If you are observant, you can find bugs everywhere. They are even on your body, hiding in your eyebrows, but you don’t see them because they are so small. James Felice (of the Felice Brothers) enjoys finding and shooting videos of them with his phone. He’s the one who took the snaps featured in the music video for “Silverfish”, a silly song with a moral about the insect world and other natural pests.
The track begins like a Shaker hymn with a simple piano melody and James’ clear solo voice straightforwardly singing, “Silverfish in my soap dish, perfectly designed to be unpleasant to find.” The contrast between the sincere and trivial is intentional and meant to be pleasantly humorous. The song continues to make dizzy rhymes about insects and other pests, but there is a sense of impending doom as it builds. These creatures cause damage to human environments. One has to kill them. The protagonist is troubled by that thought, and the cut ends without resolution. He knows he has to do something, but he doesn’t want to deal with the unpleasant reality.
All the tracks on the Felice Brothers’ forthcoming 12-song release From Dreams to Dust (Yep Roc) were co-written by James and his brother Ian. James plays piano, keyboards, accordion, Ian’s on guitar, Jesske Hume on bass, and Will Lawrence on drums and percussion. All four members of the band contribute vocals and helped produce the album. It also features Bright Eyes’ Nathaniel Walcott on trumpet and Mike Mogis, who mixed the album, on pedal steel. The album is scheduled for a 17 September release.
The Felice Brothers plan to tour heavily during the next few months to promote the record. No doubt they will have lots of blood spatter on their windshield as they travel. Bugs are everywhere.
TOUR DATES
9/16 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
9/17 – Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios SOLD OUT
9/18 – Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios SOLD OUT
9/19 – Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios
9/24-25 – Boise, ID – Treefort Festival
9/28 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile Second Stage
9/29 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
10/1 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
10/3 – Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater
10/10 – Peekskill, NY – First River Festival
10/12 – Asbury Park, NY – Asbury Lanes
10/13 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live
10/14 – Washington, DC – DC9
10/15 – Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall
10/16 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall
10/19 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar
10/20 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
10/21 – Fort Wayne, IN – The Brass Rail
10/23 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe
10/24 – Millersville, PA – Phantom Power