Biography
Playing smart, lively pop that draws heavily on garage rock while injecting bursts of punk energy, the Los Angeles group Feels revolves around lead singer and guitarist Laena Geronimo. Their sound stays buzzy and propulsive, with the interlocking guitars of Geronimo and Shannon Lay shaping the melodies and layering in noisy detail, bassist Amy Allen and drummer Michael Rudes locking down the rhythm section, and Geronimo’s vocals adding a glossy finish. The self-titled debut from 2016 showed the quartet already steering their own course, yet the follow-up Post Earth, issued in 2019, emerged noticeably tighter, more aggressive, and self-assured.
Laena Geronimo appeared primed from the start for an unconventional path in music: her father, Devo’s founding drummer Alan Myers, reportedly tried to shape her tastes before birth by holding a portable stereo against her mother’s belly to play Thelonious Monk and Edgard Varèse. The approach seemed effective; she took up violin in an elementary-school youth orchestra and later performed with several classical and experimental groups, among them the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic, whose string parts appeared on Pat Boone’s 2006 album In a Symphonic Mood and gave Geronimo her first recorded credit. She eventually picked up bass and guitar as well, and in 2010 she joined the all-female garage-rock outfit the Like after the sessions for their Mark Ronson-produced album Release Me; still, she appeared on its cover, toured with the band, and sang on a version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” released as a B-side.
Following work with Swahili Blonde, Geronimo sought a project with greater creative scope and formed Raw Geronimo in 2011; the group issued Dream Fever two years later. Subsequent personnel changes and a sharpening of direction transformed Raw Geronimo into Feels, now completed by Shannon Lay on guitar and keyboards, Amy Allen on bass, and Michael Rudes on drums. The quartet put out the cassette-only Live at Gaucho’s Electronics in early 2015, then delivered their first proper studio album, Feels, on Castle Face Records in February 2016. After a coast-to-coast tour they returned to the studio in mid-2017, spending the balance of that year and all of 2018 on new material. The resulting Post Earth surfaced in February 2019, produced by Tim Green, formerly of Nation of Ulysses, and released by Wichita Recordings.
Laena Geronimo appeared primed from the start for an unconventional path in music: her father, Devo’s founding drummer Alan Myers, reportedly tried to shape her tastes before birth by holding a portable stereo against her mother’s belly to play Thelonious Monk and Edgard Varèse. The approach seemed effective; she took up violin in an elementary-school youth orchestra and later performed with several classical and experimental groups, among them the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic, whose string parts appeared on Pat Boone’s 2006 album In a Symphonic Mood and gave Geronimo her first recorded credit. She eventually picked up bass and guitar as well, and in 2010 she joined the all-female garage-rock outfit the Like after the sessions for their Mark Ronson-produced album Release Me; still, she appeared on its cover, toured with the band, and sang on a version of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” released as a B-side.
Following work with Swahili Blonde, Geronimo sought a project with greater creative scope and formed Raw Geronimo in 2011; the group issued Dream Fever two years later. Subsequent personnel changes and a sharpening of direction transformed Raw Geronimo into Feels, now completed by Shannon Lay on guitar and keyboards, Amy Allen on bass, and Michael Rudes on drums. The quartet put out the cassette-only Live at Gaucho’s Electronics in early 2015, then delivered their first proper studio album, Feels, on Castle Face Records in February 2016. After a coast-to-coast tour they returned to the studio in mid-2017, spending the balance of that year and all of 2018 on new material. The resulting Post Earth surfaced in February 2019, produced by Tim Green, formerly of Nation of Ulysses, and released by Wichita Recordings.
Albums
Singles
