feedtime

Last night I went and saw a truly sublime performance with SD and G$. Feedtime (aka feedtime) got their start in Australia during the late 70s.

I never heard of them until 2012 and likely neither did you. This is the type of discovery that makes music reissues so thrilling.

Feedtime is a trio that plays swampy blues punk. Both the guitarist and the bassist regularly employ a slide. It is caveman-ish and cathartic. It is a sound as old as the hills. But this trio took this limited sonic palette and they just OWNED it.

Bill Meyer, critic for the Chicago Reader explains them this way: "Imagine if Wire had met in shop class instead of art school and loved Blind Willie Johnson as much as Eno."

In hindsight, this is a classic case of a band just not getting their due respect.

Not that they seemed bitter at all last night at the Empty Bottle playing to a half empty room at $10 a head. In fact, they just appeared to be having the time of their lives playing out before an appreciative audience.

The performance wasn't showy, it wasn't contrived, but damn if it wasn't effective at being evocative of every menacing rumble that came before (i.e. Link Wray) and after (i.e. Mudhoney, whose lifelong fandom likely instigated this reissue).

Listen to Mark Arm's favorite feedtime tracks below and then do yourself a favor and seek out the box set - it is only $35 on Amazon for four LPs.