The Monkees - Good Times! (2015-2016)

5/23/16 7:03PM

Friday May 27th Listening Parties at Record Stores

Including Down in the Valley in Golden Valley, Minnesota. It's unclear what TIME it will be at, but I am already planning to head out there as soon as possible after work on Friday.



Video for "Me and Magdalena" also edited below.


5/9/16 9:47PM

The Ben Gibbard written folky ballad "Me and Magdalena"..liking the Nesmith vocals, although a little odd with Micky's parts so high in the mix.


5/2/16 8:53PM

Andy Partridge written "You Bring the Summer"..verrrry 60's Psych ala Dukes of Stratosphear in some ways.


4/28/16 10:56AM
1st single "She Makes Me Laugh," the Rivers Cuomo penned track "She Makes Me Laugh" sound rather retro, especially the guitar. Early Monkees per my fiancee's observation.

Thumbs up.


 

4/20/16 10:00AM

monkees.com update info 

Good Times! Has New Release Date Of May 27, Following The Launch Of An Extensive 50th Anniversary Tour With Micky Dolenz And Peter Tork On May 18

Track Listing (with songwriters noted)
1. "Good Times" (Harry Nilsson)
2. "You Bring The Summer" (Andy Partridge)
3. "She Makes Me Laugh" (Rivers Cuomo)
4. "Our Own World" (Adam Schlesinger)
5. "Gotta Give It Time" (Jeff Barry/Joey Levine)
6. "Me & Magdalena" (Ben Gibbard)
7. "Whatever's Right" (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart)
8. "Love To Love" (Neil Diamond)
9. "Little Girl" (Peter Tork)
10. "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" (Noel Gallagher/Paul Weller)
11. "I Wasn't Born To Follow" (Carole King/Gerry Goffin)
12. "I Know What I Know" (Michael Nesmith)
13. "I Was There (And I'm Told I Had A Good Time)" (Micky Dolenz/Adam Schlesinger)

Tour Dates (of course NO Minnesota, but likely not many with Nesmith anyway)

THE MONKEES Tour Dates

May
18 Fort Myers, FL
19 Melbourne, FL
20 Tampa, FL
21 Atlanta, GA
24 Charlotte, NC
26 Washington, DC
27 Boston, MA
28 Philadelphia, PA
29 Red Bank, NJ

June
1 New York, NY
3 Toronto, ON
4 Windsor, ON
5 Cleveland, OH
7 Fort Wayne, IN
8 Grand Rapids, MI
10 Louisville, KY
11 Hammond, IN
12 Indianapolis, IN
14 Dayton, OH
16 Salt Lake City, UT
28 Dallas, TX
30 Tulsa, OK

July
1 Mayetta, KS
14 Ottawa, ON
16 Hampton Beach, NH
22 Hot Springs, AR
24 Augusta, GA

August
6 Reno, NV
Grand Sierra Resort

September
4 Vancouver, BC
14 Tucson, AZ
15 Phoenix, AZ
16 Los Angeles, CA
17 Las Vegas, NV
20 San Francisco, CA
21 Modesto, CA
23 Lincoln City, OR
24 Lincoln City, OR
25 Seattle, WA
29 Austin, TX

October
1 Biloxi, MS
3 Branson, MO
21 Anaheim, CA
22 Paso Robles, CA
29 Shippensburg, PA

2/6/16 10:31AM
The Fiancee just mentioned that some of the track list has been posted on http://monkees.com/

GOOD TIMES!
Partial Track Listing (with songwriters noted)
Final Version To Be Announced Soon

“Good Times!” (Harry Nilsson)
“You Bring The Summer” (Andy Partridge)
“Terrifying” (Zach Rogue)
“Me & Magdalena” (Ben Gibbard)
“She Makes Me Laugh” (Rivers Cuomo)
“Love To Love” (Neil Diamond)
“I Know What I Know” (Michael Nesmith)


2/5/16 1:38PM

Well it's now *official* since the Amazon link "leaked" it early. And Rollingstone.com Micky interview gets the official cred, lol of course.

The Cover Art is now up too. And the title includes the "!"

And Noel Gallagher of Oasis is also included among the songwriters.

It's not for this specific entry, as this is about this album and The Monkees, but chalk another unfair and huge failure to Social Media and not giving credit to where credit should be due; per I posted this article yesterday, February 4th at 2:16PM.

I passed it along on both Twitter HERE 24 HOURS AGOand on Facebook HERE 23 HOURS AGO, tagging The Monkees and the list of others involved, and yet I didn't receive 1 LIKE, RETWEET nor even a referral that I can tell.

I know the Amazon link was not MY info directly, but the fact is, it read pretty credible, giving a release date and an entire write-up, on a site as huge as Amazon.

But at this point, next to no credit, lol.

Why Social Media sometimes is fucking lame, and unless you're some huge mainstream news site, you can never truly get "1st-to-the-punch" even if you actually deserve some of it.

I very easily could write a longer diatribe about this very thing, as I have in the past. And it's a broken record, I know (see Warpaint, Local Natives, Kimbra). But I guess not now.

What will unfold as far as the interest in this album, very well could be as if not more interesting than the music itself. It's an experiment I suppose, that may really work, or may just end up being luke warm at best.

I guess we'll see. Track list and other details will show up I'm sure relatively soon.




that article confirms it along with The Monkees Facebook page

The album is the Monkees' first collection of original material since 1997's JustUs, and it will feature new songs by Noel Gallagher, Rivers Cuomo, Ben Gibbard and many more. Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne serves as producer on the new LP. 

Noel Gallagher of Oasis is also included per that article. Nice FACT CHECK RS.

JustUs was released in 1996, not 1997.

The album has a hard release date of June 10th, though right now Schlesinger is busy creating music for the CW show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and formal recording sessions have yet to begin. "We've been talking a lot back and forth and sharing music via Dropbox," says Dolenz. "It's coming together fast, which isn't a bad thing since it forces you to make decisions. My job is just to come in and sing lead vocals. It's no different than the old days when we had to get everything done in three-hour sessions because that was the limit of the musician's union."

Right now, he's focused on wrapping his head around the new songs. "We all agree that the lyrics in the Rivers Cuomo song needed to be aged up a little but," Dolenz says. "It sounds like it's about a little girl and I'm 70 years old, so Rivers is re-writing the lyrics." Noel Gallagher is still crafting lyrics for his contribution, though Dolenz says that Ben Gibbard's song "Me & Magdalena" and Zach Rogue's tune "Terrifying" are both in and ready to go. "They're all keeping with our sensibility," says Dolenz. "I just keep calling it that jangly guitar pop sound, though I used to call it 'progressive bubblegum.'"

Tour Dates, that don't include Nesmith of course. No Minnesota date either.

May 18 - Fort Myers, FL @ Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
May 19 - Melbourne, FL @ King Center for the Performing Arts
May 20 - Tampa, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
May 21 - Atlanta, GA @ Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater
May 24 - Charlotte, NC @ Blumenthal PAC - Belk Theater
May 26 - Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre
May 27 - Boston, MA @ The Wilbur Theatre
May 28 - Philadelphia, PA @ Keswick Theatre
May 29 - Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Theatre
June 1 - New York, NY @ The Town Hall
June 3 - Toronto, ON @ Casino Rama
June 4 - Windsor, ON @ The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
June 5 - Cleveland, OH @ Hard Rock Live Northfield Park
June 7 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Foellinger Theatre
June 10 - Louisville, KY @ Louisville Palace Theatre
June 12 - Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
June 14 - Dayton, OH @ Rose Music Center at The Heights
June 28 - Dallas, TX @ AT&T PAC – Winspear Opera House
June 30 - Tulsa, OK @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
July 1 - Mayetta, KS @ Prairie Band Casino & Resort
July 16 - Hampton Beach, NH @ Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
July 22 - Hot Springs, AR @ Oaklawn Racing and Gaming
September 15 - Phoenix, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
September 16 - Los Angeles, CA @ Pantages Theatre
September 17 - Las Vegas, NV @ Primm Valley Casino Resorts
September 20 - San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
September 21 - Modesto, CA @ Gallo Center For The Arts
September 23 & 24 - Lincoln City, OR @ Chinook Winds Casino Resort
September 25 - Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre
October 1 - Biloxi, MS @ Hard Rock Live
October 22 - Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre
October 29 - Shippensburg, PA @ H. Ric Luhrs PAC


----------------------2/4/16 2:16PM---------------------
Amazon link

That link shows a June 10, 2016 release date.

My fiancee and I were brainstorming about this album after learning about Andy Partridge writing songs for The Monkees last week. I just thought names like: Roger Joseph Manning Jr (Jellyfish), Graham Gouldman (10cc), Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze), AC Newman and/or Dan Bejar or Neko Case even (The New Pornographers), Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo).

And I threw out Ben Folds of course and Rivers Cuomo.

Well it turns out Rivers Cuomo was correct, lol.

Ben Gibbard? I'm not a fan of Death Cab for Cutie nor The Postal Service (mainly from his voice), but I don't want to judge a book by its cover.

And the dude from Rogue Wave: I liked 1 or 2 of their songs about 10 years ago, but then blew them off. But again, not wanting to judge. The last Local Natives album was good, and it was produced by that dude from The National, a band I never cared for.

Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne is producing, which the fiancee more or less predicted.

And the previously mentioned Andy Partridge.

And it's good to see Nesmith and Tork involved in the writing, along with the Jones, Diamond and Nilsson showing up.

Do I personally expect a lot? not necessarily, but the list of names involved certainly adds some curiosity.


Monkees? Good Times? Well, dyno-mite! 

The Monkees are ready to have some fun this year as the iconic band celebrates its 50th anniversary with a tour and the group s first new album in 20 years, appropriately titled GOOD TIMES. 
Much like The Monkees early albums, GOOD TIMES features tracks written specifically for the band by some of the music world s most gifted songwriters, including Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), Andy Partridge (XTC), and Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave). The album also includes songwriting contributions by Nesmith ( I Know What I Know ) and Tork as well as producer Schlesinger.

To help bring the anniversary full circle, The Monkees completed songs for GOOD TIMES that were originally recorded & written for group during the 60s, including Love To Love by Neil Diamond, which features a vintage vocal by Jones. Harry Nilsson wrote the title track Good Times, which he recorded at a session with Nesmith in January 1968. The production was never completed, so the band returned to the original session tape (featuring Nilsson s guide vocal) and have created a duet with his close friend Dolenz. Good Times will mark the first time Dolenz and Nilsson have sung together since Dolenz May 1973 single Daybreak. Other vintage 1960 s tracks included on GOOD TIMES feature L.A. s famed Wrecking Crew of session musicians.

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.