Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

about

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 are an experimental alternative rock group formed in 1986 San Francisco, California, 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-nineties when they signed with the influential alternative rock label Matador Records. It was during this time that Thinking Fellers produced their most prominent albums, Lovelyville, and the critically lauded college radio hit Strangers from the Universe. Despite its relatively poor production values, Mother of All Saints is considered by many fans the group's masterpiece. 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. They have toured sporadically and released only one full album, Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles Present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche, which received mixed reviews. They toured Holland, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. in 1994 and made an appearance on the John Peel radio show on the BBC. In 2001 author Jonathan Franzen referenced the band in his

top songs

albums

Strangers From the Universe

I Hope It Lands

Bob Dinners and Tubby Turdner Present...

Admonishing the Bishops

Mother of All Saints

Lovelyville

The Funeral Pudding

Wormed By Leonard

Bob Dinners and Larry Noodles present Tubby Turdner's Celebrity Avalanche

Tangle

Porcelain Entertainments

Admonishing the Bishops EP

similar artists