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- Crazy Rhythms (1980)
Crazy Rhythms (1980)
9
The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness / Fa Cé-La / Loveless Love / Forces at Work / Original Love / Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey) / Moscow Nights / Raised Eyebrows / Crazy Rhythms / Paint It Black
Even
though their output isn't quite as consistently amazing as I'd like, at their
peak (spread over two albums over a decade apart) The Feelies were one of
the greatest bands you never heard. Even though the credit nowadays seems
to go entirely to bands like R.E.M., Hüsker Dü and - perhaps - The Replacements,
there were several bands on that second tier that also made their mark on
the evolution of underground American rock in the 80's and beyond. Greg Sage
and The Wipers paved the way for a more abrasive punk/rock-fusion that replaced
a creed of destruction with worshipping at the altar of the guitar, the feedback-drenched
work-outs of The Dream Syndicate reminded people of the importance of The
Velvet Underground while the band also helped creating alt country
on later efforts, but perhaps most influential were The Feelies, whose image
(and this album cover?) predated Weezer and whose music, in one way or another,
shaped almost a whole generation of bands. Their ultra-thin jangle-sound -
a more playful, caffeine-tight version of Television's noir epics -
definitely was an influence on R.E.M. (Peter Buck would produce the band's
second effort), The dB's and many of the folk-rock bands copping ideas from
The Byrds, The Velvet Underground and their offspring. Their nerdiness combined
that of The Modern Lovers with Devo's (and was taken to another level by The
Violent Femmes), while their knack for nervous, jittery sounds and rhythms
sometimes recalled Wire, The Talking Heads and the more straightforward Krautrock
albums (on this album at least).
Even though it lacks the intertwining vocals and guitar interplay of Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, opening song "The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness" is an example of prime Feelies, as all four members add percussion to Mercer's nasal vocals and minimalist guitar playing (bassist Keith Clayton only plays the snare drum!). This awkward approach to rhythm - with drummer Anton Fier taking care of tom-toms - would actually be indicative of both the band's love for a primal pulse and Fier's original views. It's no surprise he'd become a key member in other noteworthy bands/projects later on (The Lounge Lizards, The Golden Palominos). And so the band stutters, stumbles, twitches its way through Crazy Rhythms, one moment with the concise revved-up nonsense of single "Fa Cé-La" and a moment later with the hypnotic groove of the lengthy "Forces at Work," which is a great showcase for the band's semi-demented garage guitar. Some of the songs take really long to develop - "Loveless Love" and "Raised Eyebrows," for instance, are already halfway before they really get moving - but these nerve-wrecking preparatory sections (the spiralling guitar interplay of "Loveless Love" and a long, percussion-driven section in the title track are stunning in particular) are half the fun, of course. Also, when you listen to some of the more "rocking" moments on this album, like the brief "Original Love" (a coked-out Iggy Pop fronting a pop Velvet Underground) and "Moscow Nights," you will realize that The Feelies are the missing link between the proto-punk bands and contemporary heroes The Strokes: Casablancas' deadpan vocals, the intertwined guitar parts of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, the almost robotic drumming… if it weren't for the beefier production, you'd claim The Feelies could have recorded Is This It?. Later on in their career, The Feelies would settle for a less edgy sound and style, but on Crazy Rhythms they were totally in command of their own, invigorating approach, which they even applied to their frenetic cover version of The Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something to Hide." In fact, the only problem you could have with this album is the occasionally annoying editing that adds unnecessarily long fade-ins and fade-outs to some of the songs - you could delete two minutes from the end of "Loveless Love" / beginning of "Forces at Work" and the pacing would only get better - which stretch the album a few minutes longer than it should have been. Apart from that, Crazy Rhythms is an intriguing document at the transition of two paradigms in rock and still as fresh and exciting as it must've been 25 years ago.
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