Feeler reviews
via Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
BY PRESTON JONES
Feeler, which clocks in at a startlingly brief 28 minutes and nine tracks, is an odd bird in that, instead of simply releasing the product of those decade-old sessions, the Toadies went back into the studio with producer Rob Schnapf and reworked nine of the nearly 20 songs reported to have been recorded in 1997.
The result is a band picking up where it left off at the height of its fame, yet also following up a well-received return to the spotlight. Both times, expectations were/are roughly the same; can the Toadies build upon their success and move forward?
If brutal, propulsive tracks like Dead Boy or Suck Magic are any indication, the new album that Lewis and company are reportedly cutting this winter will be no less intense than the band’s catalog to date. The Toadies excel at meshing lyrical foreboding and furious riffs like few other bands.
Lewis keeps the vein-popping screams to a minimum, but when he lets fly, as he does during the climax of Joey Let’s Go, it’s enough to make you clamor for the flannel and Doc Martens. Read complete review.
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via About.com
By Tim Grierson, About.com Guide
An Album Tied to No Era
While Feeler’s promotional material plays up the record’s “lost album” conceit, the truth is that you won’t listen to these nine tracks and immediately peg them as a product of mid-‘90s angst-rock. With the exception of the Nirvana-channeling “Dead Boy,” the songs on Feeler share little in common with Seattle’s grunge scene or the general tenor of alt-rock from that period. Indeed, like No Deliverance this is an album that’s proudly out of step with both the past and the present. Feeler’s best songs have an unnerving menace that is usually accompanied by lyrics about relationships in tatters. Too much contemporary rock crosses over into misogynistic tendencies, but in comparison a track like “Mine” is a real head-game in which the narrator sounds far more imbalanced than his love interest. And because the music can’t easily be lumped into any one popular genre – too ornery for post-grunge, too streamlined for alt-metal, too muscular for indie-rock – Feeler’s spiky guitars and tight rhythm section keep you on your toes, the vicious melodies as unpredictable as the lyrics. Read more.
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via Boston Globe
By Scott McLennan (Globe Correspondent / August 9, 2010)
The Toadies’ “Feeler’’ is finally seeing proper release 13 years after being shelved by the band’s old record label and floating around the Internet in bootleg form. It’s inexplicable why these songs were deemed weak follow-ups to the Toadies’ stellar 1994 debut, as the “Feeler’’ tunes — re-recorded with the band’s current lineup — exude the sinister tension of the breakout hits while also branching out into other sonic turf, like its sparser rumination of “Pink.’’ Perhaps the ubiquity of grunge anthem “Possum Kingdom’’ obscured the broader quality of the band behind it, leaving “Feeler’’ to suggest that the Toadies had the goods all along to grow beyond that moment. True to form, singer Vaden Todd Lewis on “Feeler’’ sounds slightly unhinged as he guides his listeners along twisted paths to points of simmering discomfort. Clocking in at little more than 28 minutes, “Feeler’’ is more EP than LP, but the quality compensates for the quantity. “Dead Boy’’ is a bit of punk thrash and “Suck Magic’’ is a coiled vitriol distinctly different from the creepiness of the “Possum’’-esque “Trust Game.’’ “City of Hate’’ is cutting commentary indicative of the Toadies’ smarts.