The Feelies | |
|---|---|
 The Feelies performing inCentral Park on July 18, 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Haledon, New Jersey,United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
|
| Labels | |
| Members | Glenn Mercer Bill Million Dave Weckerman Brenda Sauter Stan Demeski |
| Past members | Keith DeNunzio Anton Fier Vinny DeNunzio Charles Beasley John Papesca |
| Website | www |
The Feelies are an Americanrock band fromHaledon, New Jersey. They formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1992 after having released fouralbums. The band reunited in 2008, and released new albums in 2011 and 2017.
Although not commercially successful, the Feelies had an influence on the development of Americanindie rock.[4] Their first album,Crazy Rhythms (1980), was cited byR.E.M. as influencing their sound.[4] The Feelies were influenced bythe Beatles,the Velvet Underground andLou Reed.[5]
The Feelies rarely worked with outside producers, althoughPeter Buck of R.E.M. co-produced their second album,The Good Earth, one of their most successful albums. They frequently played atMaxwell's, a live music venue and bar/restaurant inHoboken, during the 1980s.
Glenn Mercer, Bill Million, Dave Weckerman and vocalist Richard Reilly began playing together in 1976 in Haledon, New Jersey, in a band called the Outkids. The Outkids evolved into the Feelies with the addition of Vinny DeNunzio on drums and Keith Denunzio on bass. The band's name is taken from a fictional entertainment device described inAldous Huxley'sBrave New World.[6]
In 1978, Vinny left the band and shortly after John Piccarella ofThe Village Voice dubbed the then-unsigned Feelies "The Best Underground Band in New York".[7]Anton Fier, who had just arrived to New York fromCleveland, joined the band through a mutual acquaintance, Charles Beasley, who was briefly a percussionist in the Feelies.[8] With the line-up of Mercer, Million, DeNunzio and Fier on drums, the Feelies released their first single, "Fa Cé-La", onRough Trade Records in 1979.
The Feelies' debut album,Crazy Rhythms, was released onStiff Records in 1980, featuring the same line-up as on the "Fa Cé-La"Rough Trade single.
AfterCrazy Rhythms, Fier stated his desire to leave the band and join the Lounge Lizards as their full-time drummer. Keith DeNunzio left the band. With the Feelies in limbo, Mercer and Million collaborated with other local New Jersey musicians, forming one of a number of Feelies offshoots,The Trypes, featuring some once and future Feelies members, includingBrenda Sauter,Dave Weckerman and Stanley Demeski of dream pop bandLuna, as well as John Baumgartner, Marc Francia and Toni Paruta. The Trypes, quieter and more psychedelic than the Feelies, played regular live gigs around the New York/Hoboken scene at clubs such asMaxwell's andFolk City. In 1984, Coyote Records released the Trypes 12" EP,Music for Neighbors, produced by Million and Mercer,The Explorers Hold, featuring three original songs (credited to Mercer alone or with other band members), plus a cover of theGeorge Harrison song "Love You To", which originally had appeared onthe Beatles'Revolver. The Trypes also contributed a Million/Mercer-produced original song, "A Plan Revised", to the 1985 Coyote anthology of Hoboken acts,Luxury Condos Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon. Some members of the Trypes later formed the bandSpeed The Plough. Acute Records reissued theMusic for Neighbors LP in 2012, which quickly sold out. Pravda Records re-reissued it in 2022 and it is also available as a digital release onBandcamp along with theirLive at Maxwell's 1984.
Million, Mercer, Sauter, Demeski and Baumgartner also gigged around New York and Hoboken under the nameYung Wu, which was fronted by and featured the songs of Feelies' percussionist Dave Weckerman, who also sang lead. Yung Wu released one album on Coyote Records in 1986, titledShore Leave. It featured Weckerman originals, plus covers of "Big Day", "Child of the Moon", and "Powderfinger", a staple of their live gigs.
The Willies, also known as the Willies From Haledon, were yet another Feelies offshoot that played around the New York/Hoboken clubs in the early 1980s. The Willies shared a similar lineup as the later Feelies, but their live sets consisted mostly of cover songs, extended instrumentals and psychedelic jams, such as "Third Stone From the Sun" and "Sedan Delivery". The Feelies' appearance inJonathan Demme'sSomething Wild was credited to the Willies.
The members of the Feelies never stopped playing and collaborating in the 1980s, earning them the distinction of being "the New York area's best-loved underground rockers since the late 1970s", according toJon Pareles ofThe New York Times in 1986.[9] The band occasionally even performed under The Feelies name, often onholidays atMaxwell's. At least one such gig onMay Day 1983 featured a reunion of theCrazy Rhythms line-up of Million, Mercer, DeNunzio and Fier. By the late 1980s, the band re-emerged from their self-imposed exile with new members and their first new album in six years.
Reformed as a quintet featuring Mercer, Million, Weckerman, Sauter and Demeski, the Feelies recordedThe Good Earth in 1985 withPeter Buck ofR.E.M. on board as co-producer with Mercer and Million.[7] The album was released in 1986 and featured ten original Mercer/Million compositions. The band toured in support of the album as an opening band forLou Reed as well as R.E.M. that year.
In 1988, the Feelies signed to a major label and released the albumOnly Life onA&M Records. The lineup was the same asThe Good Earth, and Mercer and Million again handled production duties. The disc was a critical favorite, coming in at No. 27 onThe Village Voice's 1988Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[10] Recently, the album's title track has been used as the introductory music for theHarvard Business Review'sHBR Idea Cast.[11]
The band's final album before a hiatus,Time for a Witness, was released on A&M in 1991. The album broke little new ground fromOnly Life but still earned the band critical praise.[12][13]
In 1994, Weckerman and Mercer started their project,Wake Ooloo, with their first album beingHear No Evil. A European tour took place in 1995.
 The Feelies performing at Rough Trade Brooklyn on May 3, 2019. |
The band played reunion shows in the summer and fall of 2008. A performance atBattery Park in NYC withSonic Youth followed several warm-up shows at Maxwell's.[14][15] In June 2009, the band performed an acoustic show at theWhitney Museum.[16] They also headlined a show atMillennium Park in Chicago. In September 2009, they performedCrazy Rhythms live in its entirety as part of theAll Tomorrow's Parties-curatedDon't Look Back series.[17]
Bar/None Records reissuedCrazy Rhythms andThe Good Earth on September 8, 2009.[18]Domino Records reissued both albums outside of the U.S. and Canada.
In March 2011, the Feelies released their first record in 20 years,Here Before, which was produced by Bill Million andGlenn Mercer for the Bar/None record label.[19] The band remains "one of the nation's most beloved alternative-rock bands."[20]
The Feelies have reunited sporadically over the last two decades to play concerts at their early home at Maxwell's.[20] On June 10, 2016, for the band's 40th anniversary the Feelies performed with their original line-up of Mercer, Million, and the DeNunzio brothers.
The Feelies sixth studio album,In Between, was released in February 2017, also on the Bar/None label. Reviews were generally favorable, with Metacritic calculating an average critical rating of 81%.[21]
A reunited Feelies played at Wilco's every-other-year festival, Solid Sound, in North Adams, MA, in June 2019.[22]
In November 2022, the Feelies performed a tribute concert for Anton Fier, who had recently passed and were joined on-stage by Keith DeNunzio on bass.
In October 2023, the Feelies released aVelvet Underground cover album entitledSome Kinda Love: Performing The Music Of The Velvet Underground. It featured covers of 18 songs and was released on the Bar/None label. The recording itself comes from a performance atWhite Eagle Hall in Jersey City, New Jersey, on October 13, 2018.
The band was featured in the 1986Jonathan Demme movie,Something Wild, playing a band at a high school reunion. Credited as "The Willies", they performed bits of five songs, including "Crazy Rhythms" and "Loveless Love", as well as covers ofDavid Bowie's "Fame" andthe Monkees' "I'm a Believer" (written byNeil Diamond).
No Feelies songs appeared on theSomething Wild soundtrack,[23] but their song "Too Far Gone" was included on theMarried to the Mobsoundtrack, another Demme film. Million and Mercer were also brought together by directorSusan Seidelman to create the score for her debut feature-film,Smithereens. Demme included the song "Let's Go" from the band's second album,Good Earth, in his 2002 film,The Truth About Charlie;[24] it is also featured on the soundtrack ofNoah Baumbach's 2005 film,The Squid and the Whale,[25] and the 2023 filmRobot Dreams.[26]
Their song "When Company Comes" from theirGood Earth album was featured in the 2018 movieThe Miseducation of Cameron Post.[27]
AllMusic referred to the Feelies as "heroes of the 1980s indie underground". Their sound has been described as "noisy" and "droning"avant-garde pop.[28] One of their greatest influences wasthe Velvet Underground, closing their third album,Only Life, with a cover of the band's song "What Goes On".[29]
Former
Studio albums
Extended plays
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Modern Rock | |||
| 1979 | "Fa Cé La" | Crazy Rhythms | |
| 1988 | "Away" | 6 | Only Life |
| 1991 | "Sooner or Later" | 13 | Time for a Witness |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
