Review - Panini Beach Boys Trading Cards

I'm not even sure how a review works when it comes to something like this. I'm used to reviewing CDs, or books, or DVDs, and so on. In any event, following up on my previous post, I now have probably way too many of these cards on hand to give some impressions. Overall? A fun item for Beach Boys fans who haven't had much "merch" to purchase over the years. If you don't get caught up in the utterly ridiculous pyramid scheme that is card collecting, and just enjoy whatever cards you get, then this is pure fun.

First things first: As mentioned before, there are "Retail" and "Hobby" variations on these packs. Target stores are starting to get in the "Retail" packs, while most online sources are selling the "Hobby" variation. The two types feature the exact same set of cards. The main difference seems to be that each has one exclusive sub-set ("retail" gets guitar picks, "hobby" gets concert-worn clothing swatches), and the actual breakdown/makeup of packs may be different in terms of proportions of which cards you get.

While Panini offers no guarantee, buying a box does seem to easily yield one base set of 120 cards. The distribution of base set cards seems to be pretty good. I've purchased almost a box's worth of retail cards and got a full hobby box. I was hoping to pull two sets, but no such luck. I still ended up with only one #1 card, while some cards I have triples or quadruples on. This is normal of course.

The base set seems pretty random content-wise. Random photos of the group and individual members, from pretty much all eras. While there are a good amount of early shots, I was pleasantly surprised that they were not afraid to use some not-so-flattering 70's shots of the guys. I honestly never thought a company would make a trading card featuring a photo of 1979 Brian Wilson with the Grizzly Adams beard and "Help Me Rhonda" shirt. Some weird shots are here, in addition to some classic well-known shots. The card backs have random factoids, none of which are new information for hardcore fans. A few of the card backs surprisingly touch on solo activities; one even specifically mentions that Brian is now touring with Al and Dave.

The sub-sets are fun, but frustrating as there is no realistic way to amass much of any sub-set unless you buy numerous boxes. Some of the sub-sets aren't fancier, but simply themed differently. "Honors" picks on random honorably events, from Hollywood Walk of Fame stars to awards and so on. "In their Own Words" feature rather generic quotes from various band members. "Sounds of Summer" focuses on specific songs and singles. "Top 10" is obviously themed.

The more premium-looking cards include a series of album-themed cards that feature foily depictions of albums covers with a record popping out of the top. Some are "Gold" themed if they went gold, and so on. Some simply state "On the Record." We also have "Etchings" which are metallic-looking shiny cards that have a slightly raised head-shot of various band members. They picked some odd pictures for the cards I got, including the circa-1978 drunk-looking Carl. I got one "Artist Proof" which seems to be of dubious note. Apparently each card has a limited run of 99 "artist proofs" that are no different other than being stamped "Artist Proof" on the front and numbered on the back. They may be more rare than the "record" cards, but I frankly would have rather had another one of those, or one of the "etchings."

I did not manage a guitar pick in the loose retail packs I got. I did get the guaranteed two "Concert Gear" cards in the hobby box. I got one each for Brian and David. Interestingly, the card at least claims that these are actual "concert worn" bits of cloth. The cloth is included in a little square in the center of the thick card. The cloth is not covered,  you can touch it.

Other rare sub-sets I didn't get include metal stamping plates (more interesting to card collectors than Beach Boys fans I would imagine), and of course most sought after are the rare actual autographs from the five living members.

All in all, this is a fun diversion for Beach Boys fans. I for one simply have to divorce myself from the idea of "collecting" all the sub-sets, and divorce myself from being annoyed at the card collecting industry (both collectors and the manufacturers) for creating such an odd and manipulative market and style of marketing for these things. Frankly, I'd be happy to see a second "Series" of base cards with more goofy photos of the guys.

If you're interested in getting a full set, I'd say definitely buy a sealed box so statistically you're highly likely to get the full set. If you buy a box's worth through loose packs from different boxes, you will have a tougher time getting the full base set.

How collectible or rare will these be? Beats me. They seem to be selling well online right now, with the few retailers offering full hobby boxes slowly but consistently jacking up the prices. Rare (and not so rare) loose cards have already flooded eBay. I'd love to store an extra box of these away, but I'd rather get another box and open it all up!



New Beach Boys Trading Cards

 

 

Announced several months back, and now apparently starting to appear for sale, is a strange item: Beach Boys trading cards. Panini, who I always knew more for their sticker books (which are essentially sticker versions of trading cards), are releasing this set of trading cards based on the band, following a slew of trading card sets out there pertaining to just about every TV show, music artist, comic book, and other media product imaginable.

Above all else, this sort of thing is interesting because the Beach Boys, unlike Elvis or the Beatles, have not released a great deal of “licensed” merchandise over the years. Especially once you discount merchandise sold at concert dates, they have had far fewer items available as far as the usual fare: mugs, plates, statues, and so on. There have been a few Beach Boys tree ornaments over the years I believe, there were the licensed die cast cars released back around 1999, and a few other odds and ends. But rarely something like a huge trading card set.

Unfortunately, Panini is also following the pattern of other sets in introducing a huge amount of “chaser” cards; sub-sets of special cards randomly inserted into packs. This phenomenon started quite a while back, but it began with perhaps one or two small sub-sets of chaser cards. Even in those cases, it was nigh on impossible to collect all the chaser cards unless you either bought cases and cases of cards, or bought individual cards on the secondary market for inflated prices.

I’m sure this new Beach Boys set is typical of other similar sets. But it’s still astonishing that, according to one comment on the Smiley Smile board, this 120-card set ballons to around 800 cards once you factor in all of the “chaser” cards. Apparently, you are either guaranteed or are strongly likely to get the full 120-card base set if you purchase a full box (consisting of 24 packs, with 8 cards per pack). The various chaser cards are allocated based on an elaborate list of ratios of cards-per-pack or cards-per-box. You are guaranteed some amount of these chaser cards in each pack and each box. Further confusing is that packs and boxes are offered in two variations: Retail and Hobby. The former style of packs will feature “collectible guitar picks” as one of the chasers, while the latter instead gets concert-worn swabs of clothing from the currently-living band members. Apparently all other chaser sub-sets will be the same.

Most enticing is the sub-set that includes actual autographs from the living members. We already see fans paying upwards of $200 for a Jardine autograph card (news bulletin: a nicer, larger Jardine autograph can be had for far less; he used to send them out for free when he had a fan club!), and one person is trying to sell a Brian Wilson autograph card for nearly $500. These autograph cards are apparently the rarest; you could conceivably buy boxes and boxes of these cards and not get an autograph card.

A bit of confusion is reigning among the sub-set of Beach Boys fans who actually have any interest in buying these cards. It probably has something to do with the fact that these cards have, in my view, an unclear target audience. The typical collector these days who collects non-sports cards like this usually skews a little younger than the average Beach Boys fan. It makes sense there are a bunch of young hipsters collecting “My Little Pony” or “Walking Dead” trading cards and chaser cards. But even presently it appears Beach Boys fans online are only moderately interested in these cards.
Who is going to stock Beach Boys cards? Hobby shops can obviously either stock them or order them. But they are at this moment not so easy to find. A few re-sellers have them, but are charging seemingly inflated prices for packs and boxes (and that’s not even getting into the strange flood of individual cards flooding eBay) online. Apparently, there are reports that Target stores will be stocking packs of these. How possible it might be to buy a whole box is unclear, but Target may be the best (or only) bet for finding these cards if you don’t want to order online.

I checked a local Target store last night, and they did not yet have these cards. I have a box on order, but how quickly they will actually materialize has yet to be seen. I’m not trying to be cranky about these cards; I actually have just the right amount of enthusiasm for them, for me personally. I’m excited to get my hands on them, but I feel not strong drive to start buying boxes and boxes trying to chase every concert shirt swatch variation.

I was going to post more pics of individual cards, and the breakdown of all the insert/chaser cards, but that information is readily available all over the web, much moreso than actual places to purchase the cards. There are some fun looking cards out there. The compilers apparently were no afraid to use some shaggy, wonky 70's photos. All eras appear to be represented, from the fresh, clean early-mid 60's, to the 70's shaggy era, to the flourescent 80's, and so on, up to 2012.




Review - Brian Wilson & Jeff Beck - Paramount Theatre - Oakland, CA - 10/22/13

After having read for a month about the “odd” pairing of Brian Wilson and Jeff Beck, it was interesting and ultimately quite enjoyable to finally experience this tour in person.

This was only my second trip to Oakland’s Paramount Theatre, the other trip coming in early 2007 to catch Brian and Al together on their “farewell” Pet Sounds tour. I honestly had forgotten how beautiful this theatre is, once you get inside the doors anyway. It’s a wonderfully restored (and/or maintained?) theatre, and not too large so that experiencing a show doesn’t keep you feeling too distanced from the stage.

I managed decent but not amazing seats this time around, in the back half of the floor section. I’ve seen Brian and Al both up close over the last 10-15 years, and got surprisingly nice seats (without the VIP package!) to last year’s 50^th Anniversary tour, so I’m not preoccupied with getting amazing seats at this stage.

First off, a quick look at the swag on sale at the merchandise stand. It seemed very standard fare, with a selection of hugely overpriced t-shirts and hoodies, a few other miscellaneous bits; key chains and the like, and my usual picks on tours: I procured a program for $20 and a little poster for $15. The main disappointment I had with the merchandise was that nothing other than the t-shirts had the tour dates/cities listed. The program and poster don’t even list the year, let alone any tour dates. I barely went for the poster, as it’s literally the same as the cover of the program, just elongated. The program is the usual for Brian tours: Interviews with each of the principals (Brian, Jeff, Al, and David). The interviews are the usual fluff, but as interesting as this fluff seems to get. Some interesting photos are included as well, especially some fun early David Marks photos. Blondie Chaplin didn’t get a spot in the program, although strangely he is listed in the “Thanks” section.

The stage setup on this tour allows for both band’s rigs to stand side by side, with some shared space as well. For this tour, Brian continues his stage-right position from last year’s Beach Boys tour behind a pseudo-grand piano, with Jeff, Al, and David moving along stage-left. Paul Mertens is situated behind Al and David, with the rest of Brian’s band behind. As expected, Brian’s band retains all of his members from last  year’s 50^th tour, with Mike D’Amico moving to drums plus the addition of long-time Brian bassist Bob Lizik.

Brian usually doesn’t let us down in the unintentional humor department, and provided a laugh for fans before the shows started as he not only visibly and openly milled around on stage behind the stage risers, but at one point literally crossed the front of the stage to wild applause and cheering. As only Brian could do, he barely acknowledged the fans, never turning to the crowd, and giving a tiny wave with one hand, as if to say “pay no attention to me yet, I’m not supposed to be on stage yet.”

The band assembled on stage with no announcement, and immediately launched into their set. Presumably because of the time constraints of two full sets, the band rarely spoke and whizzed through their 20-song set as quickly as possible. This was a good thing, as it kept as many songs in the setlist as possible.  Overall, the band sounded sharp. Brian was usual Brian, generally okay. He actually was in good voice; I didn’t hear any sour notes per se. His main issue was occasionally missing vocal cues and/or momentarily forgetting lyrics. He either isn’t using a teleprompter on this tour, or if he has one, he isn’t using it. Either way, it’s refreshing. Al sounded amazing as always; he should have been given a few more leads. Al audibly added a key element to the backing vocals throughout; his voice even in the backing vocals is what gives the sound even more authenticity than the typical Brian solo tour. David sounded perfect on “Little Bird”, and this was one of the more impressive performances from the entire band. We were lucky to get Blondie Chaplin on this date, and he belted “Sail on Sailor” with pure authenticity, and also provided a nice take on “Wild Honey.” I’m far too young to have been able to catch Blondie back in the 70’s, so it’s cool to have finally seen him in person, and with three other Beach Boys no less. Here’s the full setlist (Brian’s sets as well as the tracks he appeared on with Beck):

1. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring
2. California Girls
3. Do It Again
4. Don't Worry Baby (Jeff)
5. Little Bird (David)
6. Old Man River
7. Cottonfields (Al)
8. Sail On, Sailor (Blondie)
9. Wild Honey (Blondie)
10. Darlin' (Darian)
11. Marcella
12. Heroes and Villains
13. Pet Sounds
14. God Only Knows
15. Sloop John B (Brian and Al)
16. Wouldn't It Be Nice (Jeff) 
17. Help Me, Rhonda (Al)
18. I Get Around
19. Good Vibrations
20. Fun, Fun, Fun
21. Our Prayer (w/Beck)
22. Child is Father of the Man (w/Beck)
23. Surf's Up (w/Beck)
24. Barbara Ann (w/Beck)
25. Surfin' USA (Brian and Al, w/Beck)
26. Danny Boy (w/Beck)

I went into this show with moderate knowledge of Jeff Beck, and a feeling that I might even have more patience for Beck’s set than the typical Brian/Beach Boys fan. Having said that, Beck is an amazing and unique guitarist. He put on a fascinating show, but some of the bits were tedious. Instrumental guitar-driven material tends to get a bit repetitive, and that coupled with some jazz-ish noodling from his band meant there were some tedious moments. Beck’s set was also much louder than Brian, and at times the bass (both from the bass guitar and the drums) was so overpowering that it muddied the music up for me. Nevertheless, Beck’s set was enjoyable. Brian’s band came on stage with Beck to perform “Our Prayer”, and the bit of “Child is Father of the Man” leading into Beck’s wonderful instrumental take on “Surf’s Up.” The band added backing vocals, including Al reprising his end vocals. A few of Brian’s guys also added some backing vocals on an additional Beck number.
 

Both bands regrouped at the end for “Barbara Ann”, “Surfin’ USA” (both with unique Beck guitar noodling, including bottleneck slide on “Surfin’ USA”!), and their wonderful rendition of “Danny Boy” with Beck playing the melody backed by Brian’s band on vocals.

 

A wonderful show all around. Was this as good as the Beach Boys 50th Anniversary tour? No, not at all. There was a magic to all five guys being there, not to mention knocking out around 50 songs per show. This show is as close as we can get though. My only complaints would be the obvious required brevity of Brian’s set, which we knew would be the case from the outset, and a lack of additional leads from Al, whose voice continues to stay amazingly intact. It will also be interesting to see if this touring format continues next year. Presumably, Brian’s album will be out, and it features Al, David, and Blondie. In particular, it will be interesting to see if they add Blondie to more shows, or an entire tour. On the one hand, it seems a waste to bring Blondie along to only appear on stage for a few songs. Yet, he doesn’t seem to necessarily fit in extensively on the old vintage material that Brian’s band performs sticking to original arrangements. But it would be amazing to see Brian, Al, David, and Blondie be able to expand into a full setlist, where they could experiment with more rarities and new songs. How about “Funky Pretty” and “Leaving this Town?”

Coming Soon: Review - Brian Wilson & Jeff Beck - Paramount Theatre - Oakland, CA - October 22, 2013

Brian Wilson Tour Update.....

It figures I get more tied up and unable to post more updates just as the Brian/Al/Dave tour begins. In any event, we’re about two weeks into the tour, and the setlist has slightly fluctuated but has provided a general guideline for how they are programming the shows.

Brian does a set of around 20 songs with Al and Dave (with Blondie featuring on several songs at shows he’s attending), then Jeff Beck peforms his set, followed by various elements of Brian’s band coming on with Beck to do a few songs together, followed by an encore with elements of both bands. Precise setlists are a bit difficult to track down, only because Brian fans don’t seem to be familiar with Beck’s catalog, and a few of the joint set song titles are getting garbled (for instance, I’m seeing “Child is Father of the Man” on some setlists, but it appears they are not performing the full “Smile” track, but rather some coda bits attached to the beginning of “Surf’s Up”).

As planned, Blondie appeared on opening night, singing “Sail on Sailor.” He made a surprise unscheduled appearance at the October 9th Boston show, singing both “Sail on Sailor” and “Wild Honey.” It appears they are trying to cram some “rare” stuff into Brian’s shortened set, and admittedly they are doing about as good of a job as possible of making such a short setlist interesting.

Here is a recent setlist from 10/9 in Boston:

1. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring
2. California Girls
3. Do It Again
4. Then I Kissed Her (Al)
5. Don’t Worry Baby (Jeff)
6. Little Bird (David)
7. Old Man River
8. Cotton Fields (Al)
9. Sail on Sailor (Blondie)
10. Wild Honey (Blondie)
11. Marcella
12. Heroes and Villains
13. Pet Sounds
14. God Only Knows
15. Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Jeff)
16. Sloop John B
17. Help Me Rhonda (Al)
18. I Get Around
19. Good Vibrations
20. Fun Fun Fun
- Jeff Beck’s Set  (which sometimes includes Brian’s band on a Beck track or two)
21. Our Prayer (w/ Jeff Beck)
22. Surf’s Up (w/Jeff Beck)
- Encore (w/ both bands)
23. Barbara Ann
24. Surfin’ USA
25. Danny Boy

Some other random notes: Beck’s setlist on some nights has included his version of “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” accompanied by Brian’s band. Some other songs rotated in and out of Brian’s setlist: “’Til I Die”, “Darlin’” (with Darian on lead), “Forever” (with Dave on lead), “She Knows Me Too Well”, “Shut Down”, “Little Deuce Coupe” (with Al on lead), “That’s Why God Made the Radio”, “Custom Machine”, “This Car of Mine”, “Surfer Girl”, “Do You Wanna Dance”, “Summertime Blues” (with Dave on lead), and I may be missing a few others. 

The setlist has evolved quite a bit for such a short setlist over only two weeks. It seems they are edging out some of the more common stuff for more esoteric stuff, although there are some fun bits that have been dropped like “Custom Machine”, “This Car of Mine”, and Dave’s first turn on “Forever” with Brian’s band.

It will be interesting to see if Blondie pops up at any more unscheduled shows. Hopefully they can keep this lineup a going concern into next year, as they likely promote the new album with more shows. This lineup doing a full 40-plus song setlist would be amazing. Everybody could get more chances to shine.



The Beach Boys in 3D?!?!?!?!

 

 

 

Get ready. We may just get Mike Love sweat, Al Jardine wrinkles, Bruce Johnston leg, and Brian Wilson frump all in full 3D!

 

An odd bit of questionable status that I ran across recently is a mention of the Beach Boys' 50th Anniversary show from last year at the Hollywood Bowl having been shot in 3D.

 

Apparently, it may still be in the works for release of some sort. Not much is out there, other than the poster above. The poster is odd in that it mentions the 3D presentation, but uses material from the actual show poster. In other words, it makes it seem as though the 3D theater showing will be on June 2, 2012, when that was in fact the date of the show.

 

In any event, the main point of interest is not so much that it was shot in 3D, or even that it may show in some theaters in 3D. The hope is that this will lead to a normal "2D" Blu-ray/DVD release, which usually accompanies any 3D Blu-ray release. It's billed as potentially being 120 minutes, which means we would at least get a longer concert presentation than last year's "Live in Concert" Blu-ray/DVD.

 

After the odd disintegration of the other live DVD project from the 50th tour, I'm not assuming anything with this project either. It may have already been shelved for all I know. There is also the possibility that it could be shown in a few theaters and never released on home video. We shall see.

 

The only info on the production can be found at this website: http://rockfuelmedia.com/event/the-beach-boys-3d-live-at-the-hollywood-bowl/

 

There is also mention of the project on the IMDB (Internet Movie Database).

 



Blondie Chaplin Joining Brian/Al/Dave Tour for Select Dates

 

 

Interesting news in the last few days is that not only has Blondie Chaplin been working on Brian’s new album in the studio, he will now join the Brian-Al-Dave/Jeff Beck tour on select dates.

 

As the year has progressed, fans have continued to speculate on what, if anything Brian intends by touring with Al and David, vis-à-vis Mike Love and the demise of the full reunion lineup. It hasn’t been a big leap to speculate if at least part of the intention, and certainly an interesting byproduct, of Brian adding Al and David to his tour has been to send some sort of message to Mike and his touring operation. What type of message has and continues to be up for debate. I for one tend to doubt Brian is truly moving towards attempting to wrestle back control of the “Beach Boys” name for touring purposes. But it’s not impossible that some sort of subtle message is intended with this touring lineup. Perhaps it’s a subtle way of showing up Mike (the whole “three Beach Boys in Brian’s band versus two Beach Boys in the actual band using the Beach Boys name” scenario) or implying that Brian *could* move to take the name back. Perhaps it’s intended as a motivator for Mike to get back to the reunion lineup. In any event, fan debate has been mixed as to what, if anything, is intended by Brian having Al and David on his tour, beyond of course simply wanting to put together an enticing show for fans with guys he likes playing with.

 

Adding Blondie Chaplin to the tour, even for only select dates, makes things even more interesting, and it makes it harder to brush off Brian’s touring plans as not having any sort of political aspect or subtext. It may well be that Brian is simply making more connections, or “reconnections”, with people for his new album. But it’s hard to ignore that at some shows on this tour, Brian’s “solo” tour will now have FOUR Beach Boys in attendance, literally doubling the two in Mike’s band. None of Chaplin, Marks, or Johnston are corporate members, nor is there apparently any longer anything written into the “Beach Boys” touring name license that requires X number of “official” Beach Boys in the band touring under that name. So adding Chaplin (or Marks for that matter) doesn’t give Brian any more legal advantage in terms of using the name. So if adding Chaplin has any inter-band political subtext, it would have to be a much more subtle one. It may be as simple as trying to shape the impending press for Brian’s tour in such a way that it becomes impossible for the press to ignore that Brian’s band will have twice as many Beach Boys at some shows than the band calling itself “The Beach Boys” presently.

 

Adding Chaplin will certainly please a lot of diehard fans, certainly especially those that romanticize that heyday of 1973. Frankly, having listened to the 1972/73 live recordings of the band on the “Made in California” set, the romanticizing and pining for that era of the band is warranted. Those live tracks kick ass.

 

Fans are already also speculating on how Chaplin will figure into the live shows. With Brian and Jeff Beck splitting sets, meaning shorter sets presumably than they would normally play on their own, there probably isn’t a ton of room to expand any of the sets. We can presumably assume Blondie will sing “Sail on Sailor.” Beyond that, who knows? Fans have been speculating on “Wild Honey” and “Funky Pretty” as two more obvious possibilities for Chaplin to add vocals to.

 

The weird combinations on display continue to fascinate me. Who would have thought even a few years ago that we’d be seeing David Marks and Blondie Chaplin touring alongside Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, with Jeff Beck to boot? Crazy!