Podcast: Download
For anyone that isn’t familiar; The Features were a highly revered rock band from the mid 90’s through 2017. They released a number of albums, explored a ton of different styles and always put on a helluva live show. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that didn’t enjoy The Features on some level. Way back in 1999, the band was experiencing some changes. They’d released an EP with their indie label, Spongebath Records, and even recorded a full-length album with producer Richard Dortch; which had some songs released as a 10″ and on some samplers. A few band members left and a new band member joined, drummer Rollum Haas.
The band went BACK into the studio with producer Matt Mahaffey – also a labelmate of theirs on Spongebath with the band Self – to record another full-length album. That album was also never officially released… until January of 2023 in the form of this new album, The Mahaffey Sessions 1999; about 24 years after its inception.
For transparency, the album was released by my indie label – yk Records – so my interest in sharing this interview on this podcast is a bit biased. I want to promote the record and this is an excellent forum to do so. However, I actually worked at Spongebath Records back in 1999 and got my hands on a CDR of the album way back when. I’ve been listening to this record for over two decades, very regularly. It’s the impetus for me approaching the band in the first place to release it; I love this album and always thought it was beyond unfortunate that it was never released. All that is to say, even if yk Records hadn’t put this out, I’d still be talking to the Features in this forum because it’s a fantastic record.
I gotta give a huge thanks here at the top for the time the band spent with me. It’s not easy to remember details of something that happened a lifetime ago but they provide such fantastic insight. I am forever grateful to them for letting me release but, moreso, just MAKING IT in the first place. So, thank you The Features and here we go with our track-by-track discussion of The Mahaffey Sessions 1999 …
The Mahaffey Sessions 1999 is available on Bandcamp and streaming services.
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