In the late 1970s and throughout the ’80s, The Feelies were New York City’s underground rock kings. Direct sonic descendents of The Velvet Underground (and peers of Television and Talking Heads), The Feelies mixed jangle, garage-punk and urban paranoia, best exemplified on their first two records—1980’s Crazy Rhythms and 1986’s The Good Life, both recently reissued by Bar/None Records.
To preserve the integrity of the original albums, all extras are available only via download; even the longtime bonus-track cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” is now absent from Rhythms. Disappointingly, though, Rhythms’ five bonus tunes are hardly essential. A darker, gothic demo of “Moscow Nights” is solid but unspectacular, while the single mix of “Fa Cé-La” isn’t drastically different from the album version. Better are live-in-’09 takes on “Crazy Rhythms” and The Modern Lovers’ “I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms,” which demonstrate the timeless nature of the band’s brisk strums and percussive color.
The Details
Two of The Good Earth’s three bonus tracks come from 1986’s No One Knows vinyl EP: covers of The Beatles’ psych-pop classic “She Said She Said” Neil Young’s punkish “Sedan Delivery.” The album’s best addition, however, is a smoking 2009 live version of “Slipping (Into Something),” which ends in fiery, Sonic Youth-y noise squalls.
Casual fans who didn’t know The Feelies had reunited—or haven’t been able to snag these out-of-print albums before—would be wise to buy. Otherwise, the inclusion of new live tracks instead of archival performances, B-sides or other rarities isn’t enough incentive.
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