Usually, issues that integrate news and/or interviews with multiple members tend to feature a paucity of actual critical comments about any of the band members or their bands.

Occasionally, interviews with the members in past years have gotten into the acrimony, but not to any great extent. Certainly, I've never seen an editorial that even begins to call into question whether Mike should be using the "Beach Boys" name. Until now.

One of the editorial's sort of summations or takeaways from the situation is that Mike needs to realize that touring with his stripped-down version of the band is going to be frowned upon, while Brian (and presumably Al) needs to realize that the way Mike does things is just how he is; he tours the way he does because that's how he likes it.

While this point is absolutely true in a pragmatic sense, I don't think this is how it actually should be. This is false equivalancy to me. Brian and Al on the one hand wanting to keep the entire reunion together and then Mike wanting to strip it back down a cheaper 2/5 lineup again are not things that should be afforded equal understanding between these sides, and certainly not equal understanding from fans. One side wants the real deal to stay together, the other wants the cheap, stripped down version for a mixture of selfish reasons (money, control, ease) and perplexing and arguably illogical reasons (e.g. the "essential" need to tour numerous small markets that can't "afford" the full reunion band for fear that the "fan base" won't be "maintained").

After a few weeks of intense and ultimately circular and pointless debate among fans, the whole post-tour debacle has died down a bit as of late. Hopefully the result will not be these guys all sticking to their individual camps, but perhaps coming back together for more recording and touring.

New "Endless Summer Quarterly" Fall 2012 Issue Is Out!

The new Fall 2012 issue of "Endless Summer Quarterly" is out; just got mine in my mailbox. Plenty of stuff to digest in the new issue, which I hope to comment on in the coming days.

Grab a subscription if you don't already have one. We're still so lucky such a magazine exists. http://esquarterly.com/

Coming Soon: Review of "The Beach Boys 50 - Live in Concert" Blu-ray

Despite this release potentially having nauseating editing and only containing 21 of the 44 to 61 songs they performed each night on this tour, I'm still excited to see this thing and I'm going to review it as soon as I get my hands on it!

It appears that UK and other European territories may be getting this as a double feature set also featuring the "Doin' it Again" documentary, but I don't know all the details nor do I know if the US release will have any bonus features.

Let's hope this thing doesn't suck! Let's also hope we get a longer, hopefully complete show released before too long.........