There’s gonna be a new dB’s album next year.
First one in 25 years. First one in 30 years to feature both Holsapple and Stamey. I’m pretty hopeful about this. The front page of the website (linked above) has a video for the new song.
(The video isn’t all that interesting, but the song is good.)
Wow. I’d ask what they’ve been doing all these years, but I suppose I could wiki it.
Don’t know about Gene Holder and Will Rigby, but Stamey and Holsapple have constantly been busy, just not at that big in terms of commercial success.
Chris Stamey has mostly just put out solo albums and toured, sometimes with a gap of a number of years and sometimes with a few busy years in a row.
After the dB’s broke up, Holsapple worked a lot with R.E.M. His initial work with them was a hired job as a sideman. When the nature of his continued involvement in the band was considered, he and the band were a bit at odds as to how official his involvement should be (I get the impression he believed he made highly significant contributions to Out of Time and should have stepped up from “sideman” status).
Holsapple’s 90s band The Continental Drifters was awesome and definitely worth checking out.
He did the sideman thing again working with Hootie and the Blowfish, though this time clearly defined as just a hired gun.
Back in the late '90s Gene Holder engineered and sort of produced our demo CD in Hoboken, NJ at a studio he was running. Now he’s apparently working at a mastering house in Weehawken, which is the next town up.
Excellent news. I’ll be buying it. “Black and White” is one of the best pop songs ever.
Here is the press release for the new album.
Shows at South by Southwest this month and an album release date of June 12th.
Very often when bands reunite after a long time, the line they run with is “This new album picks up where we left off”. Contrasting that, I thought Chris Stamey’s comment was interesting:
They worked on the album at a leisurely pace starting in 2005, imposing no deadline. They recorded two dozen songs, only half of which made the album. So, it seems they’ve put some real care and deliberation into this. Can’t wait!
Thanks for the head’s up! I’ll definitely be picking this one up.
Just to add to bienville’s excellent recap of Holsapple and Stamey post-dB’s, they did actually release an album together (although not credited to the dB’s) back in 1992 called Mavericks. It’s worth checking out, if you haven’t heard it.
I’ll be getting this. Thanks for the heads up.
Will Rigby’s my favorite pop drummer ever.
bienville - thanks for starting this thread on one of the greatest (and most unheard-of) alt-pop bands anywhere.
coupla additional details folks might want to know:
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New track “That Time Is Gone” from the forthcoming album is now streaming at the band’s SxSW artist profile and Paste Magazine.
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The dB’s are playing multiple dates at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, TX (almost literally as I type). I suspect there will be more live shows closer to the album’s release date in June.
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There’s also a new blog devoted to the band, its members and their musical collaborations (shameless plug; I launched it). New posts with music every Friday!
Enjoy.
