Music for Neighbors by The Trypes
Hindsight is the easy part. Being The Feelies was the hard part. The Haledon, NJ band’s 1980 debut album on Stiff Records, Crazy Rhythms, struck a nerve with the few who actually heard it. Quickly disappearing, the band’s profile was so low it hurt.
Yet in those pre-internet days, word of mouth and obscure publications like New York Rocker began mentioning even more obscure Feelies side projects Yung Wu, The Willies and The Trypes.
In 1984 the latter released a four-song EP, The Explorer’s Hold. That material, along with a dozen other tracks are captured on the reissued Music for Neighbors CD. The nine-piece group traffics in hypnotic, droning pop that reaches back to the days when George Harrison was being influenced by Indian music—they cover his “Love to You.” But all is not all raga-rock here. The bonus tracks spotlight the songs of John Baumgartner, whose band Speed the Plough is still active.
If the original release had an implied sense of foreboding, the archival home recordings defy genre with Baumgartner—who at times recalls Jonathan Richman—taking a charming kitchen-sink approach to documenting tunes while the idea is still fresh. Live tracks from 1984 find the band in full flight while reunion recordings from 2017 are well-crafted chamber pop.
