Sunday, January 18, 2009

Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey - Here and Now

In the 80s, the dB's were one of the best and most influential power pop groups on the scene. They released a round of classic CDs and then faded from view. They have made several attempts since then to rekindle the flame, each sputtering out after a few months.

Exciting news. Former dB's co-leaders Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey are preparing a new album Here and Now and are performing a few dates in anticipation of its release.

Though I don't have much in the way of rare Stamey Holsapple material together, I did unearth a couple of rare compilations for each of them.

Chris Stamey - Alaska is a compilation of rare singles and an EP released during 1992 and 1993. I pulled these down from the Jeff Giles's classic Jefftoblog blog. As far as I can determine, these files are no longer available. Great stuff that I had not heard before. Highly recommended for Stamey lovers. Thanks Jeff!

After the dB's broke in the early 90s, Peter Holsapple joined the New Orleans based jangle rock super group, the Continental Drifters. Though Peter's then wife Susan Cowsill usually sang lead for the Drifters, Peter sang at least two or three songs on each of their three albums.

Peter Holsapple - Continental Drifter is a collection of the Continental Drifter songs that Peter sang lead on (with one ringer pulled from his solo album). Some great material here. I think "Too Little Too Late" is up there with the best of the later dB's material.
1982 Repercussion
1984 Like This
1991 Mavericks (Holsapple and Stamey)
1993 Ride the Wild Tom Tom
1994 Paris Avenue

6 comments:

Unknown said...

great post

the db's were a bright light of the 80's, but as good as they were, I thought the drifters were even better, a great, great, live band. Someone needs to motivate Peter to release the long promised live complilation of the drifters.


thanks for the link to the alaska ep

Anonymous said...

thanks for posting this - been a holy grail since I first heard about it some years back....

Anonymous said...

This Chris Stamey collection was super! I missed seeing the dB's, but caught Chris live in the fall of 1982!

Anonymous said...

Appreciate the Stamey collection as well. Do you know where that version of 'Nothing is Wrong' comes from? Anyway, I've uploaded a live gig as thanks: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8a74533e34092932b94117dade8fc295e04e75f6e8ebb871. You don't happen to have Will Rigby's Hello CD, do you?

Haper said...

The version of Stamey is from a compilation called "Songs For Sixty Five Roses" from 2006 - so it is by far the latest thing in the compilation. Thanks so much for the live dB's Chapel Hill concert. I thought the version of "Nothing is Wrong" was kind of fun - quite uptemp. Mitch Easter really helps the Tom Verlaine/Richard Lloyd imiation on See No Evil!! A great time for the band. Thanks again!

fantom said...

You're welcome... Here's another nugget as well from me, of Mr Holsapple alone. http://www.zshare.net/download/5353969489cac3b0/