the feelies - classic or dud?

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!