defend the indefensible: new jersey

These guys remind me of fairly typical Jersey white kids: argumentative, profanity-loving, race-conscious, with an almost hyperactive respect for psychotic violence.

This wednesday, Glenn Mercer, co-lead guitarist/singer/songwriter of the Feelies will be performing a solo set with Wild Carnation opening up. Wild Carnation features Brenda Sauter, who was the bass player for the Feelies in the 80s as well as Speed the Plough and the beautiful and amazing Trypes. Meanwhile, Glenn is backed by a few of the Feelies original percussionists, Vinny DeNunzio and Dave Weckerman, the later we love for his early 80s DIY single Shore Leave and his Feelies spin-off Yung Wu.

It's hard to sum up their history...the Feelies began in the early/mid 70s in New Jersey with a more angsty, more aggressive Modern Lovers sound. They played CBGB's with all the NYC punk greats and over the years refined and re-defined their sound, so by the time their first record, Crazy Rhythms, was released in 1980, they were able to present something unique. The closest comparison might be the Talking Heads, but the Feelies focused more on rhythm and a Velvet Underground meets Krautrock experimentation. Through the 80s, the Feelies would release 3 more albums, sometimes veering towards a more subtle, folksy, yet no less angsty sound that was even more beautiful. In the meantime, there were countless line-up changes, spin-off bands, pseudonym bands, all quite wonderful.

Here's a clip of the Feelies performing Crazy Rhythms at CBs in the 70s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ammeQSyUF00

Here they are 10 or so years later on David Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vddceSol5k

Here's a great Feelies website:
http://www.geocities.com/thefeeliesweb/

Glenn's myspace page for his new solo project:
http://www.myspace.com/glennmercer

and the Wild Carnation page:
http://www.myspace.com/wildcarnation

You can hear Glenn's great new songs at his myspace page, and hear what has always been true, that through the years, Glenn's songwriting and playing has consistently been wonderful and consistently been his. You can not mistake these songs for anything other then yet more wonderful stuff from one of the guys behind the Feelies.

The line-up that's playing at Maxwell's wedneday played an outdoor festival in Hoboken a few months ago that's all over youtube and along with the new material they played some Feelies classics and some classics the Feelies have been known to cover, so maybe we'll get some oldies wednesday.

Maxwells is the famous club in Hoboken NJ best known for being where The Boss's "Glory Days" video was shot. It's also been the home to many legendary Feelies and Yo La Tengo shows.

http://www.maxwellsnj.com/
1039 Washington Street
Hoboken NJ
201-653-1703

Wed. 9/6
Glenn Mercer
Wild Carnation

8:30 pm
8$

see you there,

Dan

i have never been to ridgewood, sorry. and i've lived in north jersey for almost 8 years now.

-- Jay Vee's Return (milkis...), August 29th, 2006.

Hmm, I wonder if you're talking about the (now defunct) Hungry Eye, which was in fact run by a Greek couple, although you could certainly think they were Middle Eastern. I never had baklava or mint tea there, but they generally tended to make special things not on the regular grease truck menu. They also put up literary quotes all over their truck - I think they had been English teachers. Really nice folks - I was sorry to see them go.

Livingston Mall is 1/1000th a mall as Short Hills, but Livingston Mall is like, where I grew up. I stole all my comic books from Heroes World when my friend Mike worked there, I bought my first CDs at Alwick, when they used to sell boomboxes in the front, and spent many hours in the arcade there playing Star Wars. Their arcade wasn't only closer, but many degrees safer then the one in the Willowbrook Mall. Other fond memories include Bambergers (later Macy's) electronics dept, trying out the Apple Lisa there, and later the Macintosh (drawing a brick wall then spraypainting my name on MacPaint 1.0. And of course, using my red-box to make thousands of illegal telephone calls from a payphone while sitting at a bench there. Those were the days.

i'm not from NJ, but i had a red box. ah, the days of Phrack and 2600.

drilled a hole in a quarter in shop class w/ string for use at my local arcade. the weight must have been off because out of 150 machines it only worked on Root Beer Tapper. damn!

The Ramones
NRBQ
Bon Jovi
Chubby Checker
Cyndi Lauper
Eddie Money
Blue Öyster Cult
David Johansen (also known as Buster Poindexter)
The Misfits
The Smithereens
Jan & Dean
Agnostic Front
Dramarama
Squeeze
Aztec Two-Step
Thor (the singer/bodybuilder)
TV Toy
WKGB
Humans From Earth
The John Earl Walker Band
Blotto
Gary U.S. Bonds
Rachel Sweet
The Rattlers
The Feelies
Shrapnel
The Bongos
U.S.Ape
Fats Deacon & the Dumbwaiters
R. Stevie Moore
The Buttermilk Mountain Revue,
The Plastics (also known as Plastics)
Zoogz Rift
Crash Course In Science
The Stickmen
Z'ev
Rebecca Williams
The Phones (also known as The Responsible Teenagers)
The Brains
Rupert Holmes
Dave Edmunds
Rick Derringer
The Marshall Tucker Band
Peter Tork and Davy Jones of The Monkees (separately)
Steel Pulse
The Lords of the New Church
Johnny Science
The Dead Boys
Pussy Galore
The Payolas
Joan Armatrading
Tiny Tim
The Fiendz
Noble Gas

"One-third of all currently operating diners in the world are located in New Jersey, though many of these have been remodeled. New Jersey has approximately 600 operational diners."

New Jersey and Citibank - perfect together?

LOL @ governor who used to run Goldman Sachs.

Wow, i just read this whole thread and it totally took me back. I grew up around the corner from Two Tone in Passaic, and I used to walk there as a teenager to get vinyl and Ramones t-shirts. I'd also get rides to Montclair and hang out in Cafe Soundz. In college (Rutgers, natch) I didn't have a favorite grease truck, but they did supply me with coffee. Cheap Thrills, Vintage Vinyl, PREX, Tunes, and taping CDs from WRSU for my music, going to Cafe 52 (long gone...) awesome times.

Yeah. I'm w/ you, Miryam. This thread is nostalgia-city for me, too.

Is Oakland the Jersey of SF?

llamasfur, did you spend any time in Sommerville? The mid-century modern antique shops at 1/1000th the price of NYC, and neat-o-rama/twonkyvision or whatever? What a strange scene that was/is. There's less mid-century stuff, but there's a new store there now, AMAZING collection of periodicals, books, sci-fi stuff, subversive stuff, but of course the vinyl is all way over-priced as it always is at those places.

hell yeah -- i grew up a town away from somerville. i left that part of the state for good almost 10 years ago, though (just when the antiques stores and other stuff were just getting off the ground). my mom, though, is big-time into antiques so she tells me all the time about all the stuff she snags there (she still goes to lambertville, which is also Antique Central).

Cafe 52

Shit, yeah! That place was great!

I sort of miss Jersey, but sort of don't. I've gotten kind of used to moving every 2 - 5 years, so any feeling of nostalgia really exists for the people who are still there.

And the grease trucks. Damnit, I could go for a total junk food gyro. Or falafel.

im in jersey right now

Me, too. And the weather makes it feel like Zagreb in Winter (blechh).

im sick as a dog.

I'm still in Jersey... Jersey City now. Sadly, I've been too busy to get out to the record stores. Guess that comes with not being a student anymore. I do love JC tho.

Is anything being built/already built on the Cafe 52 site yet? I spent many nights there playing speed chess with regulars and Alexei's weird brothers/cousins or pretending to read. Then I met the woman who became my wife and pretty much stopped going there.

wildwood 4ever!

I'm reading Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao right now which has a section about Wildwood (as well as parts about Paterson and Rutgers New Brunswick, among other places)

Crazy. In the book that Oscar Wao character goes to my high school (Don Bosco Tech) and university (Rutgers) at the same time I was there! I wonder if I've ever met the author, Junot Diaz. He must've known some guys from my high school or something.

Díaz was born in Villa Juana, a barrio in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[1] He was the third child in a family of five. Throughout most of his early childhood he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father worked in the United States. Díaz immigrated to Parlin, New Jersey in December, 1974, where he was re-united with his father.

He attended Madison Park Elementary and was a voracious reader, often walking four miles in order to borrow books from his public library. His father, Rafael, abandoned the family in the mid-80s; within months Diaz's oldest brother was diagnosed with leukemia and the family was plunged into a period of severe poverty. In this time Díaz became fascinated with apocalyptic films and books, especially the work of John Christopher, the original Planet of the Apes films and the BBC mini-series Edge of Darkness. Díaz graduated from Cedar Ridge High School in Old Bridge, New Jersey, in 1987.

He attended Kean College in Union, New Jersey for one year before transferring and ultimately completing his BA at Rutgers College in 1992, majoring in English; there he was involved in a creative-writing living-learning residence hall and in various student organizations and was exposed to the authors who would motivate him into becoming a writer: Toni Morrison and Sandra Cisneros. He worked his way through college: delivering pool tables, washing dishes, pumping gas and working at Raritan River Steel.

He was at RU when I and folks from my hs were there so...possible...

How's the book, btw?

I like it so far - about 1/3 of the way through. It's very heavy on "voice" narration which I don't always like, and there are a few too many seemingly-unnecessary allusions, especially to comic books.

I gave it to my sis for Xmas since she wanted to read it. Now I expect her to come to me with the comic book questions as I am fairly expert in such nerdery.

haha, I think the narrator also uses the word "nerdery"

dirty jerz

where much murder occurz

Not that anyone cares but I read this as having a new jersey (i.e. jumper).

wow, the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair is now a legit concert venue (Yo La T & Feelies on New Years Eve):

http://www.wellmonttheatre.com/

wow indeed! Montclair?!