the feelies - classic or dud?

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.

I was at that white eagle set. Assumed if they were still opening up doing instrumental it was Willies. I defer to Tyler! Around the time of our reissue, there was a Trypes/Yung Wu show at the elks lodge in South Orange. It was wonderful. I’m also the only time I’d ever met Stan who I only knew from Facebook. We made eye contact and I went to introduce myself figuring he didn’t know who I was but he must’ve because he walked up shook my hand and said “where’s my royalties mother fucker.”

Trypes also played one of the Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows a few months before that I think. Chris Elliot was the comedic guest, he just played a cartoon he had made that was about to premiere.

I enjoyed listening to this: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/life-of-the-record/id1487396757?i=1000710040883🕸

I hope this podcast covers more LPs I’m interested in.

Writer Michael Azerrad in his Substack says the May weekend gigs the Feelies just did at the White Eagle in Jersey City may be their farewell gigs

They did say those are their only gigs this year. So I guess at least in theory, it could be the end.

oof. they sounded epic. I skipped them this time.

I did see them at Brooklyn Made a few years ago. Wish I saw them at MHOW - White Eagle is just way too far for me. Brooklyn Made closed up last year and I heard White Eagle is closing after this year (as if we needed a greater sense of finality here).

Bill Million was interviewed by Mark Caro - it sounds like it could be the last ones because of the difficulty of getting together, but only in the sense that it plays out that way, not because they want to designate this as their farewell and end the band.

https://www.caropop.com/caropopcast/episode/2b4056ce/bill-million-the-feelies

(Man, I haven't seen or thought about Mark Caro in years, had no idea he was married to Mary Dixon #insidebaseball)

His podcast has everyone on it, and I think he’s back to occasionally writing for the Trib.

Dunno — in a recent Mercer interview he suggested they were working on a new album (slowly of course). It
But who knows! They are all getting older. Clips from last weekend’s shows looked/sounded great.

tbf since they do so few shows (and of late, it's been like one or two in the NYC area every year, i.e. they aren't going anywhere else), it's good to motivate people to come to these shows if they want to see them while they're still playing and healthy, but given the way the band's set up, I don't think there's any need to officially break up or not. It's only a small part of their lives - important, but not something that dictates what they do on a day-to-day basis, so they're basically free to come together whenever they're able to.

They do occasionally play Philly/D.C./Baltimore (even Bethlehem!) as well, which is how I’ve seen them five times.

relistening to Crazy Rhythms now for the first time in ages. I admit when I first heard it I associated it with Weezer due to the cover which made me think all the weird decisions like the severe undermixing of the vocals (at least on the first track) were supposed to be ironic but listening to it now, I think they just didn't like hearing their voices on tape! such a cool album, especially knowing its such an outlier in their all-too-brief discog

actually it makes me think of an ancedote about the Barenaked Ladies, apparently they would record one song every album buck naked, so there was always one track at a sort of insane tempo compared to everything else, because everyone was trying to do their part as fast as possible, anyway every song on this album sounds like it might've been recorded that way

ew