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The Feelies are back

While trying to find info on another Hoboken band (see my thread re: The Marys), I tripped across an announcement that the Feelies (including Bill Million as well as Glenn Mercer) are releasing a new CD on Bar/None. Release date is April 12.

For those unfamiliar with this band, they were one of the great cult bands of the '80s. Nerdy look, oddball lyrics, jerky "ostinato" style rythms, highly crafted pop rock songs played at hyper (near thrash) tempos and 2 guitarists who can tear it up. Great taste in cover material including Beatles, Stones, Eno, and the Velvet Underground, among others.

As a side note, they were long the darlings of The New York Times who spilled an inordinate amount of ink on an otherwise obscure band.

Marty
martykl
kclone's avatar
kclone
680 posts
 
Better than Husker Du, The Replacements, Sonic Youth? Wow, I have to check them out.
waltersalas's avatar
waltersalas
952 posts
 

Not better than, but they belong in that company. And like the Velvet Underground, all four of their studio albums have a distinctly different sonic signature. Great band.
loomisjohnson
1,944 posts
 
waltersalas, is your user name a tribute to the guy from the silos (or are you the same guy)? very good band. in any event, i agree the feelies (despite their relatively sparse output) fully deserve to be mentioned in the same company as other 80s greats; people who dig arcade fire or the shins really ought to listen to these guys.
martykl OP
3,578 posts
 
Kclone,

IMHO, the Feelies are a little different animal from Husker Du and The Replacements (although, obviously, those bands differ from each other, too). I like both of the above (Paul Westerberg, in particular), but none were barking up quite the same tree as this band. I put the Feelies more in the company of Brian Eno and Lou Reed (and, in a bit of a stretch, Phillip Glass).

The Feelies (on record, at least) were trying to abstract the rock backbeat, much like Reed, who (often) went for jaded ennui and Eno who took it toward the mechanical or robotic or hypnotic. The Feelies used highly repetetive, slowly shifting rythms to more traditional rocking effect, in almost the flip side of the Reed/Eno idea, and in a nod to the Phillip Glass material of that time.

Anyone remember Polyrock? That was a band that Glass directly assisted around the same time and they were a more keyboard driven variation of this approach. The distinction I'm trying to draw is that The Feelies were definitely screwing around with the basic rythmic conceits of rock music in a way the other bands (to my knowledge, anyway) weren't.

The result - for me - is less heartfelt than Westerberg or Mould/Grant, admittedly more mannered, but (again, to me) more interesting. Don't really know Sonic Youth well enough to compare.

Just one more take for you.

Marty
jebe1
75 posts
 
Download a free mp3 of the Feelies "When You Know" here.

Listen to "Way Down" here.

Listen to "Should Be Gone" here.
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