Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: S & D, C or D...

Saw 'em at CBGBs in 1990 or 1991 - they were touring behind Tangle. My friend and I were standing by the pool table talking as their set began (they were about the third band on a bill of about eight, and they weren't who we were there to see). We weren't paying much attention, but about three songs in we both stopped talking and looked at each other like, "What the fuck is that band doing?" and headed stageward, and were enraptured for the rest of their set. My friend bought Tangle and a T-shirt afterward. Instant win-over. I bought Lovelyville when it came out, but kinda lost track of them after that.

Yes, great band! I saw them about 10 times, the most memorable was the "un-guitar" clinic they put on at the Great American Music Hall in SF with Polvo and The Fucking Champs.

...which started playing 2 seconds later as the encore.

o well.

Best show was an unannounced art shack show in Oakland just underneath a BART station in December of 1999. They went all over the place. So did some of the audience members.. sans clothes. It was a revelry.

(This is where I drunkenly introduced myself to a guy named Bob and slapped him on the shoulder and just made a lot of drunk talk with him, without him talking much back and seeming a bit scared, and only found out later that it was Bob of *Shellac* that I gave the noogie to. oops.)

http://www.japan-overseas.com/eng/release-e/JO96-19vE.html

When I put "2x4s" on my MP3 blog a few months ago, it got a lot of "holy crap, who's THAT?!?" responses.

ihttp://www.tful282.com/images/mpc1.html

Douglas excellently summarized the Fellers in the last Trouser Press book:

Read up: http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=thinking_fellers_union_local_282

And search the following:

THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 
Wormed by Leonard [tape] (Thwart) 1988 [CD] (Thwart) 1995
Tangle (Thwart) 1989 (Can. Scratch) 1994
The Natural Finger EP7 (Ajax) 1991
Lovelvville (Matador) 1991
Mother of All Saints (Matador) 1992
Where's Officer Tuba? (UK Hemiola) 1993
Admonishing the Bishops EP (Matador) 1993
The Funeral Pudding EP (Ajax) 1994
Strangers From the Universe (Matador) 1994
Porcelain Entertainments (Ger. Return to Sender/Normal) 1995
TFUL282 (Japan. Japan Overseas) 1995
I Hope It Lands (Communion) 1996
Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche (Communion) 2001
WHITE SHARK
Muggy Bog EP10 (Nuf Sed) 1994
MR. HAGEMAN
Twin Smooth Snouts (Starlight Future Company) 1995
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Not All That Terrifies Harms [tape] (Nuf Sed) 1990
Not All That Terrifies Harms EP7 (Ajax) 1991
Step, Step, Steppin' on Satan's Foot (Tedium House) 1994

Oh yeah, the slap key guitar stuff was great. And there was an earlier 7" by him of tape loopy delay recordings under the name Brown Supper (or Brown Food?)

# 2 - Gentleman's Lament
# 3 - Catcher
# 4 - Hornet's Heart
# 5 - Star Trek
# 6 - Tell Me
# 8 - Hive
# 9 - Hummingbird In a Cube of Ice
# 11 - Wide Forehead
# 12 - Infection
# 18 - 1" Tall*
# 19 - Raymond H.
# 21 - Cistern
# 22 - El Cerrito**

So classic. I have most of the albums, but I'm always drawn back to Strangers From the Universe. ...and Funeral Pudding. Never had the chance to see them live, except in 1996 and I blew it. Listened more recently to some live shows from earlier in the 90s and was amazing at how loud they could be and how quickly they could shift gears, even mid-song. Why in the world are their Matador albums out of print?

Crazy. People just aren't in the mood for 90s music right now, myself included.

Listened more recently to some live shows from earlier in the 90s and was amazing at how loud they could be and how quickly they could shift gears, even mid-song.

I saw them live in 1994. Easily the best show I saw that year in a year of pretty decent live shows.

Sucks about the Matador stuff being out of print, but I'm guessing, sadly, that people have mostly forgotten about the Fellers, which is really a shame. I can't really blame Matador for keeping them out of print for the time being -- especially if you can still find the stuff used without much difficulty. Matador released four of their albums, and if none of the four are still selling, well.. :( (not to mention Ajax's release of The Funeral Pudding, which kinda went OOP immediately, and the CD reissue of Wormed By Leonard, and the OOP Communion issues of I Hope It Lands and Bob Dinners)

Maybe in the 2010s, people will catch up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B7vogZkBjA&feature=youtu.be

can't see that, but i assume it's from their show last night in boston? sigh. been trying to see these guys since 1995, never works out.

This is one of those bands where I never purposely put on a whole album but if they come up on shuffle I'm like, "WTF is this? Some rad Sonic Youth (etc.) b-side I forgot? Oh wait, it's Thinking Fellers."

never understood TFUL at the time. they seemed too willfully obtuse and jokey for my tastes, some kind of fake-beatnik, zappa-loving boho bullshit. but i'm listening to strangers from the universe and realizing that it's like the greatest shit i've never heard. "socket"! "hundreds of years"(!) amazed and somewhat humbled by how long it takes me to "get" so much obviously amazing shit. want MOAR!

where should i go next? help me ILM.

not so much the results but the commentary in this thread:
Best THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 release

'Yeah, the combo of "Admonishing The Bishops" and "The Funeral Pudding" EPs from 1993 would comprise of the best of their work, IMHO" this is very OTM!! I miss getting their records in the mail from Ajax, man I used to love these guys. Also if you can find a certain issue of Bananafish magazine, their was a cd that was great with solo stuff by these guys, along with lots of other guys oddball artist. Maybe it was the first four or five issues compiled?

Mother of All Saints' showing in that poll is just stupid. Was just playing it the other day, wishing it could get a remaster (CD is too quiet) and marveling at how well it holds up. Just skip the annoying tracks...

They were the most unlikely band ever I think:

http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n10/htdocs/mother-of-all-strangers-164/thinking_fellers_union.jpg

no! they look awesome! <3

and thx, steve

Great photo!!

o shit, "the operation", fuckin <3 this band

I dug this band in the '90s though I haven't listened to them since then. Sometimes I feel like Deerhoof kind of has a TFUL282 feel to them, is that weird?

nah, that makes perfect sense, given what little i know of TFUL. both indie/punk prog rockers. love deerhoof, btw. their "new sneakers" even has a touch of "noble experiment" poignancy (nowhere near as intense, obv).

dude seeing this band plow into "The Operation" in a live setting was one of my finest concert experiences ever.

Was just listening to some of Mother Of All Saints this morning!

and for your next record may I suggest Bob Dinners, Admonishing The Bishops, or I Hope It Lands.

will check "admonishing" next, due to support in this and the other thread. mother of all saints is the album that derailed me at the time, and i'd like to give it another shot, too, see if i've come around. remember loving a plugz-esque tune called "narlus spectre" once upon a time, god knows where it came from. doesn't seem to appear on any of their more popular releases.

it's on Wormed By Leonard iirc, also on the 4-song "best of" 7" sampler from that album that Ajax put out in like '92 (The Natural Finger).

I was thinking a little bit more today about those "difficult" pieces on MOAS. Although I appreciate the pared-down song-oriented tracklist someone posted in this (or the other) thread, the spacing of those tracks really helps with the sequencing and overall epic flow of the record.. I think that at the time there was some criticism of teh "practice room" pieces in the press but it was also kind of a statement of purpose by the band. At any rate, "Tuning Notes" has perversely become one of my fave tracks from that record as the years have gone by. It's just such a perfect window into their world, a distillation of the practice room experience.

Awww man, my favorite radio station is rocking "The Operation" right now. Doubly sweet that it was preceded by Wire's "Mercy". TFUL282 rules so hard, happy Friday to me!

"The Operation" rules so hard

those reunion shows were so good. in Portland OR a guy got up on stage near the end of the set and just hugged each member in turn wordlessly, there was applause

I guess that Cooler show I saw in winter of '97 was the last time they ever played in NYC. That Bandcamp guide is pretty good but it leaves out 2 of their best albums, Wormed by Leonard and Mother of All Saints.

that's because that are (sadly) out of print, I think

that they

They have them (digitally) on Bandcamp.

oh weird, yeah those should have been in there

Opinion of the writer, I guess!

this is ILX, we can't just shrug it off as "opinion of the writer"

Ty Segall is another possible Fellers grand-nephew. But they’re all from California, so perhaps the thread can be found somewhere along the I-5 corridor?

??? Does the writer not know that Ty Segall was also a SF Bay Area band as well as Dwyer's OCS oeuvre and Deerhoof?

there was another error in that article but I'm not gonna go back to look for it, anything that raises the band's profile makes me happy tbh

I do think there is some truth to the I5 corridor argument, Oregon was very friendly to the Fellers and they had a large and rabid fanbase

(also, Anne and Mark both live in PDX now, so there ya go)

I do think there is some truth to the I5 corridor argument, Oregon was very friendly to the Fellers and they had a large and rabid fanbase

― sleeve, Saturday, October 29, 2022 4:20 PM (fifty-five seconds ago)

there's def Oregon/Bay Area crossover in terms of that aesthetic for sure ... well, probably going up to Seattle with Sun City Girls. ...even though SF is not close to I-5. It's definitely an odd turn of phrase when you are choosing 3 SF Bay bands to connect to a band "from" the SF Bay Area.

Anyway -- I think I am going to just agree with what you said about "anything that raises the band's profile making me happy" because yeah.

lol I always forget SF is not actually on I5, sorry

you don't have to apologize, you didn't write the article! not that ignorance/inaccuracies related to the U.S. Interstate system and geography should damn any music writing that contains them ... but, it does provoke the instinctive "you're not from around these parts, are you?" that can often alienate a reader

also, Bandcamp is headquartered where I live, so ... the instinct is even stronger.

I listened to the podcast I gave a link to above last night. Quite educational as are the rest of that series I've listened to.
Took me a while to get to. Cut down on time I can listen to podcasts like. First world problem possibly but still means I'm listening to a lot less than I was.
Think I might need to pick up a few more of their cds. Think I have the Japanese compi and a couple of others.

That is this one Conan neutron's Protonic Reversal
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lJLy0MSrkgz8UHf3GuepL?si=0404f02d7636493b

Getting strong Thinking Fellers vibes from the preview track on this:
https://bumpy.bandcamp.com/album/banana-whip

Anyone know that band?

they appear to be very young and Minneapolis-based or related?

https://bumpy.bandcamp.com/album/durn-fool

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

^ there's a live clip of them here, i think i like 'em!

Hello.

https://tful282.bandcamp.com/album/these-things-remain-unassigned-singles-compilation-tracks-rarities-unreleased-recordings

OMG OMG OMG this is the one I have been waiting for

Bulbous Monocle focuses its lens further into the legacy and archives of the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. These Things Remain Unassigned — a phrase coined by Brian Hageman, one of the band’s musical snake appendages emanating from its Medusa crown — is presented by Bulbous Monocle as a double LP (gatefold jacket with a twelve page libretto). BM-03 gathers together the band’s singles, compilation tracks, outtakes and never before released gems encompassing the arc of TFUL’s musical corpus. Every track has been surgically remastered by Mark Gergis (Porest/Sublime Frequencies/Mono Pause) with his signature craftsman approach.

This collection is an auditory and visual feast. The extensive booklet included features band ephemera, concert flyers, photographs, and commentary about each track from Mark Davies. Beyond the rare singles and unreleased tracks from the TFUL archives, are cover versions from such disparate artists and composers as: Ennio Morricone, Krzysztof Komeda, The Residents, The Shaggs, Caroliner Rainbow and Pérez Prado.

and i'd vowed to stop buying records with boobies on the cover

wow "Strange Mail" is amazing, up there with any of their best

oh man this "Rosemary's Baby" theme

I am in awe

Perez Prado cover is fab as well

3 tunes I've never heard so far and 1 more to go, plus an alternate version of Flames Up

I got a comment on my shirt recently - it's like finding yr people, man.

― BlackIronPrison, Friday, March 12, 2021 7:20 PM (two years ago)

In Seattle this past summer, construction dude in line in front of me at the sandwich shop turned to me and said "Great band" with this intense stare. Gave him the Vulcan salute in response.

In my neighborhood last weekend for a block party: "My ex-husband used to tour with them all the time, they were amazing!"

Old news at this point, but did anyone hear Cup of Dreams sampled in this Yves Tumor song?

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

With so many older and underappreciated bands getting bigger than ever through tiktok, I've found myself wondering if TFUL282 will ever get the same treatment. Unfortunately Cup of Dreams only has ~150,000 plays on spotify (Noble Experiment is their most played at ~600,000) so I'm not sure that the Yves Tumor sample has helped much.

Guess I'd just like them to get big enough that they could cash in on touring again as I was in middle school and not aware of the band's existence when they did their two reunion shows in 2004.