COMING SOON: Monkees Album Release Dates (comparing them with The Beatles, Beach Boys...)

It likely won't take days or all that many hours, but after seeing the common quote from media interviewing some of The Monkees, talking about how they outsold The Beatles and BB's (or The Rolling Stones?) combined.

It makes me want to look back at release dates of The Monkees albums and when certain Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones..maybe Hendrix and The Who (and Pink Floyd and Zeppelin perhaps)

Also some of the British Invasion and West Coast Psych/Jam bands. CSNY for example per Peter Tork's friendship with Stephen Stills.

I know the Monkees guys went over to England when The Beatles were making Sgt.Peppers, so the thought might be, what was the latest Monkees album out at that time?

I also may try and look at TV Air Dates with the likes of Star Trek (TOS) and maybe Batman as those are 2 shows The Monkees show sort of get associated with. I think some of the scenes were shot at the  same studio, and the same production company? etc.

I may even check out the ole tviv.org with TV Lineups when the show aired.

Curiosity and recreational research I guess.

hopefully sooner than later (maybe before the Mike and Micky show on 3/14?)

Video: Kevin Gilbert, The Beach Boys, Warpaint, Biffy

Music collection update. 11+ mins, etc.

More videos to come soon...



Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions (CD)
Kevin Gilbert - The Shaming of the True (CD, Black Version)
Warpaint - Heads Up (Vinyl)
The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions (Boxed Set, Vinyl+CD)

Retro Favorite Albums: 1965

Okay, well I gave it some more thought, and instead of 1980, why not start at the full 50-year mark, so this is the 1st of which may end up being 50 (or possibly less) entries about my favorite albums.

Now with this entry though, it probably will be the 1 exception of a list of albums that I don't really consider favorites for the most part. Only Rubber Soul really, but I didn't think it would be worth posting only 1 album for the 1st year, so I figured why not include some popular and quite influential albums that I at least know somewhat.

But this likely will be the only year/entry like this as from every year after this, I don't think I'll find a lack of albums to include. So, in other words I only have 1 or maybe 2-3 3.5+-star albums on this list, but I have plenty from every year after this.

That all being said, just glancing at these albums, 1965 did at least have a decent race, even tho '65 was still more or less the era of the singles. And 1 of the last years per say, of that.


John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
rel February 1965

A classic to some, even not among Jazz fans. I need to revisit this one again, as I know when i checked it out like 10 years ago, I was tired that day at work and may not have been able to fully take it in well. But I do remember it being rather slow and methodical. It is only 3 pieces, and may meander, but to many, in a good way. And did certainly influence the "Free Jazz" movement.


The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!
rel March 8, 1965

This album has Help Me Rhonda notably, and some other fan-favorites I guess. But I'll again admit to not being all that familiar with it.


The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights!
rel July 5, 1965

This one includes Help Me Rhonda as well, along with California Girls among the hits. Again, unfamiliar, so my comments and overall take is limited.


The Moody Blues - The Magnificent Moodies
rel July 23, 1965

This is the Moodies debut and I honestly don't know it, but I know from accounts that even with this album, they were more experimental than most groups, which is why some people consider them among the earlier psych or even progressive groups.


The Beatles - Help!
rel August 3, 1965

The title track, "Ticket to Ride" "Yesterday" "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and the night before come to mind as some of the best tracks on this album. Some people adore this album, I guess I find my love for The Beatles starts and goes further on the record they released just a few months later. But for what this is, it's still a pretty good record and 1 I in some ways prefer over many of their earlier records.


Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
rel August 30, 1965

Like A Rolling Stone has always been one of my favorite Dylan tracks, which honestly, there aren't that many. And I do appreciate the fact the Highway 61 referred to in the title does refer to the Highway I drive on on occasion in the Eastern St.Paul suburbs.


The Rolling Stones - Out of Our Heads
rel September 24, 1965

This is one of the better early Stones albums, and my familiarity are with many of the hits/singles like "Satisfaction," "The Last Time," and "Play With Fire."


The Beach Boys - Party!
rel November 8, 1965

"Barbara Ann" is on this along with a cover of The Beatles "I Should of Known Better." I get the sense this was kind of compilation of sorts, with some new tunes. But it is worth noting, this is the album that preceded Pet Sounds.



The Beatles - Rubber Soul
rel December 3, 1965

Norwegian Wood,  Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, Michelle, If I Needed Someone, In My Life, You Won't See Me are all tracks I've loved for years. Nowhere Man is trippy as hell. While this isn't my favorite Beatles album, it did really show they were experimenting and would pave the way for their near future work which I also love., which if I was around in '65, I would have been a fanatic which each album coming soon after the other, and all the more amazing.


The Who - My Generation
rel December 3, 1965

The Who's debut album, which includes the title track and "The Kids are Alright" notably. Even though many bands also seemed to show their Beatles influence clearly, there was definitely ambition with them and Pete Townshend at points here.

Significant Albums: Jellyfish - Spilt Milk (1993)

This album. I can't recall the exact time, even year exactly, but it had to have been in the mid 90's, possibly 1996 or 1997, when I would guess Mike Portnoy had dropped the name Jellyfish in 1 or more interviews I read. Per Metal Edge or maybe even on the old "Under a Cyber Moon" Dream Theater website.

But I distinctly remember checking this album and Bellybutton out, and finding both for not a lot, likely at Cheapo. And the truth was, I wasn't crazy about them. Maybe it was the title "Spilt Milk" or the girl on the cover, but it didn't jump out at me.

So, they both remained in my cd collection, and I think the next point their name came up was when I was at KFAI around 2000, interviewing of all bands, local prog metal/Queensryche-like band Conditioned Response. And one of those guys on the air mentioned that he was listening to Jellyfish.

So, at that point I recall re-checking them and those cds I had out. And I do remember liking them, actually Bellybutton more.

And in the coming years, with listening to both albums more, and also seeing Mike Portnoy and some others online use their name more and more, I became pretty won over by them.

And I'd say over the last 7 or 8 years at least, maybe more, they have stood out more and more as being ahead of their time in a lot of ways.

Now with this album compared to Bellybutton, I came to see them as about equal, but in the past 4 or 5 years, I've given in to the fact this is their finest work. It just works so well on a production level, and on a flow or track-2-track level.

I recall once thinking and telling people about them as being like The Beach Boys doing progressive rock, which in a vague sense still makes some sense. But I also hear a ton of Beatles influence, as well as Queen, XTC and even groups like ELO. Along with sharing some qualities with some of their contemporaries like King's X, Galactic Cowboys and even Faith No More to a small degree. And Toy Matinee even I would later come to hear/agree with.

Even people like local Minnesota songwriter/popstress Jenny Case and Jimmy Gnecco of Ours have spoken about their love of Jellyfish and this album.

They just found a way to combine power-pop with a classic rock feel, that somehow sounded really clean and modern. When you listen to Jellyfish, and Spilt Milk specifically, you think it was music made in the 70's, but like it was remastered or something, because the recording sounds very hot and almost glitzy and layered.

To not name some of my favorites would be silly. Songs like "New Mistake" and "Sabrina Paste and Plato" are just so catchy and ear-worm like, they are impossible to not love, the more I hear them.
"So serene, Sabrina makes me feel..dah dah dah dah dah dah dahhhhhhhhhh"

"Joining a Fanclub" is a great sort of track to kickstart this album off, which I always think of Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning being in some Beatles fanclub.

Andy Sturmer, not only is an incredible drummer, but his voice is 1 of the biggest reasons I think Jellyfish stands out. It is just so crisp and the little raspy element makes it sound so distinct.

I have always felt the 1st half of this album has this amazing energy, which has only seldom been matched, so much so, I always look for, but rarely find other albums that have that.

Also the lyrics seem to stay with me frequently,

like from Ghost at Number 1:

 "how does it feel to be the only one that knows that you're right"

That certainly is a line that I can and have related to in many ways.

I'm sure there are a ton of points I am not remembering at this very moment about this album, that I may or may not try and edit in eventually. But the thing about Jellyfish and Spilt Milk is, it was clearly to me ahead of its time, and frankly. there has not been a band to make a record as good or quite like it since in this sort of progressive power-pop. Combining similar if not the same influences. Some have tried like The Wondermints or recently The Pillbugs (or even Bleu), but it hasn't happened. I guess I keep waiting for it to happen. The New Pornographers and The Apples in Stereo are sort of the closest thing to modern bands who have made power-pop I enjoy a lot (or getting a bit looser, stuff like Self, The Dissociatives, Bend Sinister and many others), but neither have come close to matching either JF LP, and this being their Swan Song thus the 1 to think of.

A reunion would be a miracle at this point as Roger and Andy can't stand each other I guess, so their likely is a better chance I join 1 of them live or in the studio, but I guess I still keep a small fraction of hope it could happen before I die.

If only I had been a fan and been old enough to go, I probably would have seen them at First Ave supporting this album in '93 (or '94).

The thing is, when Jellyfish came out, they were such a contrast to the whole Grunge movement, that it probably was as big of a reason they ended. Why a band like Dream Theater didn't go by the wayside, and they did? I dunno, maybe personalities. But the 90's pop and alternative music really doesn't compare to them in so many ways. A band like Weezer for example, were around not long after, but because they had enough of a garage sound, I think made it.

It's kind of a shame, but also likely a case where had Jellyfish continued on, their music may have suffered. So in that sense, their legacy never got tainted.

It is also definitely worth mentioning how this was their Swan Song, after 3 years from Bellybutton their debut album. Spilt Milk does not include the work of singer/songwriter Jason Falkner, who was on Bellybutton. Why this album is as good as it is may speak to why Jason left, i.e. he wasn't getting enough of his songwriting involved with the band. Of course there's no way to know what this or other work may have been like with him, but it may have ultimately been for the benefit of both JF and Jason.

Kimbra - 10min Video/Doc from show w/ Van Dyke Parks + Daniel Johns

This looks like it was a pretty jaw-dropping show I would have loved to have seen. Silverchair, The Beach Boys and Van Dyke's original stuff with a mother fucking orchestra? damn, I would love to hear a FULL RECORDING. Studio and/or Live.

I recall Kimbra consulted with both Van Dyke and Daniel Johns, but this show? I guess we'll find out when her next record drops. But this live at Adelaide festival performance would be wonderful to hear just as that video samples.

The Beach Boys - That’s Why God Made The Radio (2012)

Amazon link



1 Think About the Days
2 That's Why God Made the Radio
3 Isn't It Time
4 Spring Vacation
5 The Private Life of Bill And Sue
6 Shelter
7 Daybreak Over the Ocean
8 Beaches in Mind
9 Strange World
10 From There to Back Again
11 Pacific Coast Highway
12 Summer's Gone



here it is with the Ad

Promo with an Ad:


story

The cover art doesn't really seem like it would be real given it just says the name of the 1st single. "That's Why God Made the Radio" isn't a bad tune actually. But I am hardly expecting SMILE or Pet Sounds here. But, it does have Brian Wilson at least, so I will check it out. It drops on June 5th, same day I'm seeing Ramona Falls live.

Whale Music (1994)

imdb



Maury Chaykin and Cynthia Preston star in this little seen dramatic gem from 1994, that I guess is highly similar, if not almost directly influenced by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

I first heard about this here and ever since then I've been rather curious to see it.

Chaykin plays a gold and platinum selling songwriter, like Wilson, whose brother (Paul Gross) died many years before the movie takes place in a slightly mysterious incident with his car driving off of a cliff on or near Chaykin's estate, which is located on or near an Ocean (the Pacific?).

Throughout the movie, Chaykin's character Desmond (or "Des") Howl is visited (well, maybe best described as traumatized) by memories and the spirit of his dead brother Daniel. Daniel had been a songwriter or at least musician in the same pop band with Des.

Early on in the movie, a young woman named Claire breaks in to his large, isolated estate and somehow manages to bring him slowly out of his shell. Des likes to dive, swim, and even bathe in a way, in what is referred to as a "pool" at his place. But really what it appears to be is a bit of an extensively designed dock (with a wall on at least 2 sides) off the body of water that his home is located off of.

But it's filthy; as it probably hasn't been cleaned for months if not years. But Des doesn't care (or notice?). Claire offers to clean it for him, and she ultimately cleans a lot of the rest of his home. A home that is worth a lot, including the extensive amount of recording equipment and instruments.

Des is composing and recording "whale music" with all his equipment. The music ultimately ends up being a way to connect to his brother's spirit I suppose.

Claire and Des do connect on many levels, even though they have much different backgrounds. They do have some qualities in common though, asd they both are misunderstood, and struggling to find out where their lives should go next. Both have some level of mental instability. But maybe misery loving company, or even misery finding misery leads to happiness and less unstable mental health.

Having read a bit more about this movie and Maury Chaykin specifically, it feels even more sad and maybe powerful in a way given he died last year, July 27th, almost one year to the day I purchased this DVD. He won a Genie? (or Gemini?) award for his role in this movie, which is I guess Canada's version of the Academy Awards. But also looking at his biography, he was a prolific actor, starting out in 1975, and working more or less up until the time he died. Perhaps more people will find this and his other work in the future and appreciate him.

I also can't help but think of some others in this story, of course one being the tragic tale of Kevin Gilbert. There is something to be said about brilliant artists having traumatic experiences to inspire their muse to greatness. Kevin had plenty of it, as did others. And the music in this movie is one of the best and most memorable parts of it. From the hook for Des's group song "Torque Torque, the beast needs more Torque" to the piece titled "Claire." And of course the actual *Whale Music* is both catchy, yet symphonic (or "progressive"?). I definitely would like to find a soundtrack from this sometime soon, and even just to find out all the people involved in the writing and recording (their backgrounds, etc).

Well recommended, especially for fans of Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Maury Chaykin, and anyone who knows about misunderstood artists stories.

Capital Records to release The Beach Boys "Smile Sessions"?

story

In an interview with Examiner.com last week, Al Jardine let slip news that pop fans have been waiting to hear for over four decades. According to the guitarist, Capitol Records is planning to release The Beach Boys’ lost masterpiece, Smile, this summer. The album, which was intended to be the follow-up to the group’s magnum opus, Pet Sounds, was scuttled in late 1966 for a variety of reasons and has never been released to the public in its entirety. In 2004, Brian Wilson rerecorded the material as Brian Wilson Presents Smile, winning three Grammy nominations for his efforts. But until now, The Beach Boys’ version has remained on the shelf. Jardine, though, says that is all about to change.

“Capitol Records plans to issue a Beach Boys version of Smile sometime this summer to begin the celebration of The Beach Boys’ anniversary,” he said. “Smile is the Holy Grail for Beach Boys’ fans, so it will be good.”

He continued, “I don’t have many details on it, although we didn't do any new recording. I'm happy to see it finally come out. Brian’s changed his mind about releasing the material, but it was inevitable, wasn’t it?”

this would be great to have happen. Although as a friend of mine has said, Capital Records have been saying they were going to release these for decades. A bit like Chinese Democracy, but much longer.

If they do actually do come out, it'll be fun to hear them this way (compared to the bootlegs), and compare them to Brian Wilson's Smile from 2004.