The Feelies are back

Onhwy,

Can't really argue, but....

In the studio vs live, it's almost like they were almost 2 different bands. The CDs sound like quirky, minimalist alt. rock. A clever, interesting variation of rock music that was almost abstracted from the original rockin' idea.

In concert, they were a fierce rock band. Back in the day, I was an MD at an investment bank in NYC and took a young analyst who was working for me to see the band perform. His reaction was "Cool, the boss likes thrash."

The shows were amazing, but the records have endured, too.

Either way, it's good to have 'em back.

Jebe,

Thanks for the link. I loved the track and I'd bet it will be a monster live. Check out that little solo by (I believe) Million at the 1:40ish mark. You know that will stretch to about 4 minutes in concert. I do hope they get out to LA so I don't have to schelp to Maxwell's in Hoboken.

Marty

PS If anyone decides to check out the band for the first time, "Crazy Rythms" and the later stuff (The Good Earth, Time For A Witness) are quite different. I say splurge and go for a little of each to get a handle on 'em.

Onhwy61,

Trivia to your trivia: That band in Something Wild looks a lot like The Feelies, but (as a technical matter) it's not. It's actually The Willies. Same band membership, but Dave Weckerman (percussionist foor The Feelies) is the songwriter and singer.

Marty

BTW, I've always attributed that film cameo to The Feelies, too. I just learned the above tidbit from their website.

To my knowledge, the Willies never recorded anything - so maybe it's semantics in the end.

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