Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of the dBs are doing a rare radio taping together today on WFMU. They’ve got a new album coming on Bar None records, their first together since 1991’s Mavericks. The dBs, along with REM, the Feelies and others, more or less invented the jangly, guitar-driven college rock sound of the mid-1980s, and Holsapple, in particular, was great at elaborate, Beach Boy-esque harmonies.
I had one of the coldest, least rewarding interviews of my life with Chris Stamey four years ago, talking about the (really wonderful ) solo album A Question of Temperature, where he covered the Yardbirds, with Yo La Tengo as a backing band. Our conversation was full of long pauses…to put it kindly. Observe him freezing me out here.
And tune in to WFMU around 3 o’clock to hear the show.
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About Me
The government wants you to know...
Many of the albums and dvds that I review are sent to me, free, by record labels and bands. Also many more that I do not review. Sometimes I get into shows free, too.
7 comments:
Hey Jen - I have a little dBs story to relate. The first vinyl editions of Repercussions came with a group picture on the cover which was replicated on the back, but on the back you could barely see their images. I was going to see them at a club in Raleigh NC, and decided to take the record with me to ge them to sign over their images on the back. ANYway, this was during a time of very heavy drinking for me, 1980 or 81. Blackout drinking. But, I do remember the show, which was very good, with Chris playing some Farfisa-y keyboards. We went backstage afterward, but I don't remember whether I got the autographs - the album is long gone. I was being annoying drunk boy, and all the band pretty much blew me off, as they should have done. I do remember them talking about meeting Paul McCartney while they were recording at AIR studios in Montserrat. Ah - good times, which I'm glad are gone, at least the drinking part. I did get a nice surprise when I went to see YO La Tengo at the Cat's Cradle, and Stamey did an unannounced opening gig, about four years ago. Those guys, him and Holsappple, along with guys like Chuck Prophet, are doing the kind of music that SHOULD be played all over the radio, at least on the perfect radio station in my mind. Pure pop for now people . . . Continental Drifters, with Holsapple, are good too.
nope - I was wrong. Will Rigby was on keys when I saw them - just remembered that after reading your interview. Will was on keys when I saw Steve Earle, too - something else your interview reminded me of. I have no idea who was in his band when he opened for YLT - it took me a couple of songs to even realize it was him. That interview - sheesh. Props for you for plugging on - some things, like his and Peter's writing "secrets", he just did not want to talk about. And others, he's quite forthcoming. (apologies if necessary for the long comments - feeling a little on the verbose side this morning)
man - listening to Black and White from that FMU show is bringing some of those shiver down the spine memory-moments. Those guys just harmonize so well together. And, while I'm at it, Amplifier is the best, and darkly funniest, song about a musician's failed relationship that I know of.
OK, one more comment. I'm sure Stamey wouldn't like this, and I don't agree, but this is a pretty funny line from an Amazon review of the Stands for Decibels/Repercussion review: "(Stamey's) vocals sometimes sound like those of a snotty kid turned loose in a studio." And, it was Stands that I got autographed - how I got the two covers confused, I don't know, but it has been nearly thirty years.
guess I'm not done yet, Another comment from Amazon's reviews talks about finding Repercussion in a record store in Wasilla Alaska in 1981. http://www.amazon.com/Stands-Decibels-Repercussion-dBs/dp/B00005REPM Worth the read, for me at least, just for the memories of when music still meant SO much to me
Gosh Mike, thanks for all this. I do like the music. It doesn't really matter whether it's made by nice people, I guess...
And thanks for mentioning Chuck Prophet, who is pretty much the definition of under-rated. (Though I think it's self-inflicted. His PR wouldn't send a review copy of his last album for Dusted...which he seemed never to have heard of.)
Funny, I was going to say something about the dBs darkness and twisted-ness, all within a kind of accessible format, but it must have got lost in editing...but you're right about "Amplifier."
Wasilla...wish I could think of a good Palin joke.
short update - I sent the Amazon review to H&S's publicist, and asked him to get it to them. Also, encouraged him to get them a show down this way, so we'll see what happens. He said he forwarded it to them - I'll keep you posted
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