this thread is for reaffirming the classicness of the feelies' crazy rhythms (do not read if you hate the feelies' crazy rhythms)

semi

I was at that show and in that pit! REM did a cover of Set Me Free that was pretty sweet. But confirming your take that the Feelies were dull that night I had totally forgotten that they were the openers. Weirdly I was more impressed watching Yung Wu do a few songs off Crazy Rhythms a couple years later.

wau, small world. the Felt Forum is like the greatest venue name of all time.

Yeah, dad a, I believe they did record the guitars that way.

xxxpost

One thing I love about this album is the liner notes, the way they painstakingly itemize every instrument used and who-played-what. Anal folks like myself LOVE having all that information at their fingertips.

Thanks MVB! (So gershy, I suppose you're not in love with Felt Forum's current rebranding as the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden?)

oh, i haven't lived in nyc for years, last i heard it was the paramount. aren't there plans to build another msg a few blocks over?

Listened to it today! "Raised Eyebrows" ftw!

That's news to me gershy. The Felt Forum Feelies/REM show was the only one I ever saw at MSG so I can't say I'd feel sentimental about the loss, especially since the place was so square they handed out Stagebill-type programs before the show, listing an unimaginably bad season lineup of concerts, just to make it clear that good shows were the exception and not the rule.

The cover art to Crazy Rhythms is like a perfect arty counterpoint to the Ramones NYC-brick-building four-on-a-wall debut.

I lived in Montclair for a year and got pretty excited to find that there's a record store called Crazy Rhythms in Verona. My excitement instantly evaporated when I asked the proprietor if there was any connection and he made clear that no, he didn't care for the Feelies or about them. Do not shop there.

here's an awe-inducing clip of the feelies performing crazy rhythms in 1980

I've got the old CD - is there much difference between that and this reissue? Any plans to reissue the later albums? I need The Good Earth as well.

i havent listend to this awesome record for too long.
now it's time.

The Feelies are probably my all-time favorite live band, but I can definitely see them losing something in an arena setting.

i saw an rem/feelies arena show at that time in...connecticut, i think. and feelies were great. not nearly loud enough, obviously. but they were definitely into it. saw them open for lou at the tower in philly and that venue was AWESOME for them. smaller, but still really big and the sound was great.

i was really hoping they would bust out what goes on or something at that lou show, but nothing doing.

Saw them three times — all amazing shows. Last time was at the Blue Pelican in Newport (which, before it closed down, was the ONLY reason ever to venture into that lame city, besides the folk and jazz fests) with the late, great Boston band Lifeboat opening. They all jammed on "What Goes On," which was also in Lifeboat's repertoire.

Crazy Rhythms was in Montclair but closed years ago.

I was there last June. From my one visit I gathered that it's the same guy running it, same store name (he named it after the jazz standard), just moved further up Bloomfield Ave to a hole in the wall in Verona.

the old cd is incredibly quiet. anyone have the vinyl?

i have the vinyl. sounds fab.

art, is your CD on Line Records? I know a lot of people with gripes about their dB's reissues.

er, i have old vinyl. there was a vinyl reissue, wasn't there? mine's on Stiff.

all my feelies is on vinyl. i need a copy of the last album though. maybe i'll break down and buy a 20 dollar cd on amazon. i had the tape, but it got lost.

a&m i think (xpost)

and i do wanna get the new glenn mercer cd too.

i haven't heard time for a witness in so long it will be like having a new feelies album!

best thing about time for a witness is the reversed photo in the cd booklet that makes everyone in the band look like a lefty. that warms my lefthanded heart every time i see it.

second best thing is the la's-esque pop of "doin' it again."

but as feelies albums go, it's very meh.

i remember being really excited when it came out, but i didn't play the tape much.

seriously, if there are feelies fans who don't own wake ooloo's hear no evil, they should buy it. i love that album. i'm ashamed to say that i don't own the other two wake albums. i'll get around to it, i swear!

i dunno, i'll rep for Time For A Witness -- definitely the most straight-ahead of the Feelies records, but it has a great guitar sound and some nice tunes. But I love everything those guys have done. they should be headlining coachella, amirite? Anybody else pick up the Glenn Mercer solo CD last year? It might have a bit more of a "Feelies" sound than the Wake Ooloo stuff. More subdued than anything else he's done but pretty nice all the way through ... any news on them putting out the pre-Crazy Rhythms stuff mentioned upthread? PLEEEEZE.

Great band, and one of the most consistently listenable, too. There's rarely a time when they don't fit the mood or setting.

All four records are strong, I can't even pick a favorite.

hay i just ripped my cd so i can listen on the computer. it was a conicendece

and what about the Smithereens soundtrack!

I first heard about / saw part of this film last week. Here is one of many notable things about it: at the very end, the van is occupied by a bunch of hookers, among whom is a tranny hooker played by a young Chris Noth.

So if anyone ever challenges you to a degrees-of-separation thing where you have to get from Sarah Jessica Parker to Richard Hell in one move, there you go

The Glenn Mercer album is pretty good, though not on the level of The Feelies at their best or Yung Wu. I kind of like the cover of Within You Without You/Love You To. It's on emusic.

This album didn't make any sense to me until I played it EXTREMELY LOUD and fairly drunk. Then it became one of my favorite albums ever.

I always recommend this to people who like Marquee Moon, though to me Crazy Rhythms > Marquee Moon by a nose

When the hell is that deluxe vinyl reissue deal supposed to be coming out???

see here for that news plus exciting reunion news:

the feelies - classic or dud?

just posted a Crazy Rhythms-era live show over on the blog: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ so good

playing this live in September at ATP of course :-)

GRRRRR!!!!

haha, yeah, that's how I feel. wonder how it'll sound? probably great, but it didn't seem like they played all that much off of Crazy Rhythms during the reunion shows last year -- just the title track and "Raised Eyebrows" I think ...

Tyler, you have the best blog. Thank you. More feelies!

I seriously considered making a pilgrimage to maxwell's with Mrs. Staggerlee for those shows. Alas, do not have an extra $2000 lying around.

ALAS.

awesome, tylerw, thank you

i went for a run that lasted the duration of 'crazy rhythms' not long ago. i found it exhausting

http://www.tomwarren.com/music/images/feelies_30.jpg
crazy rhythms recording sessions! more here:
http://www.tomwarren.com/music/Feelies.html

good lord, this band was/is(?) perfect.

nothing here that hasn't circulated previously, but a cool way to approach the pre-Crazy Rhythms years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HjrcAhmH_U

I was dancing round the shop when I found the Stiff "Crazy Rhythms" in our local Oxfam for £2, early last year.

those ork records version of fa ce la and forces at work are so good

I think of this record sort of like Wire's Pink Flag - an atypical debut whose style they never exactly returned to.

I saw them opening for Lou Reed in 1989, and if they were not the best band I've ever seen live, they were certainly the best whose music I didn't know before seeing them. They covered "Dancing Barefoot" as someone mentioned above, and either said nothing or no more than "thanks" to the audience.