Feelies

Certain Songs #441: The Feelies – “Decide”

February 4, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Time For a Witness
Year: 1991

It goes to just how fucking great of a year for music 1991 was that The Feelies could release an album equally as good as their previous three and barely crack my top 20 for that year.

But so it was with Time For a Witness, the last album The Feelies would record for nearly twenty years, and as good of a record they ever made.

Certain Songs #440: The Feelies – “Away”

February 3, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Only Life
Year: 1988

It’s kinda hard to write about The Feelies. I’ve loved these songs forever, but like — say, the Ramones or Best Coast — the things I love about the songs tend to stay the same for each song.

So, for example, “Away,” the penultimate song on Only Life, has been making me happy from the moment I heard it during the crushing summer of 1988, but I’m not really sure I can convey why.

Certain Songs #439: The Feelies – “It’s Only Life”

February 2, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Only Life
Year: 1988

Man, this song. Coming out just two years after The Good Earth, The Feelies 1988 album — and major-label debut! — Only Life added just a skosh more noise back into the mix, as signified by their cover of “What Goes On,” which had been waiting to happen for a decade.

As awesome as that was — and when we saw The Feelies open for Lou Reed at the Universal Amphitheater a year later, Uncle Lou came out and played on their cover — the song that spoke to my mood in the dying weeks of the terrible summer of 1988 was the title track, “It’s Only Life”

Certain Songs #438: The Feelies – “Slipping (Into Something)”

February 1, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Good Earth
Year: 1986

After Crazy Rhythms, The Feelies pretty much dropped off of the face of the planet. Their bassist left, and drummer Anton Fier left and eventually formed The Golden Palominos.

Meanwhile, Glen Mercer and Bill Million never stopped playing, and eventually picked up an new bassist, Brenda Sauter, and not one, but two percussionists: Stan Demenski & Dave Weckerman. Weirdly enough, the resultant album, 1986’s The Good Earth, featured less weird percussion than Crazy Rhythms, as Weckerman provided color as opposed to contrast.

Certain Songs #437: The Feelies – “Crazy Rhythms”

January 31, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crazy Rhythms
Year: 1980

On their debut album, 1980’s Crazy Rhythms, The Feelies had it both ways: they looked like total nerds, what their preppy shirts, normal haircuts and not one but two guys wearing glasses.

But their music was weird and unpredictable: they often started with a couple of nicely strummed guitars, and usually ended up with a big ole rave-up with offbeat percussion instruments coloring the song throughout.