the feelies - classic or dud?

Well, sorry for any bad vibes; I thought I was well within the bounds of a C or D thread, but maybe wasn't worth it.

FWIW, I'm listening to "Crazy Rhythms" right now (one I hadn't heard)... the rhythms aren't all that crazy, but it's sounding good while I work!

don't worry your post had very little to do w/the turrican/austin beef which i now know is a thing apparantly

It isn't a thing at all. Austin took a completely unprovoked pop and I reacted is all, but I don't want to fill this thread full of stuff like that, and on the plus side I'm gonna check out a Feelies record.

feelies are very fun!

A good band imo

A very good band indeed

the other albums I'd never give a second look to. I think The Sea and Cake are sort of like this as well.

― frogbs, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 2:40 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like a lot of the sea and cake artwork, but it is pretty funny that they now have albums called "Everybody" and "Any Day"

yea my first reaction to that title is "wtf they used that one already"

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-feelies-played-three-nights-at-rough-trade-pics-setlists-videos/
Great setlists..

They were selling the Yung Wu reissue, anyone here went and got one?

I got one in the mail.

it came a bit damaged which was a bummer!

They did include the original Dave Weckerman single....but for some reason did it as both songs on one side of a flexidisc, instead of repressing the actual single.

They shoulda also included a download code for the Yung Wu covers CD-R they've occasional sold but alas.

Regardless, for some reason I always used to consider Yung Wu the lesser of the three major groupings but the more I listen to it the more I realize I was an idiot and it's as good as everything else and different enough and at times more what I want to hear! Those songs are sooooo good.

yeah it really is a classic

Plus, especially at the time, the Eno cover was the deepest of cuts.

even "child of the moon" was probably a pretty deep cut in the 80s ... (powderfinger not so much, but it's still awesome)

I was at the shows but didn't pick up the Yung Wu reissue because I have one on order.

Don't know anything about the Yardbirds, really, but I was struck by a loose resemblance here:

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

nice

First Wake Ooloo album reissued, first time it's available on vinyl.

Fitting that this announcement is made on the eve of the anniversary of their traditional Maxwell's shows.

would love to get that, but jeez at the price tag. i don't have any of these albums what a poseur i am.

From Dromedary, which sports a lot of venerable hipsters' releases, incl new stuff---dunno how much actual Feelies input this latest single has, but might be worth checking:
Another beautiful song from the wildly inventive series of monthly pandemic releases from Speed the Plough, our first release with the band since the 2011 CD Shine. STP is a NJ chamber-pop band that has been together since 1984, rising out of the ashes of The Trypes. At various points, Speed the Plough has included most members of The Feelies. They're joined here with guest vocals by Mayssa Jallad of the Beirut-based band Safar, along with guitar contributions from Matt Davis (The Campfire Flies) and bass from Dan Francia.
Stream it here:
http://dromedary-records.com/news/out-today-broken-glass

So I drunkenly bought tickets to see the Feelies in November, thinking we were going to be in at least a non-catastrophic place re: the pandemic this fall. My thinking has changed and I’m not inclined to undertake an international trip at the moment.

I’ve cancelled my flights, but the tic are non-refundable. Anyone want discounted tix for the show on Nov 6 in Jersey City?

looking forward to this in the new Maggot Brain, by a learned Feelies scholar: ...a big in-depth, lyrical feature on the Feelies ambient offshoot who have never been written on in-depth. The band’s connection to Downtown minimalism has never been written on this way, and basically you will for the first time understand how the band morphed from the first record into the second, and at least part of why there was so much time in between. We’re not worthy!

hey that learned Feelies scholar ... is me! i had wanted someone to write this story for awhile, but no one else would do it. I think feelies heads will like it.

oh wow that sounds cool

ha yeah i saw that was you tyler (i'm never sure who is ok with having their irl byline referenced & who is not.) great idea for a piece, i never got around to that Willies stuff & am excited to learn about it

there are a few recordings to check out here — i love this stuff (obviously). https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20willies

Yeah, I got the idea from some of sets you've posted there over the years, of the Feelies x recombinant combo iterations, about the band’s connection to Downtown minimalism, and thought of it again while recently reading Tim Lawrence's awesome Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992: Arthur totally upset the minimalist apple cart by booking The Modern Lovers at the Kitchen, and then he and Ernie Brooks upset other applecarts, incl. indie rock ones, over the years---and that was only one vein of Arthur's own rock-times-this-and-that extensions (also, though he says he was shocked when Arthur brought in the Lovers, Rhys Chatham also says that was what eventually led him to the composition of "Guitar Trio" and working with Branca in Theoretical Girls, while others, like Peter Gordon and Julius Eastman, were encouraged to bring their own pop-rock-etc. tendencies out of the avant closet).
Could totally see Arthur (considering his jangly singer-songwriter albums, for one kind of example) working with members of the Feelies family, though apparently he didn't (who knows what may turn up, though). Maybe he and they encouraged each other by example, anyway.

yeah I don't think the Feelies and Russell ever interacted in a meaningful way but I'm sure they were aware of one another. Details in the Maggot Brain piece, but one of the Willies' first live appearances was at this massive Kitchen 10th anniversary thing at Bonds Casino in Times Square, which probably deserves its own huge oral history.

https://gallery.98bowery.com/wp-content/uploads/kitchen10-662x1024.jpg

Chatham didn’t play with a theoretical Girls. His lost no wave rock band was the Gyneacologists with Nina Canal I think.

lol at VEDO (an anagram)

whooo could it be???

Danny DeVedo

I think it was DOVE (the Band of Love)?!?

xxx[post, sorry, that was my bad, not Lawrence's. He does make the point, with my brain filling in rong detail, that Chatham and Branca took the rock thing in a massively high-volume direction (in some contrast to other downtown peers),after serpent Arthur brought it to the Kitchen's Garden of Eden (also says that Arthur, as he got more into using effects on his cello, became fascinated with "certain metal guitarists": wha, were they too dorky to name?)

Most of the artists on that 10th Anniversary poster are in the book!

re: chatham could be confusion with Jeffrey Lohn, the third of the extended minimalist guitar rock thing. Jeffrey and Glenn formed Theoretical Girls, all three came from art music backgrounds (and theater), Jeffrey heard the Dead Boys and things were never the same.

Chatham didn’t play with a theoretical Girls. His lost no wave rock band was the Gyneacologists with Nina Canal I think.

― dan selzer, Thursday, June 23, 2022 5:32 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

iirc he also collaborated with Nina's father, Bert

https://www.mixcloud.com/Radio_Nul/the-feelies-doornroosje-nijmegen-waaghals-2-12-1986/

No idea if this has been available before - recording of a 1986 live show in the Netherlands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_0Hok-2Prs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLE_QXJpCY4

pretty wonderful cover

he really sounds like mid period lou

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!”