It’s perfectly fitting that Haledon, New Jersey indie rock legends The Feelies would pay tribute to the Velvet Underground. They were every bit as much children of the VU as Jonathan Richman, Yo La Tengo, and countless others, as anyone who has ever heard the amphetamine jingle jangle of their 1980 debut LP, Crazy Rhythms, can attest. And while it could well be urban legend, Lou Reed is supposed to have once told The Feelies they were the only band that “got” the Velvet Underground.
The Feelies were primarily influenced, as were most of the 500,000 bands that owed their existence to a chance encounter with the albums of the most influential band never to make a commercial dent in their own time, by the less avant garde and poppier side of Lou Reed’s split personality. They sidestepped Lou the denizen of the demimonde and zeroed in instead on the propulsive “What Goes On” (from the Velvets’ third studio album, 1969’s The Velvet Underground) making it a template of their sound. And its not as if they tried to hide the fact, anxiety of influence being what it is. Instead, they went so far as to make clear their debt by covering the song on their 1988 LP Only Life.
The Feelies recorded the brand spanking new double live LP Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground at the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City in 2018 as part of the touring exhibition “The Velvet Underground Experience.” The Feelies took the stage on an October night and proceeded to tear through eighteen Velvets numbers, many of them de rigeur but some quite surprising.
It was to be expected they’d give numbers like “Heroin” and Sister Ray”—none of them being convivial to The Feelies sound—a wide berth, although part of me wishes they’d given “Heroin” the old college try. But they do include a few minor shockers along the lines of ”After Hours,” “I Heard Her Call My Name,” and “Run Run Run.” Only one cut, “I Can’t Stand It,” didn’t appear on the Big Four albums the Velvets released during their all-too-brief existence. The results are often exhilarating, both band and audience sound like they’re having enormous fun, and you’ll wish you’d been there.