the feelies - classic or dud?

Has anyone ever heard this!!!??? The demo they made for Stiff???

Does it still exist? Holy Toledo!

And does anyone know why there has never been an actual Smithereens soundtrack released??!!! Was there ever a bootleg??

Anyone with info on those early bootlegs please let me know. I've wanted to hear that stuff for years and years. I heard they were really punky originally. Slipping Into Something from 1977? Damn.

They were so good live. I saw them open for REM, Lou Reed, and 2 or 3 times in Philly by themselves and they were always wonderful.

I used to have a great bootleg video of a show in new york where either Bill or Glenn (i can't remember who) got sick and had to run off the stage to throw up and they did the rest of the show without him. Even that was great.

only life is good but i find i actually play good earth much more.

I've been doing my best to get the word out on one of the better kept secretly not out-of-print albums: The Good Earth is in print, via Twin/Tone records. It's on custom burned CD (not CDR) and sounds great. You don't get the cover art...boo hoo. Also available is the Yung Wu album (never before on CD) and that EP that came after The Good Earth. If memory serves, the website is twintone.com.

They were probably my favorite live band of all time.

Totally classic. The best New Jersey nerd rock nervous nitwit band ever.

Except for their lousy job of publicising this, it's a great way to keep a back catalog available that might not justify a new printing.

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...)

woah

https://x.com/Glenn__Kenny/status/1701573494482289115?s=20

Feelies were so good in Something Wild.

i love that movie

they're releasing a live album of a velvet underground tribute concert they did in 2018... this feels like it was hatched w/ me in mind

i'm seeing them in a few months, v excited

!!

I would watch a concert of The Feelies just performing The Good Earth.

Best band I ever saw live, opening for Lou Reed in 1989, but I don't like them at all in Something Wild.

hmmm that's one of the best band cameos in all of cinema history! here's the Demme / Feelies background, from my big Willies feature in Maggot Brain:

Weckerman: Jonathan Demme came to see us at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in 1981. Pretty soon after that, he wrote Bill a letter saying that he’d love to work with the band. We had no idea — we didn’t even know how to pronounce his name. “Jonathan Demm?” But that year, he was up for an Oscar for his movie Melvin & Howard! So, we thought this guy must be legitimate. He came out to New York and we “did lunch” with him and he told us he wanted to do this movie with The Feelies. It would be set in this small town where most of the people are like zombies — Night of the Living Feelies or something. He seemed to think he could get financial backing for it [laughs]! Of course, eventually, the movie he did make was Stop Making Sense. Talking Heads made a little bit more commercial sense, I think. A few years later, Demme asked us to be in Something Wild — but we were billed as The Willies, even though we’re playing Feelies songs. I can’t really remember why!

Sauter: It was kind of an in-joke. Those in-the-know would know that The Willies were The Feelies. The rest of them … wouldn’t!

Weckerman: It turned out to be the highest profile thing we ever did — millions of people have seen this thing. But it’s The Willies and I’m singing [laughs]! People are always saying, “Dave’s in this movie, he’s the singer,” and I have to explain that I wasn’t even the singer in the band. What happened was that we were supposed to be playing only songs from 1976, because the scene is the reunion of the class of ’76. The Eagles were really big then, but we said, “Eh, we’re not going to play the Eagles.” But we did work up a version of the Rocky theme song — like an energetic version that was pretty good. But right before we were due to shoot the scene, Jonathan got a cease & desist letter. Apparently, the Rocky theme song could only be used in a movie that had Rocky Balboa in it. Jonathan said, “How about ‘Fame’ — you guys like David Bowie, right?” We said sure, but Glenn was having a little trouble singing and playing the funky guitar part at the same time. Jonathan said, “How about Dave sings it?” I said, “I’m not really the greatest singer, but hey, it’s your movie!”

best band cameos in all of cinema history!

Amon Düül II in Fassbinder's The Niklashausen Journey

WANT TO HEAR FEELIES ROCKY THEME

What happened was that we were supposed to be playing only songs from 1976, because the scene is the reunion of the class of ’76. The Eagles were really big then, but we said, “Eh, we’re not going to play the Eagles.”

LOL

Feelies, Bongos, Lenny Kaye at Hoboken Fest yesterday October 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QC5Xh4JfCg

https://thefeelies.bandcamp.com/album/some-kinda-love-performing-the-music-of-the-velvet-underground

i went to that. it was very melancholy -- hoboken's administrator for cultural affairs is retiring, after coordinating this twice-yearly free festival for something like 30 years. you'll hear glenn mercer thank "geri" at the end. it was an amazing run.

the two tracks up on BC sound great!

a strumfest! sounds great. that feelies VU release is killer — I interviewed Bill Million about it for the latest issue of Uncut.

The VU cover with all the guests onstage was a nice feel-good closer. The rest of the set was just the Feelies doing - I think - mostly their own material and had more of that trademark jittery energy.

I saw them earlier this summer when they played Brooklyn Made (just two shows, no tour), and they were amazing. Tickets were also cheap - I guess they live in the NY/NJ area and just do local shows, hence the extremely low overhead?

i've been kicking myself all summer for missing those shows, i knew about them and then it just completely slipped my mind. seeing them in woodstock in nov tho :)

the Velvet Underground 2CD is out today - http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/disc/discography.html

grr this is delayed on Bandcamp, gimme gimme

Got the vinyl a couple days ago, haven’t had a chance to listen yet.

needless to say, i think this is fantastic

Stan proudly displaying his copy on facebook next to his copy of VU and Nico signed by the 4 members of that album that weren't Nico, presumably signed while Luna was opening up for VU.

I also got Wild Carnation's "Tricycle," which I also recommend. Anyone heard their recent album?

― Jazzbo, Thursday, June 14, 2007

... On Tricycle, the pastoral quality of their most beautiful ballads was captured perfectly, while retaining enough of the rawness of the live experience. Waves of critical acclaim followed, from now defunct publications (CMJ Jackpot! Raygun, Trouser Press) followed, including this one by Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover (Still going strong!), written for All Music Guide:

"While the hook line for this new local trio would have to be that bassist/leader Brenda Sauter used to be a member of the later-'80s incarnation of the famous Feelies (and it's notable offshoot, The Trypes), even if you didn't worship at the altar of that group (and especially if you did!), Wild Carnation is a revelation. While the persistent, pumping beat and hard-played jangle guitars of most of the tracks here emanate from her previous band and from their forerunners, the Velvets (especially), Television,and the Byrds - Sauter's beguiling voice is perfect for the ultra-appealing pop hooks the group writes as well as the thoughtful lyrics she composes. Trading the occasional Feelies drone for sugar-sweet melodies (yes!) and utilizing the pretty ring of the guitars to maximum effect, songs such as Wings are the perfect pop confectionery, too honeyed and delightful to miss capturing your bending heart and too consistently insistent and edgy to be wimpy, kind of like Reckoning-era R.E.M. It's all so well captured with pristine production, with balls to match the heart, too! And though the 12 tracks are largely cut from a similar mode, all seem special just the same on their own. A truly shining, first-rate effort, along with Lotion's and Nyack's early EPs and the last Flower LP, the best release to come out of a New York group this decade, and exceptionally crafted at that! Do not miss."

Greatly expanded reissue, incl. demos & live etc., all streaming here:
https://delmorerecordings.com/album/tricycle-remastered-expanded-edition

^So yeah I was listening to my copy and reflecting on how this might be the most tuneful album from the whole Haledon NJ scene! I think that every time I've put it on over the years, but I finally got a reasonably priced copy of the reissue recently.

Love The Feelies but if I'm not in the mood for them, in those moments, I find the "let's see how fast we can strum and switch back and forth between G chords and D chords" to not always draw me in melodically. Wild Carnation on the other hand, all that no-brakes nervous folk/jangle strummage channels into tight pop compositions with focused melodic development.

Crazy Melodies

Yeah the VU thing is really fantastic, exceeding my already high expectations.

Really digging the Wild Carnation! I’ve rarely been inspired to pick up Feelies side-project/adjacent stuff but this is really worthwhile.

You're not saying you've skipped The Trypes and Yung Wu are you? Because that would be INSANE.

I have a Yung Wu record. I only listened to it once. Should give it another spin, 20 years on from the first.

Wasn’t bowled over by the VU record. I would have loved to have been at that gig (s?) and would probably have lost my mind. But as an album? Eh. Mercer isn’t in top voice (to put it mildly), they mostly he’s to the original arrangements (even the guitar solos!) and there aren’t even many surprises in the song selection. Doesn’t add much to the appreciation of either party, IMO.

I think you will regret ignoring that Yung Wu record all these years. And the Trypes! So good I bought the company (for a few years).

dan knows exactly what he's talking about, btw.

He’s well known as a man of … uh .. sumpin .. and taste!

saw them in woodstock last night... they opened w/ an acoustic set, then there was an intermission, then they played an electric set w/ 4 encores. no opener, even excluding the intermission they played well over 2.5 hours. vocals were a bit of a fight w/in the mix at this age if you know what i mean but otherwise they sounded absolutely fantastic, still completely locked in as a band

srsly your loving the Feelies is like learning that Joe Biden likes Road House. But I know you like strummy-jammy Velvet-y stuff.

Once saw them in Cambridge and they did six encores. The last three were unsolicited.

the guy who was tasked with switching out the guitars for every subsequent encore, who was employed by the venue, was visibly annoyed by encore three

haha a booker friend of mine in the late 80s got so mad at them when she dealt with their fancy rider, "hummus must be home made not store bought" etc, she dubbed them the Unfeelies. the shows were still fantastic tho.

Dammit, if being one of the most influential and also probably perpetually broke bands of the past 50 years can’t get you some homemade hummous, I don’t want to be in that band.

What’s that you say? The invitation still hasn’t arrived?

Once saw them in Cambridge and they did six encores. The last three were unsolicited.

They did 5 or 6 encores last night At Black Cat in DC. They did the opening 50 minutes set as their own opening band, sitting down on chairs and playing acoustic mostly. Then left stage for 20 minutes and came back and did a 55 minutes set standing, and then the 6 encores. Cover songs through the night included Jonathan Richman "Egyptian Reggae" , Buddy Holly "Everyday", Mc5 "Shakin Street", a couple of Beatles songs, Stooges I wanna be Your Dog, Wire's "Mannequin " from Pink Flag, Rolling Stones Painted Black

If the instrumentals were things like the Obedient Atom, Eno, Hendrix etc, that would be the Willies.

Hmmm, maybe not. Here’s how someone listed the setlist for DC

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-feelies/2024/black-cat-washington-dc-3a8bdc7.html

Or maybe yes.