Album of the Month: Crazy Rhythms

The Feelies : Loveless Love

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On February 29, 1980 The Feelies released their debut album, Crazy Rhythms. The New Jersey quartet formed in 1976, taking  The Velvet Underground's "What Goes On"  ( or is it Patti Smith's "Free Money"?) as a starting point, but with even faster strumming, clean guitars and a lot of percussion. Quirky, influential and cool, this is one of 1980's essential albums.

In 1978 The Village Voice proclaimed the Feelies "The Best Underground Band in New York." A year later, they released their first single and the following year, after signing with Stiff Records, the album Crazy Rhythms debuted.  Glenn Mercer says it's not what the record company expected .

"They brought us into a meeting, put Lene Lovich's latest song on the turntable and said, 'You guys gotta come up with something like this.'"

The album didn't get much in the way of promotion, but critics raved.  Robert Christgau gav ethe album an A-, writing:

They're suburban lads from New Jersey every bit as normal and unspoiled as, oh, Brian Wilson, only this ain't 1961: why shouldn't they know about Coltrane and "Sister Ray"? Beneficiaries of local privilege note that the magnitude of their rave-ups--and in essence all they do is rave-up--doesn't come fully alive on record, but their freshness and purity of conception does. Exciting in a disturbingly abstract way, or maybe disturbing in an excitingly abstract way, and either way is just the way these so-straight-they're-cool weirdos want it. 

From David Hepworth of Smash Hits an 8 out of 10:

It's sometimes impossible to tell whether the tongue is in the cheek but they have the power to really draw you into their strange little suburban world. Definitely worth getting next to!

It would be six years before the Feelies released a second album, The Good Earth. The Feelies rarely toured ( although I did see them in Charleston, SC one time). Band members also played in Young Wu, The Trypes, Speed the Plough and The Willies.

Crazy Rhythms came in at number 17 in the Village Voice's annual Pazz and  Jop critics' poll, beating out such notable critics' favorites as David Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Joy Division's Closer, The Rolling Stones's Emotional Rescue and The Specials' debut album.

A Feel Good Story

The Feelies : Crazy Rhythms

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Dubbed the "Best Underground Band in New York"  by the Village Voice a year earlier, The Feelies finally get signed to Stiff Records in September of 1979. Using The Velvet Underground's "What Goes On" as a musical starting point, the Hoboken, New Jersey band rarely rehearsed and were rarely seen in clubs. Drummer, Anton Fier was always threatening to quit. Glenn Mercer and Bill Million seemed more interested in jogging than dealing with the people who run things like record labels and music clubs. 

When they did play together, most often at Maxwell's in Hoboken,  the results could be pulsating and hypnotic. The songs all sounded like variations on each other. What kind of album would the band make? The world would have to wait until April of 1980 for the release of Crazy Rhythms.