the feelies - classic or dud?

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

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

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

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…

xpost: "last night was my"

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.

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

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.

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.

hey, new album!
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-feelies-announce-new-lp-in-between-listen-to-been-replaced/
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/files/2016/12/feelies.jpg

Hell yes.

Aw, yeah!

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."

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

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/459/MI0002459819.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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...)

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

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.

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

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.

"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

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.

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

No, Minneapolis.

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

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.

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

Cool

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

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)

boy this record is great.

last track on the new album almost made me feel like I was listening to Stereolab, wtf

That's the highlight of the album.

They were surprisingly vivid at Pitchfork last weekend.

A very comforting album for me. Love it.

As I indicated on a different thread earlier today, "Slipping (Into Something)" and "Find a Way" are god's, or Wim Wenders', or somebody's idea of the most perfect open-expanse driving music ever.

oh my GOD @ the last track

it's like they said "hey you kids in Yo La Tengo, we hear you dig us, let us show you how it's done"

once the vocals drop out and everybody relaxes and the guitar squall kicks in it's one of my favorite Feelies moments ever

n.b. I love YLT but this track is in some ultra-zoned & rarified "Sunsquashed" type of territory

Finally bought the most recent album. (I'd forgotten it was out there till the last few posts.) I've had it in the car for a few days and like most every song--definitely more than the one before this, where I only kept one song on my hard drive. My favourite is "Stay the Course." Still not sure about the last one; doesn't really feel like the Feelies (Stereolab, yes).

I told my fried I'd put together a CD-80 for him. I have all the albums, plus Yung Wu's Shore Leave--any stray B-sides or anything else that absolutely should be on there?

Uh, "friend."

the covers from the no one knows EP ("sedan delivery" and "she said she said") are pretty essential (think they were included as digital bonuses to the good earth reissue). The two early tracks from Numero's Ork Records comp are awesome too (though I don't think they're necessarily better than the Crazy Rhythms versions). the trypes stuff is good, but i don't know if it's totally essential if you're just intro-ing someone.

WHAT?!?!?