the feelies - classic or dud?

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nice

dan selzer, Monday, 4 June 2018 21:52 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

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

willem, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 12:57 (four years ago) link

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

henry s, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 13:42 (four years ago) link

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

Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 18:02 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

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

dow, Monday, 22 February 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link

seven months pass...

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?

"The Pus/Worm" by The Smiths (hardcore dilettante), Monday, 4 October 2021 16:46 (two years ago) link

eight months pass...

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!

nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 23 June 2022 15:27 (one year ago) link

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.

tylerw, Thursday, 23 June 2022 15:38 (one year ago) link

oh wow that sounds cool

dan selzer, Thursday, 23 June 2022 15:45 (one year ago) link

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

nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 23 June 2022 16:30 (one year ago) link

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

tylerw, Thursday, 23 June 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link

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.

dow, Thursday, 23 June 2022 19:27 (one year ago) link

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

tylerw, Thursday, 23 June 2022 21:48 (one year ago) link

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, 23 June 2022 22:32 (one year ago) link

lol at VEDO (an anagram)

mizzell, Thursday, 23 June 2022 22:47 (one year ago) link

whooo could it be???

tylerw, Thursday, 23 June 2022 22:49 (one year ago) link

Danny DeVedo

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

Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 23 June 2022 23:06 (one year ago) link

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?)

dow, Thursday, 23 June 2022 23:28 (one year ago) link

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

dow, Thursday, 23 June 2022 23:32 (one year ago) link

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.

dan selzer, Friday, 24 June 2022 00:24 (one year ago) link

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

budo jeru, Friday, 24 June 2022 01:18 (one year ago) link

six months pass...

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

willem, Friday, 13 January 2023 11:55 (one year ago) link

three months pass...

pretty wonderful cover

global tetrahedron, Sunday, 30 April 2023 16:52 (eleven months ago) link

he really sounds like mid period lou

global tetrahedron, Sunday, 30 April 2023 16:53 (eleven months ago) link

four months pass...

Feelies were so good in Something Wild.

Cow_Art, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 12:54 (seven months ago) link

i love that movie

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 12 September 2023 13:04 (seven months ago) link

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

J0rdan S., Tuesday, 12 September 2023 13:54 (seven months ago) link

!!

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 September 2023 13:56 (seven months ago) link

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

the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 September 2023 13:57 (seven months ago) link

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

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:00 (seven months ago) link

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!”

tylerw, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:04 (seven months ago) link

best band cameos in all of cinema history!

Amon Düül II in Fassbinder's The Niklashausen Journey

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:14 (seven months ago) link

WANT TO HEAR FEELIES ROCKY THEME

Cow_Art, Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:19 (seven months ago) link

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

birdistheword, Wednesday, 13 September 2023 03:24 (seven months ago) link

two weeks pass...

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

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

curmudgeon, Monday, 2 October 2023 16:50 (six months ago) link

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.

Thus Sang Freud, Monday, 2 October 2023 17:02 (six months ago) link

the two tracks up on BC sound great!

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Monday, 2 October 2023 17:03 (six months ago) link

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

tylerw, Monday, 2 October 2023 17:07 (six months ago) link

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.

o. nate, Monday, 2 October 2023 18:15 (six months ago) link

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?

birdistheword, Monday, 2 October 2023 20:46 (six months ago) link

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 :)

J0rdan S., Monday, 2 October 2023 20:48 (six months ago) link

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

StanM, Friday, 13 October 2023 13:05 (six months ago) link

grr this is delayed on Bandcamp, gimme gimme

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, 13 October 2023 18:17 (six months ago) link

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

Cow_Art, Friday, 13 October 2023 18:19 (six months ago) link

needless to say, i think this is fantastic

J0rdan S., Sunday, 15 October 2023 17:19 (six months ago) link


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