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© 2005 Winston-Salem Journal
dB's, the best-kept secret in rock, have reunited

Thursday, April 21, 2005

By Ed Bumgardner

relish staff writer

In a better world, maybe a different time, The dB's (Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Gene Holder and Will Rigby, all of Winston-Salem) would have been rewarded for what it was - one of pop music's great bands.

The band recorded four splendid albums in a nearly 10-year career. It never enjoyed more than prominent underground stardom - despite the tireless efforts of admiring critics. It is only recently that the band's often-profound influence on a new generation of musicians has surfaced.

Timing is everything in the music business, and The dB's always seemed to be ahead of its time or running out of time.

Stamey and Holsapple formed the band's initial songwriting trust. Each viewed pop music in a different light. Stamey was more the artful craftsman, a Big Thinker whose songs fused tangles of lush melody with an affinity for intriguingly abstract arrangements. His painstaking creativity, made even more distinctive by an unconventional vocal style, strained against convention. At his best, his sonic ambition and visionary pop instincts rivaled those of Brian Wilson.

Holsapple's songs were earthier and more easily embraced, rooted as they were in the conventions of guitar-driven rock and pop classicism. Heartache and desperate romanticism were recurring themes. Everyday-people narratives, shored by plain-spoken lyricism and a perfectly imperfect voice, conveyed the weight of the world. His songs oozed emotion and commanded attention, not through brainy cleverness, but through the advent of melodies that were compact, inventive and irresistible.

The rhythm section of Rigby (drums) and Holder (bass) proved a perfect binding agent, adding to the carefully conceived small details that turned the most ordinary of The dB's' pop songs into magic.

The genius of The dB's was casual, but it was effective in ways that drew torrents of critical superlatives and made music that stands the test of time. All of the band's albums, heard today, sound vital and fresh.

The band's first two albums, Stands For deciBels (1981) and Repercussion (1992), were a rewarding stylistic tug-of-love between Stamey and Holsapple. Oddball New Wave sensibilities merged with old-fashioned rock muscle to create pop gems of distinct voice.

The albums were recorded for Albion, a small British label. Each drew rave reviews. No stateside record deal emerged, making the albums largely unavailable outside Europe.

Stamey left the band to pursue a solo career. Holder switched to guitar, bassist Jeff Beninato was hired, and the band, fueled by Holsapple's ever-sharpening mainstream melodic skills, recorded two more fine albums. A stateside deal with Bearsville was negotiated. The band released Like This (1984) , a nearly flawless, unabashedly accessible disc that remains a landmark of contemporary power pop.

Bearsville promptly folded. Albert Grossman, the head of Bearsville, died on a flight to negotiate the band's release from the label. The album largely went unheard. Years of legal wrangling ensued. The discouraged band trundled on. A deal with I.R.S. Records, flush with success from R.E.M., yielded The Sound of Music (1987), a strong album that was inexplicably underpromoted. Too little, too late.

The story of The dB's became one of a band that should have shook the world. Renewed interest in the band is such that the group recently reunited to record a new album.

Perhaps fate will be more accommodating this time around.

Album to buy : Neverland (first two albums with bonus tracks)

Ten songs to download:

1. “Black & White” on Stands for deciBels

2. “I Lie,” on Sound of Music

3. “Love Is For Lovers,” on Like This

4. “Ask For Jill,” on Repercussion

5. “Neverland,” on Repercussion

6. “Never Say When,” on Sound of Music

7. “Lonely Is (As Lonely Does),” on Like This

8. “Amplifier,” on Repercussion

9. “Happenstance,” on Repercussion

10. “Nothing Is Wrong,” on Repercussion

Winston-Salem Connection: Major. All the founding members grew up in Winston-Salem and graduated from Reynolds High School. All the band members except for Holder played together in various configurations in such bands as Little Diesel & The Weasels (the first Winston-Salem band with a punk aesthetic), Rittenhouse Square and Sneakers.

pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssseeelet it be true......i almost wet myself at the idea of the band playing and recording again. (this is not a common occurance no matter what you have heard)