The Return Of Shrubs

They came out of Plainfield 30 years ago all spit and sweat. Five albums later, FABCOM! Records released Rising on The Fourth Of July. Two of the songs were recorded and produced by Feelies guitarist Glenn Mercer who strums here with drummer Rob Takleszyn and bassist Bob Torsello. Unfortunately, original founding member Jay LoRubbio died in 2018 at 61. Silence ensued. Work on what would become Rising came to a dead halt.

Enter Feelie Mercer who encouraged them to continue. Shrubs used to open for The Feelies. Plus, Shrubs bassist Torsello played in Mercer’s solo band and Mercer produced such Shrubs albums as Wheels In Motion (2007) and Forgotten How To Fall (2009), and played guitar on two of their other albums. So the history was there and, thus, Mercer yanked ‘em out of their grief, dragged ‘em to his North Haledon studio, and with LoRubbio as the friendly ghost in the room, they dedicated Rising to their fallen comrade. They even dredged up LoRubbio’s Lou Reed tribute song, “Lou’s Place.”

DJ Joe Belock of the freeform WFMU in East Orange jumped on it. Tony B of FABCOM! heard it, offered them a deal, and they took the tapes from when Shrubs played Belock’s show in 2008 and 2011 to discover 18 originals plus covers of The Feelies (“Find A Way”) and Dramarama (“Work For Food”). With Belock’s liner notes, their resurrection sounds particularly joyous. (LoRubbio lives in the clip below from 15 years ago at Cake Shop in New York City singing and playing guitar on “Cat In The Hat.”)