Here is new song #16.2. We’ve played this one live a couple of times last year but have left it off our setlist in ‘06…not for any particular reason. We recorded “Take You On” in November with the brilliant Matt Mahaffey at a studio in Nashville.

This might be the last song we put out on the blog for a little while as we are still demoing the new songs. Some of you came out to the show at Mercy Lounge and heard a song called “Lions Dressed in Leather.” Next week it could be “Lions Dressed in Pleather” or “My Aunt Likes Feathers”…who knows. Until we have final versions of our new songs we don’t want to put up anymore. But we will give out other goodies such as some behind the scenes video footage and other anomalies.

Thanks…oh, and if you live in Knoxville we are playing with The Walkmen March 9.
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new song is posted on the blog

It's not playing on my Mac for either Firefox or Safari. The last one only worked with Safari, but I'm getting nothing for this one

It's the exact same thing as it was last time. Played fine for me in Firefox and IE on the PC and Safari on the Mac (not Firefox). Sorry I can't troubleshoot much beyond that.

Amazing!!!


Matt Mahaffey can produce the entire record as far as I'm concerned!

Or maybe just...Stick Together...

Last time it was the opposite for me... worked on Firefox but NOT Safari. Right now I'm on a school lab Dell, so it's working in explorer. Great jorb, guys!

Pretty much everyone I sent the other one to had trouble playing it. I use IE and it works fine for me. This is a pretty good song, goes down smooth like a nice shot of whiskey. Mr. Mahaffey did an excellent job.

It's a shame they took down The Drawing Board demo though. I guess I will have to wait for the album and hopefully hear it again....

Nahh, it's going to be on their myspace page.

This one is great and Parrish does an extremely good job on the keys, Matt's vocals are supreme. Yet, when I compare The Drawing Board to Take You On. I would choose The Drawing Board, it just seems to fit the uptempo sound of The Features so very well. Can't wait for the new album

Jane

This was the thing that jamiecarrol was talking about last year - "what's really gonna piss off the haters." Sorry indeed haters, the band did in fact work on what might be known as the Mahaffey Sessions Vol. 2 to a lucky few; proof that the common claim that the band hated the first Mahaffey Sessions is total BS.

The keyboard sound and figure is beautiful, but other than that, not a huge fan of this one yet. I really do dig "Drawing Board" though.

I'm not sure this is solid proof of that. All it means is that, if he produces the next album, they were really pleased with his work on these demos. Of course, the opposite would not necessarily be true.

I think the new song is great. Very warm and inviting. I haven't listened to it on a good system yet, but it sounds pretty good on my computer.

(Edited by carligula at 10:15 pm on Mar. 1, 2006)

Why would they ask Matt to record even their demos again if they were repulsed by his previous work with them so much?

Mahaffey Sessions Vol. 1 (as they might as well be henceforth referred to as) is still my favorite work the Features have produced to date, by the by.

EDIT: I think it's worth stating that the claim that the band hated MS1 is based on no sturdier logic; most Mahaffey-haters more or less pointed to the fact that the album was never released as proof that the band didn't like it. Given the state Spongebath was in by the time they were completed, the Features didn't really have a base to release it with, and I think I remember a 1999 Mahaffey interview in which he stated he was recording some stuff for the Features that they were going to use to "shop around" for other labels. Guess no one bit?

(Edited by Jakob Dorof at 9:53 pm on Mar. 1, 2006)

The band was going for a very produced sound for those recordings. They could have gotten to the end result and not liked what they heard. After all, the new demo doesn't have that ultra-reverberated drum sound, does it?

omg jakob, stfu

i can't believe you can even type with mahaffey's dick in your mouth all the time.

dang . . .

And I've heard Matt has been getting around lately, but I had no idea it was to this extent.

Sweet.


YDDD: "Ultra-reverberated drum sound"? I didn't pick that up but I'll give them a little more attention next time...Rollum's drumming definitely isn't front-and-center on those sessions, which I guess might be one detractor I agree on.

I don't think the band choosing to work with Mahaffey again necessarily means they were happy with the previous sessions.

That said, I think this new demo is pretty badass. Keith approves.

I think so too. Even if the whole album isn't produced by Mahaffey I think a few songs wouldn't hurt a bit...especially this one.

If there was one complaint I had about the last album, it was that most of the songs sounded the same. I mean, individually they were great, but the recoding and mixing styles lacked variety.

That's the one legitimate complaint about Exhibit A, I think. Really, The Idea of Growing Old was the only song that broke up the regularity at all. The second album looks set to be much more diverse, if these two tracks are a reasonable indicator. That pleases me.

(Edited by FeaturesTroll at 6:25 pm on Mar. 18, 2006)

When I heard "Lions Dressed in Leather" at the MTSU show, I nearly vomited. It was horrid.

When compared to "Stick Together," I don't think it's very good either. The anthemic melody is chopped up, and how can "Lions dressed in leather," actually be better than the more natural, "rain or stormy weather"?

"Stick Together" is an all around great song and shouldn't have been messed with.