the feelies - classic or dud?

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The Feelies, Beach Fossils
FREE SHOW - July 18 – Monday – 6:00pm – Central Park, Manhattan
http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/event/summerstage-feelies-beach-fossils/

ulysses, Thursday, 21 April 2016 02:22 (eight years ago) link

Nice. Saw them play last weekend for nearly 3 hours. Did Stooges, Television, Patti Smith and Modern Lovers covers as part of that.

curmudgeon, Friday, 22 April 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link

which Television tune did they do -- "See No Evil"?

tylerw, Friday, 22 April 2016 15:44 (eight years ago) link

yup

dc, Friday, 22 April 2016 15:47 (eight years ago) link

two months pass...

Break after first set at Kingston show. No recognizable covers as yet.

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 01:36 (seven years ago) link

Second set underway. Sound mix much improved.

Gabba Gabba Hey in the Hayloft (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 17 July 2016 02:07 (seven years ago) link

Encore covers ended up being
"She Said, She Said"
"White Light/White Heat"
"Paint It Black"

Think they may have been put off by audience response (and perhaps curtailed show a tiny bit?)
At one point Brenda said "You know, you can talk between songs."

Death of a Disco Mystic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 July 2016 01:52 (seven years ago) link

Nobody calling friends, "Guess where I am!", even? Makes me think of the audience in Blow-Up (and one of the decade or so later, mentioned on the Pylon thread, so classic Feelies era too, but maybe they were hoping not to see such an oil painting again).

Notebook mutterings from last year, dipping my toe in deep Feelies at tylwerw's splendid doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com, relevant section(s?) of which is and/or are linked upthread, I think:

Finally getting to these guys, via 1977-80 shows, also The Willies (AKA Feelies), and a recent Feelies performance on YouTube. The '77 set takes off, has to u-turn and grab me up (so far), but that it does; some later boxcar flotation zones me in and out later, a few Willies numbers are too shiny-happy for me, but more often than not, here be meditative momentum, even a few American Dancestand work-outs, and tendrils of sweet potato love in my cellar. The Willies version of "The Great Pretender," between Leggo, Eggo and regggae, has me chanting, "Duke, Duke, Duke." They know about Dick Dale's flaunted Lebanese heritage and why some Creem reviewer once mentioned that early solo Eno "plays synthesizer like the Ventures."

dow, Monday, 18 July 2016 17:18 (seven years ago) link

NYC encores were (maybe not in this exact order):

Astral Plane
Paint It Black

White Light / White Heat
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide ‘Cept for Me and My Monkey

See No Evil
Fa Ce La

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:55 (seven years ago) link

haven't heard 'em do "astral plane" -- off to youtube!

tylerw, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:58 (seven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KOswC8aBE

tylerw, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 16:59 (seven years ago) link

not the best quality, but sounds good. feelies could probably just go ahead and cover the entire 1st modern lovers record.

tylerw, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 17:00 (seven years ago) link

haven't heard 'em do "astral plane" -- off to youtube!

Ha, I did exactly the same thing early this morning

Miami Jeeves And The Ties That Bind (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 17:02 (seven years ago) link

had a great time at this; there was a summer camp of "the art and business of pop music" that came through the venue and i took five of them up to the stage to see what the pit looks like during a show. they lost their miiiiiiiinds

thrusted pelvis-first back (ulysses), Tuesday, 19 July 2016 17:04 (seven years ago) link

my first Feelies show… I thought it would be cool if they came up with a Suicide arrangement, like "Ghost rider" or "Frankie Teardrop"… no dice…

veronica moser, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 18:54 (seven years ago) link

xpost: "last night was my"

veronica moser, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 18:54 (seven years ago) link

i can hear them doing a suicide cover in my mind, though i get the feeling the feelies aren't a "let's-figure-a-song-out-the-day-before-a-show" kinda band, like, say yo la tengo.

tylerw, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 19:00 (seven years ago) link

maybe this is the closest (think that's Stan Demeski on drums)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJWjIVLaOk

tylerw, Tuesday, 19 July 2016 19:01 (seven years ago) link

speaking of ylt, ira and georgia were in the house last evening. not so much a "house" 'cause it was outdoors. fun fact -- ira wore earplugs, georgia didn't.

i picked up that glenn mercer covers cdr and some yung wu cdr that also has a lot of covers on it (kingdom come!) at the merch table.

Thus Sang Freud, Wednesday, 20 July 2016 00:03 (seven years ago) link

They were at a show I went to last year, LaLa Brooks at a folklore museum in Queens, and it seemed to me that Ira's hearing was pretty bad. Unless the reason that he couldn't hear was that he had his earplugs in.

Miami Jeeves And The Ties That Bind (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 00:46 (seven years ago) link

four months pass...

Hell yes.

Austin, Wednesday, 7 December 2016 02:34 (seven years ago) link

Aw, yeah!

hardcore dilettante, Wednesday, 7 December 2016 02:40 (seven years ago) link

here's Mercer/Million on the record:

"On the new record we did a lot of it at my house in my home studio with extra equipment. It's the same room where we rehearsed. We've been here since we reformed and a little bit prior to taking the hiatus in the 90's. So it's a room we're really familiar with and feel comfortable in. We also did some recording at an engineer's studio, so it was all done very low key. We refer to it as "off the clock" when you're not paying an hourly rate, so in that sense it was a lot more relaxed. I don't think anyone would notice a drastic change in the sound or the vibe of the record. I think it sounds a lot more relaxed and laid back."

"I think all of our albums reflect a certain degree of reaction to the work that we previously did and In Between is no exception," continues Bill Million. "We liked the sounds and the feel of the demos for this album and we thought it would be difficult to capture that in a recording studio. So that was our starting point and it evolved in a much more relaxed way that loaned itself to more creative interplay. Time wasn't a component. If you let it, music can take on a life of its own and we wanted to allow the songs to develop with that idea in mind."

tylerw, Wednesday, 7 December 2016 17:10 (seven years ago) link

Grew up loving the Feelies, but I'd really rather see a new Yung Wu album at this point. Not sure what's up with Omi Palone (Morrissey probably responsible for their name), but as of 2014 they were doing the Feelies better than the Feelies (while putting a Feelies poster in their video). New Feelies album cover highly reminiscent of Flydaddy reissue of Moles "Untune The Sky."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQcyz1IbThg

dlp9001, Thursday, 8 December 2016 14:41 (seven years ago) link

Ran to listen to Omi Palone. Ooooof, just a little too on the nose for enjoyment, IMO.

hardcore dilettante, Sunday, 11 December 2016 01:30 (seven years ago) link

At first I thought the Omi Palone song was cute (especially the bit with the Feelies poster), but it's grown on me a lot, the way it builds to a too-short climax. I'm not sure what a band like Feelies is supposed to do, actually. They're so painted into a corner (and again, this is a band I seriously love) that the idea of just having other bands take over for them doesn't seem like the worst thing in the world. And again, that's why what I really want is more Yung Wu.

dlp9001, Sunday, 11 December 2016 21:55 (seven years ago) link

two months pass...

Yung Wu fans might enjoy "Rock And Pillars" from the recent Bats album.

The new Feelies album is really great. I always had a problem with <em>Only Life</em> and <em>Time For A Witness</em> because in the process of trying to beef up their sound they became a bit too generic alt rock and lost some of the magic of the first two albums. This one does.

Jangle Pop: The Feelies, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Real Estate, The Bats, The Black Watch

Fastnbulbous, Sunday, 26 February 2017 02:20 (seven years ago) link

Ordered it online yesterday. Really anticipating it's arrival.

Austin, Sunday, 26 February 2017 06:44 (seven years ago) link

Couple tracks I heard sound good from the new record.

I think the later two albums like 'Only Life' and 'Time for a Witness' really are more a result of being more of a 'live band'. I saw them live and got into them around Time for a Witness and they were really groovy live. Crazy Rhythms was at that point a different band or where they started compared to '91 when they were gigging and touring. The first record is iconic, but I think part of that was the shock of "oh man, we are making a record" and they just did it, but what was there wasn't exactly what they became like as a live band over time. Or at least that would be my guess...

On a personal note, I think it's pretty damn admirable how many of the punk/postpunk/indie musicians from the 80s and on especially some of the cats that didn't cash in on the golden ring are still going for it and applying their musical minds a few decades down the line. And there is a LOT of them doing so. Got to tip the hat for that.

earlnash, Sunday, 26 February 2017 07:13 (seven years ago) link

this is hitting me much more than Here Before did. really really enjoying it. and the last track was a pleasant surprise

also I highly recommend Rolling Blackouts CF too

Isi, Sunday, 26 February 2017 10:40 (seven years ago) link

On artistic grounds, it's too bad they didn't release this as the follow up to Good Earth. I'm not sure if it would have helped their career, but it would have been a really satisfying 1-2 punch. Easily the 3rd best Feelies album.

dlp9001, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 18:48 (seven years ago) link

ha, i don't know about that (i love only life and witness), but yeah, this album is really solid throughout. glad they are still at it.

tylerw, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link

Kind of want to see them revisit the first album style next, just to see what they can do, as this is generally Good Earth part 2 (though as we now know, Slipping was an early composition...)

dlp9001, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link

yeah interesting that the first album is kind of the outlier in their catalog now, even though it's the "iconic" record.

tylerw, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link

the thing is the first album really was an outlier in that a lot of it's sound is defined by the methods they used in the studio, which was not at all indicative of their live sound...and they've even expressed some regret about those choices. I'm sure they don't think it sounds bad, I think they just feel like at the time they didn't want to sound too punk but in my discussions with them there was a sense that it was too bad they weren't able to release something as powerful as their live sound. As we all know, they did a bunch of recordings, including the stuff recently release by Ork, and felt like they weren't ready to present themselves so they waited then went into the studio without their usual engineer and did something more out of the box and came up with that sound.

dan selzer, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 20:47 (seven years ago) link

Is there a thread for bands whose most iconic record is their first one, but which is also stylistically an outlier in their catalog?

henry s, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 20:52 (seven years ago) link

Got the album in the mail today. After one run through I have to say it's predictably excellent. Which is comforting.

10/10. . . Five stars. . . or whatever.

They really are proving to be one of the most consistent bands ever.

Austin, Thursday, 2 March 2017 04:28 (seven years ago) link

"Gone Gone Gone" does give a nod to the Crazy Rhythms sound. Another fun idea would be for them to record all the other covers they've been known for over the years.

So glad to have the Feelies back in such magical form. And I still like and listen to all the albums. Below are a couple more things I've written about them. The live review of the Lou Reed tour was pre-web, for my school paper. The second time I saw them, 20 years later, was a free show on a shimmering summer evening at the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It was even better, as they had the headlining spot with the time to do 18 songs, including a cover of R.E.M.'s "Carnival Of Sorts," and I finally got to hear them do "What Goes On" after they chickened out doing it when opening for Reed.

The Feelies And Lou Reed Make History At The Orpheum
Feelies – Crazy Rhythms & The Good Earth

Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 2 March 2017 14:27 (seven years ago) link

Was that the Orpheum in Boston? I saw that same show in Detroit, at the State Theater I think. I really liked the Feelies but was pretty drunk by the time Lou Reed played and almost got beaten up for throwing an empty beer cup.

henry s, Thursday, 2 March 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link

Is there a thread for bands whose most iconic record is their first one, but which is also stylistically an outlier in their catalog?

yeah, now

Bands whose most iconic record is their first one, but which is also stylistically an outlier in their catalog

frogbs, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:27 (seven years ago) link

No, Minneapolis.

Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 2 March 2017 17:27 (seven years ago) link

Good call on Gone Gone Gone. A little more treble and a little faster and it's definitely first album stuff.

dlp9001, Thursday, 2 March 2017 19:39 (seven years ago) link

and they've even expressed some regret about those choices. I'm sure they don't think it sounds bad, I think they just feel like at the time they didn't want to sound too punk but in my discussions with them there was a sense that it was too bad they weren't able to release something as powerful as their live sound.

That's crazy talk. Their experiments in plugging unamped guitars directly into the soundboard were brilliant, and one of the big reasons it's such a unique classic. I think an attempt to capture their live power would have failed, like most bands.

Also crazy are all the band's side projects that are such reclusive wallflowers they literally disappear into the wallpaper. Case in point, Speed The Plough. I love their albums, but I had no f-ing idea they released a new album, Now in 2015, until I stumbled upon it on their site - http://www.speedtheplough.com/. It's not on RYM, not on Spotify, not on Bandcamp. Wild Carnation is also very under the radar.

Fastnbulbous, Saturday, 4 March 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link

I just bought a ticket for Saturday July 15 Pitchfork. Feelies are playing with PJ Harvey, Angel Olsen and A Tribe Called Quest that day.

Friday April 28 - Rent Party* at The Woodland, Maplewood, NJ
Saturday April 29 - World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, PA
Friday May 12 - Rough Trade, Brooklyn, NY
Saturday May 13 - Rough Trade, Brooklyn NY
Saturday July 15 - Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL
Sunday July 16 - El Club, Detroit MI

Fastnbulbous, Saturday, 11 March 2017 18:24 (seven years ago) link

Cool

Got Your Money Changes Everything (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 11 March 2017 18:51 (seven years ago) link

I might see the Philly show. I saw 'em in 2011 at World Cafe Live and 2013 at Union Transfer, both great shows.

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Sunday, 12 March 2017 00:08 (seven years ago) link

three weeks pass...

Nice piece by Rick Moody and a great interview with Demeski and Weckerman (incl. a Sauter-penned addendum) here: http://therumpus.net/2017/04/swinging-modern-sounds-79-the-rhythm-section-speaks/
(Demeski would like to play Europe again, I (and a lot of others) would like them to come over again but I don't think it'll ever happen)

willem, Friday, 7 April 2017 11:32 (seven years ago) link

boy this record is great.

Van Horn Street, Monday, 17 April 2017 02:48 (seven years ago) link


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