Sunday 13 September 2020

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Greasy Chud Spanker



Short bio:
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 formed in 1986 in San Francisco, California, United States, though half of its members are from Iowa. Their albums combine lo-fi noise rock and ambient sounds (referred to as "Feller filler") with tightly constructed rock and pop songs. The band has a small but intensely loyal cult following. Band members are Brian Hageman, Mark Davies, Anne Eickelberg, Hugh Swarts and Jay Paget. Hageman was also a member of the Iowa City based group, Horny Genius.

The band achieved their greatest critical and commercial success in the mid-1990s, when they signed with the indie rock label Matador Records. It was during this time that Thinking Fellers produced their most prominent albums, Lovelyville, and Strangers from the Universe. They toured the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the UK in 1994 and made an appearance on the John Peel radio show on the BBC. In 1996 they toured briefly as an opening act for the then-popular band Live but were not received well by the Live fanbase. Thinking Fellers has been largely dormant since 1996, having toured sporadically and released only one full album, Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche, since. 


Anyone who is a newcomer to TFUL282, I can only warn in advance should you feel inspired to purchase any of their albums. As stated in the short bio above, their albums "combine lo-fi noise rock and ambient sounds (referred to as "Feller filler")". Most of their albums there's plenty of the Feller filler, which I know many fans of the band absolutely love. Others beg to differ. Personally, I don't mind it too much but would have preferred less of it on each release. For this collection, there is very little "filler", concentrating on my favourite "proper" songs from their back catalogue.

From 1988 to 2001 they released 7 studio albums, plus several EPs/singles. My favourite albums by them I'd say are their first album, "Wormed by Leonard", and their final (?) album "Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche". For this  collection I've taken tracks from all albums, plus the odd single/EP release, and a couple of tracks from compilation albums. "Feller filler" is at a minimum, just the one track included which I've put in the middle of this collection. This is probably the most "difficult" band I've made an anthology of so far, but I hope you'll enjoy the songs I've chosen. As ever, info containing track origin & year of release is tagged in the music files and in the download file.


  1. Leaky Bag (3:53)
  2. Tell Me (4:07)
  3. The Piston and the Shaft (5:05)
  4. Sister Hell (3:22)
  5. Empty Cup (2:57)
  6. 2x4s (4:25)
  7. The Electrocutioner (3:25)
  8. Everything's Impossible (4:02)
  9. Narlus Spectre (3:14)
10. Heavy Head (4:59)
11. My Pal the Tortoise (2:47)
12. Hills (2:11)
13. Catcher (2:25)
14. Sinking Boats (4:48)
15. Who Are Parents? (4:22)
16. Perlmnlrl (5:12)
17. '91 Dodge Van (1:33)
18. Undertaker (3:19)
19. Noble Experiment (3:31)
20. Hive (4:35)
21. Flames Up (3:10)
22. Misfits Park (2:54)
23. Everyday (1:56)
24. Another Clip (3:51)