FANZINE

I was just talking earlier this month to Fanzine writer Pete Hausler about Hoboken and Maxwell’s club. He told me his first show ever was The Feelies at Maxwell’s, back on 4th of July in 1985, as far as he can remember. Bar/None just re-released their two classic records: 1980’s Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth (1986). The earlier record is as memorable as it is hypnotic with its stripped down guitar work, power-strumming minimalism, and topsy-turvy harmonizing (particularly drawn to the last 1min of “Loveless Love”). Often compared to Brian Eno and Wire, but wholly influential on its own. The Good Earth is usually overlooked in The Feelies catalog compared to its punker older brother, but the album transitions with only a few drops of morphine in the six years between the two. It’s a little folkier, more indie—it’s hard not to think of Yo La Tengo when listening to “Slipping (Into Something)” and “High Road.” Bonus tracks on the reissues include some live stuff and a few covers of the Beatles and Neil Young, but not Velvet Underground’s “White Light, White Heat,” (on the Rarities record) though one couldn’t be blamed for hearing more than a little VU/Lou Reed throughout.