Tag: The Felice Brothers

MIXTAPE: Michigan Rattlers’ Rebirth of Spring Playlist

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Spring is a transformation. A reawakening. A rebirth.

Time marches on and no matter how cold the winter may be, the spring arrives and reminds us that we can start again. These songs represent that sound and spirit.

The past three years have felt like a long spring for our band. From writing and recording our album, Waving From A Sea, to now playing those songs every night on tour, we have found the warmth and growth within ourselves. – Michigan Rattlers

“You Must Believe In Spring” – Bill Evans

Bill Evans’ music sounds like the 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset. It’s like wet soil for me as an artist – refreshing and fertile. – Graham Young

“Everything Is Peaceful Love” – Bon Iver

I’ve heard Justin Vernon talk about this record as finding what he loved again about making music, it’s a rebirth of sorts for him. Even the GOAT loses the muse sometimes; an inspiration for us all to keep trying. – GY

“Inconsolable” – Katie Gavin

I found a shaky fan video of this months before it ever went live and haven’t stopped listening since. To me, this song is about nurture versus nature and choosing to defy patterns and spring a new path for yourself. – GY

“Geranium Day” – Michigan Rattlers

This is a song from our new album, Waving From A Sea, that is about those moments that bring your life into focus. Times that make you feel the ground beneath your feet. It’s about making it through the transformation of spring into summer and soaking up every bit of the day that you can. – GY

“Joy Spring” – Clifford Brown, Max Roach Quintet

I love the melody in this song, it reminds me of spring. The standard’s title is the pet name Clifford Brown gave to his wife. You can’t go wrong putting Clifford and Max together. – Tony Audia

“Spangled” – Fust

Fust’s latest album, Big Ugly, has been in my heavy rotation this spring. The song “Spangled” features moments of frustration and doubt. I get the sense that many Americans are feeling the same way this spring. – TA

“Countdown” – Phoenix

The line in the song, “We’re sick for the big sun,” sums it up. You’ve gotta have a Phoenix song if you’re talking about the rebirth of spring. – TA

“The Birthday Party” – The 1975

This song feels like waking up to me. The muted instruments and the intimacy and fragility of the vocal all feel like thawing out after a long winter. Both outside and in. – Christian Wilder

“Tinseltown is in the Rain” – The Blue Nile

I fell in love with The Blue Nile about a year ago. I’m perpetually obsessed with how they make this song switch feels and sway using pretty much all synthesized and gridded out sounds. This song is for standing outside pub at 2 a.m., rain coming down, it’s April fools day. – CW

“Bright Future in Sales” – Fountains of Wayne

Every spring carries with it an inherent sense of optimism. This is gonna be the big year, this is the year it all happens, this is the year I get my shit together. Almost never pans out the way you think, but it’s fun to pretend. I got a “Bright Future in Sales,” baby. – CW

“Under a Stormy Sky” – Daniel Lanois

This song feels like spring up north. The weather is chaotic and awful, yet you notice the birds returning and there is reason to celebrate change. Also, those lines about feeling pulled toward the city resonate with me. Winter where we’re from is pretty isolating, and I associate this time of year with anticipation for summer festivals and baseball games and just being among people again. – Adam Reed

“Light of a Clear Blue Morning” – Dolly Parton

This is a springtime song if I’ve ever heard one. It’s practically perfect, I don’t think I need to explain it. – AR

“To-Do List” – The Felice Brothers

For me, spring always brings an aspirational feeling, more daylight, more possibilities. This song gets right at that manic but euphoric headspace that comes right after thinking, “What the hell was I doing all winter?” – AR

Photos courtesy of Michigan Rattlers.

LISTEN: The Felice Brothers, “To-Do List”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Felice Brothers
Hometown: Harlemville, New York
Song: “To-Do List”
Album: From Dreams to Dust
Release Date: September 17, 2021
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: “The take we chose for this song was the first time we had ever played the song. It had a very loose and playful quality that we liked. We had just learned the chord progression five minutes before playing it. We listened back to more takes but this was the one that had the best feeling. The song was originally a slow waltz with the lyrics: ‘Into the fire that burns them/that’s how the idiots run,’ but I didn’t know where to go from there. I had written down a to-do list on the adjacent page and began to sing it and it seemed to work well with the phrasing. I wrote down many pages of ridiculous things and chopped them up into the melody. This is how the song came into being.” — Ian Felice

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

BGS 5+5: The Felice Brothers

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Felice Brothers
Hometown: Palenville, New York
Failed band name: At first we were ‘The Brothers Felice’ but quickly realized that was really dumb.

Answers by James Felice

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I really enjoy sitting and looking at a photograph with a lot of small details. I also did a lot of reading as a young man. Read the classics, Moby Dick and War and Peace. Those tremendous works of genius that were able to capture both the grand and mundane moments of life equally well.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I never knew I wanted to be a musician… I just knew I really wanted to play music. It was a language that always felt very natural and intuitive to me, but I didn’t ever think that I could do it for a living. It never really occurred to me such a thing was possible. I assumed I would become a carpenter like my father. Luckily I was an absolutely abysmal woodworker!

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Sometimes songs take forever. Hammering away for years at one little idea, trying to mold it into something of value. Usually it doesn’t work out and you wasted hours and hours of your life, but once in a while you get something special, and it makes it all worth it.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I photograph insects. I spend a lot of my time very close to these strange creatures, and I enjoy the astounding amount of detail on their tiny bodies. It helps remind me that even the smallest things that no one else cares about can matter the most.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Oh all the time! I also do the opposite. I say ‘me’ when it’s actually ‘you’. Usually though, I like to write about people who have a very different life experience from me, I find it exciting and challenging.

Photo credit: Lawrence Braun

The Felice Brothers, ‘Aerosol Ball’

Posted on by Editor

It's hard to find a downside to this most recent modern roots revival — after all, what could be bad about a trend toward acoustic instruments, old-time influences, and keen harmonies? Well, not much, and we're certainly not complaining. But as more and more bands have ditched the distortion pedals for the dobro, there is one thing that's sometimes lost along the way: edge. When a good string band is good, they often teeter on the brink of madness, creating an environment that's as much punk rock as it is Americana. Old Crow Medicine Show paved a roadmap to how this could be done on LPs like Tennessee Pusher and Big Iron World, where expert musicianship and classic craft didn't have to breed something that's just so darn earnest.

The Felice Brothers, who got their start busking in the New York City subway, ain't earnest. Not in the pejorative sense, at least — and that metaphor of playing acoustic music as the concrete jungle towered overhead and trains whirled by is a perfect expression of how their sound, while entrenched in past traditions, manages to never succumb to serious, precious practices. Their newest track, "Aerosol Ball," from their forthcoming album, Life in the Dark, is proof that even after 10 years as a band, they've never lost that gritty grasp on their breed of folk-country. Propelled by Ian Felice's off-kilter vocals and James Felice's accordion, there's a welcome dose of angst behind the melodies that demonstrate the song's visceral tension toward the modern age. "The lines on her palm are made by Viacom," sings Ian, full of vinegar, "and her dreams and her thoughts were made by Microsoft." Acoustic punk, not cutesy roots, at its best.

WATCH: The Felice Brothers, ‘Plunder’

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Felice Brothers
Hometown: Catskills, NY
Song: "Plunder"
Album: Life in the Dark
Release Date: June 24
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: "The video is a psychedelic trip down the cartoon rabbit hole, when four school kids' wish to be truly free of rules is granted. They find themselves reborn as pirates and drunk pigs as the song spins a yarn about mischievous dogs and roller rink crushes. Our heroes venture further into the animated mud as they make their final transformation into great business men, free of regulation and celebrating in True Corporate Greed … pirates, alas! Guitar-playing cats and hordes of sneaky pianist mice make cameos, obviously. This video pairs well with a Capri Sun." — Josh Rawson

Photo Credit: Austin Nelson