Brian Wilson: Black Cab Sessions

• filed under Misc.

Brian Wilson harmonizing in the back of a cab.  What could be bad?

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Doin’ It Again

• filed under Music

Maybe, like me, you discovered the Feelies only after they had disbanded sixteen years ago.  Maybe this is the first time you are hearing about them.  Or maybe you are one of the lucky ones who saw the band play in their heyday, which spanned the decade of the 80s and ended in 1992.

Thankfully, all of us now get the opportunity to see the Feelies this weekend in New York City and next month in Boston.  This set of shows follows the band’s reunion gigs over the summer.

I saw one of their performances in July at Maxwell’s in Hoboken and kept pinching myself to ensure that it was real. Every music fan has a list of (dis)band(ed)s that they wish would reunite.  The Feelies were always at the top of mine (well, the Feelies and the Smiths).

My expectations for their performance were high, and the Feelies did not disappoint, playing what, in a just universe, should have been their greatest hits, and covering some of the bands that had influenced them nearly thirty years ago.

With a propulsive rhythm section, and twin guitars that frequently accelerated from gentle folky strumming to a galloping trancelike drone and back again, the Feelies sounded like the Velvet Underground if they had formed in a barn. Somehow the band usually managed to make their taught, wiry sound warm and homey.

For most of the last 15 years the Feelies’ cds were out of print — their first, Crazy Rhythms, still remains so, while their best, The Good Earth, is only available by custom ordering it through their label’s website. Only Life, their third album, has just been re-released broadly.

The Feelies were not careerists — they took several hiatuses during the 80s and signed to a handful of different labels.  Members came and went, spent time on side projects that became full time and then returned to the band.  Finally guitarist Bill Million moved to Florida from New Jersey for good without informing his colleagues.

And now, they are back.  The first song that pops up on the band’s myspace page is Doin’ It Again.  Lucky for us they are.

For your listening enjoyment:

The High Road

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It’s Only Life

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