From the Vaults Friday: The Feelies, Crazy Rhythms (1980)

The Year: 1980
The Album: The Feelies, Crazy Rhythms
Who It Influenced: REM, Yo La Tengo, Luna, The Strokes, Weezer, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Last weekend, The Feelies staged a coming out party for a new generation; for the kids who never saw them play, or, perhaps, didn't even know who they were. It started out at All Tomorrow's Parties, in upstate New York on Friday night.

The music-nerd-friendly, artist-curated festival (whose ATP NY bill, this year, featured acts hand-picked by the Flaming Lips) had invited The Feelies along to take part in their latest Don't Look Back shows. Playing the entirety of their classic debut LP, 1980's Crazy Rhythms, in order, The Feelies peeled back the years, sounding as tense, intense, and edgy as ever.

On Sunday, they played NYC itself; though, this time, there was far more of a devoted element in the audience. Playing at Brooklyn's Southpaw, The Feelies ventured further into their late-'80s repertoire, in front of a baying audience who demanded five encores.

It's pretty ecstatic stuff for a band whose been best known for being unknown. The Feelies have long fit that familiar archetype of the underground act who toiled largely in obscurity, yet influenced a host of far-more-famous acts. With their first two LPs, Crazy Rhythms and 1986's Good Earth, finally reissued after an eternity out of print, The Feelies should no longer be a band consigned to alternative music's shadowy history; should no longer be that band that not enough people have heard of.

• Full review: The Feelies, Crazy Rhythms