The dB's - 'Stands for deciBels' REVISITED

LOSSLESS REPOST
CLASSIC ALBUMS REVISITED

The dB’s 
Stands for deciBels REVISITED 
the debut album in alternate mixes & live versions

sound quality: variable, but none less than VG

 

Cover of The dB's iconic debut; still amazing after 30 years.
Stephanie Chernikowski photo; Victoria DeVeraux tinting

01 Black and White (alt. mix)  

02 Dynamite (live) 

03 She's Not Worried (live) 

04 The Fight (live) 

05 Espionage (live) 

06 Tearjerkin' (alt. mix) 

07 Cycles Per Second (live) 

08 Bad Reputation (alt. mix) 

09 Big Brown Eyes (live) 

10 I'm In Love (alt. mix) 

11 Moving In Your Sleep (alt. mix) 

12 [blank – 10 secs. of nada]

13 Judy (live)*
 

*Judy did not appear on the album as originally issued. It was first released on the “Judy” 7-inch single, and later added as a bonus track to some versions of “Stands for deciBels.”

Sources

1, 6, 8, 10, 11 – from Stands for deciBels rough/alt. mixes production cassette

2 – Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC 1981-10-24

3, 5 – Philosopher’s Club, Winston-Salem, NC 1979-12-28

4 – The Ritz, NYC 1982-02-22

7, 9 – The Ritz, NYC 1981-06-12

13 – Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ 1982-02-26

front & back cover art included in the download

FLAC
  
MP3@320

   
The dB’s:

Chris Stamey – guitar & vocals

Peter Holsapple – guitar & vocals

Gene Holder – bass

Will Rigby – drums

   
ROB SEZ: I had a great time putting this one together. The main inspiration is a special share from lilpanda (thanks, man). It's a collection of tracks tagged “Pre-Signing Demos”. However, after listening to them many times over, I came to realize they sounded a lot like the finished masters for Stands for deciBels, but with interesting differences. Certain instrumental passages I was hearing in these versions aren’t on the masters, or have sounds that are much less prominent in the final mixes.*

I decided the collection was probably from a work-in-progress production cassette, created as the debut was being recorded. It’s not uncommon for artists and producers to create collections of rough mixes before final mixing and mastering. I’m guessing this passed from a friend to a friend, etc., until it was eventually shared with other fans. Some versions in the collection sound so much like the masters that I chose not to include them here. (One, a great demo of “Dynamite,” was released later on Ride the Wild Tom Tom -- so go listen to it there). For the live versions, I tried to pick tracks that married good sound quality with a great and/or aurally interesting performance. The live tracks are effective reminders how amazing Will and Gene are as The dB's rhythm section. They are the group's secret weapon and unsung heroes...

  

Stands for deciBels was released in January 1981 

— almost 40 years ago!

  

*Geeky observations about the alternate studio mixes, 
for fellow obsessives:

1. BLACK AND WHITE - You can hear the difference right off the bat in the extra reverb on the vocals and the prominence of the electronic (?) hand claps from the opening notes. In the master, however, the hand claps fade in & out, alternating with an additional double-time percussion part, like a fast-ticking watch. In the master, the acoustic guitar track is much more prominent in the mix (I'm not sure it's there at all in the alt. mix). There are other differences you can find, in this & the other alt. mixes. For example, there's a tambourine part beginning in the alt. mix version at 2:38 that lasts about 15 seconds. It's not in the master mix, which instead has Will thrashing away on the cymbals in the same part of the song.

6. TEARJERKIN' - The difference between this alt. version & the master lies in which instruments are emphasized in which mix. One example: the main keyboard part is less prominent in this one than on the master, where the keyboard's edgy tone is put in the foreground. You can also hear it in the bridge starting at the 3:00 mark: in the master, there are added sound effects missing from this version.

8.  BAD REPUTATION - Like some other alt. mixes in the "Pre-Signing Demos" collection, this one's differences present themselves after repeated A-B comparisons to the master version. Some differences lie in the mix, which has less reverb overall in the master version. The rhythm guitar part is much more prominent in the master as well. Other distinctions are more immediate, such as the guitar solo at 2:18. There's one in the same spot on the master, but a different take is used instead of the solo featured here. 

10. I'M IN LOVE - The biggest difference between this alt. mix and the master can be heard in the bass lines. In this version, it's a standard electric bass sound throughout the track (albeit played with Gene's incredible technique). In the master, however, the familiar bass sound is rarely heard. Instead, a rhythmic bass part played on (what sounds like) a keyboard is heard on most of the track. Also, a squealing electric guitar line is heard in the background at several points in this version, but very little on the master.

11. MOVING IN YOUR SLEEP - This one has very subtle and hard-to-detect differences. You can hear them mainly in the bass parts (some later sections were re-done for the master) and the mix (the acoustic guitar is far more prominent in the master than in this alt. mix). Almost didn't use this one, but then I realized The dB's never seemed to have played this song live (at least before 1988) — so here ya go!

Critics have noted Stands for deciBels stood the test of time, and today is considered a classic. One of the big reasons for its well-deserved reputation can be found in these alt. versions: at nearly every point when additional parts or sounds were considered for the debut album, the band and their collaborators chose the more classical path, shunning trendy "New Wave" techniques and effects.

 

Falling Off the Sky - The Review

Disruptive Patterns #43 by Harrison Haynes

The dB’s Repercussion Blog
Review - Falling Off the Sky

      Special thanks to Daniel Coston for this & most of the photos here       

Was it only a dream,

Was it only a dream?

Tell me please, can it be?

All the things that we’ve seen,

All the things we believe:

Tell me please,

Is it only a dream?                     

(The dB’s, 

“Collide-oOo-Scope,” 

Falling Off the Sky)

Chris Stamey is looking through a kaleidoscope.  

No wonder. 

No wonder he gave a similar title to one of the songs he composed for The dB’s new album, Falling off the Sky. He and his band mates seem to know instinctively that you don’t reach the ripe age of 50-something — after experiencing everything they have, separately and together, musically and otherwise — without it shaping and coloring your perspective.

Kinda like a kaleidoscope.

The dB’s have decided not to pretend they’re exactly the same people or musicians they were when they made their last album together — three decades ago. And the music they’ve now created is all the richer for it. Falling Off the Sky is an immensely satisfying collection of alternative pop music. It beguiles you, it draws you in, and sounds better and better the more you hear it.
 

These poor slobs slaved away in the dead of winter to create a great summer pop album for you. 

As with all great bands, there’s some mysterious X-factor at work here. Call it “musical group chemistry” if you like. Or you can adopt Peter’s explanation — the “shared hallucinogenic background” of a band that grew up together in Winston-Salem, N.C. Whatever it is, this extraordinary something makes Falling Off the Sky a far greater achievement than the mere sum of its parts.

When Chris and Peter Holsapple first cooked up the idea of The dB’s getting back together to make new music, they gave themselves a big challenge. Half a dozen years ago, they had little to gain and a lot to lose by recording and releasing another album. Being critics’ darlings meant The dB’s legacy was secure as the great (but popularly unappreciated) link between Big Star and R.E.M. After four albums of stellar music, a lousy fifth collection this late in the game would have prompted many of the same critics to lament, “Why did they have to go and mess up a good thing?”

Not to worry. Some seven years in the making, Falling Off the Sky assures everyone that The dB’s sterling reputation remains unblemished. Really, “unblemished” isn’t the right word. FOtS not only preserves, but extends and improves the group’s well-deserved legacy as creators of uniquely wonderful music. Is the new album “jangle pop”? Is it 1980s “New Wave”? Or, to use my preferred term, is it masterful “alt-pop” music? In the end, it doesn’t matter. FOtS transcends whatever category you might choose.

The dB's - far away & long ago

As I told Peter when I interviewed him recently, FOtS sounds to me like it’s sequenced as an old-fashioned LP. The A-side is a great collection of singles. And the B-side? It’s a stone-cold masterpiece, a six-song sequence that deserves to be savored in its entirety. Years from now, I predict discerning music lovers will rank the second half of FOtS up there with other all-time classic rock and pop albums. It’s that draw-droppingly good.

By now, you’ve heard the lead track, “That Time Is Gone.” It borrows heavily from the garage rock The dB’s knew and loved growing up, with combo organ, bluesy guitar riffs, and a maniacal drummer firing on all cylinders. Lyrically, it’s classic pop music fodder: the guy is trying to forget the woman who keeps occupying rent-free space in his head. Thus, the gotta-getta-hold-of-myself refrain: “You’d better wake up, wake up, wake up — that time is gone.” This Holsapple-penned song announces two things to the listening public: first, the new album is not going to replicate 1980s jangle pop, but use whatever type of music that best serves the songs. Second, the past really is over and done. As much as we might yearn nostalgically for that woman, that vintage musical sound, or our youthful past, this album is about refusing to be “stuck in the 1982s,” to quote a character from Napoleon Dynamite.

            "What'd you call this one, Chris?            
      Pop prog psych rock?"   

Such a determination doesn’t mean, however, that there’s no point in reflecting on the past. In a nutshell, this is the lyrical tension at the heart of these songs: how can a person remember and reflect without falling into a time warp? Is there a way to dream about the past and still stay awake in the here and now?

Track 2 is Chris Stamey’s “Before We Were Born” — a song that’s musically more buoyant and thematically rosier than its predecessor. In his joy, the singer revels in the idea that he and his love knew each other “before we were born.” The music itself is straight-no-chaser pop rock, done to perfection. Mitch Easter, longtime friend of the band and unnamed “fifth member” of The dB’s, shines here on electric guitar as he does on several other tracks.

While the first two songs highlight the delightful sound of Holsapple-Stamey vocal harmonies, the next three let each singer in The dB’s have his own turn in the spotlight. Peter’s “The Wonder of Love,” Track 3, is white boy Philly Soul, complete with shuffle groove and punch-drunk horn section. Though it’s a departure for a dB’s record, this isn’t new territory for Mr. Holsapple: he recorded the similar “Live On Love” years ago with the Continental Drifters. Lyrically, Peter is up to his old self-described “smart-ass” tricks — but charmingly so: “It isn’t metallurgy / It’s not rocket surgery / It’s not as hard as you make it sound” and, “Sometimes I wonder if the wonder of love / Is ever enough or always too much / And then I figure that it all levels out / Homeostatic and soft to the touch.” (There’s only one false step here, which is Peter’s use of the now-passé “that’s how we roll.” But I think we’ll forgive him that.)

         Will: "No; it's called a knuckleball!"            

On Track 4, drummer Will Rigby finally gets his own star turn with “Write Back.” Even though he’s been writing and recording music for years, this is the first dB’s song that’s truly his. And it’s a stunner, featuring a great fusion of countrypolitan and pop music. It features appropriately amazing drumming and a Jackson Pollack-esque organ solo*, also courtesy of Will. The song has an intriguingly clever lyric, filled with ambivalence about the narrator’s fateful decision to not write back to his ex love: “I never replied to your reply to my reply to your reply to my reply to your reply to my letter.” If you fall prey to Mr. Rigby’s musical charms here, hurry over to his Bandcamp site and help yourself to the many other musical treasures you can find there.

The other Fab Four

By Track 5, the spotlight turns back to Chris. As another reviewer has already noted, “Far Away and Long Ago” leans heavily on the classically-inclined chamber pop of The Beatles' “Yesterday.” Musically and lyrically, it’s an audacious move. Fortunately for us, Chris has everything required to pull it off, to great effect. His vocal performance strikes a bittersweet balance between wistful remembrance of a past, lost love and rueful recrimination. Musically, he manages to unashamedly incorporate Lennon, McCartney & Martin’s best without making it sound like a Beatles knock-off. “Far Away and Long Ago” also demonstrates the breadth of Chris’ musicianship (did you know he’s also a trumpeter and cellist?). Here and elsewhere on the album, his expert use of string players from North Carolina (some from the chamber folk group Lost In the Trees) provides a sonic depth missing on most other pop albums.

We humbly suggest a format you can touch

Nearly halfway through, now, and Falling Off the Sky is only starting to hit its stride. Track 6, “Send Me Something Real” incorporates all the strengths named above: gorgeous melody, Holsapple-Stamey harmonies, tasteful instrumental flourishes that enhance the song (flute and strings in this case), and words that manage to be honest without falling into cynicism. “Send me something real,” sings Chris, “ ‘cuz I don’t remember how it feels / To be free and pure / And I’ve got to find that door.” The track revels in the musical dynamics that set The dB’s apart from their peers. There’s a pause at the 3½-minute mark that makes you think it’s time for the AM radio fadeout. But then a smidgen of backwards guitar announces “hang on a second” — followed by 75 seconds of pure dB’s bliss, as the four friends sing, strum, pluck and pound away, delightfully lost in the music.

The world should hear "World to Cry"

How much more needs to be said about Track 7, “World to Cry”? What a song; what an arrangement; what great playing! Why can’t we live in a world in which this song gets played all over the radio and climbs to its rightful place, high in the pop charts?!? I don’t know. But this much I do know: it’s one of the catchiest pop songs I’ve heard since … since the last dB’s record. And it’s the perfect song to launch “Side B” of the album.

With Track 8, Falling Off the Sky starts to get pretty weird — in the best, most surprising sense of the word. Chris composed and arranged two songs in the second half of the album with several things in common. “The Adventures of Albatross and Doggerel” and “Collide-oOo-Scope” (Track 10) both have two protagonists, non-linear lyrics, and a mixture of music that’s head-spinningly uncategorizable. One might venture to say they’re pop-prog-psych-rock. But that doesn’t begin to suggest how outlandishly good they are. It’s as if Chris decided, “I don’t care if anyone understands or likes these songs; I’m going to write and arrange these for our enjoyment. If anyone else digs them, so be it.” I hope he does it a lot more often.

Chris, recording songs to please himself & band mates — thank God!

Track 9 is Peter’s “I Didn’t Mean to Say That.” It starts off sounding like an apology in ballad form, but gets more interesting as it reaches the refrain, “So what are we to do? / If only we knew / Oh, I didn’t mean to say that.” To be sure, the mid-tempo song is about forgiveness. The singer/narrator humbly explains to his beloved: “I didn’t mean to call you off / I didn’t mean to call you down / Or out, or anything / Anything.” But it also explores the awkward thought that comes after an apology: OK, what happens now? I don’t think the younger, 1980s-era dB’s would have come up with a song like this. It’s mature, it’s wise — and for those who know what Peter's talking about — it hits pretty close to the bone.

Take a bow, guys. The album's amazing.

Track 10 is “Collide-oOo-Scope,” the second of Chris’ pop-prog-psych-rock tracks. It begins as a sing-along nursery rhyme, “…singing hidey-hidey hey.” Moments later, however, strummed acoustic guitars give way to a clatter of drums, the swell of strings, and the thump of an electric bass. In a few minutes, the song grows in musical complexity until the listener has no freaking idea what he or she is hearing. Which, I might add, is a very cool and all-too-uncommon experience for most pop music listeners.

Lyrically, “Collide-oOo-Scope” might be a veiled account of two friends starting a band. Or it could be about growing older and meeting the Grim Reaper “down the road” one day. Or the reunion of The dB’s. Or it might be all — or quite possibly none — of the above. I really have no clue. But it’s great fun to puzzle your way through lyrics like these: “Walking backwards to cover our tracks / Singing hidey-hidey hey / There’s a fire brigade through a tall Marshall stack / Singing hidey-hidey hey / Trespass the border of fiction and fact / Singing hidey-hidey hey / Reversing the engine without looking back / Hey, hey.”

She won't. But, then again, that's what he's here for.

“She Won’t Drive In the Rain Anymore” (Track 11) is the most swoon-worthy of the bunch for me. Co-written by Peter and Kristian Bush, it’s a compelling, lump-in-the-throat song — a musical short story about a woman scarred by the trauma of surviving a hurricane. It’s one of those unforgettable pop tunes that builds in emotional intensity until the final crescendo. Best of all, it demonstrates a deep appreciation for the silence surrounding the rest of the music. (If you want to read more about the song, and how it’s based on a true story, you can find it here, in Part 2 of my interview with Peter.)

Finally, we come to Track 12, “Remember (Falling Off the Sky)” — the song that pretty much had to close the album. On first listen, it sounds like a litany of memories set to a pretty, straight-ahead rock tune. Give it a few more spins, though, and you might start hearing something else: a meditation on memory, mortality and the finality of death — accompanied by an upbeat, energetically-played melody.

"You gotta use these to appreciate the low end!"

Judge the lyrics for yourself: “I saw you, wearing only white / I saw you in the dead of night / Remember / Then everything went black / Remember? Remember?” Then the refrain: “But I won’t be back again / No I won’t be back again / I will always be your friend / But I won’t be back again.”

Whatever’s it’s actually about (and I bet Chris isn’t telling), the music has a nice twist at the 2-minute mark. I’ve never heard an album’s final song actually speed up midway through, but that’s exactly what “Remember” does. It’s as if the four dB’s are trying to tell us, Age-wise, we may getting long in the tooth; but musically, we’ve never had more fun. So maybe we’ll just keep on playing.

IF ONLY, guys, if only…

*Will’s organ solo in “Write Back,” as described by Chris.

Rock the Vote - Chapel Hill, NC 2008

The dB's

Rock the Vote Rally

Graham Terrace

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill, NC 

Nov. 1, 2008

The dB's Rock the Vote, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC in 2008
photo by chilli via Dime

Audience recording (sound quality VG+)

Interesting show: includes previews of 2 FOtS tunes, 2 previously unheard Chris songs, and a mix of dB's classics along with a few from Chris' album with Yo La Tengo called V.O.T.E. / A Question of Temperature.

THANKS to the taper and original uploader; ALL PRAISE to edarthur for the re-up!

01 Big Brown Eyes

02 Dear Valentine*

03 Amplifier

04 (Mitch Easter intro)

05 Shapes of Things (Yardbirds cover)

06 (tuning break)

07 Send Me Something Real

08 V.O.T.E.

09 That Time Is Gone

10 (tuning break)

11 Clever*

12 (event thank you)

13 Neverland

14 Ask For Jill

15 Excitement

         * = prev. unreleased songs composed by Chris

"I think it's the knob on the right. The one with the thingies on it."
photo by jeffreylcohen via Flickr

MP3@320

Alt. Link

“Rock the Vote” rally organized by Mac McCaughan.

Gene Holder could not attend, so Mitch Easter filled in on bass.

The dB’s:

Chris Stamey - guitar, vocals

Peter Holsapple - guitar, vocals

Will Rigby - drums

Mitch Easter – bass (filling in for Gene)

Will is undoubtedly the coolest dude in the band

Mitch filled in for Gene on bass for this "local" show

The Cubby Bear - Chicago, IL 1987

The dB’s

The Cubby Bear

Chicago, IL

1987-11-07

soundboard recording (quality Ex-; there’s very little bass sound or audience noise, so be prepared for that!).

Highlights: Two great covers, the rarely-performed "Message From the Country" (The Move) and the Berry Gordy, Jr. / J. Bradford chestnut, "Money."

This show was a fundraiser for a children’s hospital. It’s one of the only recorded dB’s shows with Harold Kelt, who toured with the band on keyboards for a brief time.

BIG THANKS to the taper & glenn s for the share!

01 Today Could Be the Day

02 Never Say When

03 Change With the Changing Times

04 Living a Lie

05 Love Is for Lovers        

06 She Got Soul

07 Lonely Is as Lonely Does

08 Working for Somebody Else        

09 Molly Says        

10 Think Too Hard

11 I Lie

12 Never Before and Never Again        

13 Message From the Country (The Move cover)        

14 A Better Place

15 Feel Alright        

16 Amplifier

17 A Spy In the House of Love        

18 Why Did You Sleep with My Girlfriend?        

19 Neverland

20 Money (That's What I Want) 

MP3@320
Alt. Link        

The dB’s:

Peter Holsapple – guitar & vocals

Will Rigby – drums, vocals

Jeff Beninato – bass

Harold Kelt – keyboard & additional guitar

Looks like a nice spot for a show. If anyone's been there, please leave a comment...