dB’s
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Kicking off with a tune like this is exactly the sort of eager overreaching that made the dB’s the most exciting power-pop band of the early 80s. Even now the group’s first two albums–Stands for Decibels (1981) and Repercussion (1982)–explode with ambition, delivering impeccably crafted songs and adventurous production. Stamey and Holsapple, childhood friends in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, divided the songwriting in half and played a stunning game of musical one-upmanship, Holsapple leaning toward upbeat pop and Stamey toward eerily experimental sounds. The friction between their styles was enhanced by fellow Winston-Salem kids Holder and Rigby, an energetic and inventive rhythm section that locked into the propulsive, itchy grooves. Vocalists Stamey and Holsapple aimed for the pristine harmonies of the Beatles or Big Star, but their idiosyncratic voices would never quite blend–there was always something slightly off in the combination, which created the endearing impression that they couldn’t quite realize the sounds they heard in their heads.
In rock circles the dB’s are legendary might-have-beens. They moved to New York City in the late 70s but couldn’t secure an American label: their first two albums, widely considered their finest, were released by Albion Records in the UK and for many years could be found in the U.S. only as imports. Bad luck plagued the dB’s onstage as well: as Rigby writes on www.thedbsonline.net, “The band acquired something of a reputation in its early days for equipment mishap/breakdown. Amps that suddenly stopped working, cymbal stands falling over, radio reception in the middle of songs.”
At the end of the night a stomping crowd coaxed the dB’s back out for a second encore of three new songs. They promised to return next year, though they haven’t yet found a label for their forthcoming album and their ability to tour is limited–they’ve all got other professional commitments, and Holsapple recently lost his home in New Orleans. (One of the newly recorded tracks, a cover of the old Jimmy Ruffin single “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” is for sale on the band’s Web site, with proceeds to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.) A live dB’s performance may be only an approximation of the band’s ambitious studio concoctions, which may be only an approximation of even more incredible sounds that only they can imagine. But even in middle age, they’re still shooting the moon.
