the feelies - classic or dud?

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.

its the name of the feelies album

"for a"

ooooooo sorry my mistake

tee hee.

Anyone hear anything about new recordings? Saw them at the Middle East in Cambridge last weekend and of course they didn't say anything. They were amazing as always. Six encores — six.

Mercer mentioned it briefly in an article last week in the New Haven Advocate. To paraphrase, he said they hope to get into the studio but haven't yet.

Saw the show in Connecticut ion Saturday. First set was laconic and strummy, the second set was jittery and magnificent.

I would give my nuts to see The Feelies live in the UK. Not sure if they've ever played here though. Guess I'll just have to go listen to more Feelies bootlegs to make up for it.

I know they toured Europe sometime in the 80s, at least once. I too would give my nuts to see the Feelies live ... I may just have to bite the bullet and schedule a trip to the east coast when they're playing sometime ....

First set was laconic and strummy, the second set was jittery and magnificent.
Same here. Thirty-five songs total, including covers of Velvets, Wire, R.E.M., Doors, Beatles, Stones, Neil Young.

feelies on world cafe
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127212203

looks like the feelies are featured on the sdtk to the assayas film Carlos: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536091919059272.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter
dude always has pretty great soundtracks.

tyler did you ever get a chance to see them live?

They've played a bunch of times in Jersey since your post about coming to the east coast above.

doomandgloomfromthetomb is the best thing ever. aside from the feelies obviously

" Feelies Begin Recording New Record
11 September 2010

The Feelies have begun recording their first record in nearly 20 years. The band is recording at Water Music in Hoboken NJ forthe Bar/None label.

Please check back for updates.

Thanks for the support!"

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=346187838&blogId=539058066

Good to hear. Wonder when they'll reissue Only Life and Time for a Witness.

yeah, that is cool they're recording a new album. new songs they've been playing live sound good. still haven't made it to a show -- i'm in colorado, and they haven't played anywhere west of the mississippi have they? or out of the tri-state area even? maybe someday -- flying out east for a show isn't in the budget currently.
(and thx for the kind words, spikey).

They played a free show in Chicago, some of my friends saw it.

Still fresh as the first time I had it! Which was twenty some years ago!

some news:
After a 19 year break, the Feelies are back with Here Before an album of all new original material on Bar/None Records. The new album touches on different styles from the Feelies’ long history while adding new grooves and musical ideas to the mix. Electric and acoustic guitars melt together in archetypal Feelies fashion on songs like “Nobody Knows” and “Should be Gone. “ Elsewhere there are slabs of driving garage rock like "When You Know" and "Time Is Right" and the down-tempo ”Bluer Skies,” and harmonically rich “Later On."

Here Before was recorded at Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey produced by Feelies founders Glenn Mercer and Bill Million. Besides Glenn on rhythm/lead guitar and lead vocals, and Bill on guitar and vocals, the album features Feelies mainstays Brenda Sauter (bass, vocals), Stanley Demeski (drums), and Dave Weckerman (percussion).

The Feelies proper re-emerged with a new rhythm section (the line-up they’ve had ever since and that appears on Here Before) in 1984 and recorded The Good Earth, co-produced by Million, Mercer and REM’s Peter Buck). The album was released 1986 on the Coyote label (run by Steve Fallon, owner of Hoboken, NJ’s Maxwells, and the group’s manager for a spell), followed by two further releases on Coyote through Twin/Tone/A&M: Only Life (1988) and Time For A Witness (1991). The band shared bills with Patti Smith, LouReed, REM and Bob Dylan during this period and toured nationally.

In 1992 Bill Million left the music business, moving his family to Florida and effectively putting the band on what turned out to be a very long hiatus. Meanwhile, Glenn and Dave continued playing together in Wake Ooloo, Stanley was a founding member of the band Luna and Brenda played in a number of groups including her own Wild Carnations. Glenn Mercer put out his first solo album in 2007.

In 2008, the Feelies re-united to open for long time admirers Sonic Youth at Battery Park and then resurrected their tradition of playing low key gigs around national holidays (many at their old home base, Maxwell’s) rather than doing lengthy tours. In 2009 Bar/None re-issued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, this being the first band-sanctioned CD release of the former; both titles were also issued on heavyweight vinyl and with download cards for access to bonus tracks. A highlight of the All Tomorrows Parties festival in New York state that year was the Feelies playing Crazy Rhythms in its entirety for the very first time. They also introduced new songs written by Mercer and Million raising fans’ hopes for a new album eventually materializing.

In 2010, using the basement studio in Mercer’s New Jersey home, Glenn and Bill resumed writing songs and working out arrangements for new Feelies songs in the midst of rehearsals for live shows in Boston, Philadelphia and D.C. with Bill commuting back and forth from Florida for this. By Fall that year, the band had worked up 13 songs. Basic tracks were cut at Water Music in October with the classic Feelies line-up of Mercer, Million, Demeski, Sauter and Weckerman; tracking dates were engineered by Sean Kelly who also helped out with overdubbing sessions in November and mixing in December. In addition to their main instruments Brenda played violin and sang backup vocals, Glenn contributed keyboards and Bill, Stan, Glenn and Dave all pitched in on percussion.

Many of their fans probably didn’t think they would ever get a chance to see the Feelies perform again let alone have a new album in their hands. Here Before adds a solid fifth album to the Feelies discography. The album will be released digitally as well as on CD and vinyl with a download card.

Scares the shit out of me that the record co. couldn't come up with a more exciting adjective than "solid" in their promotional material.

Still, subpar Feelies is better than top-notch most anything else, in my books. Looking forward to this, with some trepidation.

Anyone else noticed The Feelies' penchant for 3-syllable titles, hooks, and even musical phrases (esp. post-Crazy Rhythms? When I noticed the new album was called Here Before it fit the mold but coulda been chalked up to coincidence, but I had to larf when 5 of the 6 songs mentioned in the press release fit the mold.

Gor, I wish there were an edit button.

Scares the shit out of me that the record co. couldn't come up with a more exciting adjective than "solid" in their promotional material.
i know! i mean, i'm not expecting a masterpiece here (the new songs they've been playing live aren't mindblowing) but I still will probably enjoy this.

Looking forward to hearing the new one. They also have a Philly date in June that I hope to attend.

I am a weirdo who prefers "It's Only Life" to "Crazy Rhythms," incidentally, though it might very well be because I heard that one first (found on vinyl cheap when I didn't know much about the band other than a good friend loved them).

I'm weird too. Only Life -> The Good Earth -> Crazy Rhythms -> Time For A Witness

No huge gaps as I think they're all good. I used to have Crazy Rhythms above The Good Earth, but hearing live boots of that material in the years before they recorded it bumped it down. I like the live versions from the 70s more than what they did once they got in the studio.

I'm optimistic that the new record will be "solid".

This press release is as skeletal and stripped down as their records.
Very curious to listen to it.

^lol
I dunno though, that press release seems to miss some intricately intertwined guitars

On a more serious note: YES! Looking forward to this. More than anything though I hope they're willing/going to do some shows in Europe...
(and I got the same impression wrt album/song titles as staggerlee. Especially the song titles made me go "Haha, that is such a Feelies song title")

Can't listen to it at the moment but here's a song of the album.

Thanks for the link. Pretty decent track, sort of like something off the second album, but with slightly clearer production (a little less bucolic haze) and just a teeny hint of "Crazy Rhythms" weirdness at the end. In a sense, it's a Feelies-by-the-numbers tune, but that ain't bad.

this sounds prettay prettay good!

Got a copy yesterday of the album but my brain shut down and forgot to actually listen to it. Will rectify that tonight.