The dB's are an American alternative

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...

group, who formed in New York City in 1978 and first came to prominence in the early 1980s. Their debut album, '' Stands for Decibels'', is often acclaimed as one of the greatest "lost" power pop albums of the 1980s. The band members are

Peter Holsapple Peter Livingston Holsapple (born February 19, 1956) is an American musician, who formed, along with Chris Stamey, the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongat ...

Chris Stamey Christopher Charles Stamey (born December 6, 1954) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. After a brief time playing with Alex Chilton, as well as Mitch Easter under the name Sneakers, Stamey formed The dB's with Peter ...

Will Rigby Will Rigby is an American musician known for being the drummer of jangle pop band the dB's, a band he formed along with Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, and Gene Holder in the late 1970s. He has also performed with many other artists and has releas ...

, and Gene Holder. Although the members are all from

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

, the group was formed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1978. In 2012, the band completed its first new studio album in 25 years and its first in 30 years with the original lineup.

History

During 1977, Stamey played bass with

Alex Chilton William Alexander Chilton (December 28, 1950 – March 17, 2010) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s ...

in New York, and recorded "(I Thought) You Wanted to Know" with

Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

guitarist Richard Lloyd. A single of the latter song, backed with "If and When" (on which Rigby and Holder played), was issued in 1978, credited to Chris Stamey and the dB's. Holsapple joined the group in October 1978, after moving to New York City from North Carolina. Their second single, "Black and White", was issued by Shake Records in 1980. British label Albion Records released their first album, '' Stands for Decibels'', in January 1981, to critical acclaim but negligible sales. According to ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'', the group drew from 1960s pop and

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...

as well as 1970s pop groups like

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a ne ...

, but the songs by composers Stamey and Holsapple were too distinctive to merely copy their sources of inspiration. While Holsapple was skilled in the composing of fairly conventional tunes such as "Big Brown Eyes" and "Bad Reputation," Stamey's songs, such as "Espionage" and "Tearjerkin'," tended to be somewhat more experimental and quirky. They released a second album on Albion in 1982, '' Repercussion'', and also released singles such as "Judy." These two albums were later reissued on one

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

. Stamey left the group after the second album, and pursued a career as a solo artist and producer. The group then recorded a third album, ''Like This'', released in 1984. The band had finally landed an American record deal with Bearsville Records, but distribution woes caused the album to be greatly delayed, and Bearsville folded the same year. Rick Wagner joined the band on bass, and Holder moved to lead guitar. ''The Sound of Music'', their last album before their breakup, was released in 1987 with

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

bass player Jeff Beninato, founder of the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. The album cracked the ''Billboard'' 200, hitting No. 171. Beninato participated in the subsequent tour. Holder left the band to join the Individuals, and Eric Peterson was recruited on lead guitar after replacing temporary guitarist/keyboardist Harold Kelt. Several albums were released after the dB's broke up. Line Records compiled ''Stands for Decibels'' and ''Repercussion'' with the addition of two bonus tracks, first in 1992 as ''dB's First/ Repercussion'', then in 1999 as ''Neverland''. ''Ride the Wild Tom-Tom'', released in 1993 by

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

, collected demos, early recordings, and singles. ''Paris Avenue'', issued in 1994 by Monkey Hill Records, was a posthumous album by the final line-up, based on demo tapes from the band's waning days.

Other projects

Following the dB's breakup, Holsapple worked as a sideman, serving as a full-time auxiliary guitarist and keyboardist for

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

for four years, beginning with the ''

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

'' world tour and continuing through the 1991 '' Out of Time'' album. After leaving R.E.M., he toured with

Hootie and the Blowfish Hootie & the Blowfish are an American soft rock band that were formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's lineup for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. The band ...

and then joined the

Continental Drifters The Continental Drifters were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1991 and dissolved in New Orleans, Louisiana about a decade later. Though the line-up changed several times, at one point the band comprised a kind of colleg ...

. He released one solo album, 1997's '' Out of My Way''. Stamey has released six solo records and has worked as a

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. In 1985, the ''Christmas Time'' holiday-themed mini-album was issued by Coyote Records, credited to "Chris Stamey Group with Special Guests the dB's". It was later expanded to a 17-song CD in 1993, retitled ''Christmas Time Again'' and featuring contributions from

Mitch Easter Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as fron ...

Ryan Adams David Ryan Adams (born November 5, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, and poet. He has released 23 albums, as well as three studio albums as a former member of alt-country band Whiskeytown. In 2000, Adams left ...

Marshall Crenshaw Marshall Howard Crenshaw (born November 11, 1953) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for hit songs such as " Someday, Someway," a US top 40 hit in 1982, " Cynical Girl," and " Whenever You're on My Mind." He ...

, Don Dixon, and others, and then again as a 21-song CD in November 2006. Rigby played drums for

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

and others, and Holder continued to record and produce. In 1991, Stamey and Holsapple reunited (not under the dB's moniker) as a duo to record an album titled ''

Mavericks Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to: History * Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick Aviation * AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design * General Aviation Design Bureau ...

''.

Reunion

The classic lineup of the dB's reunited in 2005 and performed two shows in Chicago and two in Hoboken, New Jersey. Also in 2005, the band recorded a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the 1966 song "

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" is a hit single recorded by Jimmy Ruffin and released on Motown Records' Soul label in the summer of 1966. It is a ballad, with lead singer Jimmy Ruffin recalling the pain that befalls the broken-hearted who h ...

" to benefit the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund.

Bowery Ballroom The Bowery Ballroom is a New York City live-music venue located at 6 Delancey Street in the neighborhood of Bowery in Manhattan. The Bowery Ballroom holds something of a cult status among musicians as well as audiences. ''Rolling Stone'' magazi ...

in NYC hosted the dB's in January 2007, and in February 2007, the band performed at

Cat's Cradle Cat's cradle is a game involving the creation of various string figures between the fingers, either individually or by passing a loop of string back and forth between two or more players. The true origin of the name is debated, though the fi ...

in Carrboro, North Carolina. In March 2012, Holsapple, Stamey, Rigby, and

(substituting for Holder) played at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

. '' Falling Off the Sky'', their first new

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

in decades, was released in June 2012 by

Bar/None Records Bar/None Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey. Early history Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his na ...

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Stands for Decibels'' (1981, Albion Records) * '' Repercussion'' (1981, Albion Records) * '' Like This'' (1984, Bearsville Records) * ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...

'' (1987, I.R.S. Records) * ''Paris Avenue'' (1994, Monkey Hill Records) * '' Falling Off the Sky'' (2012,

)

EPs

* ''Amplifier'' (1981, Albion Records) * ''Revolution of the Mind'' (2013, Orange Sound)

Singles

* "(I Thought) You Wanted to Know" as Chris Stamey & the dB's (1978, Car Records) * "Black and White" (1980, Shake Records) * "Dynamite" (1981, Albion Records) * "Big Brown Eyes" (1981, Albion Records) * "Judy" (1981, Albion Records) * "Neverland" (1982, Albion Records) * "Living a Lie" (1982, Albion Records) * "Love Is for Lovers" (1984, Bearsville Records) * "I Lie" (1987, I.R.S. Records) * "Picture Sleeve" (2011, Orange Sound) * "Bad Reputation (New York Rocker Sessions)" (2021, Propeller Sound Recordings) * "Tell Me Two Times (New York Rocker Sessions)" (2021, Propeller Sound Recordings)

Compilation albums

* ''Amplifier'' (1986, Dojo Records) * ''dB's First/ Repercussion'' (1992, Line Records) * ''Ride the Wild Tom-Tom'' (1993,

) * ''Neverland'' (1999, Line Records) * ''I Thought You Wanted to Know: 1978-1981'' (2021, Propeller Sound Recordings)

References

External links

*
The dB's
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dbs, The 1978 establishments in the United States 1988 disestablishments in the United States American power pop groups Culture of Winston-Salem, North Carolina Jangle pop groups Musical groups established in 1978 Musical groups disestablished in 1988 Musical groups reestablished in 2005 Musical groups from North Carolina Rock music groups from North Carolina Alternative rock groups from North Carolina American indie rock groups College rock musical groups Bearsville Records artists Rhino Records artists I.R.S. Records artists