Saturday, December 13, 2008

The dB's - 1983/84 demos

One of the key purveyors of the "new south" sound, alongside REM and Let's Active, The dB's hold a special place in the hearts and minds of those "left of the dial" types in the early to mid '80s that were ready to embrace a fresher alternative to the venerable, yet often unfulfilling and insipid Top 40 world. Having recorded two acclaimed albums, 1981's Stands for Decibels, and Repercussion a year thereafter for IRS records, as well as a flurry of independently released singles, the band's revered nucleus of Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple would soon splinter, with Stamey departing sometime after Repercussion. The band's third album, the Stamey-less Like This, was a corker however, even with only half of the dB's visionaries present.

This collection of 22 demo tracks feature a bundle of songs that would make it onto Like This, and even contained an early version of a songs that would make it onto the db's fourth record, The Sound of Music. Many songs here were outright abandoned. Chris Stamey, who apparently stuck around long enough to appear on a few cuts here, went solo in '83 with his debut album, It's a Wonderful Life
 
The "classic" lineup of the dB's reunited in 2005 and 2007 for a few concerts. 
 
01. White Train #1
02. Modern Boys and Girls
03. Molly Said
04. Elvis, What Happened
05. Big time (C. Stamey)
06. You Can't Take Her (C. Stamey)
07. ? (C. Stamey)
08. Rendez-vous
09. She Got Soul #1
10. She Got Soul #2
11. Lonely is (as Lonely Does)
12. Little Hands
13. Death of Rock
14. Repercussion
15. Spittin' in the Wind
16. This Crazy Town
17. Purple Hose
18. White Train #2
19. On the Battlefront
20. Darvy
21. Not Cool
22. Love is for Lovers
 

7 comments:

WhatTS said...

Peter Holsapple in a solo acoustic performance, possibly the fabled Melbourne 1989 one issued on cassette.. http://www.zshare.net/download/5353969489cac3b0/

Mark said...

Many thanks.

Rob-in-Brevard said...

Really love your blog.

Since you've got some dB's posts I thought I'd leave URL here for my new fan blog devoted to The dB's. New music posts (live, rare, demos) every Friday:

http://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com/

Peace & cheers.

Unknown said...

please, please, please re-post! (…thanks…!)

spavid said...

Just updated the link. Thanks for alerting me.

spavid said...

The link has been updated.

JM said...

Any way you could update the link? Thanks so much!