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I'll show my appreciation for this band in song:

 

Feelies, nothing more than feelies...

 

Feelies, wo-o-o feelies,

woo-o-o, feelies again in my arms

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Love them Feelies.

 

One of my favorite and weird Feelies moments was when they were on Letterman years ago. They didn't have the whole band; they had Glenn Mercer and Bill Million playing guitars and singing with Letterman's band but they also had Dave Weckerman playing tambourine. After they played, Letterman came over and said (and I am paraphrasign here) "if things get tough in the world of the Feelies and you need to have some layoffs, I think I know where to start" and he nodded over at Weckerman. And then it was incredibly awkward for everyone.

 

Does anyone have Mercer's solo album that just came out? I think it is pretty good; probably the best of his post-Feelies work.

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Love them Feelies.

 

One of my favorite and weird Feelies moments was when they were on Letterman years ago. They didn't have the whole band; they had Glenn Mercer and Bill Million playing guitars and singing with Letterman's band but they also had Dave Weckerman playing tambourine. After they played, Letterman came over and said (and I am paraphrasign here) "if things get tough in the world of the Feelies and you need to have some layoffs, I think I know where to start" and he nodded over at Weckerman. And then it was incredibly awkward for everyone.

 

Ouch. I always hated seeing bands on Letterman with the house band backing them up. They must have had a really lazy soundman or something. How hard is it to mic up a drumset?

 

I wonder if David Letterman ever saw Anton Fig wearing his "Fig not Fier" T-shirt and, if so, if he knew what it meant.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

Where does a Feelies newbie like myself go? I guess most of their stuff is out of print? I bought Only Life this wkd on CD (I guess it's been reissued?). I can't stop playing it. I guess Mercer's recent solo album? Where would I go to find the older albums?

 

And no, there's no excuse for why I am discovering them now. Let's just be glad that it happened now. Right? No, I have no idea how I missed these guys.

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love love love this band

 

saw 'em many times back in the day and the live shows were just mesmerizing

 

as good as it got for me

 

saw 'em open for REM once in a small theater & it was magical

 

the records haven't held up quite that well for me but i still do enjoy listening to the live shows once in a while

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Where does a Feelies newbie like myself go? I guess most of their stuff is out of print? I bought Only Life this wkd on CD (I guess it's been reissued?). I can't stop playing it. I guess Mercer's recent solo album? Where would I go to find the older albums?

 

And no, there's no excuse for why I am discovering them now. Let's just be glad that it happened now. Right? No, I have no idea how I missed these guys.

Three of the four are out of print. As you noted Only Life was just reissued, but you should also track down the first two: Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth. (If you need help, send me a PM.)

 

I saw them a lot between 1986 and 1991 and was never let down. I also saw them back in October and they've lost nothing off their fastball.

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usually i'm against reunions, but when i heard these guys were back together for a few shows last year and there was talk of recording, i was obliged to make an exception. Anyone heard further rumors about this?

 

Crazy Rhythms is, as the name implies, laced with over-caffeinated slightly socially dysfunctional rhythms, the Good Earth brought them into more ethereal territory and the Only Life and Time For a Witness are more straight up rock, but no less good. Pick them all up if you can find them. P.M. me if you can't. Also worth checking out is the Yung Wu side project stuff, and i imagine the other feelies-related stuff must be good too, though i haven't heard it.

 

In my memory Letterman said "God forbid if the Feelies should go through cutbacks, you'd have to think that the tamborine player would be the first to go. God Forbid." And i thought he had said it after the commercial break. But alas, my memory is flawed.

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I've just started getting into Crazy Rhythms and am loving it.

"Fa-Ce-La" is too much fun.

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  • 6 months later...

Via pitchfork:

 

Back in 1980, New Jersey postpunk originators the Feelies dropped Crazy Rhythms, their classic debut. Crazy Rhythms was a short, sharp shock of spiky guitars and sidelong grooves, the sort of album destined to become an influential but underappreciated relic, which is exactly what happened. You can hear bits and pieces of Crazy Rhythms all over American indie rock from the 1980s, especially in the first few R.E.M. albums, but the band's history was plagued by commercial failure and frequent breakups. The LP has been out of print forever.

 

That's about to change. The Feelies are back together now, playing shows when they feel like it. And on September 8, Crazy Rhythms and the band's 1986 sophomore effort The Good Earth will finally be reissued. The reissues will be out on Bar None in the U.S. and Canada and Domino everywhere else. Both remastered albums will be available on CD and 180 gram vinyl, and both will come with bonus tracks.

 

 

But there's a twist. The Feelies didn't want to mess with the original documents at all, so the bonus tracks don't appear on the physical versions of the reissued albums. They will be available only digitally; the CD and LP versions of the reissues will come with download cards containing access to the full albums plus bonus tracks. The Feelies have also gone so far as to omit their cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black", which was added by the band's old label, A&M, to an earlier reissue of Crazy Rhythms against the band's wishes.

 

Also, Insound will carry a limited edition 7" reissue of "Fa cé-La", the band's 1979 debut single.

 

Crazy Rhythms:

 

01 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness

02 Fa cé-La

03 Loveless Love

04 Forces at Work

05 Original Love

06 Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)

07 Moscow Nights

08 Raised Eyebrows

09 Crazy Rhythms

 

Crazy Rhythms bonus tracks:

 

01 Fa cé-La (single version)

02 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness (Carla Bley demo version)

03 Moscow Nights (Carla Bley demo version)

04 Crazy Rhythms (live)

05 I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms (live) (Modern Lovers cover)

 

The Good Earth:

 

01 On the Roof

02 The High Road

03 The Last Roundup

04 Slipping (Into Something)

05 When Company Comes

06 Let's Go

07 Two Rooms

08 The Good Earth

09 Tomorrow Today

10 Slow Down

 

The Good Earth bonus tracks:

 

01 She Said, She Said (Beatles cover)

02 Sedan Delivery (Neil Young cover)

03 Slipping (Into Something) (live)

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