'Tis the season when every time you turn around there's a clatter in another dusty corner of your record collection as another long-lost band gets summertime reunion fever. We've learned that East Coasters will be able to get their geek on this summer with the original nerd-rockers, the Feelies! They will be playing a handful of tri-state-area (or thereabouts) shows, including an opening slot for Sonic Youth on the 4th of July at either Battery Park's River to River festival or Central Park's Summerstage, depending on which reports you believe. Yes, the men who made the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey" a herky-jerky New Wave classic in 1980 and will go down in pocket-protector history as the guys Devo would have beat up in high school will live to shuffle awkwardly around the stage like rock & roll Rain Men once more!

The New Jersey band came to an abrupt end when guitarist Bill Million left  in 1991 for a day job in Florida (at Disney World!). Apparently being an underground rock legend wasn't quite paying the bills for Million and his wife and kids, and as recently as last fall, he was still publicly expressing no interest whatsoever in pursuing music again. What changed his mind? Maybe he was inspired by George Michael's return to the stage, beats us. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. FYI, it seems as though it will be the latter-day warm/organic/jangly Good Earth version of the band that turns up rather than the original Only Life-era geek gang, but that works just fine for us. 

If you act quickly, you can start stoking up your appetite with a little solo action from Feelies singer/guitarist Glenn Mercer, who's got a couple of pre-reunion solo gigs coming up over the next several days.

Glenn Mercer 

04-17 Somerville, MA - Johnny D's