Send "The Felice Brothers " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 In November 2010, the body of a man was found in his home in Celebration, Florida. He had been strangled and beaten with an axe. It was the town's first homicide in its 15-year history, and while the culprit was soon apprehended, the incident was a shock to many of the municipality's 10,000 residents. This kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen in Celebration, which had been founded by Disney specifically to be a crime-free, family-friendly throwback to a way of life that's more imagined than actual. It's unclear whether the Felice Brothers knew of that that crime when they named their fourth album Celebration, Florida, but certainly that dark spot on the town's sunny exterior adds a bit of sensationalism to these songs, which examine the dark side of American spectacle.As with the album title, this Woodstock band chooses its proper nouns carefully, painting a glaring portrait of America full of Wonder Bread warehouses, used '96 Honda Civics, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and televisions turned to Fox 5 News. It's ersatz culture defined by its detritus, and it recalls the odd cityscapes of East River Pipe. The Felice Brothers lack F.M. Cornog's sense of wonder, which depicts even the most banal details as the stuff of science fiction. Nothing on Celebration is quite so transformative, but there are imaginative stories in these songs, populated with real characters checking the sticker price, lying to the desk clerk, and arguing with the TV. The Felice Brothers try to reflect this American jumble in their music, which draws from 60s folk rock (their Woodstock is more The Basement Tapes than Woodstock) and general roots traditions without being specific enough to belong to any particular short-lived revival. They're tinkerers, reimagining Americana as something in flux, steeped in history yet absorbing new ideas. "Ponzi" bursts into a chaotic rumble of programmed beats and industrial stutter, linking Wall Street to the introverted grotesquerie of Nine Inch Nails rather than the self-conscious luster of hip-hop. Conceptually, it's an intriguing idea. Musically, it ruins one of the better tunes on Celebration, a tense, jerky groove that's more intriguing when it threatens to explode than when it actually explodes....full text |
| Consequenceofsound |
| Anyone that pays attention to music knows that the “popular sound”, or at least whatever genre gets a little extra push to the forefront, moves in waves. In the early/mid-’90s, it was grunge, in the late 90′s it was nu-metal, and then it was more of an “indie” sound in the mid-00’s. Nowadays, it seems to be the folksy Americana sound. Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Iron & Wine—and most recently Frightened Rabbit and Mumford & Sons—have all rode the wave over the last few years, with many imitators coming out of the woodwork. It’s hard to find a way to delineate one band from another in this guitar/banjo-plucking scene, other than the fact that some bands have Southern or Scottish accents. Now meet The Felice Brothers—a group of five musicians from the Catskills of Upstate New York who play a brand of Americana that doesn’t quite fit the same mold as the rest mentioned above. Sure, they have fiddles, guitars, pianos, and accordions, but you won’t find many other folk bands that use electronic 808 drums, synths, or varied tempos all within one song. On their eighth album, Celebration, Florida, The Felice Brothers combine all these elements into a haunting portrait of Americana. The songs on the album are dark and expansive, with a perfect splash of sloppy—case in point, the frantic rush of “Honda Civic”. Recorded in an old Beacon, NY, gymnasium, Celebration, Florida, uses the slow, dying reverb of the space and the darkness of a backwoods mountain drive to flavor every aspect of the music. Opening song “Fire at the Pageant” is one of the more bone-chilling tracks on the album—especially when the screaming children’s choir comes in on the chorus. Lead singer Ian Felice’s voice has a gritty drawl that is reminiscent of Dylan, but with an added flavor of Tom Waits’ emotion. When he gets worked up—as on closing track, “River Jordan”—you are hard pressed to find a modern folk singer that can match him....full text |
| Brooklynrocks |
| n May 10th, The Felice Brothers are releasing their fourth disc, Celebration, Florida, which also marks their debut on the Fat Possum label. This disc is an adventurous step forward for the band as they combine their core "Americana" sound with elements of acid jazz, bass-heavy dance beats, pounding tribal drums and a mixture of sound bites to come up with an eleven-track offering that is both darkly beautiful but subliminally disturbing. While the majority of The Felice Brothers past work was recorded in a converted chicken coop in upstate New York, this new disc was recorded in the gymnasium and theater of Beacon, NY’s old high school and it is richly textured with unexpected instrumentation flowing in and out of each song. The disc starts off strong with the roaring "Fire at the Pageant" which combines a stomping rhythm with Ian's off-kilter narrative and mixture of children's schoolyard vocals which cuts away to an acoustic outro. One of the other adventerous cuts is "Ponzi" which starts with soundbites from the movie Charade and includes elements of electronica and acid jazz. There is still enough elements of rustic Americana on this disc to keep the Bob Dylan/Band comparisons flowing for another few years and one example of this is the disc closer "River Jordan"....full text |
The Felice Brothers lyrics
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