The Feelies - the Good Earth
I went to high school and college during the 1980s. I also spent 6 years working in a record store - the first three being 1987-1989. I like to think of it as the Golden Age of Indie Rock: Creation Records at its peak, Manchester swaggering in and grunge still on the rack at the Salvation Army. Record companies were still making LPs at this point - CDs were becoming the defacto standard but nonetheless, three formats were still being produced (cassettes being the third).
When you work in a record store, it goes without saying that you play cool music in the store. One such record that I came to know was The Feelies - The Good Earth, produced by Peter Buck himself - at the time the godfather of American indie rock. The Good Earth represented everything that was good about music: no pretense, quiet and noisy, subtly complex, reverent to its influences (Velvet Underground, Television and Big Star), awe-inspiring. I can think of no record save for the Stone Roses first record - that I have listened to start to finish as many times. To start it anywhere but on the first song is to miss the point.
The songs mostly follow this pattern: simple guitar riff, add a second, add another, add the bass, add percussion, increase tempo, increase volume, add another frenetic guitar part and stop. Like the 1-4-5 progression that has served countless bands for countless years, this template is infinitely varied yet never strays too far from the basics. Glenn Mercer and Bill Million were the guitar players and the songwriters and singers. The guitar tag they played was dexterous and hamfisted at the same time - brilliant harmonies came out of the simplest progressions. With Brenda Sauter on bass, the Feelies added the coup de grace by having not one, but two drummers. Dave Weckerman and Stan Demeski did so much with so little. Stan ultimately went on to become the drummer for another legendary band in the 1990s: Luna.
The Feelies are no more - frankly I have not taken the time to figure out what they are all up to. While their first record Crazy Rhythms is widely recognized by many critics as their finest, I stick by The Good Earth. You might too.
When you work in a record store, it goes without saying that you play cool music in the store. One such record that I came to know was The Feelies - The Good Earth, produced by Peter Buck himself - at the time the godfather of American indie rock. The Good Earth represented everything that was good about music: no pretense, quiet and noisy, subtly complex, reverent to its influences (Velvet Underground, Television and Big Star), awe-inspiring. I can think of no record save for the Stone Roses first record - that I have listened to start to finish as many times. To start it anywhere but on the first song is to miss the point.
The songs mostly follow this pattern: simple guitar riff, add a second, add another, add the bass, add percussion, increase tempo, increase volume, add another frenetic guitar part and stop. Like the 1-4-5 progression that has served countless bands for countless years, this template is infinitely varied yet never strays too far from the basics. Glenn Mercer and Bill Million were the guitar players and the songwriters and singers. The guitar tag they played was dexterous and hamfisted at the same time - brilliant harmonies came out of the simplest progressions. With Brenda Sauter on bass, the Feelies added the coup de grace by having not one, but two drummers. Dave Weckerman and Stan Demeski did so much with so little. Stan ultimately went on to become the drummer for another legendary band in the 1990s: Luna.
The Feelies are no more - frankly I have not taken the time to figure out what they are all up to. While their first record Crazy Rhythms is widely recognized by many critics as their finest, I stick by The Good Earth. You might too.
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