<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Felice Brothers get flexible for ‘Florida’

Band breaks down the pigeonhole of popular perception

The Columbian
Published: April 29, 2011, 12:00am

Christmas Clapton, bassist of the Felice Brothers, seems to be a man of few words, at least when it comes to interviews. So it’s fitting that he boiled down the story of the group’s new album, “Celebration, Florida” (in stores May 10), to a single word.

Change.

On one level, the band underwent an obvious change in 2009 when one of three Felice brothers in the five-member band — drummer Simone — left to start his own group. He has been replaced by Dave Turbeville.

What: The Felice Brothers, in concert with You Are Plural and Vikesh Kapoor.

When: 9 p.m. April 29.

Where: Mississippi Studios, 3939 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland.

Cost: $17 through venue, 503-288-3895, or http://mississippistudios.com.

What: The Felice Brothers, in concert with You Are Plural and Vikesh Kapoor.

When: 9 p.m. April 29.

Where: Mississippi Studios, 3939 N. Mississippi Ave., Portland.

Cost: $17 through venue, 503-288-3895, or <a href="http://mississippistudios.com">http://mississippistudios.com</a>.

Information: <a href="http://mississippistudios.com">http://mississippistudios.com</a>.

Information: http://mississippistudios.com.

On another level, “Celebration, Florida” represents an attempt to change how people perceive the music of the Felice Brothers.

“You hear about reviews or you look in the paper in the town you’re playing and you see a write-up about the show or whatever, and they’d all kind of say the exact thing, like Americana and Bob Dylan and the Band and folksy country trio, all those words,” said Clapton (who often is listed only by his festive first name). “We never felt like we were properly represented.”

The band is using a broader variety of instruments, “and there’s more ambient sound and definitely not as much structure,” he said, summing up some of the ways “Celebration, Florida” stands apart from the group’s other albums.

Actually, the Felice Brothers’ music has never been easy to pin down. And “Celebration, Florida” cuts a wide enough swath to further enlarge the band’s musical reputation.

Just consider the songs. “Fire at the Pageant” is a chunky, rustic number that turns into a shout-along anthem. It segues into “Container Ship,” one of several songs that have the ambient feel Clapton mentioned, though its sleek keyboard-filled texture gets broken up by clunky, decidedly old-school jabs of percussion. “Honda Civic,” by contrast, is a brash rocker that shifts between funky, horn-laced segments and galloping, punkish parts. “Oliver Stone” is a quieter number, with piano and horns giving it a pastoral beauty. Then there’s “Dallas,” a ghostly, mostly acoustic ballad with strains of old-time country.

Like other Felice Brothers releases, “Celebration, Florida” has a shambling quality, all rough around the edges and with enough jarring shifts in instrumentation, tempos and feels and stray instrumental bits and drum beats interjected into the proceedings to keep listeners on their toes throughout the album.

‘A little eerie’

The way the Felice Brothers approached making “Celebration, Florida,” also represented a change for the group.

For one thing, the group left behind the facility it had used to record its previous two albums, a converted chicken coop in upstate New York, near Ian and James Felice’s hometown of Palenville. Instead, the Felice Brothers set up shop in the auditorium and gymnasium of a former high school in Beacon, N.Y.

“It hadn’t been that long of a time since kids were there, but just enough of an amount of time to make it like a little eerie,” Clapton said. “So it felt really spooky and definitely had a vibe going for it. But the auditorium was great, a big room, and it had a stage and theater seats and stuff like that.”

If the Felice Brothers like to record in unconventional settings, it should be no surprise. The group has avoided conventional choices as it has developed musically.

The band (which also includes fiddler Greg Farley) got its start busking in subways and other locations around New York City. This helped the group get its first proper gigs and paved the way for self-booking its early tours.

After some initial touring and self-releasing a 2006 debut album, “Through These Reigns and Gone,” the group signed with Team Love Records, the label owned by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.

The Felice Brothers made two albums for that label, a 2008 self-titled release and 2009’s “Yonder Is the Clock.” With “Celebration, Florida,” the group has made another change, moving up to a larger independent label, Fat Possum Records.

The move to Fat Possum is a sign of the gradual growth the band has seen in its fan base. And while the group can now fill clubs across the country, it still occasionally sets up on the street to do some busking. Clapton said the experience gained in busking has flavored the Felice Brothers’ regular concerts, which often are spontaneous, unpredictable and rowdy affairs.

“People, when they’re walking by, they don’t really want to hear your band or anything,” Clapton said, describing the challenge of busking. “They just want to go buy some cigarettes or something. So we just would have to kind of catch peoples’ eye by doing whatever ridiculous (stuff) we could think of. It also made us play louder and scream and stuff like that. I think once we got into that we were never able to shake it.”

Loading...