the feelies - classic or dud?

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!”

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.