Sneakers + Little Diesel - Reunion shows Sept. & Oct. 2016

Motorco

Durham, N.C.

Oct. 20, 2016

audience recording (quality VG; audio ripped from video; some phase shifting can be heard from time to time; recordings from Hopscotch Fest = VG- quality) 
     

Little Diesel, again: Will Rigby in the back & Bob Northcott way out front

SAMPLE: "Heart Full of Soul" (Sneakers cover The Yardbirds - live 2016)

thanks to Laura & Jefferson Hart for the photos

01 Some Kind of Fool

02 Ruby

03 Nonsequitur of Silence

04 Decline and Fall

05 S'il Vous Plaît

06 Let's Live for Today

07 Condition Red

08 Heart Full of Soul

09 Flamingo

10 Ramblin' Gamblin' Man

11 Hollywood Swinging (etc.) 

12 S’il Vous Plaît*
13 Let’s Live for Today*

NOTES

01-08 & 12-13 = Sneakers

09 & 10 = Little Diesel

11 = Little Diesel + members of Sneakers

* Last two tracks are from Sneakers' set (opening for Television) at Hopscotch Music Fest, Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh, N.C. on Sept. 8, 2016

ROB SEZ: Yup, it's happened again: the old North Carolina music mafia has gone and done its nostalgia-indulging thing, and here's an audio souvenir from the proceedings. In recent months, there were more reunion shows by the 1970's-era Chapel Hill band Sneakers and the even older (!) Winston-Salem garage/bedroom combo Little Diesel. Chris Stamey & Mitch Easter were the ringleaders of Sneakers, while Bob Northcott fronted Little Diesel (with Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby in the band). Muchas gracias to Larry T. for the Motorco videos, from which I ripped the audio, and Daniel J. for the two tracks from this year's Hopscotch Fest (photo below).

MP3@320

Sneakers + Little Diesel - Live Oct. 20, Durham, N.C.

Now THIS is what I call a double bill worth seeing:

    
Sneakers + Little Diesel

Live Show

Thursday, Oct. 20
8:00 p.m.

Motorco

Durham, N.C.

Little Diesel - return! The boys in the band, tearing it up at a recent reunion gig

Sneakers, founded by Chris Stamey, was one of the first bands in which he and Mitch Easter were both active. Little Diesel was the first combo that included both Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby.

Get more info about the show HERE

Sneakers - Durham, N.C. 1976 + Sacred Irony

Duke University

Durham, N.C.

August 1976

audience recording (quality GD; sound improves considerably by track 2; there’s hiss, distortion and a lack of instrumental separation, but it's listenable and — hey — this is musical history, people!)   

Sneakers: Robert Keely, Will Rigby, Rob Slater, Chris Stamey

ROB SEZ: In this New Year, it's time to go back to the roots of this blog, with Sneakers (a group that Mitch Easter and Chris Stamey were involved in) and a separate group that Mitch was in a few years prior. Sacred Irony was Mitch's first "proper" band, which made many studio recordings but never released any singles or LPs. After Rittenhouse Square and Little Diesel, Sneakers was the next Winston-Salem band with Chris' involvement that made recordings, played public gigs, and (later on) recruited Mitch into the fold. Here is the only known live recording of the group prior to its break up and subsequent reunion shows in 2007 & '08. Much thanks to WR and RK for help with song titles not known to me. 

SAMPLE: "On the Brink" (Durham 1976)

OMNIVORE RECORDINGS just reissued Sneakers' debut EP
on vinyl (with digital download card), RSD Black Friday
FIND IT & BUY IT ... 'CUZ YOU NEED IT

01 S'il Vous Plait

02 Condition Red

03 No Money Downs

04 (Love's Like a) Cuban Crisis

05 Some Kinda Fool

06 Nonsequitur (of Silence)

07 Pedestrian Confession

08 20/20

09 On the Brink

10 Leftovers

11 Ruby

12 Kissy Boys

13 Let's All Apologize

14 Hip Secrets

15 Story of a Girl (semi-acoustic)

16 You Told Me

17 The Train Stops Here

18 mystery bonus track

 
Sneakers 
(presumed lineup for this show):

Mitch Easter
Robert Keely

Will Rigby

Rob Slater
Chris Stamey
 

MP3@256  

A big, sloppy THANK YOU to a special friend of the blog 

for supplying me this show

Sacred Irony

A Sacred Irony Compendium 

studio recordings  

sound quality: VG to VG+

SACRED IRONY: wistful in the graveyard (Mitch Easter, far right)

SAMPLE: "I See Love"

01 radio intro (for I Am Your Dr.)

02 I Am Your Doctor

03 Collaboration

04 I See Love

05 Gone, Gone, Gone

06 Secret Lover

07 Let's Go Steady

08 Where No One Cares

09 Teenage Lust (MC5 cover)

10 Good Times

11 Sure to Fall

12 Face Without a Name

13 All Up to You

14 Changes In Me

Sacred Irony:

Mitch Easter - guitar prodigy 
Ted Lyons 
Rick Reich 
Dale Smith 
Troy "Corky" McMillan   

MP3 (192-256 kbps)   
 

A most hearty THANK YOU to Fantom

for providing some of the music in this post, and for pointing me to this vintage drawing of Sacred Irony back from Peter's high school daze:

When he posted this at Sacred Irony's FB page, Peter wrote: "I did this with my trusty Rapidograph in 9th grade at Exeter (1970-71) sometime. Corporeally, I was in New Hampshire, but my heart was in Winston-Salem. Band represented in this picture is absolutely Sacred Irony."

READ MORE about these groups and many other N.C. bands  at Michael Slawter's most excellent blog site

 (earlier version of the blog HERE)    
     

Sneakers - Reunion Shows, NYC & NC 2007-'08

Sneakers were one of the early bands that Chris, 
Will & Mitch Easter were in

audience recordings (sound quality VG-) 

Highlight: The B&G Pies ad, of course!

BIG THANKS to the tapers, apologies to CS, and LOTS OF THANKS to dB’s Fan for the share!
 

SAMPLE: "On the Brink (Cat's Cradle 2008)"

Cat's Cradle

Carrboro, NC

May 2, 2008*

01 intro

02 On the Brink

03 Decline and Fall

04 Condition Red

05 Driving

06 Nonsequitur (of Silence) [WR]

07 Story of a Girl

08 Ruby [RK]

09 B & G Pies ad

10 Quelle Folie

11 Walk Upon the Water (Move cover)

12 No Wonder

13 (Love's Like a) Cuban Missile Crisis

14 S'Il Vous Plait

15 What I Dig

The Bowery Ballroom

NYC

Jan. 13, 2007**

16 S'Il Vous Plait

17 Ruby [RK]

18 Decline and Fall

19 (Love's Like a) Cuban Missile Crisis

20 Nonsequitur (of Silence) [WR]

21 Quelle Folie

22 On the Brink

23 Condition Red

Chris and Mitch take turns singing lead for most of these. Will and Robert Keely each sing lead on 1 song: Will on “Nonsequitur” and Robert on “Ruby.”

*Opener for The Pressure Boys at a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation benefit 2008-05-02 (the 2^nd Sneakers reunion show).

**Opener for dB’s reunion show (the 1^st Sneakers reunion show), 2007-01-13. A reporter at the NYC show wrote, “For Sneakers’ last two songs, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley joined in to contribute tambourine and cowbell.”

MP3@320 (2007 show is MP3@192, best avail. bit rate)

Alt. Link
  

AH, the good ol’ days — when Chris had his own label...

 
Sneakers:

Mitch Easter - guitars, electric sitar, vocals

Chris Stamey - guitar, vocals

Will Rigby - drums, vocals

Robert Keely - bass, vocals

Chris Stevenson - drums, percussion

Wes Lachot – keyboards

NOTE: above is 2008 Carrboro show lineup, which was slightly different for 2007 show in NYC…
 

One more from the NYC reunion show - photo by Edutourist via Flickr

FOR FURTHER READING: brief history of Sneakers from Trouser Press is HERE; a longer feature story from IndyWeek is reproduced HERE; a review of the Bowery Ballroom 2007 show in NYC (with The dB's & Let's Active) from the No Depression archive is HERE; nearly shameless plug: Mick Dillingham's guest post about the many connections between Mitch Easter and The dB's is one of this blog's special pages, found HERE.