Endearing Ambition with the Db’S It’S All About the Magic Space Between What You Can Do and What You Wish You Could

30 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE Music

DB’S HIDEOUT BLOCK PARTY & HOUSE OF BLUES, 9/17 Endearing Ambition With the dB’s it’s all about the magic space between what you can do and what you wish you could.

By J.R. Jones ast week the four original blend—there was always some- members of the dB’s played thing slightly off in the combi- L their first shows together in nation, which created the 17 years, and in a typical display endearing impression that they of perversity they opened both couldn’t quite realize the sounds Chicago dates with “Ask for Jill.” they heard in their heads. First released in 1982, it’s a jit- In rock circles the dB’s are leg- tery, difficult song that starts endary might-have-beens. They with Chris Stamey and Peter moved to New York City in the Holsapple’s guitars pulling in late 70s but couldn’t secure an opposite directions on a rumba American label: their first two rhythm. Stamey sings a seesaw- albums, widely considered their ing melody, drummer Will Rigby finest, were released by Albion works against them with an Records in the UK and for many eccentric, kick-drum-heavy pat- years could be found in the U.S. tern, and Gene Holder holds the only as imports. Bad luck plagued song together on bass. It sounds the dB’s onstage as well: as Rigby like a hit record trying to pass a writes on www.thedbsonline.net, geometry exam. “The band acquired something of Kicking off with a tune like a reputation in its early days for this is exactly the sort of eager equipment mishap/breakdown. overreaching that made the dB’s Amps that suddenly stopped the most exciting power-pop working, cymbal stands falling band of the early 80s. Even now over, radio reception in the mid- the group’s first two albums— dle of songs.” Stands for Decibels (1981) and After Stamey went solo in Repercussion (1982)—explode 1982, the more radio-friendly with ambition, delivering Holsapple took over as sole impeccably crafted songs and songwriter, but the excellent adventurous production. Like This (1984) was handi-

Stamey and Holsapple, child- capped by distribution problems PEREZ TY hood friends in Winston-Salem, and dropped out of sight when MAR North Carolina, divided the its label folded. The country- Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple at the Hideout Block Party songwriting in half and played a inflected Sound of Music came stunning game of musical one- out on I.R.S. in 1987, but the Alejandro Escovedo, who’s suf- two stops, each in one of the minute slot and burdened with upmanship, Holsapple leaning label neglected the dB’s in favor fering from hepatitis C (and band’s 80s strongholds— a rough mix, they struggled with toward upbeat pop and Stamey of its star act, R.E.M. The group whose album A Man Under the Hoboken, their second home complicated numbers like toward eerily experimental finally disbanded in 1988. Influence Stamey produced). during the New York years, and “Dynamite” and “Cycles per sounds. The friction between Stamey reunited with the rest The two old friends discussed Chicago, where WXRT seized Second.” Time hasn’t been kind their styles was enhanced by fel- of the original dB’s lineup to doing another duo album, but on “Love Is for Lovers” and “A to Holsapple’s voice, which low Winston-Salem kids Holder play a benefit later that same instead decided to enlist Rigby Spy in the House of Love” and made for a murderous rendition and Rigby, an energetic and year, though, and in 1991 he and and Holder and re-form the the dB’s played relentlessly in of the high-tenor rave-up “Black inventive rhythm section that Holsapple collaborated on the dB’s. Earlier this year they support of Like This. and White.” Stamey’s moody locked into the propulsive, itchy superb Mavericks. The band’s recorded seven new originals, During their original run the “Happenstance,” with its shift- grooves. Vocalists Stamey and current reunion was precipitat- and they’re trying to pick from dB’s earned a reputation as an ing dynamics and elaborate Holsapple aimed for the pristine ed by another benefit concert: among a dozen more to round inspired but uneven live act, arrangement, failed to draw in harmonies of the Beatles or in November 2003, Stamey and out an album they hope to and their early-evening set at the festival crowd, partly Big Star, but their idiosyncratic Holsapple got together in release in 2006. This month’s the Hideout Block Party bore because the band had upped the voices would never quite Raleigh to help raise money for four-show microtour had only that out. Wedged into a 45- continued on page 32 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE 31 32 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Music

continued from page 30 allowed Stamey and Holsapple to Kinks-inspired “She’s Not solos are beautifully written, like ments, and Holsapple recently ante by replacing the backbeat- show off their stunning guitar Worried” and the bouncy “I’m in little self-contained stories. The lost his home in New Orleans. driven rhythm of the chorus— work and rich catalog of songs. Love” (taken at a less frantic cerebral “Cycles per Second” crys- (One of the newly recorded tracks, the song’s payoff—with some- tallized perfectly this time a cover of the old Jimmy Ruffin thing more introspective. Yet on around—the way the dB’s navi- single “What Becomes of the balance the dB’s provided what Stamey and Holsapple played gated the tune, you could tell the Broken Hearted,” is for sale on the the large and adoring crowd had four of them have been friends band’s Web site, with proceeds to come to hear, delivering pas- a stunning game of musical for more than 30 years. benefit the New Orleans sionate performances of the At the end of the night a stomp- Musicians Relief Fund.) A live Beatlesque “Big Brown Eyes,” one-upmanship. ing crowd coaxed the dB’s back dB’s performance may be only an the Memphis-soul-powered out for a second encore of three approximation of the band’s “Living a Lie,” and the blackly Holsapple delighted the audience tempo that highlighted its fine new songs. They promised to ambitious studio concoctions, funny suicide boogie “Amplifier.” with WXRT favorites like “Love construction). Stamey is an return next year, though they which may be only an approxima- Three and a half hours later the Is for Lovers” and “Lonely Is (As impressive fingerstyle guitarist, haven’t yet found a label for their tion of even more incredible band assembled on the House of Lonely Does),” and Stamey aced improvising jazzy staccato solos, forthcoming album and their abil- sounds that only they can imag- Blues Back Porch Stage, a more two wonderful tracks from and though Holsapple can’t ity to tour is limited—they’ve all ine. But even in middle age, intimate restaurant setting that Stands for Decibels: the gentle, match his technique, his own got other professional commit- they’re still shooting the moon. v CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE 33