THE FEELING "Twelve Stops And Home"

I went to see the Feeling last night. The Mercury Lounge holds about 250 people, but that's with people spilling out of the club. It was half full. No hipster bloggers, no NME groupies, not even any real record company activity (they are signed to Island here, there were only a handful of suits and they, with dour expressions). The band had apparently flown in earlier that day from London and they were faced with the 100 or so people that have found out about them through real word of mouth for their first U.S. show, I guess. They were tired, but they got revved up, the singer drinking single malt from a plastic cup.

The band is arena rock, there's no indie way around it. They drop cliches fast and furious, but there's something tender in there that makes you believe them. Some bands are good at that. The Feeling are ready for Jones Beach or Coachella, but they won't be invited yet. What they should do is tour with Phoenix and Midlake on the new classic rock tour and make painter's caps and white raglan sleeved tour shirts. OK, way off track. Anyway, yes, the singer tried too hard, did his obligatory crucified on the mike hand gestures, even going so far as to have everyone clap their hands "unless they were too cool for that". Sigh. But, but, they were brilliant, really great, tight, melodious, even though they didn't get their immediate audience ("we're used to playing for bigger crowds back home", um, duh, did you really just say that?).

What amazed me is that they had any label support at all. Island (U2, Keane) are fucking this up big time. Rolling over and playing dead, they are taking the Feeling's first UK single "Sewn" as their own, when so very obviously, the summer feel good hit, "Love It When You Call" should be the choice for the U.S. market. It's the Stacy's Mom of '06! Guess they got a free video of it (see below) or something. But while "Call" is buried on the album and the Working Class Dog aspect of it is lost on A&R guys, Twelve Stops And Home has a ton of hits, they just keep on comin'. Huey Lewis & The News' "Sports" has nothing on Twelve Stops.

I know I put this "Call" song on a mixtape a while back, but it's become a regional (zip code 11215, our backyard) hit and I feel I need to hammer home the point here. "Kettle's On" is a song the band did NOT play, maybe fearing we didn't know what a kettle was. Just give up and go with the summer hits, the schlocky cliches, the overcompressed guitars, the three part harmonies. You know you want to. And then see them when they come to town. They love it when you call.

LOVE IT WHEN YOU CALL
KETTLE'S ON