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

It’s been said that The Velvet Underground didn’t have many fans during their lifetime, but all of them went on to form bands of their own. That may not be literally true, but there’s no denying that the New York-based, Lou Reed-fronted group became one of the most influential in rock history. Long after they split (for the first time) in the early ‘70s, new bands—especially during the punk/ new wave era—cited the Velvets as an inspiration, and the group’s impact continues unabated today. The Feelies, formed in Haledon, N.J., in 1976, have always worn their VU influences on their collective sleeves. Guitarists/vocalists Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, bassist/ vocalist Brenda Sauter, drummer Stan Demeski and percussionist Dave Weckerman took the minimalism and powder-keg volatility of The Velvet Underground and fashioned something new of it: As the late Reed is quoted as saying in Howard Wuelfing’s excellent liner notes to Some Kinda Love, The Feelies’ first live VU tribute album— their first live album, actually—“They remind me of myself, only five times faster.” Some Kinda Love is an album The Feelies simply had to make, and the only real surprise is that it took them this long (granted, they did spend nearly two decades apart). Recorded in 2018 at a Jersey City club, the album, whose bananaendowed cover pays tribute to the Velvets’ debut, consists of 18 tracks from the VU catalog, from the band’s most familiar songs—“White Light/ White Heat,” “Rock and Roll,” “Sweet Jane,” “I’m Waiting for the Man”—to deeper album cuts and some that remained unreleased until latter-day vault excavations. To their credit, The Feelies don’t attempt to mimic the originals. Instead, they draw on each song’s essence and turn it into a Feelies tune. Some Kinda Love is one big kiss, but more than that it’s a vital addition to The Feelies’ own canon.