The Feelies / Died Pretty
ULU, London
Melody Maker, November 29 1986
The Feelies
The Good Earth
Melody Maker, September 27 1986
And the answer is.... no.
Until today, in fact.
Crazy Rhythms, I like rather more. But it's a pretty pared-down pleasure.
The self-effacing austerity of this kind of thing - its un-Iggyness - is why I never really got with the college rock program.
Songs from Crazy Rhythms are used well in this cool cult film Smithereens though
In particular, the tentative, slowly-accelerating intro instrumental part of "Loveless Love" becomes a recurring mood-setting leitmotif of the whole picture
Heard in this context, I'm Feelies-ing it more and more...
9 comments:
Must have bought and sold "The Good Earth" about three times. I really liked the sleeve, and the ambience of it, but when I needed some money it was always on the chopping block.
I'm glad it exists though. Somewhere....
Is Smithereens any good? I think I may have watched it soon after it was released, but no trace of it remains in my memory. I rewatched Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan the other day and loved it: it's hilarious, charming, goofy. Madonna at the height of her powers. The Downtown scene captured in rose-tinted lenses, just as it was on its way out. It's a shame Seidelman did not go on to have a more successful career.
Very harsh drive-by on 'People Who Died' there, too. It's an absolute stone-cold classic of NYC poser-rock.
Were Yo La Tengo inspired by The Feelies? They seem to have operated in the same musical vicinity, all though much more commercially successfully.
Good spot!
The two founder members of Yo La Tengo actually met at a Feelies show:
https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/yo-la-tengo-on-the-music-that-made-them-indie-rock-heroes/
A-ha!
If I was to describe The Feelies (and YLT) in a single word, then that word would be "pleasant". And I don't mean that in a damning-with-feint-praise kind of way. I think there is a genuine place for music that has a certain distant, dispassionate warmth. It's nice.
Yes! Funny that they are both so much in debt to the Velvet Underground, who went to great lengths to be a "not nice" band. But I suppose the Velvets had their nice side, too.
Others in that tradition: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, early and late Talking Heads, Galaxie 500 (a band I always get mixed up with Yo La Tengo because they are another mixed-sex trio. See also: Low). Stretching it a bit: Orange Juice. And then a whole lot of the C86 crowd. The Shop Assistants, for a start.
The Sundays always came across as very, very nice. Belle and Sebastian. The Monkees?
Velvets with John Cale = not nice.
Velvets with Doug Yule = nice.
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