the feelies - classic or dud?

Has anyone ever heard this!!!??? The demo they made for Stiff???

Does it still exist? Holy Toledo!

And does anyone know why there has never been an actual Smithereens soundtrack released??!!! Was there ever a bootleg??

Anyone with info on those early bootlegs please let me know. I've wanted to hear that stuff for years and years. I heard they were really punky originally. Slipping Into Something from 1977? Damn.

They were so good live. I saw them open for REM, Lou Reed, and 2 or 3 times in Philly by themselves and they were always wonderful.

I used to have a great bootleg video of a show in new york where either Bill or Glenn (i can't remember who) got sick and had to run off the stage to throw up and they did the rest of the show without him. Even that was great.

only life is good but i find i actually play good earth much more.

I've been doing my best to get the word out on one of the better kept secretly not out-of-print albums: The Good Earth is in print, via Twin/Tone records. It's on custom burned CD (not CDR) and sounds great. You don't get the cover art...boo hoo. Also available is the Yung Wu album (never before on CD) and that EP that came after The Good Earth. If memory serves, the website is twintone.com.

They were probably my favorite live band of all time.

Totally classic. The best New Jersey nerd rock nervous nitwit band ever.

Except for their lousy job of publicising this, it's a great way to keep a back catalog available that might not justify a new printing.

I have the potential of being a total Deadhead when it comes to Feelies live/demos. Someone really ought to initiate a Dicks Picks-esque series.

but OMG classic times a million. i like some of the good earth stuff, but anton fier makes the band for me, and so crazy rhythms is the only one thats really brilliant. nonetheless, that is more than enough to get them such highly classic status in my book.

funny that theres a dB's and feelies c/d resurrected in the same day - by the same person? i got into those two groups in the same month or so...

Both.

WTF? This cut out my entire second sentence. I said: "Weird. One of the guys from Spiral Jetty was a professor at William & Mary when I was there. They had a minireunion show on campus."

The Feelies didn't record this one in the studio, but the Feelies-connected band Yung Wu did, on a terrific record called Shore Leave (speaking of records that need to be reissued as soon as possible...)

so anybody heard the new "debut solo album" from Glenn Mercer? Article here: http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0724,trucks,76911,22.html I didn't even know it was out ...
Interesting stuff, though I have to say I'm absolutely dismayed by the Counting Crows comparison? I mean, really?

Yesterday's reissue of The Bongos' Drums Along The Hudson was very satisfying. I'm ready for Spiral Jetty now. I've been searching for them on slsk for a year with no luck! If anyone has it, I'll trade the 20 mp3s of the Feelies covering the likes of Television and Wire I've assembled.

I bought the T/T CDR of The Good Earth and compared it to the original, and decided it was worth the money. I'll just color copy the old cover art.

I put together a nice

tyler, I ordered it earlier this week (mentioned the release of the album on 'the other feelies-thread'), the tracks on his myspace page sound very good, recapturing the pastoral mood of 'the good earth' if I must give a hint as to what they sound like.

Picked up Glenn Mercer's "Wheels in Motion" yesterday. It's very good - similar sound to the Feelies, but more laid back.
I also got Wild Carnation's "Tricycle," which I also recommend. Anyone heard their recent album?

Their version of 'Sedan Delivery' is an unadulterated classic.

Another Brave New World

"Glenn Mercer's solo debut could be a Feelies reunion. He's just too nice to make it one."

Sorry, same VV link. I wish we could delete posts! I need to buy this. Reckless doesn't have it, so it's either a citywide hunt or order and wait.

"Crazy Rhythms" gets reissued next month. In other honor of that: can we all agree that "Raised Eyebrows" is the greatest thing since the thing that came after sliced bread?

dirty jerz bands

Great news indeed, it was also mentioned on 'the other Feelies-thread'. Too bad there's no bonus material but maybe that'll come sometime as an extra release?? (esp. a good live gig would be greatly appreciated)

and the Mercer album is very great.

is that Yung Wu record ever gonna get put on CD?...my vinyl copy is all melty...

It's available from Twin/Tone (see higher up in this thread).

aha...thx

Yung Wu show from '87 at the Path Station has been re-seeded on D!mead0zen. Video quite good, sound pretty good. Just in case anyone's curious. Probably best for people who already know Yung Wu via the album. It's not like they or the Feelies were visually that amazing in concert...it was a sonic thing.

Actally, at this point I probably listen to the Yung Wu album more often than anything by the Feelies, which isn't to say I necessarily think it's better than Crazy Rhythms/Good Earth. It does seem to hold up really well though.

this dude's got a the earliest live recording i've ever seen by the feelies up for download ...
nargotheborts-deviant-subculture.blogspot.com/search/label/Feelies
sound is pretty good! and it's nuts that they were doing slipping into something close to ten years before the Good Earth ...

ok so seriously people, you should download that show NOW. it is great. you can certainly hear how the feelies fit into the CBGB post Talking Heads, post Television scene, but at the same time, they sound pretty close to fully formed.

does anyone have the trypes demos? i can't figure out how to do bittorrent, and i'm dying to hear them.

Still waiting to see if the trypes will get reposted. Meanwhile, I was really surprised by how relatively good the '77 show I just downloaded sounds...I kind of gave up on Feelies bootlegs at some point because they never sounded remotely as good as the live band, but this one is pretty interesting.

About twenty years ago(eek- can't be??) I used to probably daily dose on The Feelies.

I had forgotten about them until now. Trouble is it's all on vinyl and it's all still in boxes and that includes Crazy Rhythms which I hear is worth something and I got for £1.

I really need to hear The Good Earth right now though. That was the one?

They were a real alternative to all the other hardcore and guitar skree and skronk I was listening to back then. And probably still am now sadly enough

I've been dying to hear the Trypes stuff. I love that EP to death.

i've got the Trypes demos -- pretty rough quality, but worth hearing. The CDR has the demos + a show at Folk City in 1983. I don't really do the uploading/downloading thing, but if anyone wants to contact me off the board for a physical copy, i'd oblige ...

Thanks for the link, tyler - love the recording. Pretty close to fully formed is quite right, though there are some things that would be more streamlined/better tuned later on. Esp. the drums I think. I don't think it's Fier that's playing on this recording, right?

'77 would've been Vinny DeNunzio on drums..

"Crazy Rhythms" gets reissued next month

will this be on 180gram vinyl?

oh boy
www.idolator.com/370364/the-feelies-to-bring-their-crazy-rhythms-back-this-summer

Oh
my
God

I hope they play more than just a few shows. And record.

yeah seriously! i really would like to see them ...

Saw them three times in Rhode Island in the late 80s. God they were soooooo good.

Be fun to see 'em, for sure.

Greatest cover band ever and inspired funky moves out of white people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuA-haidvac

yeah, best high school reunion ever.

anybody know what happened to the (crazy rhythms) reissue that was due in Feb. ?

reissue now pushed back to late April. At least the third delay thus far, so who knows when it will actually see the light of day.

Great news. I demand a world tour! :-)

Fa Ce-La

Looks like a new album, more shows may be in the works.

http://www.spinner.com/2008/05/06/the-feelies-reunite-for-shows-new-album/

Glad to hear it! I hope there's a full tour.

last I heard on the reissue of Crazy Rhythms was another bump to the end of this month.

I too hope they tour - at least a few dates outside greater NYC.

Cute photo goes with this article in the NY Times on the reunion. It never ceases to freak me out when musicians age like normal human beings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/arts/music/01feel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I'll be at Maxwell's on wed night.

I'm looking forward to Friday afternoon's show with Sonic Youth. I can't believe this reunion is happening. I also can't believe we're asking c/d on The Feelies. They're the Feelies for crying out loud.

And my all-time favorite record from them is "Time for a Witness"!

I'd really like to see them. Twenty years between shows is too long.

It never ceases to freak me out when musicians age like normal human beings:
Bill Million looks like a locksmith.

he looks like a Million bucks.

Dave Weckerman looks like Ruth Buzzi from "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In."
http://thegolddiggers.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/vlcsnap-12052238.jpg

Glenn Mercer looks like Daniel Clowes, as imagined by Daniel Clowes:
http://www.fantagraphics.com/images/stories/artists/featured/clowes_icon.gif

Damn I wanna live in NYC.

don't we all?

good reason to not live in nyc: 2 tix to the "free" july 4th show going for $185 on ebay.

i get the lotsa like, but not the crazy love

Nice about reunion gigs, but, umm..Crazy Rhythms reissue? PLEASE for fuck's sake?

haha, SO many reasons to not live in nyc! before i visited my old neighborhood a few weeks ago, my friend warned me: 'we will not talk about this tonight. but i want to let you know that there are now a lot of ordinary people around here doing conventional things!' and he was right, alas.

but i'll be going to the july 4 show, and looking forward to seeing the feelies. been almost twenty years since i've seen them, and the same is true for sonic youth, who i'm not sure i'll stick around for.

From the reunion show, Away:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4tkJ1ts9LI

I thought they had reissued Crazy Rhythms? Did it get delayed or something? I already have it so I haven't been paying attention.

the band owns the masters and has been planning on a reissue for a while, i think. it hasn't happened yet.

My hope would be they delayed it because they decided to reissue it properly, as a double disc chock full of early tracks and the awesome covers they did in that era. I doubt it though.

kornrulez, thanks for the video! great stuff.

so jealous

hope this turns into a full-fledged Mission of Burma style reunion, with touring, recording, etc. i kinda doubt it, but I guess the new songs they're playing bodes well for something beyond the shows this week. and hey, maybe Bill Million, after being a security guard at Disney World, has realized that being in one of the best rock bands of the last 30 years is pretty sweet.

I have two tickets to this, but my date for the day doesn't want to go. I'm quite pissed.

>:8

(that was some kind of angry emoticon in solidarity with you)

It's okay. If I were a real man I'd do something manly and forceful. Too bad I'm not...

Feelies rule!

maybe Bill Million, after being a security guard at Disney World

Don't sell him short. He was doing computer stuff...

From the NY Times article
When he abruptly moved to Florida, he worked on security for Disney World, doing computer programming for access systems. But when one of his sons started playing guitar, Mr. Million was drawn back to the instrument. “It sounds odd to me to even call this a reunion,” he said. “It’s just that we’ve gotten together after a long break.”

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlLA/original/mickey%20mouse.jpg

Supposedly, Water's planned reissue was unauthorized, but the first two albums are slated to come out on Bar/None Records later this year. I wrote them to confirm this.

Here's what I wrote about Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth.

yeah i just saw on the other music email update that water was reissuing Only Life, too! seemed weird since they never got around to getting crazy rhythms reissued .... but yeah, if there isn't going to be any extra stuff on the reissues, i probably won't buy them. maybe. i probably will.

IATTOQ

They're kind of a band that only people who are *into music* are into.

AIR?

That Disney World thing was my favorite fact. Why not a whole article on Million's experiences riding a monorail?

also: lol "Mr Million."

so if you are like me and far away from NYC (and Hoboken), you can check out (very good!) recordings of a few of last week's feelies shows at www.nyctaper.com. coupla new songs, "outdoor miner" (!) and good times so far.

Who is playing drums? Demeski?

yep, it's demeski (and weckerman on percussion). basically the lineup who recorded good earth, only life and time for a witness. listening to the july 1 show right now -- sounds great! could easily pass for a 1991 show. in fact, mercer, might be playing guitar better these days ...

Since New Jersey’s favorite nerds played a Fourth of July gig with Sonic Youth in New York’s Battery Park, they’ve reasserted their reputation as one of the best bands of the 1980s, despite a career that never really felt like taking flight (aside from a trip to Florida, where the band worked as security guards for Disneyworld).
http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4501
I hate music journalists sometimes.

"(aside from a trip to Florida, where the band worked as security guards for Disneyworld)"

lets call it laziness

Any news on whether they're going to record? Wasn't that part of the reunion plans?

isn't there another NY show this fall? at the bowery or somesuch? frankly, i'm not going to hold my breath for frantic feelies activity, as much as I'd love some real touring and a new record ...

when are they going to reissue that goddamn Crazy Rhythms for crying out loud.

I am just anal enough that I emailed Dusted and asked them nicely to double-check their facts on the Security Guards thing, and they've changed it. I feel much better.

Was re-listening to Glenn Mercer's "Wheels in Motion" and parts of it really are pretty good.

Bar/None replied to my emails but ignored my questions about The Feelies. Those albums really need to be in print again.

Someone please translate this for me

I mean, are the French getting a reissued Crazy Rhythms before anyone else?

I knew taking four years of French was going to be a waste.

The author bought a copy of Crazy Rhythms on CD, enticed by the inclusion of "Paint It Black" as a bonus track. He doesn't tell us whether it was a new release, but keep in mind that "Paint It Black" appeared on the (now impossible to find) reissue that came out in the early '90s. Don't get your hopes up.

Damn - but thanks. Think I was thrown by that album art.

Yeah, I have no idea what that came from.

Weirdly, the 2008 Water Records reissue of Only Life seems to be available on Amazon. Water was supposed to reissue Crazy Rhythms as well at the beginning of the year, so I'm not sure why one came out without the other.

yeah i've seen Only Life in shops ... but since there's nothing new on it -- and it was apparently released without the band's input/approval, I haven't bought it. My vinyl still sounds good! But yeah, Crazy Rhythms has gotta be one of the biggest out of print records around right now! with the press they got from the reunion shows, you'd think the time would be right ...

I've quit holding my breath for reissues. But DAMN, this band need the Mondo Box Set With 50 Gazillion Rarities And A Scorching Live Show treatment. What's wrong with the world that this has not happened? Probably something like a lack of ambition on the band's part more than anything.

Can some über-geek fanboy get the ambition to compile this and then either a) present it to the band as requiring only their approval/liner notes and a decent label, or b) torrent the fucker?

Looks like the Feelies are playing a few shows this spring ... www.myspace.com/thefeelies Philly and DC, plus this slightly bizarre bill: http://www.remtribute.com/

After years and years of wondering about it, I'm finally listening to the Field Mice's cover of Loveless Love. Nice!

I bought their first album last year and thought it was terrible. I was wondering how anyone could consider it a classic. Maybe I heard it too late.

Maybe you have questionable taste.

seriously. crazy rhythms is one of the best albums ever recorded.

wtf. why can't a guy just not a like an album anymore?

it's ok if you don't like it, but what does "Maybe I heard it too late" mean?

i know exactly what he means.

I should love Bauhaus, but I can't stand them cos to me it sounded dated and thin when I first heard them in the 90's. To those who heard it at the time, it still sounds great.

Sometimes, you just have to hear an album in the time and context that it was recorded, otherwise it just doesn't sounds right hearing it for the first time years later..

This isn't the case with every band of course, but it's happened to me with a few..

"Maybe I heard it too late"

yeah, exactly what jack said. It might have sounded amazing and revolutionary in 1970 or whenever it came out, but I just don't think it translates well to me now. Maybe if I heard it in 1980 I'd like it right now, but I didn't. to me, it seems to me nothing more than a mediocre early 1980s college rock album-- one that grates on me considerably, actually. but I'm not hearing it in its original context. Anyway, I think REM's albums (or more accurately, isolated songs) transcend their time, but I don't feel the same about this album.

crazy rhythms was a huge influence on both REM and the formation of college rock. to call it a 'mediocre college rock album' is sorta ridiculous, since it was such a cornerstone album for many bands that followed, but i guess you're entitled to muck up this thread with your opinion if you please.

being influential alone doesn't make it a good album, but it does speak to the fact that this it is incredibly likeable. i heard it long after it was released (7-8 years ago or so) and gravitated towards it immediately. i'm wondering what exactly you find 'grating' about the album? the energy? it's such an accessible mix of post punk rhythmic propulsion and indie pop songwriting craftsmanship, hard to imagine any fan of television, the clean, or felt would be turned off in the least

I bought their first album last year and thought it was terrible. I was wondering how anyone could consider it a classic. Maybe I heard it too late.

reads different to me than saying "I don't like this record", if you want to know why the original comment warrants a response.

But if it grates on you, well there's a clue right there. It's not just that you don't like this album. It's not just like "I don't like the songs". The entire m/o of that album, the weird space it exists, the strange way it was recorded, the minimalism, the repetition, the simplicity, etc. Are all pretty unique and different, and it's hard to judge it in the context you're trying to judge it, i.e., is it as good college rock as REM.

Context isn't relevant as there really was no context, other then people considering it second rate Talking Heads at the time. There wasn't really 80s college rock yet. I first heard it some time in the 90s.

Yeah, I can't think of many records that sound like Crazy Rhythms (even the stuff that it supposedly influenced, or the Feelies later albums). I heard it in the 90s too, and it did not seem "of its time" or of any time really, though I think since then I've filled in the context of VU/Modern Lovers/Eno/Television/New Jersey ... Anyway, taste is taste, if didn't excite you, then it didn't excite you. It's probably one of my top 10 albums of the last 30 years, though ...

I haven't heard this record, but reading about it makes me want to.

I hadn't heard any Feelies at all until earlier today when totally randomly I wanted to hear the "Loveless Love" by the Field Mice and remembered it was a cover version, which led me to the original...

will investigate more.

I've never heard this Field Mice cover ... it's good?

yeah, my memory of the album is fading a bit, but what i remember was that the energy wasn't appealing to me for some reason, and i think it might have had something to do with the production. i remember it sounding kind of flat, perhaps lacking dynamic range or something to that effect. also, i thought i remember the lyrics being vaguely embarrassing to listen to... but, my memory of the album is no longer clear.

field mice cover here

The production was very flat. There was a lot of debate back then about how to do it. Live, they were a very intense band, like The Modern Lovers, Ramones, Talking Heads and VU in a blender. When it came time to record they weren't happy with initial results, then made a last minute switch-up of engineers and made some strange choices, including playing the guitars directly into the mixer. The result is mixed for some people, people who remember them live hated it, and today even the band question if that was the right choice. The rest of us though think it resulted in this really amazing pure insular sound, without much distortion, reverb, room or even life to mess with the perfect sound of a jangling strummed electric guitar. Piled on top of like 12 people playing percussion, and it was pretty unique. It's definitely something to hear on headphones and/or at top volume, and it helps to submit to it. A casual listen one may or may not dig the tunes, but with more attention paid, it's like Lou Reed performing Einstein on the Beach.

Their next album, The Good Earth, years later, would have a much more traditional production, but by then they really weren't the kind of "punk" band they were in 1977. Coming out in the midst of a college rock revolution, The Good Earth is among the best. Their songwriting is a bit more complex, but there's still plenty of frantic energy.

i'm shocked i haven't seen anybody mention their actual best disc Time for a witness....

it's mentioned up there .... don't know if it's their best, but it is pretty solid. great guitar record.

xpost, thanks, dan -- that sums it up very nicely. The feelies probably could've made a more straight-up debut, and it probably would've been pretty damn good, but I don't know if it would have the same weird magic that Crazy Rhythms has ...

That Field Mice cover is so great... shame the sound quality is so shit.. I had an original copy of the "something's burning in paradise again" and the quality was the same..

I did see the Feelies cover Outdoor Miner last year.

Yeah, that might've been my fave thing about the reunion shows! (which i heard via live recordings, not in person). Great version. I might have to put together a Feelies covers mix.

sorry if I missed someone already mentioning Something Wild, one of the great '80s movies, and that tune from Good Earth--I think at the end of the dance sequence when Charlie and LL go back to her high-school reunion? Very evocative. I appreciate their first one more now that I've not listened to the Velvet Underground very much in a few decades; the Go-Betweens are the only band who took the Velvets influence and did it better, because them dudes was as good a songwriter as Reed, I think, I mean maybe it took two of them but they were coming at it late. But the Feelies, yeah, it's a bit suburban but they were good and I quite liked that second record at the time but lost interest later, I mean how many records by the Shoes or the Feelies do you need, or the dB's? For the average fan of rock and roll I'd recommend The Good Earth myself but they were always reliable, like REM has always been. Anyway, Jameson wrote a book on poster-modernism a while back and he really talks a lot about Something Wild as a great example of what he's apparently talking about.

I mean Something Wild, Blue Velvet, Street Smart, 52 Pickup and that halfway good movie with Adam Ant in it, Slam Dance (Virginia Madsen never looked lovelier)--all real Lou Reed territory but Lou Reed was no Roy Scheider. Anyway, those movies are all about white males getting themselves into a little trouble--more than they bargained for--and I'm just saying all the bands who modeled themselves after Lou Reed and the Velvets (Violent Femmes, Feelies, about a zillion others), Yo La Tengo, it's all really the Velvets just like so many fucking things are just all about the Beatles (XTC, Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw at least had more real Brill Building verve in his shit), back in the era that the Feelies came from. White dudes getting themselves into more situation than initially suspected...

Whatever happened to the Crazy Rhythms reissue that was supposed to come out on (IIRC) Water?

I should love Bauhaus, but I can't stand them cos to me it sounded dated and thin when I first heard them in the 90's. To those who heard it at the time, it still sounds great.

this fascinates me because i only really heard bauhaus (the 4ad stuff anyway) this year and i thought it sounded surprisingly UN-dated.

In the mail today:

Bar/None Records is proud to re-release two classic albums by the Feelies, that critically acclaimed crew of hyperactive alt rockers from Haledon, New Jersey that had such a powerful influence on the sound of indie music 1980s and beyond.
Their debut release Crazy Rhythms is a masterwork of perfectly honed minimalist rock that leaps and darts into the corners of the listener's consciousness, a true sonic tour de force that Rolling Stone deemed one of the "100 Best Albums of the 1980s." Fans of the Velvet Underground, Wire and Brian Eno's early solo work will surely appreciate the "forces at work" (to quote a song title!) on this masterpiece.
Their follow-up recording, The Good Earth, came some six years later co-produced by Feelies' co-regents Glenn Mercer and Bill Million with REM's Peter Buck (a Feelies admirer since his days as a record store clerk). The Good Earth was an early release on Coyote Records, the label founded and run Steve Fallon, also the original owner of famed Hoboken indie roc mecca, Maxwell's. This album introduced the line-up that continues to this day.
Both albums feature deluxe packaging (CD and vinyl LP) with liner notes by Jim Deragotis and Jim Sullivan respectively. As the band consider each album to be a discrete aesthetic artifact, the copious bonus material including demos, b-sides, EP tracks and some new live recordings from the re-united group will be included on digital download cards.
Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth will be released to coincide with the Feelies' September performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival where they will perform the classic Crazy Rhythms in its entirety.
Summer activities for the group include an acoustic performance at the Whitney Museum in New York City on June 26 as part of the Dan Graham Retrospective, as well as a free show at the Pritzke Pavillion in Chicago's Millennium Park on June 29, and a series of shows at Maxwells in Hoboken over the 4th of July weekend.

Awesome!

the band consider each album to be a discrete aesthetic artifact

Feelies OTM.

as well as a free show at the Pritzke Pavillion in Chicago's Millennium Park on June 29

definitely planning on going to this, especially after last night's awesome Dirty Projectors show in the same series

Great news!

This year's reissues have been better than this year's new music.

huzzah! glad they are putting together some bonus material for these, even if it's not on disc.

and if you need to get psyched up, here's an early live show http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/124220071/boys-with-perpetual-nervousness-the-reunited

"Lou Reed performing Einstein on the Beach"

Dan Selzer absolutely OTM up there.
Crazy Rhythms is still one of my favourite albums ever; there's really nothing quite like it.

Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth will be released to coincide with the Feelies' September performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival where they will perform the classic Crazy Rhythms in its entirety.

I will be there in full force.

he copious bonus material including demos, b-sides, EP tracks and some new live recordings from the re-united group will be included on digital download cards.

YES YES YES

haha, totally glazed over the "new live recordings from the re-united group" bit ... so there won't be live material from the 70s and 80s? Or am I reading that wrong.

no, sounds right. that is kind of sad.

yeah, a little bit weak -- they really don't have any useable live recordings from that period? most of the stuff i have is audience recordings, but I guess I thought there'd be some sort of pro stuff in the archives. not that they don't sound good these days, but the Crazy Rhythms-era band deserves documentation ...

They have some pretty good live and studio recordings. Question is how they feel about it, I think.

the copious bonus material including demos, b-sides, EP tracks and some new live recordings from the re-united group will be included on digital download cards.

NO NO NO

Seeing them in the park next Monday in Chicago -- free outdoor show.

Reissues OSSOM. I can quit lurking eBay for a CD of the Good Earth.

Still waiting on live awesomeness from the original group (1978-1991). There was at least one LP bootleg pressed - was the sound any shakes? I've got the shows from Tyler's blog (thanks again, fantasticman!) which are great but tinny.

i should quickly liquidate my good earth cd it seems

playing an acoustic set friday night at the Whitney!

Acoustic? Strange! Their sound is so much about surging waves of electricity.

So exciting to hear it's finally happening after so many false starts! I heard rumors and badgered Bar/None to confirm a year ago (see up thread), but they wouldn't say. They really should include a second disc rather than download. They'd better be available in lossless!

yeah the acoustic thing is interesting -- i assume it'll be focused on the Good Earth, since that's their most acoustic album, but who knows?

I can imagine them doing acoustic versions of Crazy Rhythms and later stuff as well. Or if Dave Weckerman's there maybe it'll be all Neil Young covers. No matter I'm sure it'll be lovely and I won't be able to make it.

I think it's high time that Demme makes that Feelies-zombie movie he originally wanted to do.

"He had called us in the early '80s and proposed a concept of a concert film that would take place in our home town. He described it as cross between The Last Waltz and The Night of the Living Dead. He had this vision. He's obsessed with small town life and suburbia. His idea was to have everybody in the town be like zombies, shuffling towards something. It turns out they're going to a Feelies concert. The zombies go inside and then by the end of the show, they're all rejuvenated and come to life. Interesting concept but he couldn't sell the idea to anyone. But we kept in touch."
http://www.furious.com/perfect/ooloo.html

I'd buy that.

me too! a smash hit! maybe Demme could work Robyn Hitchcock in there somehow as a mad scientist or something. He seems to be making a habit of cameo-ing Hitchcock these days.

If the idea is to cop a Last Waltz vibe, musical guest stars would be perfect. Imagine Hitchcock singing their "Deep Fascination" and then the Feelies backing him up on "Insanely Jealous".

What artists would you want as "special guests"? You know Peter Buck would be there.

yo la tengo, for sure, probably lou reed .... maybe they could pull some Jersey cred and get the Boss himself to sing "Boy With Perpetual Nervousness"

Bon Jovi

oh hell yes

sambora tradin' licks with mercer! oh yeah!

Who's going this Friday? I can't skip off work to make the 1 pm ticket line:(

"Last Waltz" lineup has to include Prince.

Somehow when I try to picture Springsteen singing "BWTPN" it just morphs into the E Street band slogging that song out to the tune [sic] of "Hungry Heart."

"He's not like the boys... that we used to have /
Not like them at all.
The old ones made their ... parents proud /
This one beats 'em all.
Everybody's got a hungry heart
Everybody's got a hungry heart."

hee hee, can someone do a mashup?

anybody catch the show at the Whitney? hoping a recording of it surfaces ....

The audio for the Whitney is up on Dime as we speak...

I think you said you can't do Dime, tho. If it doesn't appear elsewhere, email me.

check yr email Thus Sang Freud! I tracked down the setlist, looks cool
01 When Company Comes
02 Bluer Skies
03 Nobody Knows
04 Egyptian Reggae
05 Higher Ground
06 crowd
07 Sunday Morning
08 Undertow
09 Brenda comments
10 Invitation
11 Let's Go
12 Crazy Rhythms
13 encore break
14 Dancing Barefoot
15 What Goes On

oh how I want to hear Sunday Morning!

for realz. they've never done that one before, have they?

Egyptian Reggae!?!?! wow....

There are a few Feelies takes on Egyptian Reggae up on youtube.

Awesome, thanks!

Great show, outdoors in Chicago. Different set list than the one above, a bit.

Egyptian Reggae is one of their classic covers. That, Dancing Barefoot, What Goes On...You could make a great mix of the songs the Feelies regularly covered, it would be killer.

Chicago got an awesome cover of 'Carnival (Box Car of Sorts)' last night - Holy Cow - the 'Only Life' tracks they played were so damn special powerful too... Hoping someone taped and puts on DIME.

oh cool, would like to hear their REM cover ... and yeah a Feelies cover comp would be good. Maybe it's up to me. Has anyone else done it? Some good Neil Young tracks, and the "Outdoor Miner" they were doing last year sounded amazing.

I have a Feelies covers comp I downloaded some years ago. This is the tracklist:

Head Held High
I'm a Believer
The Obedient Atom
Outdoor Miner
Roadrunner
Run Run Run/European Son/What Goes On
Sweet Jane
Barstool Blues
I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms
Mannequin
Sedan Delivery
See No Evil
She Said She Said
White Light White Heat

Of course, then there is the promo live CD with Egyptian Reggae, Dancing Barefoot, and Everybody's Got...Monkey.

They did "Paint It Black" at the very end, too.

coupla things missing from that comp: eno's third uncle, love/bacharach's little red book, mc5's looking at you ... fun to be happy by love tractor ... "obedient atom" is an unreleased original, i think.

don't think i've heard them do "sweet jane"

"Obedient Atom" was, I believe, a post-Crazy Rhythms Stiff single.

I don't think Obedient Atom ever came out.

yeah hopefully that'll be one of the crazy rhythms bonus tracks this fall. what i've read is that "obedient atom" is kinda what got them dropped from Stiff back in the day -- they delivered it as their first post-CR single and Stiff said no thanks. Live versions are cool, though, kinda droney, Eno-esque stuff.

You're right Dan - this interview with the Voice indicates it didn't ever get officially released:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/07/interview_glenn.php

FYI, the Feelies "Sweet Jane" has Lou Reed on lead vocals. It's just okay.

ah, maybe i have heard it -- i remember my friend playing a bootleg of Lou and the Feelies way back when.

I asked about The Obedient Atom, wanted to release it. They didn't seem too interested. I don't think it's that likely to be one of those bonus tracks, but we can hope!

aw come on, if it's the only crazy rhythms-era outtake, they HAVE to release it. THEY HAVE TO.

Review of last night's show. I pretty much agree, except I didn't like the "Nobody Knows" very much. I'd be happy to hear a new album once it's finished, but I was dying to hear more songs from Crazy Rhythms.

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2009/06/concert-review-feelies-at-millennium-park.html

i think "Nobody Knows" sounds OK, but don't really like "Time Is Right" ... I could be mistaken, but both of those songs seem to be about getting the band back together.

Fantastic show last night. "Raised Eyebrows" was my fave.

Mercer's solo was waaay off on Time Is Right (I think that's which one) -- like, so bad it had to be on purpose?

Otherwise, watching Stan Demeski was a joy. Dude is unflappable. Barely moved his torso the whole time and totally threw down. Hard to believe Dean Wareham had him and *and* Justin Harwood behind him and let them go...

You know one of the many things I love about the Feelies? They love the VU, but aren't afraid to show it. Feelies covering the VU is so on the nose it's OTM. Was it only Yung Wu that covered Eno's "Big Day?" That album needs to come out again, too.

Show last night was great. Perfect weather. My daughter danced like a nut.

Were you and your daughter on the concrete part between the lawn and seats? There were two little girls dancing the whole time, or swinging around or riding on dads' shoulders. Then there was a black guy who didn't seem to know the songs but was feelin' it with some awesome moves.

ha, i can totally see little kids enjoying the Feelies

Well, she was there with a friend, but she kind of made the rounds. Most of the totally nuts dancing was way back on the lawn, though at one point they were wiggling around up front on the concrete. She wanted to see the band's heads!

Okay, more details about the reissues:

Release date for both The Feelies re-issues on Bar None: September 8, 2009

Both albums will be issued in original sequence with download cards included in each package that will give purchasers access to bonus tracks as well as the original albums. The band felt that the original records functioned as discrete works on their own that should not be compromised with additional tracks not part of the original sequence, hence offering bonus tracks thusly

Crazy Rhythms CD/LP reissue track listing:
Side One:
1. The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness
2. Fa cé-La
3. Loveless Love
4. Forces At Work
Side Two:
5. Original Love
6. Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except Me And My Monkey)
7. Moscow Nights
8. Raised Eyebrows
9. Crazy Rhythms
*** NOTE: Their cover of "Paint It Black" was left off the reissue as
per the band's request. A&M added it without the band's permission
and it was a recording from the late 80s with a different line-up than
what was the "Crazy Rhythms" line-up.

Crazy Rhythms bonus tracks:
1. Fa cé-La [single version] - originally released as a 7" on Rough Trade.
2. The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness [Carla Bley demo version]
3. Moscow Nights [Carla Bley demo version]
4. Crazy Rhythms (Live) - From the 9:30 Club (Washington D.C.),
recorded March 14, 2009.
5. I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms (Live) - From the 9:30 Club (Washington
D.C.), recorded March 14, 2009. Modern Lovers cover.

The Good Earth CD/LP reissue track listing:
Side One:
1. On The Roof
2. The High Road
3. The Last Roundup
4. Slipping (Into Something)
5. When Company Comes
Side Two:
6. Let's Go
7. Two Rooms
8. The Good Earth
9. Tomorrow Today
10. Slow Down

The Good Earth bonus tracks.
1. She Said, She Said - originally on the "No One Knows" vinyl EP on
Coyote Records through Twin/Tone Records (US). Beatles cover.
2. Sedan Delivery - originally on the "No One Knows" vinyl EP on
Coyote Records through Twin/Tone Records (US). Neil Young cover.
3. Slipping (Into Something) (Live) - From the 9:30 Club (Washington
D.C.), recorded March 14, 2009.

Download cards will be included in each respective CD & LP reissue.
The full album + bonus tracks will be included on each. Domino will
be the hosting site for the downloads as they have the rights to the
albums outside the U.S. & Canada.

Bar/None's LP reissues were mastered by Andy VanDette at Masterdisk in NYC
www.masterdisk.com
Pressings will be handled by Rainbo Records and will be 180 gram
www.rainborecords.com

Original tapes were unfortunately not found. Andreas Meyer from Tangerine Mastering used
digital files for both.

Tapes obtained from the band were used for the Fa cé-La [single
version], The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness [Carla Bley demo
version] and Moscow Nights [Carla Bley demo version]. The live tracks
were recorded by their live sound engineer Andy Peters.

Insound will be exclusively carrying a limited
edition 7" reissue of the original "Fa cé-La" single. www.insound.com
Side A:
Fa cé-La (single version)
Side B:
Raised Eyebrows (album version)

Pressing for this single will also be handled by Rainbo Records.
Street date for the single is TBD.

big news here is the Carla Bley demo versions, or at least that's what I'm most interested in. definitely support removing "paint it black" from crazy rhythms -- a nice version, but not necessary at the end of that record. Good Earth bonus tracks = not very exciting, since I've already heard those covers. also still pretty unsure about the 2009 live material -- I'm sure they're good, but I can't help but feel they don't belong here.

Wish they'd re-release the studio version of 'I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms." I think it was on a single/EP with "Raised Eyebrows" and "Fa Ce La."

i think the studio version of "I wanna sleep in your arms" comes from a later version of the band, around Time For A Witness ...

yeah: http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/disc/singles3.htm

but anyway, too bad that my dream of a Crazy Rhythms-era live comp will remain just a dream for the time being. Guess we'll just have to stick with bootlegs!

wait wait demos with CARLA BLEY? of all ppl?

well, they were recorded at her studio -- dunno if she was actually involved otherwise, or even present ...

what's REALLY annoying is that the "Obedient Atom" is nowhere to be found --
"DAVE: We spend three days recording "The Obedient Atom" in Carla Bley's studio. It was an instrumental with some chanting at the end. When Stiff heard that, their hair started falling out. "Is this what the next album is going to sound like?"
from here http://www.furious.com/perfect/ooloo.html

oh, and there i was trying to work out with bley arrangements

oh, and there i was trying to work out what they'd sound like with bley arrangements

No no, go back to "Aerobics with Carla Bley" please.

lol

i can kind of imagine a Carla Bley workout vid
http://www.mantlermusic.com/Artists/carla_bley.jpg
sweatin' it to the ... what?

sweatin' it to the feelies

with instructions by paul haines

Free Jazzercise

"Okay so by now your ab crunches in 14/5 time have gone arrythmic. Don't repeat this for ten minutes, but keep going."

"remember: the exercise you don't do can be as important as the exercise you do."

"And...unbreathe."

Just got the reissues in the mail. Marvellous sound and of course, hey, it's the Feelies' first two albums, naturally they're great.

My ears are jealous of yours Ned. Can't wait to hear these - my cassette of Crazy Rhythms was on its last legs years ago (and the rip I have just isn't up to snuff).

Hey Ned, can you describe how different it sounds from previous editions ? I hope it doesn't sound too big.

Not at all, if anything I think it captures the subtleties better than ever -- the opening of "The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness" actually surprised me!

This is what I was hoping for.
Its like the remastered version of "Here come the warm jets", when I finally had the chance a lot of details previously drowned by hiss.

:D can't wait! (also, still lol-ing over Carla Bley as fitness instructor)

Thanks Ned. Excited !

yeah, super-excited to hear the cleaned up sound on these -- Both of those records are so textured and subtle. Even Good Earth, which seems more straightforward the Crazy Rhythms, has all of these layers of sound happening on every song.

Holy crap, I wasn't actually expecting this to be so good.

wishing i was at ATP tonight to see these guys! in the meantime, I'm in the process of putting together a live Feelies covers comp for http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ here's a list of covers i've come up with

Funtime (Iggy Pop)
Real Cool Time (Stooges)
Little Red Book (Love/Bacharach)
Looking At You (MC5)
I’m A Believer (Monkees)
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (Beatles)
Third Uncle (Brian Eno)
King's Lead Hat (Brian Eno)
Run Run Run/European Son/What Goes On (Velvet Underground)
She Said She Said (Beatles)
Fun To Be Happy (Love Tractor)
Sedan Delivery (Neil Young)
Egyptian Reggae (Jonathan Richman)
Head Held High (Velvet Underground)
Tomorrow Today (Beatles)
Mannequin (Wire)
See No Evil (Television)
Outdoor Miner (Wire)
Roadrunner (Modern Lovers)
Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith)
We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Velvet Underground)
Powderfinger (Neil Young)
Take It As It Comes (Doors)
I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms (Jonathan Richman)
Barstool Blues (Neil Young)
Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
White Light White Heat (Velvet Underground)
Carnival of Sorts (REM)
Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)

Ones I don't have in bold -- can anyone help a feelies nerd out here?

Tomorrow Today (Beatles)?

Let me check, Tyler, but I think I have the Take It As It Comes cover somewhere.
Also, just for the record, apparently during their last Italian tour they played Marquee Moon - or so I'm told!

Marquee Moon, really? That'd be wild. I don't know what "Tomorrow Today" is referring to -- my reference for that list is mostly over here: http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/disc/boot2.htm

and Marco if you can dig up that Doors cover, that'd be much appreciated! Weird that they covered the Doors, kinda.

One of many things jumping out at me while listening to the remasters is that on the first album, vocals owe a bigger debt to J. Richman than I remembered. The mutation into Lou Reed Jr. comes w/The Good Earth.

I'm kind of praying that a Yung Wu remaster is going to come at some point...

Lastly, the recording on "Last Roundup" is crazy amazing. Probably the best track to hear the double-drum sound in action. It sounds more like them live than anything else I've heard on their albums.

haven't gotten the remasters yet (busy times!) but I'm glad that they're getting the thumbs up regarding the sound quality. i will get them soon!

tyler I need to check when I get home on Monday but I might have Head Held High.

hey tyler, just let me have your e-mail and I'll send you the Doors cover! (it is obviously a super-fast, punkified version etc).

you can send it to tywilc AT gmail DOT com -- Thanks dudes! This is IMPORTANT!

"tomorrow today" is a feelies song, maybe the best on the slow earth. "how can you go home? . . . it's better talking . . . we get excited . . . i fall apart again." one of my favorites of theirs. do you mean "tomorrow never knows"?

ha, yr right -- blanked on that title ....

actually does anyone have a halfway decent recording of the REM cover? mine is craptastic from the tribute concert ... performance is good, but ....

heyo, looks like NYCT Taper answered my request! Neat -- I <3 the internet! (Also thanks to Marco for hooking me up w/ the Doors cover, which they seem to have resurrected here. Are they reading this thread?)

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=1650 link

Whoever wrote that NYC Taper bit neglected to mention that the band went on at 8:30 and did a languid and lethargic 35 minute first set. The set included some of my faves from "The Good Earth" but they were played so joylessly that I wished they hadn't even bothered.

After a lengthy break they came on and got busy with some classic jittery Feelies songs. It was almost as if it was a completely different band. They were energetic and angaging. It's almost like that 1/2 break between sets was so long because they were waiting for the drugs to arrive. Seriously, the disparity was remarkable.

I will say that the double whammy of "Raised Eyebrows" into "Crazy Rhythms" that ended the second set was nothing short of remarkable though.

were they doing a semi-acoustic thing for the first set like they did at the Whitney earlier this summer? not sure why they bother with that tbh -- Feelies aren't really about mellowing out.

If semi-acoustic means Bill Millions with a 12 string acoustic guitar then I guess so.

Nice enough review of the reissues in Pitchfork. The last two paragraphs are completely correct. I'm not clear on when The Good Earth's reputation took such a dive...it seemed huge enough (in 80's east coast college terms) when I was at an east coast college in the 80's.

I wasn't aware that "the good earth's" reputation has been sullied. This is the first I've heard that said but, if Pitchfork says it, it must be true.

It took a dive when REM became a top 40 band and suddenly Crazy Rhythms was the crazy angsty post-punk record while The Good Earth was the boring folky acoustic record they did years later. Anybody who actually bothered to listen to it didn't feel that way of course. "tempos relaxed", like on The Last Round Up? And Slipping (Into Something) predates Crazy Rhythms, fwiw. P-fork also didn't mention that Fier wasn't the original drummer, Weckerman had already been playing in the band in the 70s.

Anyone who had a cassette of The Good Earth might have contributed to its deflated reputation. It took me many years to get into it because the only version I'd heard sounded like it was being played through a wall stuffed with dirty socks.

Weckerman had already been playing in the band in the 70s
original drummer was actually a dude named Vinny Denunzio, I think -- he's on the early bootlegs, and I think showed up on Mercer's recent solo album ...

Tyler -

I have a pretty mediocre quality version of "Head Held High" and a good quality "Take It As It Comes" if you still need it. Also have "Sweet Jane" which is, in theory, them with Lou Reed singing.

yeah, send 'em my way! Thanks! Marco already hooked me up with the Doors cover ... Seems like the only missing culprit is that Eno cover, King's Lead Hat ...

OK, keepers of Feelies lore. A friend of mine swears that apparent Feelies fan Prince once sat in with the band in MN, except he didn't want to overshadow them and apparently played guitar sitting on the edge of the stage. 1) Is there any possibility this is true? 2) Does anyone believe this?

haha, i have never heard that story. would love it if it turned out to be true. but i doubt it.

asked over on my rolling blog thread, but I'll ask here: does anyone have a recording of the Feelies doing the Eno song "King's Lead Hat." For the covers comp mentioned upthread. It's the only one I'm missing!

I have a copy of Yung Wu doing Into the Valley by the Skids, among others!

whoa really? I don't have that! I've got them doing Child of the Moon (Stones), Hide Your Love Away (Beatles), Kingdom Come (Tom Verlaine) and Powderfinger (Neil Young). Maybe a couple others ... Can you hook me up, Dan?

aight, in case you didn't see on the doom and gloom thread, that Feelies covers comp is up ... just realized I forgot the Yung Wu version of "powderfinger" tho. I'll post an addendum soon! http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

classic totally i love time as a witness and crazy rhythms

"time as a witness" would actually be a great name for an album.

its the name of the feelies album

"for a"

ooooooo sorry my mistake

tee hee.

Anyone hear anything about new recordings? Saw them at the Middle East in Cambridge last weekend and of course they didn't say anything. They were amazing as always. Six encores — six.

Mercer mentioned it briefly in an article last week in the New Haven Advocate. To paraphrase, he said they hope to get into the studio but haven't yet.

Saw the show in Connecticut ion Saturday. First set was laconic and strummy, the second set was jittery and magnificent.

I would give my nuts to see The Feelies live in the UK. Not sure if they've ever played here though. Guess I'll just have to go listen to more Feelies bootlegs to make up for it.

I know they toured Europe sometime in the 80s, at least once. I too would give my nuts to see the Feelies live ... I may just have to bite the bullet and schedule a trip to the east coast when they're playing sometime ....

First set was laconic and strummy, the second set was jittery and magnificent.
Same here. Thirty-five songs total, including covers of Velvets, Wire, R.E.M., Doors, Beatles, Stones, Neil Young.

feelies on world cafe
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127212203

looks like the feelies are featured on the sdtk to the assayas film Carlos: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536091919059272.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter
dude always has pretty great soundtracks.

tyler did you ever get a chance to see them live?

They've played a bunch of times in Jersey since your post about coming to the east coast above.

doomandgloomfromthetomb is the best thing ever. aside from the feelies obviously

" Feelies Begin Recording New Record
11 September 2010

The Feelies have begun recording their first record in nearly 20 years. The band is recording at Water Music in Hoboken NJ forthe Bar/None label.

Please check back for updates.

Thanks for the support!"

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=346187838&blogId=539058066

Good to hear. Wonder when they'll reissue Only Life and Time for a Witness.

yeah, that is cool they're recording a new album. new songs they've been playing live sound good. still haven't made it to a show -- i'm in colorado, and they haven't played anywhere west of the mississippi have they? or out of the tri-state area even? maybe someday -- flying out east for a show isn't in the budget currently.
(and thx for the kind words, spikey).

They played a free show in Chicago, some of my friends saw it.

Still fresh as the first time I had it! Which was twenty some years ago!

some news:
After a 19 year break, the Feelies are back with Here Before an album of all new original material on Bar/None Records. The new album touches on different styles from the Feelies’ long history while adding new grooves and musical ideas to the mix. Electric and acoustic guitars melt together in archetypal Feelies fashion on songs like “Nobody Knows” and “Should be Gone. “ Elsewhere there are slabs of driving garage rock like "When You Know" and "Time Is Right" and the down-tempo ”Bluer Skies,” and harmonically rich “Later On."

Here Before was recorded at Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey produced by Feelies founders Glenn Mercer and Bill Million. Besides Glenn on rhythm/lead guitar and lead vocals, and Bill on guitar and vocals, the album features Feelies mainstays Brenda Sauter (bass, vocals), Stanley Demeski (drums), and Dave Weckerman (percussion).

The Feelies proper re-emerged with a new rhythm section (the line-up they’ve had ever since and that appears on Here Before) in 1984 and recorded The Good Earth, co-produced by Million, Mercer and REM’s Peter Buck). The album was released 1986 on the Coyote label (run by Steve Fallon, owner of Hoboken, NJ’s Maxwells, and the group’s manager for a spell), followed by two further releases on Coyote through Twin/Tone/A&M: Only Life (1988) and Time For A Witness (1991). The band shared bills with Patti Smith, LouReed, REM and Bob Dylan during this period and toured nationally.

In 1992 Bill Million left the music business, moving his family to Florida and effectively putting the band on what turned out to be a very long hiatus. Meanwhile, Glenn and Dave continued playing together in Wake Ooloo, Stanley was a founding member of the band Luna and Brenda played in a number of groups including her own Wild Carnations. Glenn Mercer put out his first solo album in 2007.

In 2008, the Feelies re-united to open for long time admirers Sonic Youth at Battery Park and then resurrected their tradition of playing low key gigs around national holidays (many at their old home base, Maxwell’s) rather than doing lengthy tours. In 2009 Bar/None re-issued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, this being the first band-sanctioned CD release of the former; both titles were also issued on heavyweight vinyl and with download cards for access to bonus tracks. A highlight of the All Tomorrows Parties festival in New York state that year was the Feelies playing Crazy Rhythms in its entirety for the very first time. They also introduced new songs written by Mercer and Million raising fans’ hopes for a new album eventually materializing.

In 2010, using the basement studio in Mercer’s New Jersey home, Glenn and Bill resumed writing songs and working out arrangements for new Feelies songs in the midst of rehearsals for live shows in Boston, Philadelphia and D.C. with Bill commuting back and forth from Florida for this. By Fall that year, the band had worked up 13 songs. Basic tracks were cut at Water Music in October with the classic Feelies line-up of Mercer, Million, Demeski, Sauter and Weckerman; tracking dates were engineered by Sean Kelly who also helped out with overdubbing sessions in November and mixing in December. In addition to their main instruments Brenda played violin and sang backup vocals, Glenn contributed keyboards and Bill, Stan, Glenn and Dave all pitched in on percussion.

Many of their fans probably didn’t think they would ever get a chance to see the Feelies perform again let alone have a new album in their hands. Here Before adds a solid fifth album to the Feelies discography. The album will be released digitally as well as on CD and vinyl with a download card.

Scares the shit out of me that the record co. couldn't come up with a more exciting adjective than "solid" in their promotional material.

Still, subpar Feelies is better than top-notch most anything else, in my books. Looking forward to this, with some trepidation.

Anyone else noticed The Feelies' penchant for 3-syllable titles, hooks, and even musical phrases (esp. post-Crazy Rhythms? When I noticed the new album was called Here Before it fit the mold but coulda been chalked up to coincidence, but I had to larf when 5 of the 6 songs mentioned in the press release fit the mold.

Gor, I wish there were an edit button.

Scares the shit out of me that the record co. couldn't come up with a more exciting adjective than "solid" in their promotional material.
i know! i mean, i'm not expecting a masterpiece here (the new songs they've been playing live aren't mindblowing) but I still will probably enjoy this.

Looking forward to hearing the new one. They also have a Philly date in June that I hope to attend.

I am a weirdo who prefers "It's Only Life" to "Crazy Rhythms," incidentally, though it might very well be because I heard that one first (found on vinyl cheap when I didn't know much about the band other than a good friend loved them).

I'm weird too. Only Life -> The Good Earth -> Crazy Rhythms -> Time For A Witness

No huge gaps as I think they're all good. I used to have Crazy Rhythms above The Good Earth, but hearing live boots of that material in the years before they recorded it bumped it down. I like the live versions from the 70s more than what they did once they got in the studio.

I'm optimistic that the new record will be "solid".

This press release is as skeletal and stripped down as their records.
Very curious to listen to it.

^lol
I dunno though, that press release seems to miss some intricately intertwined guitars

On a more serious note: YES! Looking forward to this. More than anything though I hope they're willing/going to do some shows in Europe...
(and I got the same impression wrt album/song titles as staggerlee. Especially the song titles made me go "Haha, that is such a Feelies song title")

Can't listen to it at the moment but here's a song of the album.

Thanks for the link. Pretty decent track, sort of like something off the second album, but with slightly clearer production (a little less bucolic haze) and just a teeny hint of "Crazy Rhythms" weirdness at the end. In a sense, it's a Feelies-by-the-numbers tune, but that ain't bad.

this sounds prettay prettay good!

Got a copy yesterday of the album but my brain shut down and forgot to actually listen to it. Will rectify that tonight.

let us know if yr feelin' the feelies, k?

really wish they'd plant the vocals behind those intricately intertwined guitars.

I'm excited. I'm actually a big fan of Time For A Witness, probably because of all the blatant VU-isms. Hoping for more of that on the new album.

So do you guys think that the "Velvets meets REM" tag that they had on them early on was overly simplistic or otm? Or both? I vacillate but generally conclude that it's a nice starting point in describing them to folks without leading them too astray. (Or that their jangle was not at all Southern fried like REM's was?)

Gave it a listen last night as promised -- no great surprises, it's pretty much the Feelies, some gentler songs and a few rushed ones, but it's all done damn well and you can tell it's them from a mile off. "When You Know" and "Way Down" are my initial faves.

Three live songs from NPR's World Cafe Live. It's from several months ago but still a good listen:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127212203

So do you guys think that the "Velvets meets REM" tag that they had on them early on was overly simplistic or otm?

They predated REM by several years. What are you talking about?

they are indeed very Velvety but I also don't see the connection to R.E.M.

By the time they did The Good Earth (co-produced by Peter Buck) I certainly hear a few similarities to early REM in the mumbly vocals and chiming guitars. Stipe's a stronger singer, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2sb01oRT0

REM is shorter for jangly pop; that tag was heard by me later on in life, definitely after 'It's Only Life' (which I just took out and listened to this morning, actually.)

whenever i put on the good earth, my wife says that it sounds like "don't go back to rockville." and then i act like this guy: http://www.theonion.com/articles/honey-im-not-going-to-stand-here-and-debate-the-me,18952/
she's right though, it does have that sound.

feelies are better than REM, however

hey does anyone have a digital copy of the first yung wu single? the internet is letting me down.

Is that the one with the "Barstool Blues" cover? I can help you if so.

umm i'm not sure -- the "shore leave" single (not the album) ... maybe it's just a dave weckerman single?

Here's a site with the whole album, but it sounds like you're after a B-side?

http://sunshinesmilefactory.blogspot.com/2010/03/yung-wu-shore-leave.html

yeahhh, this would be an earlier thing? dan selzer mentions it above: "One of them released a solo single of a song that would be on the Yung Wu record record and it's even better." just haven't heard it, and would love to!

Okay...can't help you. And I realize that "Barstool Blues" is a Feelies cover; it's "Powderfinger" that Yung Wu recorded.

yeah! that yung wu record is fantastic. anyway, i'm putting together a little feelies family tree mix kind of thing (side projects/solo projects/related bands/etc.) and thought i'd try to hunt it down. seems extremely obscure. if i didn't just make it up.

http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/images/disc/Dave45.jpg
this is what i think i'm talking about

tyler have u heard the Trypes demos that were on Dime a while back? I can send 'em to you if u want.

i've got something called the trypes demos -- probably the same thing?

yeah that's it, here's my tracklist

1. A Plan Revised
2. The Inner Light (Beatles)
3. ?
4. Return to Zion
5. Eternal Ice
6. ?
7. ?
8. The Obedient Atom
9. When Company Comes

Trypes demos may be more then Trypes. Maybe some Willies and Yung Wu or whatever. I'm talking to them and trying to sort it out. They're digging through some old tapes for a potential Trypes expanded reissue, which somebody will be delighted to release should things work out.

Aw man, that would be awesome. I downloaded the Trypes EP a while back, rules my world. Impossible to find a copy, too. Now to look for the demos.

That Weckerman single is amazing btw. Has more in common with weirdo 70s american outsider stuff like MX-80 or Debris or Pere Ubu or something.

That Weckerman solo single/pre Yung Wu release that tyler's looking for is listed in this PSF piece. Can't find more than that at the moment.

Dave Weckerman
"Out of Baby's Reach" (Yellow Fear)single 1980

Looking forward to that Acute release, dan :)

expanded trypes reissue would be great. make it happen, dan! the trypes demos, yeah, i wondered if stuff like "the obedient atom" and "when company comes" (both of which the feelies were playing live in 1980-81) are actually from the demo tape that the band submitted to stiff records, the one that led to stiff dropping them, or whatever.

the carla bley stuff talked about here:
PSF: After the first album, what happened with Stiff?

GLENN: Stiff requested a demo for a second album. They didn't like it. We were doing a lot of home recording, even more in an Eno mode and less like a rock band. Stiff rejected the songs and he just wrote some more. We weren't playing (live) at that point. Anton was playing with the Lounge Lizards, doing live shows. He just called up and said "I quit the band." Then Stiff took that that opportunity to drop the band. One song "The Obediant Atom" was pretty similar to "40 Days" on the first Wake Ooloo record. I think we only had a couple of songs. We really weren't ready to do another record anyway. It was kind of relief actually.

DAVE: We spend three days recording "The Obediant Atom" in Carla Bley's studio. It was an instrumental with some chanting at the end. When Stiff heard that, their hair started falling out. "Is this what the next album is going to sound like?" In the meantime, me and Keith did all the drumming parts. We went to England and played two shows and came home.

GLENN: At one point, they (Stiff) took us into their office and said that we needed a hit single. They played the latest Lene Lovich single. It was like a scene out of a movie. "(Do) something like this- you know, verse-chorus-verse." We just laughed to ourselves and it turned out that it wasn't a hit anyway.

wsj article on the new album here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703858404576214672616456018.html

heyyy, i posted my little feelies family tree sampler over here if anyone's interested: http://ow.ly/4rhcn

Not a bad sample!

didn't even know there was a new album until i read the rolling stone review last night. will buy this if i can find a store that carries it. not an easy task.

yeah, new songs i've heard sound excellent. in the good earth vein, it seems.

i like the wake ooloo stuff. didn't buy the solo album from a few years back. wasn't that kind of an unofficial feelies album? remember something about that. the mercer one.

yeah, pretty much all the feelies played on in it some capacity -- except bill million, i think? it's good, maybe a little snoozy in parts.

Bill Million's on it.
It's a dminishing returns album: starts great, then gets progressively less interesting because it all sounds exactly the same.

million's on the mercer solo album? he isn't listed in the credits ...

Six songs in to the new one before anything really caught my attention. Way Down is pretty good. I find myself wishing they'd done a new Yung Wu album instead.

first impression is there isn't a standout song like "it's only life," but still this is more solid (or maybe just less dated-sounding?) than the last official album

I never really thought any Feelies songs stood out besides maybe their Beatles cover

not to say that they aren't totally classic

the last two songs on the good earth are awesome

plus i'd say the title track of crazy rhythms

"Slow Down" is my favorite thing they ever did, yes.

I always assumed that Slipping Into Something was the stand-out track. It seemed to be the live centerpiece, at least until they started covering Dancing Barefoot..... New album is growing on me. It's definitely more "Good Earth" than anything else. Mentally and chronologically I'm so far from the college kid who flipped over Good Earth...it's a little strange hearing Feelies sounding preserved in amber.

pretty funny reading new interviews with mercer -- guy is not a chatty cathy.

i like this album, but i agree that it's pretty samey.

really enjoying the new record -- no surprise, i guess, but I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, anyway. Kind of a more easy-going cousin to The Good Earth. Maybe a little too easy-going at times, but mostly a pleasure.

also, interesting feelies related news via the speed the plough website:
As if that’s not enough, we’ve put the final touches on the tracks for the Trypes compilation, which will see the light of day on vinyl and digitally this summer. In addition to all the songs from The Explorer’s Hold, we dug deep into the archives for a collection of songs that span the band’s history, beginning with the original quartet and right up through the final seven-piece combo. Much more about this project in the coming weeks.
totally great news. guess there's a new speed the plough record coming out too! 2011 -- the year of the feelies, haha.

Probably not this summer, but fall hopefully!

so is this going to be an acute release, dan?

Let me get back to you on that one!

i like this mercer quote:
Even though your sound has calmed down some from the early days on record, you always seem to ratchet it up several notches in concert.

Oh, yeah, it’s a totally different environment. It’s hard to describe, but Bill, half-joking, described the genesis one time. A long time ago, we were down in a dressing room and someone offered us a couple of tokes on some really good weed. We got on stage and tried tuning in front of the audience and it was taking forever. We stopped playing, left the stage, went to the dressing room, and spent another ten minutes trying to tune. We went back found it was just as bad as before. So, just to get the set over and done with, we rushed it. And it became our template for our live shows from then on.

http://timeoutboston.com/music-nightlife/music/106619/interview-glenn-mercer-of-the-feelies

Just clicking around I came across this 2008 interview, from just before the show(s?) with Sonic Youth I guess. Million doesn't say anything, Mercer sometimes grumbles something in character (about never having talked with Sonic Youth even though there must have been lots of opportunities: "Maybe they're shy like us". lol).
But also Weckerman talks about just having recorded stuff with Glenn as Yung Wu - all covers of lesser known songs by famous bands. "Mary Ann with the Shaky Hand"! That song has written Feelies/Yung Wu/Trypes all over it. Man, that should be great covers album.

ooh that does sound good.
lol at the stonefaced feelies. so uncomfortable!

Man, I'm so on the fence about the new album. Not the music, per se, but whether I can bring myself to buy it. On the one hand, if ever there were a band I won't download on principle, it's the Feelies. On the other hand, I've pretty much stopped buying music. Hmm ...

I mean, if they toured I'd buy it at the merch stand! But I could be waiting to implement that compromise for a long time.

They are touring right now! The current dates are limited to the Northeast Corridor though.

That's no tour, man. That's, like, four dates.

new album is totally worth your $11.

A longtime friend/fan of the Feelies played me a mix CD he had put together of Yung Wu doing all covers, maybe it was that stuff. They did Into the Valley by The Skids!

Why have you stopped buying music?

It's official. Expanded Trypes vinyl/download on Acute in the Fall.

:D
that is great news. tbh i wish acute had done the feelies reish-es as well!

( & since this thread has been revived, i may as well let y'all know that i just re-posted the "crazy rhythms LIVE" thing over here: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/6143081786/crazy-rhythms-live-heres-another-re-post-by )

Just posted about Speed the Plough's shows and new album on the Acute Blog:

http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=544

but I can see you've already seen that, Tyler!

Exciting to mention of a show they're doing in a few weeks with Wild Carnation and...Yung Wu! The Yung Wu album just gets better and better every time I listen to it.

whoops, I thought you were liking my post to the Acute facebook account about the shows, not my posting of the Velvets live show!

Tylerw I too have tried to patch a live version of 'Crazy Rhythms' together. You don't happen to have a lossless copy of your mix do you. I'm a bit or a nerd about these kinda things.

ha yes, i like the return of yung wu and speed the plough too!
i don't have a lossless version of that comp, tho i suppose i could make one? not sure...

more stuff -- WeckerFest! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=225693814122335

For some reason I always thought The Feelies were a a jangly Byrds pastiche type band of the new wave era. My misconception has stopped me disovering them till now. Just got into Crazy Rythms and am pleasantly fucking suprised.

Good thing you didn't start with the follow up! It's as good, but more jangly. Loving Crazy Rhythms will help acclimate you!

If you can be bothered Tylerw. I should look back and see if I actually finished my attempt. 'The Obedient Atom' is amazing. Damn shame no studio versions appeared. Anything from that transitional period before 'The Good Earth' would be welcomed as well.

hoping some of that transitional period is documented on dan's trypes reissue! i think things got fairly vague in that period as to what band was what -- the feelies/trypes/willies etc.

Y'know what, I've never heard the Trypes or the Willies. Where's the best place to start given that, as much as I love The Feelies, I've always wanted just a little bit more 'Crazy Rhythms'?

think you gotta wait for the reissues. there's really only one long out of print EP from the trypes called explorer's hold.
i put together a feelies family tree over here with a bunch of side project/related bands: http://ow.ly/4rhcn
but i'd just get the feelies albums proper first...

Good stuff. I'll download and listen over the weekend.

As for the rest of the Feelies catalogue. I have it all. Just listened to the new one for the first time recently. Sounded good. I'm sure I have a Yung Wu boot somewhere that's jam packed full over inspired cover versions.

I have that as well. They play Into the Valley by the Skids!

just updated my feelies covers comp with the new songs they've been playing this year: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/8348711780/real-cool-time-feelies-covers-1977-2011-the

guess there's a new Yung Wu record?
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/251494_2136457624368_1633930988_2126993_3394850_n.jpg

I was commenting on Stan Demeski's facebook thread about that. Nobody cleared it up. It's from a few years ago. Dave and friends, mostly covers. I have a CD-r of "rarities" that I think is all covers, so maybe that's something else entirely. They're playing tomorrow, but like usual, I probably won't make it...

yeah i guess they were selling it at Weckerfest? and probably at the yung wu show I imagine. who will get me a copy?

Everyone's favorite frontman and raconteur Dave Weckerman will be bringing his band Yung Wu to Tierney's in Montclair this Friday night, supported by Glenn, Brenda and Stan of The Feelies and John and Ed from Speed the Plough. The festivities begin at 8 p.m. and will include performances by East of Venus and The Thousand Pities. Be there or be square.

man why don't i live in montclair
there's a cool pair of trypes beatles covers here: http://soundcloud.com/speed-the-plough/blue-jay-way-all-too-much
would love to hear this whole show...

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404677_10150483560656218_292471066217_9280772_1804605_n.jpg

Just a quick update, this is coming together nicely. I've been hesitant to promote the hand-printed/assembled nature of the sleeve because it's a new a big undertaking for my soon to be announced printshop venture and I wasn't 100% confidant I'd be able to pull it off. As it is, all the sleeves are printed, most of them are glued and I've got a few days of attaching the photo to the front, as you can see in the comp posted above.

Nice. Hope to finally give a listen to the promo this week.

Trypes reish is stellar, and judging from the pdf included in the promo, I'm definitely going to want the physical edition! Bonus material is fantastic, even the lower-fi rehearsals/live recordings. Best thing so far is just hearing the Explorers Hold EP without all the fuzz/crackle of my vinyl rip. Really a lovely recording, very layered and subtle.

I totally missed the january update - is that the cover? That's beautiful.
As it is, I've finally installed a turntable in our livingroom last week and The Explorers Hold is on now!

i've been in a fairly deep feelies hole lately, not only because of the Trypes reissue, but because I got my hands on some Willies tapes -- the experimental/mostly instrumental group that existed in the early 80s and sooner or later morphed into the Feelies mk 2. It's fantastic stuff, very Eno-y and mysterious sounding.

Dan I will absolutely throw money at you for a vinyl edition of that Trypes reissue, their EP is one of the very last Feelies canon records I don't own yet and I'd love to rectify that.

Man, that's ILM in full swing isn't it? You casually wave yr Coyote vinyl and out comes a dude laying his Willie(s tapes) on the table ;)
Would digitizing them be an option to make other people happy?

And yes of course, I'll throw money dan-wards too come April 24th.

Great. The pic above is the virtual version of the cover...mocked up digitally. We weren't going to have finished ones assembled to photo/scan and use as the cover on iTunes/Amazon etc in time, so that will have to do.

That Willies recording is awesome, as is the Trypes set you posted. The band was excited about it, but John says he thinks the tape was running at a slightly off speed and the whole thing is sped up a bit.

could be, it does sound a little bit chirpy.
and yeah, I'll be sharing those willies tapes sooner rather than later. they really are fantastic.

Dan I will absolutely throw money at you for a vinyl edition of that Trypes reissue,

SECONDED.

Would digitizing them be an option to make other people happy?

Heck yeah!

alrightee, here are The Willies: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/19958015844/get-the-willies-the-willies-would-play-in-the
recommended!!!!

the feelies on mtv news of all places
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=32tclWllf24
really wish demme had filmed an entire feelies show a la stop making sense.

At that time, with the Demme connection and the then red-hot Pete Buck "producing" the previous Feelies album, a Lou Reed tour (sometime around then) plus a new major label deal, some believed the Feelies might have some sort of hit record. Which is ludicrous, but that's why MTV would have spent the time covering them this wee bit.

http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=940

quick post summing up Trypes press and mentioning next week's "Rent Party" in South Orange NJ featuring performances by The Trypes AND Yung Wu!

Dud for not doing another full-on tour.

I got the Trypes reissue on vinyl and it's awesome. Thank you for doing it, Dan.

Been listening a lot to both vinyl and digital formats ("People Unintentional Soft Tomorrow Hospital" is crazy fun). The vinyl release is so gorgeously done, I haven't got the heart to take off the shrink wrap...
It's an awesome reissue.

The Willies demos & live stuff that that essential blog has posted now has me wanting a similar reissue package for those. They're so esoteric/idiosyncratic, sometimes barely there - gripping stuff.

Are Boomkat the only source for flacs?

Yes. The only other source that seems to be serviced by our distributor is actually more expensive. Most services charge a lot because of bandwidth I assume.

Love the Feelies family tree. When are we going to get Yung Wu? And will anyone remind me whether Wake Ooloo is worthwhile? Those albums are still in print, but I haven't heard them in 15 years.

i know that bar none wants to do some sort of roundup boxset/comp of various feelies family tree stuff. whether the band wants to do it is another question! wake ooloo has its moments, but it's always struck me as the least inspired of mercer's projects. his solo album from a few years back is great though.

& if anyone didn't get it, i have re-upped that willies collection after it was deleted from mediaf1re. get it while you can. i'm pretty ok with posting it -- it didn't come directly from the band, but pretty close. anyhoo, yeah, it is awesome!

(listening to the Willies - thanks tyler)

zomg K'werk cover! sweet (even with the duff notes)

kind of fascinating listening to the demos, I listened to a lot of stuff that sounded like this circa the late 90s and imagined it to have been invented by New Zealanders several years after these demos, I guess

wait which one is the kraftwerk cover?

"Midnight" starts off as "Kometenmelodie 2" (and confusingly not "Mitternacht") off Autobahn

I don't know if the other parts are from somewhere else or just a general jam but it's p. great anyhow. thanks again

oh ha, totally missed that! but i think you're right!

So I saw Yung Wu and the Trypes perform at the South Orange Elks Lodge last night to a an audience of what was mostly friends and family and Elks and NJ locals and a few record nerds travelling from distant places like Princeton and Queens. Pretty damn amazing. And while we can discuss how this family of bands are some of the greatest interpreters/cover acts of all time, I should add how special it is to watch Yung Wu introduce all the cover songs by briefly describing the song...and holding up a copy of the actual record, such as Phil Manzanera's Diamond Head or the Cd that featured the Move's Walk Upon the Water.

Gah! Sounds amazing. Crazy jealous.

yeah, would've liked to see that!
yung wu's cover of manzanera/eno's "big day" is so great.

I should also mention that a certain Feelies/Trypes/Yung Wu/Luna drummer, whom I've never actually met outside of Facebook, spoke his first words ever to me by running up to me, shaking my hand, and saying "where's my royalties, motherfucker".

I said they were being auctioned off as there was a raffle going on. Later on I thought "up my nose" would've been a funnier response.

haha! stan seems like a good guy.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m59mb1Qvft1rxbnrlo1_1280.jpg

I have to say that the Feelies have become one of my favorite bands over the last few years. Since the Crazy Rhythms and Good Earth reissues, I've really gotten into them and studied their music.

The recent Trypes reissue is excellent in presentation and contents. A beautiful package; a lot of care clearly went into it.

First post here, by the way. Long time on again/off again lurker.

HI DERE. Introduce yourself:

Introduce Yourselves!

TFAW has quietly become my most played of their records.

The recent Trypes reissue is excellent in presentation and contents. A beautiful package; a lot of care clearly went into it.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

hi austin. yeah, the feelies took about a decade to become my favorite band. i loved 'em from the first time i heard them, but as the years went by, i realized they were the perfect band (for me, anyway). and with the trypes stuff, the recently surfaced willies stuff, they just keep on getting perfect-er.

hoping a tape of Dr. Robert's Inner Light Ensemble emerges!

"You remind me of a TV show, that's alright I'll watch it anyway" is one of my favorite lyrics ever

Thank you very much for the kind words!

You should be very pleased with the results. It's one of my favorite things to come along in quite a while.

the aficionados will already have it, but here's an excellent early feelies show http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2012/10/04/the-feelies-cbgb-nyc-december-14-1977
couple of tracks that never made it to the studio, plus an extremely early slipping into something.

Big Plans did make it to the studio. Was going to be the B-side to the Ork single I think, with Fa Ce La.

has it ever actually been released [bootleg or otherwise] though? i've never heard it...

dan you should do an Ork Records comp! look how cool this stuff is. stop what you're doing and make it happen!

ORK 81975 Television - Little Johnny Jewel Pt 1 & 2.
ORK 81976 Richard Hell - Another World/You Gotta Lose, Blank Generation
ORK 81977 Marbles - Red Light/Fire And Smoke
ORK 81978 Alex Chilton - The Singer Not The Song EP
ORK 81979 Prix - Girl, Everytime I Close My Eyes/Zero
ORK 81980 Mick Farren - Play With Fire/Lost Johnny
ORK 81981 Link Cromwell - Crazy Like A Fox/Shock Me
ORK 81982 Chris Stamey - Summer Sun/Where The Fun Is
ORK 81983
ORK 81984 Feelies - Fa Ce'La/Big Plans (unreleased)
ORK 81985 Blue Vein - Get off My Cloud/Connection (unreleased)

ORK NYC 1 Television - Little Johnny Jewel Pt 1 & 2/Little Johnny Jewel Pt 1 & 2 (live) 12"
ORK NYC 2 Idols - You/Girl That I Love
ORK NYC 3 Revelons - The Way You Touch My Hand/96 Tears
ORK NYC 4
ORK NYC 5 Cheetah Chrome - Still Wannna Die/Take Me Home
ORK NYC 5 Student Teachers - Christmas Weather/Channel 13

I almost did a Student Teachers CD, back in the early days of Acute. Channel 13 is absolutely a favorite song, which I first heard on a Chuck Warner CD. Then there's two songs on that ubiquitous Marty Thau 2x5 compilation, What I Can't Feel and Looks. Past Tense, 1 of 4 songs from the "Easter 78 Halloween 80" EP showed up on the ROIR NY Singles Scene compilation (same place I first heard Theoretical Girls).

They were one of a bunch of great young later CBs bands, I once noted most of which were produced by various members of Blondie. Nervous Rex, US Ape, The Mumps etc.

Anyway, some of the source material quality was pretty spotty and I wasn't as confidant in the restoration abilities at the time, and didn't think in the end that it would attract enough interest. But there's a pretty seriously good CBGB's power-pop type half hour of material there that probably deserves a vinyl release as well.

I'm going to hjack the Feelies thread for a brief look at lesser known CBGBs bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOYmwCa4bkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmnaJQmW5_U&feature=watch_response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yke96ZVxCkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLRK26IWa48&feature=related

my band opened for u.s. ape once! cbgb. a guy from that band told us "don't let a weekend gig at cbs be your highest goal." hah! we broke up before we ever got a weekend gig at cbs. plus i once played with a guitarist who had dated lauren from nervous rex. and i think one of the student teachers guys was a contemporary of mine at college. don't think i knew him though. there was another campus band called the exhusbands that i did know, and that somehow got inter-tangled in the student teachers family tree. (http://www.snee.com/exhusbands/) please keep hijacking.

yeah kind of interesting that there was such a power pop thing happening, aside from the db's you don't really hear about any of these bands? or maybe i'm just not looking.

& to get back to the feelies, it is irritating that the band didn't take advantage of that crazy rhythms reish a few years back to put out those early singles/sessions. but they must really not like them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smoynB8HWaE

I've offered to do it hell, I BEGGED!

Maybe they'll do it some time but mostly I think they weren't totally satisfied and preferred to focus on getting the actual releases back out there and work on new stuff.

you didn't beg hard enough.
looks like the feelies are playing next spring in baltimore and philadelphia. maybe i'll fly out!

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/302650_476923579007799_1438162660_n.jpg

Need my brain to be on feelies RIGHT NOW.

true story -- the new band i'm playing in is (tentatively) called Forces At Work.

you guys better be ruling

i know, that is really my hesitation in calling the band that -- it's a lot to live up to!

gah!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcrpc41H3v1rxbnrlo1_500.jpg

anti designer jeans night!

when that's the degree of attention Alex Chilton could get...

ha, i didn't even notice him. did the peppermint lounge turn into some other club or did it just close?

Was there ever a direct relationship between the Vulgar Boatmen and Feelies? Because I just heard this song for the first time in a while, and, well ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqoYlmPVeAo&feature=related

ha, haven't heard that before, but yes, the backing track sounds like it was directly lifted from the only life sessions.

"direct" I wouldn't think so (Florida, Walter Salas-Humara etc)

(xp)
Vulgar Boatmen and Feelies definitely sound a lot a like, don't know if there was a direct connection

always thought this one could've been a feelies song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jTkTukfjZM

This is probably common knowledge, but that's REM warming up for The Cramps on that Pep Lounge ad. (I wish alt rock bar ads still looked like that.)

vulgar boatmen are a good find, ty

Vulgar Boatmen always referenced New Order as well as the VU, and if you squint when you listen to that above track you can definitely hear the NO influence.

my ears don't squint tyvm

whoah that Lou song has serious Feelies vibes. Returning the favor I guess.

I know Carlos has been mentioned, but this aspect was news to me:

Initially, Assayas planned to use several songs by The Feelies on the soundtrack but shortly before post-production was completed he was informed that members of the band did not want their music associated with terrorism. The director remembers, "We ended up managing to keep one song for a scene that did not involve any kind of terroristic activity. But I had to completely reinvent the whole score".[36] He ended up using several songs by Wire. The soundtrack includes:

Loveless Love by The Feelies
Dreams Never End by New Order
Terebellum by Fripp & Eno
All Night Party by A Certain Ratio
Ahead by Wire
Forces at Work by The Feelies
Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys
Dot Dash by Wire
Drill by Wire
The 15th by Wire
Sharing by Satisfaction
Pure by The Lightning Seeds
La Pistola y el Corazon by Los Lobos
El sueño americano by La Portuaria
Muwashshah by Hamza El Din

Wire has no problem with terrorism. They're down with the cause.

feelies are totally ok with purse snatching too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe2kMuWLddE

that movie did have a cool soundtrack, assayas is good at that stuff.

I was totally shocked and surprised hearing those songs while watching Carlos. It was strange as historically it doesn't make sense. The chronology doesn't fit, the setting doesn't fit, but it was awesome. Something fit. I guess that's filmmaking!

I found it totally distracting. Iirc, I turned off the movie and put on the Feelies. Dunno if I ever finished "Carlos."

ha. To each their own!

yeah, historically a lot of it didn't fit, but i think the vibe was right? i dunno, assayas ends Summer Hours with an incredible string band song, which on paper sounds totally wrong, but i thought it was kind of magical.

I loved Carlos, the film and the soundtrack. "Dreams Never End" may as well be renamed "Carlos' theme," at least to me.

It definitely helped me reestablish a love for Wire's Ahead.

true story -- the new band i'm playing in is (tentatively) called Forces At Work.

― tylerw, Monday, October 22, 2012 1:44 PM (1 month ago)

I was going to call my new band that! But there's a German nu-metal band who've already scooped it.

ha, i saw that. i'm just ignoring them for the moment.

THUMB-WRESTLE YOU FOR IT

we already have this tumblr, i believe that gives us legal rights to the name in perpetuity forever and ever. http://forcesatwork.tumblr.com

dunno if anyone is in the hudson valley, but if so!
Night of the Living Feelies: Yung Wu, East of Venus, Wild Carnations; Saturday, January 19; 8 p.m., $12/advance, $15/door, 18 & over, BSP, 323 Wall Street, Kingston; (845) 481-5158, www.bsplounge.com.

this is pretty great, a write-up of Red Buckets, a Philly band with some Feelies involvement: http://tapewrecks.blogspot.com/2013/01/red-buckets-cover-your-eyes.html
also the subject of a yo la tengo tune.

Dear Feelies,

Please tour. If Burma can do it, so can you.

Thanks,

Josh

ha, yeah, at this point, i'm thinking i'll just have to bite the bullet and fly out to hoboken for one of these shows....

Drop by Philly for the show here. I'll buy you a beer.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a4195e33d07744b79cbebab4acbd48f0/tumblr_mjwv2mL6XP1rxbnrlo1_1280.jpg

that is awesome, tyler. maybe ira k took that subscription bait?

http://thequietus.com/articles/11644-yo-la-tengo-ira-kaplan-favourite-albums?page=4

haha, i wouldn't be surprised if ira k wrote that subscription bait.
by the way, the best place to find feelies ephemera like this is here: http://zippy49.tumblr.com/

I like how they offer a 'scrip without the album. Why on earth wouldn't anyone pay 50 cents for any album? Even if it sucks, you can sell it! Even if you have it already you can give it to a friend! I guess if you're a misanthrope with no friends and every album known to man... Which describe a lot of music critics actually, so never mind.

The show this evening was phenomenal... No support, two and a half hours (with an intermission) of Feelies goodness.

Set lists (before and after intermission):

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/39285_10152662928725597_1288218256_n.jpg http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/577117_10152662930110597_822294102_n.jpg

They encored with three tracks that I was too busy dancing to to take note of what they were... I suck.

That comeback album they did was also quite good. If all reunion-after-years-apart projects were as solid as that, the stigma of such projects sucking would be totally gone. Love this song best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Mj_5U96jw

thanks for posting the set!
yeah the new one is solid. apparently they're working on another lp too.

So I just saw Glenn Mercer band open for Real Estate at a charity show in Real Estate's home town of Ridgewood, NJ. The town is a familiar place where family has lived all my life (mother grew up there). Glenn was great and so was Real Estate. He came back on stage at the end and played a handful of Feelies songs with Real Estate backing. Lots of fun.

All took place at the middle school (moved there due to ominous weather reports)!

sounds fun! real estate are big feelies fans i gather. there was some recording of them doing a feelies cover, but i can't remember where now.

et voila
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8vJd6MeC9U

Yup, that was last night! Vocals were garbled due to the equipment on hand at a middle school auditorium.

Good news!!

Janice Demeski ‏@zippy49 2h
Looks like The Feelies' Only Life and Time for a Witness will be reissued later this year. Finally.

Oh good! I've been asking Glenn Morrow over at Bar/None when they were going to get around to these.
I imagine they'll be doing the reissues this time around as well.

huzzah!

GREAT STUFF. Been jonesing for "Witness" on vinyl.

it's a nightmare, it's all negative. nothing matters and what if it did?

will be interesting to see what kinda bonus stuff they come up with. there are a few b-side covers: "dancing barefoot," "white light/white heat," "egyptian reggae"...
looks like they're doing some east coast gigs this spring.

this sounds fun: http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/films/film-series/detail/76257#17745

Hi, I saw mentioned a Yung Wu CDR sold at concerts, with three new songs and some covers. Anyone knows where to find a copy or a download link. Buying it at concerts is not an option unless Yung Wu plan to tour Europe

yeah i have not been able to track that down either. and glenn mercer is apparently selling a covers CD at shows too. they should at least set up a bandcamp or something.

Bandcamp ?

http://bandcamp.com - just a place to see digital downloads, stream music etc.

Then again, a Feelies music camp (something akin to the King Crimson week-long event) would be kind of irresistible.

that would be awesome
a weekend would do!

Agreed. I'd be exhausted after a couple of days.

definitely would be a lot of calisthenics. i always think that the drummers must be exhausted after a feelies gig.

no kidding!!

i guess Anton Fier had a rough time of it:
"Fier, for example, was wont to bleed from hands and mouth and occasionally threw up behind the drum kit!"
http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/press/bucketfull.htm
Elsewhere in that article, Bill Million says they had a hard time finding drummers because the songs are "probably very physically demanding but boring to play."

oh man! i didn't know that! that's terrible, i thought he liked to play like that and that's why he did it. it did seem baffling to me though because the songs are indeed extremely boring to play and physically demanding.
and bleeding from hands and mouth is pretty bad.

poor guy
he is from my neck of the woods too! what's he doing these days? i keep wondering if he's touring with bob mould for the workbook thing but not enough to look it up.

i don't know what Fier is up to these days... hopefully drumming! he is a cool drummer. I think Stan Demeski has said he kind of likes playing like a machine, so the Feelies are a good fit.
drummers do get a workout -- whenever i'm playing a show, i look over at the drummer and think he/she is totally running several miles during this performance and i'm just standing here relaxing.

that ork records comp suggested above? happening for real.

http://pitchfork.com/news/58199-numero-group-to-release-ork-records-box-set-featuring-television-alex-chilton-the-feelies-more/

yeah, looks so good... annoyed it's a RSD thing, hopefully not too hard to come by.
i guess the tracklisting they sent out is wrong -- feelies single is fa ce la / forces at work -- big plans would've been slightly more interesting, since that song didn't make it onto crazy rhythms...

Big plans was recorded as the b side for the unreleased Ork single. I have a scan of the artwork even. If that's rally the Ork version of those, that's a big deal and somebody at pitchfork didn't do their homework.

yeah that's what i thought too. don't think it was pfork's fautl though.
the tracklisting in the press release says "fa ce la / big plans," but i had seen a label on numero's instagram with forces at work on it. i asked them about it and they said: "should be fa ce la b/w forces at work. big plans is something else."
post the scan of that artwork, dan -- would love to see it!

probably shouldn't!

:'I

That's too bad. I was going to buy this box set (doubtlessly insanely expensive as a rsd exclusive) just for "Big Plans." I may still get it. I'm already in $100 for the Scharpling and Wurster box set that month.

wtf Numero

new glenn mercer solo covers CDR was for sale at this weekend's feelies shows...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPZbLjMXAAAyfnN.jpg

Fun show at Storm King in the Hudson valley yesterday. The Feelies played a short-ish set (1 hr?) that was heavy on the high energy songs that don't usually pop up in the usual Feelies two-set shows until later in the second set. They ended with a blistering version of "...me and my monkey." Such a beautiful place for a show and I finally got my hands on as elusive Feelies coffee mug.

pics of that show looked wonderful. more kids should be at feelies shows.

It was pretty kid heavy, was a great place for them. Plenty of room to run around (or dance crazy.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3cNzghOTp4

Ha, thanks for that! I'm in that one, drinking beer, right near Ms. Sauter.

ha, awesome. love the kid on her dad's shoulders rocking out.

Oh hey, I was there too! Great show! Sun was brutal, breeze was great. I was hanging out on the hill.

Already got the poster framed and hanging in the kitchen.

Damn you're fast. Do you have a 24 hour framer near your house? Or something? That's a really nice poster

It was just luck actually. We changed out the poster that was already there and the frame happened to be a perfect fit.

But overall Storm King is great. It's a perfect joining of cold, lifeless abstract sculptures with a beautiful nature setting. Plus Beacon NY is close by, which is a fun place to get a drink or bite to eat... or see more cold lifeless art! (which I am not against by the way)

That gig looks fantastic. Evan or kwhitehead, did you get the covers cdr?

I totally missed last summer's news about Mercer releasing an instrumental album on October 9: http://www.bar-none.com/glenn-mercer/
There's mention of rereleases of Only Life and Time for a Witness on Bar/None later this year as well.

yeah the mercer instrumental disc is pretty nice!
apparently no set date for those reissues though -- might be next year, I think.

of course you've heard it already ;-)

No rush with the reissues... What I'd really like is a Feelies live album

ha, the instrumental disc (or at least versions of it) has been floating around for a few years now -- a CDR was sold at feelies shows a la this new covers disc. but it deserves an actual release.

Evan or kwhitehead, did you get the covers cdr?

I did not. Merch table was cash only (I mis-judged the amount of stuff that they would have available. I should have brought more $) and I had to make some difficult decisions. Plus, had to buy lunch for the kids.

wfmu played a track from the new CDR a couple nights ago: http://wfmu.org/playlists/JJ/150922

Yeah I didn't see it. Got the poster and wasn't too observant about what else they had to offer!

Listening to Incidental Hum for the first time right now.

Ahh man, it's like an instrumental Feelies album. That's awesome. The covers at the end, too! All three of 'em are right on.

Now I'm stuck with a quandry of what to do: the album was released in limited quantities three years ago, but this new release is like, well, a new release to me. Do I count it as a 2015 release?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-3_lFaagh4
The Feelies live in the Netherlands in 1989, full show. Haven't seen the whole thing, but "For Awhile" (@17 mins) is awesome...

nice!
only life and time for a witness reissues are forthcoming ... some live stuff and studio remakes as bonus tracks, but it's all from recent years, I believe. not sure why they aren't including some of the b sides from that period.

guess there's a new Yung Wu record?
― tylerw, Friday, August 12, 2011

Okay, what was the image that no longer shows up? I've never seen any other information about this. There's nothing in my searches. Help!

xp they left off "Dancing Barefoot"?!?!?

re: the yung wu record:
Yung Wu only released one album, which has long been out of print, but there is a second disc of songs that the band burns to CDR’s and sells at shows. “It’s like Bowie’s ‘Pin Ups’ album, it’s three originals and then a lot of covers,” Weckerman said. “They’re songs by pretty famous bands that I always thought should have been bit hits but weren’t. Like, we do a song by the Move, from England, and a Tom Verlaine song. There’s a Procul Harum song, an Eno song, and there are Stones and Who and Kinks songs, but they’re not well known. By the Stones we do a song called ‘Please Go Home,’ which was on some compilation album. But it’s a pretty good song, it’s got the Bo Diddley beat but it’s really psychedelic. I guess they wrote it back when they first starting doing a lot of drugs.”
i still haven't tracked it down, i should bug someone...

looks like there's also a record store day thing coming out -- but seems to be new recordings too? not sure. their "dancing barefoot" was on a single, right? or was it just a promo (hence the "none commercially available" comment)

As a special Record Store Day release Bar None/Coyote Records will co-release the Feelies Uncovered. This will be a limited edition 12 " EP featuring studio recordings of four cover songs, none commercially available before: "Seven Days" (Bob Dylan), "Take It As It Comes" (The Doors), "Dancing Barefoot" (Patti Smith), and "Bar Stool Blues" (Neil Young).

yeah it was promo only, although maybe it was on a Bob magazine flexi also? not "commercial" enough to count I guess.

i've always hoped that they'd release a full show from the late 80s -- on one of those promos there are a handful of pro-recorded performances from 1988 I think.

http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/images/disc/4songs.gif
this one has "egyptian reggae" and "everybody's got something to hide" recorded "live at the Roxy, Hollywood, CA"

I've got the yung wu

DAN

Thought revive would be about their involvement in the film Smithereens, which I never knew about until the other day.

They do Walk Upon the Water by The Move and Into the Valley by The Skids. Hasn't this been discussed?

I only got it because a friend of mine invited me to dinner and her mother was there and her partner is a hoboken scenemaker and fan. You know who else was there? Malcom Mooney and Rick Brown.

And Sue Garner.

oh it's been discussed plenty, but i still haven't heard it!
that sounds like a good dinner party to be at ...

I picked up the reissues today. Annoying that the bonus tracks are MP3 downloads.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/the-feelies-only-life-time-for-a-witness/

They did that exact same thing with the Crazy Rhythms and the Good Earth reissues a few years back.

yeah it's a little annoying, but i guess that's just how they like to do it...
reissues sound gooood, but how could they not?

The last batch of Feelies reissues allowed the buyer to download WAV files of the whole album, including bonus tracks. Is that not the case here, or are the bonus tracks really only MP3?

huh I am almost positive that when I bought that Bar None reissue of Crazy Rhythms that the bonus trax were MP3-only, I tend to pay attention to that stuff and I only have it in my MP3 files.

that that that

The Feelies, Beach Fossils
FREE SHOW - July 18 – Monday – 6:00pm – Central Park, Manhattan
http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/event/summerstage-feelies-beach-fossils/

Nice. Saw them play last weekend for nearly 3 hours. Did Stooges, Television, Patti Smith and Modern Lovers covers as part of that.

which Television tune did they do -- "See No Evil"?

yup

Break after first set at Kingston show. No recognizable covers as yet.

Second set underway. Sound mix much improved.

Encore covers ended up being
"She Said, She Said"
"White Light/White Heat"
"Paint It Black"

Think they may have been put off by audience response (and perhaps curtailed show a tiny bit?)
At one point Brenda said "You know, you can talk between songs."

Nobody calling friends, "Guess where I am!", even? Makes me think of the audience in Blow-Up (and one of the decade or so later, mentioned on the Pylon thread, so classic Feelies era too, but maybe they were hoping not to see such an oil painting again).

Notebook mutterings from last year, dipping my toe in deep Feelies at tylwerw's splendid doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com, relevant section(s?) of which is and/or are linked upthread, I think:

Finally getting to these guys, via 1977-80 shows, also The Willies (AKA Feelies), and a recent Feelies performance on YouTube. The '77 set takes off, has to u-turn and grab me up (so far), but that it does; some later boxcar flotation zones me in and out later, a few Willies numbers are too shiny-happy for me, but more often than not, here be meditative momentum, even a few American Dancestand work-outs, and tendrils of sweet potato love in my cellar. The Willies version of "The Great Pretender," between Leggo, Eggo and regggae, has me chanting, "Duke, Duke, Duke." They know about Dick Dale's flaunted Lebanese heritage and why some Creem reviewer once mentioned that early solo Eno "plays synthesizer like the Ventures."

NYC encores were (maybe not in this exact order):

Astral Plane
Paint It Black

White Light / White Heat
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide ‘Cept for Me and My Monkey

See No Evil
Fa Ce La

haven't heard 'em do "astral plane" -- off to youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KOswC8aBE

not the best quality, but sounds good. feelies could probably just go ahead and cover the entire 1st modern lovers record.

haven't heard 'em do "astral plane" -- off to youtube!

had a great time at this; there was a summer camp of "the art and business of pop music" that came through the venue and i took five of them up to the stage to see what the pit looks like during a show. they lost their miiiiiiiinds

my first Feelies show… I thought it would be cool if they came up with a Suicide arrangement, like "Ghost rider" or "Frankie Teardrop"… no dice…

xpost: "last night was my"

i can hear them doing a suicide cover in my mind, though i get the feeling the feelies aren't a "let's-figure-a-song-out-the-day-before-a-show" kinda band, like, say yo la tengo.

maybe this is the closest (think that's Stan Demeski on drums)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJWjIVLaOk

speaking of ylt, ira and georgia were in the house last evening. not so much a "house" 'cause it was outdoors. fun fact -- ira wore earplugs, georgia didn't.

i picked up that glenn mercer covers cdr and some yung wu cdr that also has a lot of covers on it (kingdom come!) at the merch table.

They were at a show I went to last year, LaLa Brooks at a folklore museum in Queens, and it seemed to me that Ira's hearing was pretty bad. Unless the reason that he couldn't hear was that he had his earplugs in.

hey, new album!
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-feelies-announce-new-lp-in-between-listen-to-been-replaced/
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/files/2016/12/feelies.jpg

Hell yes.

Aw, yeah!

here's Mercer/Million on the record:

"On the new record we did a lot of it at my house in my home studio with extra equipment. It's the same room where we rehearsed. We've been here since we reformed and a little bit prior to taking the hiatus in the 90's. So it's a room we're really familiar with and feel comfortable in. We also did some recording at an engineer's studio, so it was all done very low key. We refer to it as "off the clock" when you're not paying an hourly rate, so in that sense it was a lot more relaxed. I don't think anyone would notice a drastic change in the sound or the vibe of the record. I think it sounds a lot more relaxed and laid back."

"I think all of our albums reflect a certain degree of reaction to the work that we previously did and In Between is no exception," continues Bill Million. "We liked the sounds and the feel of the demos for this album and we thought it would be difficult to capture that in a recording studio. So that was our starting point and it evolved in a much more relaxed way that loaned itself to more creative interplay. Time wasn't a component. If you let it, music can take on a life of its own and we wanted to allow the songs to develop with that idea in mind."

Grew up loving the Feelies, but I'd really rather see a new Yung Wu album at this point. Not sure what's up with Omi Palone (Morrissey probably responsible for their name), but as of 2014 they were doing the Feelies better than the Feelies (while putting a Feelies poster in their video). New Feelies album cover highly reminiscent of Flydaddy reissue of Moles "Untune The Sky."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQcyz1IbThg