the feelies - classic or dud?

lol

i can kind of imagine a Carla Bley workout vid
http://www.mantlermusic.com/Artists/carla_bley.jpg
sweatin' it to the ... what?

sweatin' it to the feelies

with instructions by paul haines

Free Jazzercise

"Okay so by now your ab crunches in 14/5 time have gone arrythmic. Don't repeat this for ten minutes, but keep going."

"remember: the exercise you don't do can be as important as the exercise you do."

"And...unbreathe."

Just got the reissues in the mail. Marvellous sound and of course, hey, it's the Feelies' first two albums, naturally they're great.

My ears are jealous of yours Ned. Can't wait to hear these - my cassette of Crazy Rhythms was on its last legs years ago (and the rip I have just isn't up to snuff).

Hey Ned, can you describe how different it sounds from previous editions ? I hope it doesn't sound too big.

Not at all, if anything I think it captures the subtleties better than ever -- the opening of "The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness" actually surprised me!

This is what I was hoping for.
Its like the remastered version of "Here come the warm jets", when I finally had the chance a lot of details previously drowned by hiss.

:D can't wait! (also, still lol-ing over Carla Bley as fitness instructor)

Thanks Ned. Excited !

yeah, super-excited to hear the cleaned up sound on these -- Both of those records are so textured and subtle. Even Good Earth, which seems more straightforward the Crazy Rhythms, has all of these layers of sound happening on every song.

Holy crap, I wasn't actually expecting this to be so good.

wishing i was at ATP tonight to see these guys! in the meantime, I'm in the process of putting together a live Feelies covers comp for http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/ here's a list of covers i've come up with

Funtime (Iggy Pop)
Real Cool Time (Stooges)
Little Red Book (Love/Bacharach)
Looking At You (MC5)
I’m A Believer (Monkees)
Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey (Beatles)
Third Uncle (Brian Eno)
King's Lead Hat (Brian Eno)
Run Run Run/European Son/What Goes On (Velvet Underground)
She Said She Said (Beatles)
Fun To Be Happy (Love Tractor)
Sedan Delivery (Neil Young)
Egyptian Reggae (Jonathan Richman)
Head Held High (Velvet Underground)
Tomorrow Today (Beatles)
Mannequin (Wire)
See No Evil (Television)
Outdoor Miner (Wire)
Roadrunner (Modern Lovers)
Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith)
We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Velvet Underground)
Powderfinger (Neil Young)
Take It As It Comes (Doors)
I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms (Jonathan Richman)
Barstool Blues (Neil Young)
Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
White Light White Heat (Velvet Underground)
Carnival of Sorts (REM)
Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)

Ones I don't have in bold -- can anyone help a feelies nerd out here?

Tomorrow Today (Beatles)?

Let me check, Tyler, but I think I have the Take It As It Comes cover somewhere.
Also, just for the record, apparently during their last Italian tour they played Marquee Moon - or so I'm told!

Marquee Moon, really? That'd be wild. I don't know what "Tomorrow Today" is referring to -- my reference for that list is mostly over here: http://www.thefeeliesweb.com/disc/boot2.htm

and Marco if you can dig up that Doors cover, that'd be much appreciated! Weird that they covered the Doors, kinda.

One of many things jumping out at me while listening to the remasters is that on the first album, vocals owe a bigger debt to J. Richman than I remembered. The mutation into Lou Reed Jr. comes w/The Good Earth.

I'm kind of praying that a Yung Wu remaster is going to come at some point...

Lastly, the recording on "Last Roundup" is crazy amazing. Probably the best track to hear the double-drum sound in action. It sounds more like them live than anything else I've heard on their albums.

haven't gotten the remasters yet (busy times!) but I'm glad that they're getting the thumbs up regarding the sound quality. i will get them soon!

tyler I need to check when I get home on Monday but I might have Head Held High.

hey tyler, just let me have your e-mail and I'll send you the Doors cover! (it is obviously a super-fast, punkified version etc).

you can send it to tywilc AT gmail DOT com -- Thanks dudes! This is IMPORTANT!

"tomorrow today" is a feelies song, maybe the best on the slow earth. "how can you go home? . . . it's better talking . . . we get excited . . . i fall apart again." one of my favorites of theirs. do you mean "tomorrow never knows"?

ha, yr right -- blanked on that title ....

actually does anyone have a halfway decent recording of the REM cover? mine is craptastic from the tribute concert ... performance is good, but ....

heyo, looks like NYCT Taper answered my request! Neat -- I <3 the internet! (Also thanks to Marco for hooking me up w/ the Doors cover, which they seem to have resurrected here. Are they reading this thread?)

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=1650 link

Whoever wrote that NYC Taper bit neglected to mention that the band went on at 8:30 and did a languid and lethargic 35 minute first set. The set included some of my faves from "The Good Earth" but they were played so joylessly that I wished they hadn't even bothered.

After a lengthy break they came on and got busy with some classic jittery Feelies songs. It was almost as if it was a completely different band. They were energetic and angaging. It's almost like that 1/2 break between sets was so long because they were waiting for the drugs to arrive. Seriously, the disparity was remarkable.

I will say that the double whammy of "Raised Eyebrows" into "Crazy Rhythms" that ended the second set was nothing short of remarkable though.

were they doing a semi-acoustic thing for the first set like they did at the Whitney earlier this summer? not sure why they bother with that tbh -- Feelies aren't really about mellowing out.

If semi-acoustic means Bill Millions with a 12 string acoustic guitar then I guess so.

Nice enough review of the reissues in Pitchfork. The last two paragraphs are completely correct. I'm not clear on when The Good Earth's reputation took such a dive...it seemed huge enough (in 80's east coast college terms) when I was at an east coast college in the 80's.

I wasn't aware that "the good earth's" reputation has been sullied. This is the first I've heard that said but, if Pitchfork says it, it must be true.

It took a dive when REM became a top 40 band and suddenly Crazy Rhythms was the crazy angsty post-punk record while The Good Earth was the boring folky acoustic record they did years later. Anybody who actually bothered to listen to it didn't feel that way of course. "tempos relaxed", like on The Last Round Up? And Slipping (Into Something) predates Crazy Rhythms, fwiw. P-fork also didn't mention that Fier wasn't the original drummer, Weckerman had already been playing in the band in the 70s.

Anyone who had a cassette of The Good Earth might have contributed to its deflated reputation. It took me many years to get into it because the only version I'd heard sounded like it was being played through a wall stuffed with dirty socks.

Weckerman had already been playing in the band in the 70s
original drummer was actually a dude named Vinny Denunzio, I think -- he's on the early bootlegs, and I think showed up on Mercer's recent solo album ...

Tyler -

I have a pretty mediocre quality version of "Head Held High" and a good quality "Take It As It Comes" if you still need it. Also have "Sweet Jane" which is, in theory, them with Lou Reed singing.

yeah, send 'em my way! Thanks! Marco already hooked me up with the Doors cover ... Seems like the only missing culprit is that Eno cover, King's Lead Hat ...

OK, keepers of Feelies lore. A friend of mine swears that apparent Feelies fan Prince once sat in with the band in MN, except he didn't want to overshadow them and apparently played guitar sitting on the edge of the stage. 1) Is there any possibility this is true? 2) Does anyone believe this?

haha, i have never heard that story. would love it if it turned out to be true. but i doubt it.

asked over on my rolling blog thread, but I'll ask here: does anyone have a recording of the Feelies doing the Eno song "King's Lead Hat." For the covers comp mentioned upthread. It's the only one I'm missing!

I have a copy of Yung Wu doing Into the Valley by the Skids, among others!

whoa really? I don't have that! I've got them doing Child of the Moon (Stones), Hide Your Love Away (Beatles), Kingdom Come (Tom Verlaine) and Powderfinger (Neil Young). Maybe a couple others ... Can you hook me up, Dan?

aight, in case you didn't see on the doom and gloom thread, that Feelies covers comp is up ... just realized I forgot the Yung Wu version of "powderfinger" tho. I'll post an addendum soon! http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/

classic totally i love time as a witness and crazy rhythms

"time as a witness" would actually be a great name for an album.