1 April 2020

New Jersey’s post-punk misfits THE FEELIES released their outstanding debut longplayer ‘CRAZY RHYTHMS’ forty years ago today, on April Fools’ Day 1980 via legendary label Stiff Records. Crazy rhythms indeed like Tom Verlaine’s Television on speed. Manic jingle jangle punkiness that influenced tons of bands afterward and still today (Parquet Courts, Bodega, The Wants). It wasn’t a commercial success but praised for years by the music press.

AllMusic wrote: “Even the cover is a winner, with a washed-out look that screams new wave
via horn-rimmed glasses, even more so than contemporaneous pictures of either Elvis Costello or the Embarrassment. But if it was all look and no brain, Crazy Rhythms would long ago have been dismissed as an early-’80s relic. That’s exactly what this album is not, right from the soft, haunting hints of percussion that preface the suddenly energetic jump of the appropriately titled “The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness.” From there the band delivers seven more originals plus a striking cover of the Beatles’ “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide” that rips
along even more quickly than the original.” Full review here. Score: 5/5.

Stream album here…

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THE FEELIES: Facebook