The Feelies Announce October Release of ‘Some Kinda Love,’ A Live Album of Velvet Underground Covers
Last week, New Jersey-based indie-rock pioneers, the Feelies, announced the forthcoming release of their first ever live album, Some Kinda Love. The special 18-song collection captures the legendary band’s performance of an all Velvet Underground covers set at White Eagle Hall on October 18th, 2018. The concert was staged in conjunction with the opening of The Velvet Underground Experience exhibition in the East Village, which ran from October to December of 2018. Some Kinda Love is scheduled for release on October 13th via Bar/None Records.
Throughout the concert documented on Some Kinda Love, the group applied the entirety of their deep intimacy with the unique building blocks of the Velvet Underground’s artistic vocabulary, handling it with deceptive ease and obvious relish. That evening, they ran through a thoughtful mix of selections from all four Velvets’ studio albums as well as rare tracks that surfaced years after their demise, starting with “Sunday Morning,” thefirst song on the Velvets debut and closing with “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’,” the closing song on their last studio album together.
Formed in Haledon NJ in the 1970s, The Feelies have now released six albums including their critically acclaimed and influential debut Crazy Rhythms, which was voted 49 in thetop 100 albums of the 1980s by Rolling Stone magazine and chosen by Spin Magazine as #49 of the best alternative records of all time. Their music has left an indelible mark on thelandscape of rock and roll. Supporting the release of their first four albums the band appeared on the The Late Show With David Letterman and in concerts with The Patti Smith Group, R.E.M., and Bob Dylan as well as touring with Lou Reed.
In 2008, the Feelies ended a 17-year sabbatical as a group to open for long-time admirers Sonic Youth at Battery Park and then resurrected their tradition of playing low key gigs at strategic intervals throughout the year rather than doing lengthy tours. In 2009, they were invited by R.E.M. to perform at Carnegie Hall in “The Music of REM” charity concert benefitting music education programs for underprivileged youth, then by the artist Dan Graham to play an acoustic set at the opening of his first American retrospective, held at the Whitney Museum: Dan Graham: Beyond at theWhitney Museum of American Art. That same year Bar/None re-issued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth.
In 2011, they released a new studio album Here Before of which England’s The Wire enthused, “Here Before picks up as though they’d never left. The second line-up is fully present, and the basics of their sound have filtered through so many younger bands (from Yo La Tengo to SF Seals to The Chills) that the music possesses a great kind of faux-familiarity. ‘Time Is Right’ sounds something like The Terminals doing a Stooges tribute tune. It - and some of the Velvets riff - lifts that occur during the album’s later moments- make me remember how nuts this group seemed 30-plus years ago.”
In honor of their 40th Anniversary Bar/None Records re-released their third and fourth albums, Only Life and Time for a Witness in early 2015. As aspecial Record Store Day release Bar None/Coyote Records co-released The Feelies Uncovered, later in the year, a limited edition 12 “ EP featuring studio recordings of four covers of songs by Bob Dylan, The Doors, Patti Smith and Neil Young, none commercially available before.
2017’s In Between was recorded in themidst of these celebrations. The album found them bringing fresh sonic maneuvers into the mix that make it both the quietest and most furious music they’ve created in their long and vaunted career. The twin-guitar attack of songwriters and founders Mercer and Million has remained at the core of the group’s infectious sound all along, paired with the driving rhythmic team of drummer Stan Demeski and percussionist Dave Weckerman, with Brenda Sauter’s bass guitar proving a rock-solid foundation.
In 2022, the Feelies reactivated their alter ego, the Willies which had been an important vehicle for experimentation for Feelies mainstays Glenn Mercer and Bill Million during the period between the release of their debut Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth their second album. The Willies, featuring all the Feelies’ members, perform original instrumentals including vintage numbers like “The Obedient Atom” as well as interpretations of instrumental works by Brian Eno, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix. Toni and John Baumgartner of longstanding NJ Art-folk outfit Speed The Plough are special guests on several numbers.
Their music has been featured in the films Married to the Mob, Something Wild, Prelude to a Kiss, The Truth About Charlie, The Squid & the Whaleand Ricki and the Flash. Acclaimed American novelist, Rick Moody, cited The Good Earth as the inspiration for his debut 1992 novel Garden State. Rolling Stone has cited The Feelies as “a template of formal perfection.” They have influenced bands like R.E.M., Real Estate and Weezer. They continue to regularly perform live.
Some Kinda Love is out on October 13th via Bar/None Records. You can pre-order a copy on vinyl via Bandcamp.
