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Strangers From The Universe

by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • "Limted edition 12" black vinyl LP"
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

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    2022 remaster of the most in demand Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 LP.
    Originally released by Matador Records in 1994, Bulbous Monocle presents a
    Limited edition LP reissue, remastered by Mark Gergis (Sublime Frequencies).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Strangers From The Universe via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Socket 04:21
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Guillotine 05:12
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Uranium 01:13
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February 03:05
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about

2022 digital re-master by Mark Gergis (Sublime Frequencies)

Physical release for LP is 10-15-2022


Even in a catalog that bristles with pinnacles, Strangers From the Universe remains pinnaclier than most. Somehow harnessing influences from Bali to Cinecittà to Memphis to the wobbly Sunday morning organ at Oakland’s Rose of Sharon Missionary Baptist Church without feeling contrived or showoffy, Strangers is possibly and/or indisputably the most successful shotgun marriage of the Fellers’ disparate pop sensibilities with their outlandish song structures, their acre-feet of tape snippets with their hydra-headed arrangements, and their individual compositional and instrumental skills with their congenitally peculiar joint sensorium.
Eager as always to experiment with unconventional (i.e., daft and cumbersome) approaches to writing and recording, the Fellers fine-tuned their working methods for Strangers, assigning individual members as “sheriffs” to oversee the arrangement of promising morsels into coherent compositions. Even more daringly, they decided to let Greg Freeman, their long-suffering engineer, control his own mixing board. “The result was a much more cohesive sound than we'd ever gotten with our usual approach,” says TFUL282 multi-instrumentalist and multi-vocalist Mark Davies.
The Fellers’ 1994 tour saw the band in full flight bringing the Strangers material to their growing fanbase. Sharing bills with Matador labelmates Pavement and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion for more high-profile gigs, TFUL 282 tore through the US playing from coast to coast and sharing stages with kindred spirits Sun City Girls, Fly Ashtray, and a host of regional bands who stood in awe at the overwhelming spectacle and furious sonic and visual onslaught that this band could generate on a nightly basis.
“I’ve always thought of Strangers and the fall tour for it as a pinnacle of sorts,” Mark says.
It's easy enough to cite some highlights as evidence: “Hundreds of Years,” a blossom-garlanded Tower of Song erected at the intersection of Abbey Road and Jalan Kajeng; the galvanic sputter of “Socket” and “February” (the latter titled after a handy mnemonic for “Fingered Eastern Banjo”); Brian Hageman’s oddly moving “The Operation,” which Mark calls “one of the most sonically dense/confused things we ever did.”

But why bother singling out individual details? Fact: The whole album sounds as wild and inventive against the heartbreaking drosscape of early 2020s independent music as it did against the soul-crushing hellscape of mid-1990s independent music.

Bulbous Monocle’s long-overdue reissue puts every single one of this millipedal LP’s best feet forward with meticulous remastering by the golden-eyed and gimlet-eared Mark Gergis, making it an essential acquisition for the diffident toe-dipper as well as the seasoned bathyscaphist.


-Nuf Sed Public Relations Inc.

credits

released July 29, 2022

Artwork [Lightbulbs] – John Frentress
Engineer – Greg Freeman (tracks: A1 to A5, A7, B1, B3, B4,B6)
Layout – Margaret Murray
Photography By – Gail Butensky
Producer – Greg Freeman, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Recorded By – Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (tracks: A6, A8, B2, B5)
Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion – Anne Eickelberg
Vocals, Drums, Guitar, Keyboards, Sampler – Jay Paget
Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer [Optigan], Percussion, Banjo, Brass – Mark Davies
Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin – Brian Hageman
Vocals, Guitar, Percussion – Hugh Swarts

Reissue Producer - Hisham Mayet and Mark Davies
Reissue Remaster - Mark Gergis with Peter Conheim
Reissue Layout and Design - Brian Mumford
Thanks- Brandan Kearney

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Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 Portland, Oregon

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