T O D A Y
In their original incarnation in the late ’70s and
surely belongs in conversation with The Velvet
early ’80s, The Feelies were known for playing
Underground, Talking Heads, and R.E.M. The
nearly exclusively on national holidays. A show
catch? Generally speaking, you have to want to
of theirs was always a celebration of some
be in that conversation in order to be regularly
kind—like firecrackers going off in a cul-de-sac
invited into it.
on the Fourth of July. Though they wouldn’t
necessarily have known it at the time, anyone
“We’re really appreciative of our fan base and
lucky enough to have seen the band back
happy that they like what we do, but really,
then should have indeed been celebrating the
we do it for ourselves,” says Mercer, who has
occasion: of all the obscure artists among the
to qualify as one of the most soft-spoken lead
heavily dog-eared pages of rock and roll lore,
singers ever. “We don’t rush into anything.”
perhaps none have been as unpredictable as The
An Indirectly
Boys (and Girls) with the Perpetual Nervousness
It should be reassuring, then, for the band’s very
led by Glenn Mercer and Bill Million.
patient fans to hear that the currently reunited
classic lineup—with Mercer and Million each
Direct
History of
This summer marks forty years since The
on guitar and vocals, Brenda Sauter on bass,
Feelies first formed in a suburban New Jersey
Dave Weckerman on percussion, and Stanley
garage, molded by a chance encounter and a
Demeski on drums—have a new album on the
mutual love for The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your
way. Like every other Feelies record, it’ll be
Dog”—except that nice round number doesn’t
completely different from every other Feelies
really tell the whole story. At least twenty of
record (for starters, this one is said to be largely
those forty years are accounted for by two
home recorded).
extended band hiatuses (the first lasting from
about 1980 to 1985, and the second from 1991
“I don’t think we go into a recording situation
all the way to 2008, when they were asked by
with this feeling that we’re one hundred percent
Sonic Youth to reunite), and all said, there have
intent on making a certain type of record,” says
been two lineup changes, three side projects,
Million, who is also soft spoken, but a regular
and four record labels surrounding five total
chatterbox compared to Mercer. “We have an
albums—each one essential to the legacy of a
idea but a lot of times these things take a life of
band that never seemed to be all that concerned
their own, and that’s one of the things that we
with something as silly as “legacy.”
really love about making music.”
From the frantic landmark debut Crazy Rhythms,
In celebration of Bar/None’s recent reissues of
the sun-glazed minimalist masterpiece The
the band’s A&M releases (Only Life and Time for
Good Earth, the massively underappreciated
a Witness), and in anticipation of album number
major-label turn Only Life, the hard-nosed
six, Mercer and Million reflect here on forty
ragged glory of Time for a Witness, and the
years of feeling it out with The Feelies, album
shockingly assured return of Here Before,
by album.
The
Feelies
The Feelies have spun together a catalog that
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