Sat. Oct. 11

There aren't that many CAN'T MISS events we stress here at JSink, because there really are so many viable options out there. But this is one: The Boston reunion gig of the Feelies, the Haledon, NJ-band that made the late-1970s and 1980s so much more wonderful with its mix of jangly (pre-REM) guitar, nervous, twitchy rhythms, inspired covers (the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," Velvet Undeground), and a mix of resignation, bitterness, ennui and, yes, joy. The crazy rhythms drove you one way, the intertwining guitar lines of Glenn Mercer and Bill Million another and despite the subtext of anxiety and angst, there was a palpable sense of excitement. The Feelies reunited for a show July 1, 2008 at their old stomping grounds of Maxwell's and have, tentatively, at least, kept it going.  They're at the Roxy Saturday Oct. 11 Show starts at 7:30. Tickets: $26.

279 Tremont St., 617-338-7699 www.tix.com or www.roxyplex,com

A chat with guitarist-singer Glenn Mercer:
JSink: You broke up in 1991. Why have you decided to return now?
GM: There’s no easy cut and dried answer. Conversations Bill and I had over the years, there seemed there was more interest in the band recently. We’ve had a lot of requests for licensing the songs, and with the Internet it’s a lot easier to keep tabs on the fan base. So, it’s an evolution of conversations we’ve been having. It probably would’ve happened a lot earlier, but the main thing was Bill [Million’s] son had a major illness (he’s now recovered) preventing him from doing it, and there were logistics. Bill was in between houses in Florida. (He works as a locksmith at Walt Disney World.) Brenda’s in Pennsylvania. Everyone but Dave [Weckerman] has family. We don’t have the desire or logistics to do tour … When we first broke up we didn’t have much contact. In 2001, Bill and I talked again
JSink: What were the main reasons for the breakup back then?
GM: It’s safe to say economics was a big factor. The music scene was changing; there was a lot of pressure to go to the next level, but that next level was not attractive. A lot of bands from the ‘80s signed to major labels and broke up shortly afterward. They couldn’t go back or forward.
JSink: Are there goals or any sense of permanence to this reunion?
GM: We have had some discussions about what we want to accomplish, but we never set out long term goals. We’re taking it one step at a time. To us, it was a little uncomfortable, the merging of the commerce side and the artistic side. It’s something we’ve wrestled with quite for a while.
JSink: Feelies songs have been picked up and used in a bunch of movies – “Married to the Mob,” “The Squid and the Whale,” among them. Has that rekindled interest in the band?
GM: Maybe, hard to say. We had some songs in commercials, too, Volvo, Toyota, Citibank, a campaign on the Turner Network.
JSink: Your first record, “Crazy Rhythms.” Had all this manic, frenetic energy, and then the band moved onward to more calming, quieter songs.
GM: It was an evolution. Early on, it felt not that different [from what others were doing] and that drove us to examine what we were doing and think of ways to be more original. We spent a lot of time with arrangements and tried to broaden the musical palette a little bit.
JSink: How about now, in concert? What’s the mix like?
GM: It goes back to not having a plan, going by feel. We take songs from each album and far as the new stuff, it runs the gamut, some acoustic based, some more uptempo and electric. I have four or five new ones, and we’re playing two. “Nobody Knows” and “Time is Right.” I put out a solo record last year, “Wheels in Motion,” that was self-financed and recorded, with four former Feelies on it.
JSink: You got back together this year at what point?
GM: We played Maxwell’s as a warm-up for two New York gigs, We invited only family and friends. Then we had two public performances, the 4th of July at Battery Park with Sonic Youth and the Brooklyn Music Hall. I’ve played pretty regularly with Wake Ooloo and my solo band.
JSink: How familiar are you now with the Feelies catalog?
GM: Some are familiar to me and some I had to reacquaint myself with.
JSink: Do you play Feelies songs in your other bands?
GM: I tend to look at them as songs I wrote.
JSink: There’s always been a sense of alienation, dislocation and angst in your lyrics. Now?
GM: I have a hard time talking about lyrics. It’s hard to say.
JSink: You’re playing Northampton the night before Boston and then this show and that’s it, right. Is it fair to tell people, if they want to see the Feelies live they should not miss this?
GM: If we do come back, it probably won’t be very soo

Over the past few years, the Feelies have been more of a rock 'n' roll spectre than they have a rock 'n' roll band. It's been six years since they graced the cover of the Village Voice and splashed upon New York's new wave scene. It's been five years since the Feelies released their inspired, infectious "Crazy Rhythms" album, a debut that (still) ranks with the very best of American new wave music.
By the mid-'80s, the Feelies - led by singer-guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million - practically became a non-entity: either on the fringes or on the shelf. Mercer and Million, who disdain most aspects of the music industry, formed other bands, including the Trypes, the Willies and Yung Wu. Of the three, only the Trypes have made a record. The Feelies, by far Mercer and Million's best-known vehicle, played only sporadic gigs, mostly around holidays. The last time the Feelies played Boston was Veterans Day 1983, and their set at Storyville was based almost entirely upon their one album. It was wonderful - a percussive-mad frenzy - but it was also odd: All that time and so little new material? And so few gigs?
Well, although one must be cautious about making statements like this, it seems as if the Feelies are back - and back with as much creative force as ever. Sunday's two sets at a packed Jonathan Swift's showcased an exceptionally compelling band, a
group that simultaneously soothes and stimulates the senses. Bassist Keith Clayton is gone, replaced by the Trypes' Brenda Sauter. One of the three percussionists, drummer Anton Fier, is also gone, off to work with Mick Jagger and Bill Laswell among others. Drummer Stan Demeski and percussionist Dave Weckerman remain and capably create 1985's crazy rhythms. The best news, though, is that Mercer and Million have come up with nine new tunes, which they played in addition to eight songs from "Crazy Rhythms" and five cover tunes. The new songs were melodically enticing, if generally less frenetic. They also evinced a slight country-ish tinge.
The Feelies' music, new and old, routinely leads one into a blissful state. Their's is a cathartic, albeit curious, coupling of exhiliration and resignation: waves of frantic rhythms are undercut by Mercer's sinuous, fluid guitar work. Songs build tier by tier - gracefully boosted by Million's soft vocal harmonies, kicked hard by Demeski and Weckerman's driving polyrhythms. There's a yin-yang quality to the Feelies' sound: a balance of world weariness and naivete; a merger of tight arrangement and open-throttle fury; a calm and a storm.

And this was written in 2003, edited in Sept. 2008 ...

The Feelies are not, by any standards, a traditional sort of rock 'n' roll band. Fact is, until recently, they were a band that existed only in memory and on vinyl, a quartet that made a critical splash in 1980 with the "Crazy Rhythms" album and then faded from view. Late that year, prior to a rare Boston gig at the Channel, guitarist and singer Bill Million described the Feelies as "a non-band becoming more and more of a non-band." Shortly, the Feelies were put on the shelf by Million and his partner, guitarist-singer Glenn Mercer, as the duo began forming other bands around their hometown of Haledon, NJ, the Trypes, the Willies and Yung Wu.
Well, the Feelies are back - after a fashion. Now a sextet boasting three percussionists, the Feelies are playing Storyville tomorrow night and planning to record a followup to "Crazy Rhythms" on the small Coyote label. Still, the Boston date is only the Feelies' fourth gig in two years, and, says Million on the phone from Haledon, "we don't really have any plans to play past Boston."
Although obscure, the Feelies are one of America's finest post-punk bands. Influenced by Brian Eno, the Beatles and the Velvet Underground, the Feelies' sound is a repetitive, layered, polyrhythmic attack. Cross-cutting rhythms and vocal fragments snake in and out of the sinuous melodies and the overall effect is an entrancing, but curious, pleasure: An exhilarating emotional release, mixed with a sense of resignation.
"We don't set out saying we're going to combine these two elements," says Million. "I feel uncomfortable trying to describe something that's a subconscious result . . . but I think it's definitely suggestive in our music."
"The Feelies haven't been that prolific," admits Million, who by day works in an audio-video store. "We work at our own pace. The Feelies started out not really with the intent of becoming a professional band. We've always treated the music as - I don't really like to use the work hobby - but kind of like that in a sense." The Feelies and the other three groups, Million says, are "more like a social gathering than it is this career-oriented approach. All the people that we work with we've known for many years - we went to high school with them, they all live around the same neighborhood."
The Feelies play some new material, but they delight in rearranging songs
from their album. "What we've always done," says Million, "is work on the same material and try to improve on it. This happens in other forms of music and for some reason a lot of people feel it's unacceptable for rock." Million describes the process less as improvisation or stretching, and more as "there are a lot more cross-rhythms, there's a lot more happening (within the structures*."
In 1980, the last time success came calling, Million says, "We came to the fringe of it, turned around and went back. I personally have a real strong disliking for the music business. I think the whole structure is contrary to writing and creating music."
The Feelies, implies Million, will continue to live creatively and comfortably on the fringe.