#Brenda Sauter

[bandcampsnoop]

9/17/23.

I remember hearing "What Goes On" from The Feelies "Only Life" LP and thinking it was a near perfect cover of a perfect song. Well, now we get 18 live reminders of how much The Feelies (New Jersey) love The Velvet Underground.

This is a double LP release of a live show in October 2018. Glenn Mercer, Bill Million, Brenda Sauter and the Demeski/Weckerman duo have given us an amazing gift. The only thing better than this live album would be to have seen it in person. One can only imagine.

This is being released by Bar/None Records.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Wild Carnation - Live on Three Chord Monte with Joe Belock on WFMU, November 3, 2009

Over on Aquarium Drunkard this week, I spoke with Brenda Sauter, bassist/vocalist for The Feelies / The Willies / The Trypes — and Wild Carnation! The latter band's debut LP, Tricycle, is being reissued in expanded / remastered form for Record Store Day this month — the first time it's been on vinyl, if you can believe it. Tricycle is definitely worth your time and money; I've been into it for a while now, but the remaster makes it sound bigger and better than ever. If you're a Feelies fan (and who in their right mind isn't a Feelies fan???), you gotta get it.

As Brenda mentions during our chat, Wild Carnation still pops up to play shows from time to time and it sounds like they've got more than enough material for a new LP. Good news! In the meantime, check out this short-but-sweet Three Chord Monte set, live on WFMU. Catch the rising tide!

[dustedmagazine]

Wild Carnation — Tricycle (Delmore)

“The Rising Tide” buzzes in on a breezy blast of distortion, its guitar lines flaring into droning dissonance, the drums crisp and minimal, the bass a subtle through-line in a deliriously murky roar. The sound filters Velvet Underground fuzz through the jangling exuberance of early R.E.M., and except for its fluttering, trebly vocals it could easily put you in mind of the Feelies. No coincidence there.

Indeed, Wild Carnation was one of an interlocking circuit of New Jersey bands that shared members—and a certain buzzy, drone-y, jangly aesthetic—with the Feelies. It formed around 1992, after the Feelies first hiatus and included Feelies bassist Brenda Sauter, her husband Rich Barnes and drummer Chris O’Donovan. (In terms of intricate interconnections, Sauter and Barnes already played together in Trypes, and they were also in Speed the Plough.)

This Record Store Day release collects the original songs from Wild Carnation’s first album, demo versions of seven of these 12 tracks and what looks like the entirety of a 1997 live gig in Hamburg, Germany. Thirty-one cuts in all, it provides a sweeping view of Wild Carnation’s early incarnation (there was another album called Superbus, some 12 years after the first). If the band was overlooked before, it is fully represented now.

And really, that’s a good thing, because there’s not a single dud on Tricycle. From the noise-addled propulsion of “The Rising Tide” straight through to the folk-picked intimacy of “Shaker Tune,” the main album cuts are uniformly engaging, and you get to hear them more than once, in various iterations.

For example, “Susquehanna 142,” a nod to the trains that crisscross Garden State sets up a hazy, mesh of intersecting guitar picking and lilting vocal descants. If you like that, and how could you not, the compilation provides additional context in the form of a barer, folkier demo and a pensive live version that brings out the tune’s dreamy side. Later, “The Lights are On (but No One’s Home)” blares and buzzes with feedback, a dirty crust under its careening, multi-voiced harmonies. A live performance brings the main melodic line to the front, emphasizing its hooky, poppy side and submerging the roar of amps.

The live cuts also provide a peek into Wild Carnation’s influences, with covers of Patti Smith, Neil Young and the sister band Speed the Plough. Barnes challenges the audience to name the band that wrote one of the most obscure covers, offering a free CD to anyone who gets it right. The CD goes unclaimed because even among the most ardent German audience, no one besides the band is very familiar with The Grass Roots. The song — “Wait a Million Years” — fits pretty neatly into Wild Carnation’s aesthetic, though, with sharp, power pop guitar licks, bashing rhythms and a melody that is both triumphant and minor-key melancholy.

You could certainly approach Tricycle as a Feelies side project, noting its similarities and thinking a lot about whether the music is better or worse. But this extended reissue argues for considering Wild Carnation on its terms, with stronger folk roots and careening, often thrilling vocal parts. Delmore will be putting out a similar package around Superbus in the fall, and even if it’s as long as this one, it seems like a pity that there wasn’t more.

Jennifer Kelly

[spilladabalia]

The Trypes - A Plan Revised

[daggerzine]

The Feelies- Some Kinda Love: Performing The Music of the Velvet Underground (Bar-None)

Those of us hoping for a new Feelies album with all originals are still holding out hope, but it’s really hard to argue with this new record. For this album, the band's seventh, the band was recorded live at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City New Jersey on October 13, 2018 (five years to the day of this release) doing an extensive set of Velvet Underground songs.

If you know anything about The Feelies, you know that the band loves to do covers of their favorite artists and over the years they’ve done their share of V.U. covers.

This album was produced by the band's leaders, vocalist/guitarist, Glenn Mercer, and other guitarist Bill Million and it sounds great. The frenetic energy that this band has executed for decades is all caught here on tape during this live set.

From the opening "Sunday Morning," you will hear old V.U. classics, like 'Sweet Jane," "What Goes On," "White Light, White Heat," and plenty more as well as more obscure nuggets such as “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'," and "New Age” to name but two.

Nearly 50 years after their original formation (and at least 40 years with this long-running lineup which also includes Stan Demeski on drums, Brenda Sauter on bass, and Dave Weckerman on percussion) the Feelies are still delivering. To anyone who knows, the band is a national treasure and this album is only adding to that legacy.

www.bar-none.com

www.thefeelies.bandcamp.com

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: The Feelies - Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground

The Feelies are wise and intuitively understand that when covering the Velvet Underground, there’s no use in trying to sound like the Velvet Underground.

So on Oct. 13, 2018, in New Jersey, the Feelies went out there and just played as they do and the show - documented five years later as Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground - turned out to be a worthy tribute and a worthwhile listen for those who missed it.

There’s obviously no viola and no Feelie can do Nico. But guitarists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million pull off a cool trick in swathing the Velvet’s guitar parts in Byrdsian layers while never losing the timbre of the original recordings. On the mic, Mercer channels Lou Reed’s attitude on such tracks as “I’m Waiting for the Man,” “Run Run Run” and several others. But bassist Brenda Sauter shines brightest standing in for Mo Tucker on “After Hours.”

Some Kinda Love is loose but never sloppy. It’s a cover album, yet’s it’s no mere imitation. There’s no stage banter and no overt fawning over the Velvets; the Feelies instead let their version of the music do the talking and it speaks strongly via the band’s confident delivery.

Grade card: The Feelies - Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground - B+

1/16/24

[vmonteiro23a]

The Feelies - Dave Weckerman, Stanley Demeski, Bill Millon, Brenda Sauter and Glenn Mercer

The Feelies – Dave Weckerman, Stanley Demeski, Bill Millon, Brenda Sauter and Glenn Mercer

[mychameleondays]

The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms

white vinyl

Line Records LILP 4.00168 J, 1986

Originally released: April 1980

[thebowerypresents]

One More Chance to Catch the Feelies at Rough Trade NYC This Weekend

The Feelies rose up out of North Jersey in the mid-’70s making jangly, droning avant-garde post-punk music that wasn’t exactly a commercial success at the time, but it did make them highly influential with other bands in the burgeoning indie-rock scene. They put out four highly acclaimed albums between 1980 and ’91 before calling it quits. But then the band got back together, quite literally—with Glenn Mercer (vocals and guitar), Bill Million (vocals and guitar), Brenda Sauter (bass and vocals), Dave Weckerman (percussion) and Stan Demeski (drums) reuniting in 2008 to play a pair of shows at Maxwell’s, the site of what had been their final show, 17 years earlier, and another opening for Sonic Youth. They continued to make appearances over the next few years and then put out their fifth long-player, Here Before (stream it here), in 2011. “One play confirms Here Before is excellent, an album that finds the band seemingly picking up where it left off and sounding as committed and invigorating as ever, reveling in the beauty and power of rhythm guitars and cracking percussion,” raved AllMusic. “Now as before, there are few groups in rock and roll that perform as brilliantly and purposefully as an ensemble as the Feelies, and on Here Before their trademark sound remains a thing of wonder that hasn't been dimmed a bit by the passage of time.” A sixth studio album, In Between (stream it here), arrived in 2017. “The new Feelies album is both mellow and intense in ways only the New Jersey band can pull off,” gushed Pitchfork. The Feelies play three local shows this weekend, and while Friday and Saturday are already sold out, there are still some tickets left to see these underground legends live and in person on Sunday night at Rough Trade NYC.

[bandcampsnoop]

1/24/24.

I'd never even heard of Wild Carnation (New Jersey) until Record Store Day 2023 when Delmore Recording Society reissued "Tricycle". I'm not totally sure what series of events brought me to these "Superbus" demos, but the lack of a physical release took me to Discogs when I found that "Superbus" was Wild Carnation's 2nd release - 12 years after "Tricycle". It has been reissued by Pine Hill Records.

Like many other Feelies related side projects, the Feelies DNA is unmistakable. Brenda Sauter was associated with not only The Feelies, but Speed the Plough and The Trypes. Those sensibilities are brought to this release as well.

According to the Bandcamp page, Wild Carnation shared the stage with The Bats, Luna and Moe Tucker among others.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

INTERVIEWS ETC 2023

I sometimes talk to people! Going back over the last year, I had some nice conversations with some very cool people. I like doing interviews, but they definitely stress me out a little bit. I suppose it's good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time, though ... So yeah, here are a few of those interviews, in case you missed 'em the first time around.

HEAD VOICE (James Jackson Toth, Ben Chasny, Donovan Quinn)

Donovan Quinn: There’s one aspect of process which is like a user manual. You know, turning on a machine, how you control the bass or whatever. But then there’s a part of process which is more of our terrain, where it’s kind of a story. An artist or a group of artists is interacting with all these elements — each other, gear, inspiration. With each of our pieces in Head Voice, we’re getting little bits of that story.

ILYAS AHMED

With my record, I’ve seen people reference Loren Connors, which is great — I’m a huge fan of Loren Connors. But I’m always comparing it to something like Bill Fay, maybe in an emotional sense. Or like, Neil Young — how do I make “Cortez The Killer” … but not just copy it. One of my favorite Coltrane tunes is “Alabama.” Those eternal favorites you always come back to. How can I make something that feels like that without just doing that, right? I’m not interested in copying it, I’m interested in transmuting it, making it fit into my weird perspective of the world. 

WILL HERMES

As an artist, [Lou] was a “transformer,” and everybody has their own version of who he was. What they want him to be, what aspect of his character they wanted to take in. I tried to show them all. I don’t know if they all morph into a single, intelligible human being. But maybe that is part of what was endlessly fascinating about him. He was all of these things simultaneously and they didn’t all necessarily add up.

M. SAGE

I think it’s radical to have fun. And to be silly. It’s not meant as escapism or denial, but the world is dark and weird. And it keeps getting darker and weirder. It’s radical for an artist to afford an audience joy or pleasure. I mean, I love a lot of that solemn, serious, foreboding electro-acoustic music. There’s incredible stuff, obviously. But I wanted to make something that felt fun. And accessible! That’s radical, too, I think.

HORSE LORDS

Andrew Bernstein: We’re trying to make things that sound interesting to us, first and foremost. But we’re also hoping that the music and the way we operate spurs the listener to think differently. Every act is political, and our decisions might make someone reconsider how they make music or how they go about their lives.

BRENDA SAUTER

“The Obedient Atom” at White Eagle Hall was really special. That was one of the original Willies songs and it never got recorded. It was one of those songs that was always left behind for one reason or another. To finally play it out just felt incredible … and then the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate [laughter]. There’s something about that song! Surreal. The atom wasn’t so obedient that night.

Further reading: Bill Million on the Feelies' live tribute to an Underground legend

GUIDING LIGHT: A TOM VERLAINE APPRECIATION

Alasdair MacLean: I also think of some of Stephan Mallarme’s phrases – “the musician of empty nothingness.” Verlaine seemed to be working in parallel: “Watching the corners turn corners;” “Lightning struck itself.” The language turns in on itself, like the guitar solos. He obviously knew those poets back to front. I imagine lots of other people have tried to do this since, but all of them have made fools of themselves. Verlaine never did.

Further reading: Tom Verlaine - 20 Great Tracks

SPIRAL STAIRS

When we first started talking about rehearsing, I was like, “We’re probably going to be playing the same 20 songs. Let’s just pick another 15 songs that we know we can bust out.” Eventually, we finally came to that point…but then in rehearsals we ended up playing probably like 60 songs [laughs]. I’m like, “Oh my god!” That was just for the two Primavera shows, so it was like “Come on!” It took a while to re-learn all of that stuff. 

[dustedmagazine]

Wussy — Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)

Over the last quarter century, Wussy has quietly built an impressive catalogue, eight albums including this one that span heartfelt alt.Americana, fiery jangle rock and an almost shoegaze-y wall-of-sheen sound. Led by Chuck Cleaver, once of twang punk’s Ass Ponys, and Lisa Walker, the band can sound like Eleventh Dream Day or a Sally Timms-forward Mekons (Jon Langford painted the cover art). In the silvery fog of “Desperation A.M., you might catch an echo of Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley, but in the more strident opener, “The Great Divide” you’re more likely to hit on the Feelies side project Wild Carnation (Brenda Sauter played a show with Wussy in early November). Wussy touches a lot of solid indie-to-country rock bases, while remaining very much its own thing.

The songs vary a good deal depending on whether Cleaver or Walker sings lead. Their voices are very different, for one thing, Cleaver’s a wobbly, weatherbeaten, country tenor and Walker’s a cool, enveloping, faintly disembodied vehicle for dream pop. Both write songs, too, so if the writer is also the main singer, that may account for some of the divergence, too. But in any case, just to take the singles, “Sure as the Sun,” one of Cleaver’s, reels and bucks like a revival tune run amok on a wild horse. His voice is cracked and wizened, but fully capable of conveying both tune and emotion. The guitars crash, the bass thunders, the drums wallop, but an aura of resignation pervades. “And if there is a heaven, I don’t think that’s where I’ll head, I’d rather stick around and hang with you instead,” he sings, linking the mundane and the spiritual in a very Wussy way.

Walker takes the lead in the other single, “Inhaler” a slashing country rocker suffused in clouds of dread. Her voice is clean and dry in the verse, wobbling only a little with vibrato. But it’s in the multi-voiced chorus that she comes into her own. “It’s a swing and a miss and our hero is down today, and I check the brakes, and I fill the tank, his tornado is pulling away,” she trills, the main vocal line crisscrossed with descants and counterparts. There’s something giddy, something a little desperate about how this song hurtles forward, flinging itself off precipices only to be buoyed by clouds of harmony.

The pedal steel is one other factor that nudges these songs away from indie rock and into Americana, and therein hangs a tale. Wussy’s long-time pedal steel player Jon Erhardt died partway through the recording process, having completed just two songs. It’s him you can hear on the bare and ruminative “The Night We Missed the Horror Show” and on “Days and Hours”’ whirling torch song. Travis Talbert finished the job, adding the lovely glow of pedal steel to atmospheric “Desperation A.M.” and playing on three other tracks. Both add density and feeling to the Wussy sound, a subtle but essential. Likewise, when bassist Mark Messerly switches to accordion on “The Ghosts Keep Me Alive” and, later, “Disaster About You,” it tips the sound in a deeper, richer, more countrified direction.

Wussy is a bit of a cult favorite now, and long-time fans will undoubtedly have different reactions to this late period recording. Still, even coming to them fresh and without any prior connection, the sound is wonderfully rich and varied and the lyrics provocative without preciousness. If, like me, you’ve come all this way without running into Wussy, maybe it’s time to check in.  

Jennifer Kelly

[spilladabalia]

The Feelies - Sooner Or Later

[daggerzine]

Wild Carnation- Tricycle (Delmore Recordings RSD reissue)

Now here is a very overlooked and underrated gem of a record. It is a side project for Feelies bassist Brenda Sauter. On here she’s handling bass/vocals and she is joined by guitarist Rich Barnes (who is awesome) and on drums Chris O’Donovan. One thing about these three is that throughout Tricycle they are wired and completely locked in!

The songs are tight and taut and the jangly guitar overload goes on and on (if you’re like me you won’t want it to stop). Not just that, but the songwriting is all aces here (and I just happen to love Brenda’s low-key vocals, too).

A few of my favorites include tightly spun wonders like “Acid Rain and The Big One,” “Wings,” “The Rising Tide” (you’ll swear that this is an obscure 80’s cut from New Zealand’s Flying Nun label) and “No Doors in Kansas City” to name but a few.

Not only that does this include the original album, but this RSD reissue adds a bunch of demos and a full live set from Hamburg, Germany from 1997.  If you missed it the first time around here is your chance and if you loved it back then, well, time to update your copy!

www.delmorerecordings.com

www.wildcarnation1.bandcamp.com

[brooklynlive]

The Feelies: Live at The 9:30 Club Washington, D.C. 6/22/18

On a blistering night in July of 2011, I rode my bike to Prospect Park to catch the legendary rockers from Haledon, New Jersey: The Feelies. Despite the heat and subsequent unwillingness of any of my family or friends to join me, I wanted to see this seminal band that I had loved in the 80s but had since disappeared for many years. I arrived to see a smaller crowd than usual at the bandshell and noticed that a large percentage of the audience were unaccompanied middle-aged white guys, many with beards and glasses. The heat would not stop these Feelies fans, and we were all rewarded by an energetic show.

The illusive Feelies brought their brand of post-punk rock and roll to the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. on Friday night. Since reuniting in 2008 after a 16-year hiatus, they have been hard to catch. Lately, they average less than 10 shows a year and stick mostly to the east coast. The near-capacity crowd witnessed the quintet deliver a generous helping of their catalog divided across two sets. There were notable songs from their seven albums and three EPs, with many of the crowd pleasers coming from their earlier records. Despite their light touring schedule, this band remains rock solid. The rhythm section of Stan Demeski (drums) Dave Weckerman (drums and percussion) and Brenda Sauter (bass) created a rich wall of sound behind the guitars and vocals the two original members: Glenn Mercer and Bill Million. Mercer and Million have been at this since 1976 and the experience showed. They have taken a rock tributary from The Velvet Underground and formed it into their own river; a river filled with vigorous vocals and heavy-duty guitar hooks.

After they ended with their most well-known tune “Crazy Rhythms,” the band stepped backstage. They didn’t spend much time there and emerged for a total of four encores. They delighted the audience with a few more originals as well some excellent covers including The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” and “I Can’t Stand It,” Television’s “See No Evil” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” The experience was reminiscent of leaving a good New Jersey diner: everyone left full and satisfied.

[thisispoptones]

There were countless times we wanted to video last Saturday’s Feelies show. After all, they were playing, not one or two, which would be pretty normal for them, but an ENTIRE SET, of Velvet Underground songs. There was some connection to the newly opened Velvet Underground exhibit which we wrote about in our last post. Afterwards, they played a full set of their own stuff and then topped it off with no less then 3 encores. 

Yes, the Velvets are a huge influence on the Feelies. The driving, rocking, relentless beat combined with melody and an embrace of the noise that can happen when you play electric guitars loudly are hallmarks of both bands. It’s not unusual to hear the Feelies to pull out a cover here and there. We even saw them do a few with Lou Reed himself back in the early 90′s out on Long Island. It was comical to see Lou trying to keep up with the band as they did Run Run Run. 

This show however was something else. We heard songs we never heard them try before like Head Held High and Heard Her Call My Name. We got emotional as they kept going, one classic after the next. We finally lost it when they did this one: All Tomorrow’s Parties. Bassist Brenda Sauter’s voice is eerily reminiscent of Nico’s and we soon found ourselves with tears running down our face while holding up the phone. There were a number of purists who complained about recording the show so we didn’t record the whole song and that was a mistake. This was history and a recording was necessary. 

We talked to the band afterwards and put in our request that they make this show a live album. We know it was recorded for audio and maybe video both. Fans of the Feelies and Velvet Underground, the world over, would rush out to get it. There isn’t a band ion the planet more adept at reproducing the music of the Velvets than the Feelies and it was a thrill to witness.

Here was the Velvets setlist:

Sunday Morning Who Loves the Sun There She Goes Again What Goes On Sweet Jane Head Held High I’m Waiting for the Man White Light/White Heat I Heard Her Call My Name New Age That’s the Story of My Life All Tomorrow’s Parties (Brenda Sauter on vocals) Rock & Roll We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together Run Run Run I Can’t Stand It (with James Mastro) After Hours (Brenda Sauter on vocals) Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ (with Richard Barone)