Things Have Been Slow

Not For Long, I Hope

Things have been kind of slow around here of late. I guess there are fewer releases towards the end of the year, or maybe it's just that I haven't been particularly inspired. I'm hoping that will all change as the end of the year is packed full of shows and things to do.

Starting this Friday, CoolMom, CD #1 and I will be catching an early showing of Catching Fire, part 2 in the Hunger Games saga. This is actually quite a big deal for them, and I'm going along for the ride. Later that evening, I hope to make it over to The Saint for Speed The Plough, The Glenn Mercer Band, and Wild Carnation.

Then, on Thanksgiving Eve, November 27th, Tom's River's River City Extension will be holding their fourth annual Simple Gifts homecoming show with support from Kevin Devine, Those Mockingbirds, and Harper's Fellow. Frontman Joe Michelini promised in a recent interview with Speak Into My Good Eye that the set will go down as the longest that River City Extension have ever played. That may make it difficult to catch all the bands (Dentist, The Drive Home, Mad Feather Group) at the unofficial after party at Asbury Lanes, but I'll try.

The Asbury Music Awards come to The Stone Pony on December 12th. Jeff Raspe hosts the event and the bill always includes performances from many of the best that our area has to offer. That same weekend, on December 14th, I'll be heading to Brooklyn's Bell House for one of Yo La Tengo's post-Hanukkah shows there. They're doing three nights instead of eight this year and not at Maxwell's, of course.

Nicole Atkins will be bringing a full live performance of her debut album, Neptune City, to The Stone Pony to celebrate the holidays on December 20th. She's bringing along a full string section.

I'll be closing out the year at The Stone Pony for two nights of The Bouncing Souls' Home for the Holidays residency on December 27th and December 28th. The 27th features openers Laura Stevenson and Molly and the Zombies (a band name which many are hoping is a cover for some permutation of a certain New Brunswick band whose frontman / songwriter is a native of Red Bank, NJ). Appropriately, the 28th -- which will probably be my final show of the year -- features support from Titus Andronicus, a band whose shirt I'm wearing as I write and that accounts for a good percentage of the space here at CoolDad Music.

I'll write something about all of this stuff. Of course, I'll probably do at least one year-end post as well. And, remember: If things ever get slow around here, I usually keep my stream of consciousness going on Twitter and Facebook. You can give a follow or a like at either place if you want to make sure that I'm still alive.

I hope to see you at one or two of these upcoming shows.

Come say hi. I'll buy you a beverage, and we can toast 2013.

The Last Weeks of Maxwell's, Part 2: The Feelies, 7/6/2013

Crazy Rhythms

People love music in different ways. For many, a favorite song is a part of life, a marker for an event or a feeling. Favorite tunes soundtrack almost every moment: the last half-mile of the town 5K, the drive to the voting booth on Election Day, romantic times with a significant other, an imaginary takedown of someone who's done them wrong. Music is important, revered.

For others, music is something less cerebral. It's more physical, more primal. It grabs them. It shakes them and fills them with joy. It makes them move uncontrollably. They may not even know the particular song, but they love it in the moment.

I know I'm much more the first type, but I like to feel that I've got elements of the second in me. Last night at Maxwell's, I saw both.

The Feelies were playing the last of their three-night, July 4th weekend stand at the Hoboken spot. Maxwell's was bursting long before the band's scheduled 9pm start time. The Feelies -- the bespectacled trio of Glenn Mercer, Bill Million, and Brenda Sauter up front, percussionist Dave Weckerman and drummer Stan Demeski in the back -- took the stage just after 9. Throughout about four hours consisting of two full sets and five encores during which the band were joined by members of Speed the Plough and the mayor of Haledon, NJ, I got the feeling that The Feelies and most of their fans are the kind of people for whom music holds significant meaning.

They played songs from their entire discography, including the jagged, spastic sounds of their debut Crazy Rhythms ("Fa Cé-La," "Crazy Rhythms") and the more melodic and expansive sounds of the Peter Buck-produced The Good Earth ("The High Road") and their most recent album Here Before. They peppered the main sets with covers like The Velvet Undergound's "Who Loves the Sun," an excellent rendition of Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot," and The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride." The encores were heavy on covers.

The Feelies performed songs by The Rolling Stones ("Get Off of My Cloud," "Paint It Black"), The Stooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog"), R.E.M. ("Shaking Through"), The Beatles ("She Said" and, of course, "Everybody's Got Something to Hide"), The Velvet Underground (show closer "After Hours"), and probably more that I've either forgotten or couldn't recognize.

Were each of the covers fantastic renditions of the originals? No, not in every case. But each selection held meaning for the band and for the crowd. The Stones and The Beatles are obvious influences on The Feelies' own sound. The band are long-time friends with R.E.M. having met them through Maxwell's, even opening for them on a tour. The influence of The Velvet Underground on The Feelies is well-documented and can be heard in Mercer's vocal delivery. The selection of "After Hours" to close the band's final show at Maxwell's ("If you close the door / the night can last forever") was poignant.

But this is where we get into the importance of that other type of music lover. In these last weeks of an establishment that's meant so much to so many people and to American indie rock, we run the risk of becoming overly reverent. The band themselves weren't guilty of this. When a cockroach ran across the stage towards the end of the show, Demeski shouted, "We're never playing here again!"

A young woman next to me was dancing, screaming, and pumping her fist along with every song during the early portion of the first set. "Wooooo! Rock and roll!!!" A couple of times, I swear I saw Brenda or Bill smile in her direction.

Another person in the crowd had finally had enough, though.

"You're ruining this for people. Just chill out and listen to the music."

She kept it up for a few more songs, then she excused herself to go to the restroom. She never came back; and the rest of us stood there, for the most part, bobbing our heads, mouthing the lyrics.

It was a great show and a great experience -- a wonderful ending to the run of another of Maxwell's "house bands" at the venue. I think it's important to remember, though, that Maxwell's is a rock and roll club. They've put on rock and roll shows for about 35 years. If you attend a show there in the coming weeks, try to remember that you're not at church. Let loose, have a blast, and give the place the send off it deserves.

Feelies' Final Maxwell's Show Tomorrow

Part 2 of "The Last Weeks of Maxwell's" to Follow

CoolMom (I hope) and I will be heading into Hoboken tomorrow night to catch The Feelies' sold out, last-ever scheduled performance at Maxwell's. It should be another emotional evening.

Every time I listen to The Feelies, I remember sitting in my dorm room at NYU, reading the 1991 comparison that Robert Christgau did for The Village Voice between The Feelies and their more successful contemporaries, R.E.M. I did a Google search this afternoon and found it re-printed at Christgau's site.

"The crucial difference, as I complained at the time, was corn quotient--the Feelies disguised the folk-rock romanticism that R.E.M. reveled in. Its textures thick with lyrical underbrush, its vocals soaring past drawl into the sonic haze, R.E.M. was the most luxuriantly Southern of the Athens bands; from their Passaic County fastness, the Feelies imbued nerdy suburban goofiness with spare downtown cool, rocking out all the while. And in 1986 there was no question which aesthetic was more suitable, more satisfying, more powerful. For me, anyway. In 1986. The Feelies'."

That "nerdy suburban goofiness with spare downtown cool" could kind of describe Maxwell's as well.

If you're going to the show, come find me. I'll buy you a beverage and we can drink a toast to the place.