Music Reviews

Chris Stamey was born and raised in North Carolina and was one of the first musicians influenced by Big Star and the power pop scene around Memphis. He traveled to New York City, where he played bass with Alex Chilton and founded Car Records, which released Chris Bell’s single “I Am the Cosmos” b/w “You And Your Sister”. Car Records also released “(I Thought You) Wanted to Know” b/w “If and When” in 1978. This song was credited to “Chris Stamey and the dBs” and had Richard Lloyd on guitar, Gene Holder on bass, and Will Rigby on drums. Pete Holsapple joined in October 1978, thus completing the classic dBs lineup.

The dBs released their second single, “Black and White” b/w “Soul Kiss” in 1980. They then signed with Albion Records, which released their debut album, “Stands for Decibels”, in January 1981. This album was a critical success but a commercial failure. Their next album, “Repercussion”, was released in April 1982. It, too, did not sell well, and Chris Stamey left the dBs after its release, leaving the band to continue as a trio with Holsapple writing most of the songs. They signed with a new record label, Bearsville Records, which released “Like This” in 1984. But Bearsville went bankrupt that year, and, needless to say, the album did not do well. The dBs released “The Sound of Music” as a last-ditch effort in 1987, and when that, too, was a commercial flop, the dBs broke up.

The following is a chronology of albums released by the dBs before their dissolution:

Stands for Decibels (1981): This album is legitmately considered a power pop classic. Singing and songwriting are split between the talented Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple. Contains the first single, “Black and White”, “Dynamite” (the organ on this track is quite awesome), “The Fight” and “Bad Reputation”. The dBs count as influences not only American power pop originals such as Big Star, but also their British counterparts such as The Beatles. This is an enjoyable album, containing melodious harmonies and harmonic melodies.

Repercussion (1982): Here, the dBs repeat the formula that made “Stands for Decibels” successful, only this time, it’s more polished and refined than it was on the first album. This album contains the classic “Amplifier” and “Ask for Jill”, a homage to a producer.

Like This (1984): Now that Chris Stamey had left the band, the dBs were reduced to a trio, signed with a new label (Bearsville) and released a new album. The band relies on Holsapple for songwriting, and stripped of the artsy quirks of Stamey, they perform some good rockers and country-influenced songs. Highlights include “Love Is for Lovers”, “Not Cool”, and “A Spy in the House of Love”.

The Sound of Music (1987): Bearsville Records had gone bankrupt in the same year that “Like This” had been released; the band was in legal limbo for the next few years, bound by an exclusivity deal with their non-existant label. They ultimately signed with I.R.S. Records, and released this album, which they treated as a make-or-break record. This time, Jeff Beninato joined the dBs on bass, and Holsapple wrote all songs except “Feel Alright” (written by Tommy Edwards). Once again, the band eschews the quirkiness of “Stands for Decibels” and “Repercussion” and records surprisingly catchy songs like “Changing with the Changing Times”, “Bonneville”, and “Working for Somebody Else”.

That would pretty much be the chronicle of the dBs…if not for the fact that they reunited in the early 2010s:

Falling Off the Sky (2012): All four members of the classic lineup (Stamey, Holsapple, Holder and Rigby) reuinited for this album. It’s a good album in that all four members show their individual personalities in their music, but thirty years have passed since the original lineup was intact, so it’s not quite the same band as existed before. Still, this is great stuff. The best tracks are “The Wonder of Love” and “Write Back”.

Recently, I had as the featured artist segment on my show Big Star. At the time, I thought of it as basically a reset: I was going back to the beginning and playing the first major power pop band. Big Star can be said to be the first band that basically was trying to emulate The Beatles, and artists such as R.E.M., the dBs and Bill Lloyd have cited Big Star as an influence.

In 1967, Alex Chilton became the lead singer for the Box Tops, a blue-eyed soul group that had a #1 hit with “The Letter” when he was sixteen. The band had a few more hits before Chilton left the band in 1970. He recorded a solo album; then Chris Bell asked him to join Icewater, comprised of Bell, drummer Jody Stephens and bassist Andy Hummel. They renamed themselves Big Star (after Big Star Markets, a grocery store near Ardent Studios). They signed with Ardent Records, a label established by Ardent Studios founder John Fry and started work on their first album.

1 Record (April 1972): What is interesting about Big Star’s first album is how it holds up over the years. It could easily pass for an album released ten years later or even twenty years later. Although the freshness is gone – after all, many power pop bands have followed the same formula over the years – there is no denying that these are well-crafted pop songs. We get “Feel”, which starts the album off on a good note, and “The Ballad of El Goodo”, a lush, dreamy ballad. “In the Street” is familiar as the “That ’70s Show” theme song. “Thirteen” is an acoustic ballad that states “Rock and roll is here to stay”. These four songs are worth the price of admission alone, but there are other solid songs.

Unfortunately “#1 Record” did not sell well. Ardent was an independent label and Stax Records handled distribution. Stax apparently didn’t know how to distribute a power pop album. When Stax signed a deal with Colombia Records, it did not improve matters, either; Columbia removed the existing copies of #1 Record from the stores.
By the end of 1972, Bell had quit Big Star, which had disbanded. But after a few months, Chilton, Stephens and Hummel decided to reform Big Star, and the trio resumed work on their second album (work had begun on the album when Bell was still a member of the band).

Radio City (February 1974): The quartet had been reduced to a trio, which you think would have doomed the band. But this album is actually better than the previous one, with several songs written or co-written by Andy Hummel, including the classic “Way Out West”, a song written for Hummel’s girlfriend. We start to see the beginnings of Chilton’s eccentricities, and there are several standout songs, including “O My Soul”, and the single “September Gurls” b/w “Mod Lang”.
Again, sales of “Radio City” failed due to poor marketing and poor distribution. Colombia refused to distribute the album following a disagreement. Sales of the album were far greater than that of “#1 Record”, but it only sold about 20,000 copies.
With the failure of two albums, Andy Hummel left to go back to school, and the band was reduced to a duo of Chilton and Stephens, who returned to Ardent Studios to work on a third album.

Third/Sister Lovers (March 1978): Now that both Bell and Hummel had left the band, there was nothing to stop Chilton from becoming a dominant creative force, and it’s not without justification that this album is called “Chilton’s untidy masterpiece”. It includes my personal favorites “Thank You Friends”, “Holocaust”, and the Christmas song, “Jesus Christ”.
By now, Ardent Records had folded, and John Fry and producer John Dickinson flew to New York with promotional copies and met with a number of record labels. But they failed to generate interest in the album. The album was not released until 1978, when PVC, and independent label, was given the tapes and released the album in the UK, and then a year later, released it in the U.S. In that same year, Chris Bell died in a car accident at the age of 27.
That would be the end of the Big Star story…if not for the fact that the band was cited as influences with the new generation of power pop artists and continued to have a cult following. They would reunite with guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow (of the Posies) joining Chilton and Stephens. The resurrected band made its debut at the 1993 University of Missouri spring music festival, and they would tour Europe and Japan. They also released a new album.

In Space (September 2005): This is not really a Big Star album, but more of an Alex Chilton album – albeit a very good Alex Chilton album. While it doesn’t really achieve the high water mark of the three albums Big Star recorded from 1972 to 1975, it is quite good. Highlights include “Dony”, “Lady Sweet”, “Turn My Back on the Sun”, and the funky “Love Revolution”.
Alex Chilton suffered a fatal heart attack on March 17, 2010 and Andy Hummel died four months later of cancer, so now Jody Stephens was the last surviving member. In May 2010, the surviving members put on an Alex Chilton tribute show, and Stephens said it would be Big Star’s last show. Apart from the occasional reunion concert, Big Star is history – but their legacy lives on.

Before there was Chess Records, there were Leonard and Phillip Chess, two Jewish immigrants from Poland who came to Chicago in 1928. They were involved in the liquor business, and by the 1940’s, they owned several bars on the south side of Chicago. Of these, the largest bar was the Macomba, which had live entertainment. Many of the peformers were blues performers that had migrated to Chicago from the Mississippi delta in the 1930’s and 1940’s. They realized that these artists were not being properly recorded, so they started to record them.

In 1947, the Chess brothers entered into a partnership with Charles and Evelyn Aron, and formed Aristocrat Records. The Arons has formed Aristocrat Recods to record blues, jazz, and R&B. The most important artist on Aristocrat was McKinley Morganfield (a.k.a. Muddy Waters), who had several successful singles on the label in 1947 and 1948. The Chess brothers were able to build Muddy Waters into Chicago’s leading blues singer.

The Arons were divorced, and by 1948, Leonard Chess bought everyone out, so that only he and Evelyn Aron ran the label. By early 1950, Leonard and his brother Phil had become the sole owners, and in June, they changed the company’s name to Chess Records. The Aristocrat brand was discontinued in 1951.

In the meantime, Sam Phillips, a young record producer in Memphis, Tennesee, wa recording a 6’6″, 300 pound farm worker named Chester Burnette (a.k.a. Howlin’ Wolf). At the time, Phillips didn’t have a record label (he later established Sun Records), so he leased the Howlin’ Wolf masters to the Chess brothers. “How Many More Years” b/w “Moanin’ at Midnight” was a hit in 1951. Howlin’ Wolf soon moved to Chicago and signed with Chess Records. He would record a handful of singles which did not chart, eventually finding success which “Who Will Be Next” (#14 on Billboard’s R&B chart), and “Smokestack Lightning” (#8 R&B).

The brothers’ relationship with Phillips would bear more fruit. Phillips gave to Chess “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, which topped Billboard’s R&B chart. Soon the band signed Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, and others who were the basis of subsequent rock and roll.

In 1994, Chess released “Chess Blues”, a 4-CD compilation of the best blues recordings released by the Chess brothers. It represents an even distribution of material from over twenty years of Chess, including recordings from the Aristocrat Records era (1947-50), and from all of Chess’s subsidiaries, including Checker and Argo Records. It chronicles the entire era, from the begining of the partnership with the Arons to the untimely death of Leonard Chess at age 52 in October 1969.

I have to admit that I’m not that conversant with Chicago blues, and therefore may not be qualified to assess this compilation of music as representative of the entire genre. But we get a good sampling of music, including several tracks by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. There’s also some excellent harmonica playing by Little Walter.

On the fourth CD, we get to hear some familar blues and R&B. On this CD, we hear some classics, many of them covered by rock artists: “The Red Rooster” and “Killing Floor” by Howlin’ Wolf, “Wang Dang Doodle” by Koko Taylor (we do not get the Howlin’ Wolf original), and “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Etta James. In retrospect, it’s hard to see what the fuss was about artists such as Led Zeppelin; they, for the most part, were just copiers of the old original blues artists.

If you wish to delve into Chicago blues and aren’t interested in tracking down the original albums, “Chess Blues” is a good start, and samples evenly from the era when Chess Records held sway. I would recommend it, along with some of the box sets representing some of the original blues artists (e.g. Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters). It represents a good education for the uninitiated.

Previously, I reviewed two compilation albums devoted to small, independent labels: Ork Records and Bomp! Records. But both these labels were domestic (American) labels, so it’s interesting to see what was happening (music-wise) in the mother country.

As far as modern music was concerned, the U.K., much like the U.S. was divided. After the breakup of The Beatles, there was a split between those who wanted to take pop and rock to the next level (progressive rock) and those who thought that writing pop songs between 2 and 4 minutes long was an art to be emulated (power pop). In the meantime, pub rock bands were threatening to become the next big thing; groups like Brinsley Schwarz, Roogalator, and Ducks Deluxe were all the rage. It took a few years to deflate the ambitions of these bands, leaving Dr. Feelgood as the only group to become popular.

Dr. Feelgood would soon become instrumental in the launch of Stiff Records. Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera were well-known London music business characters. Robinson had worked for Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s and has also managed Brinsley Schwarz. Riviera managed Dr. Feelgood, which was starting to become popular. The label was started with a loan of £400 from Lee Brilleaux of Dr. Feelgood.

The first single issued on Stiff was “So It Goes” b/w “Heart of the City” by Nick Lowe, the bassist/vocalist from Brinsley Schwartz, which had just broken up. Lowe now became the in-house producer for the label, and produced many of Stiff’s early singles, including “New Rose” by The Damned, in what is commonly regarded as the first punk rock single in the U.K.

In 1977, Stiff Records signed Wreckless Eric, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, and The Adverts. After a series of disagreements with Robinson, Riviera left the label in early 1978, taking Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Yachts with him as a settlement package. He joined CBS Records, where he set up the short-lived Radar Records as a subsidiary label.

Deprived of some of their best talent, Stiff struggled on. In the meantime, Ian Dury’s debut LP, “New Boots and Panties!!” raced up the charts, keeping the label solvent the next few months. The next few years were Stiff Records’ salad days. Lene Lovich had several hits, including a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Lucky Number”. Ian Dury released “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”, Stiff’s first #1 hit. Devo did not sign with Stiff (they signed with Warner Brothers), but released their first single on the label, and they released “The Akron Compilation”, which consisted of Akron-based artists. After an initial single, Jane Aire and the Belvederes ultimately signed with Virgin Records, but she wasn’t going to make it, anyway, and Madness signed with them in 1979.

The labels success proved, however, to be short-lived. Stiff Records was dependent on hits from a handful of established artists such as Madness and Tracey Ullman. Towards the end of 1983, Robinson cut a deal with Island Records in which Island would buy 50 percent of Stiff Records, and Robinson would end up running both labels. Island was essentially broke, and Robinson had to lend them money to fund the purchase of Stiff. The deal went badly, as Robinson essentially neglected Stiff. Dave Robinson regained control of Stiff Records in 1985, but the damage was done. Hits by the Pogues and Furniture helped Stiff to survive for another twenty months, but the underlying causes of the failure of the Island deal finally became too burdensome for Stiff. Ironically, Stiff signed Dr. Feelgood in 1986. Dr. Feelgood had been dropped by United Artists in the early 1980s; they had been bouncing between independent labels and by 1986, were unsigned. They released two albums on Stiff: Brilleaux (1986) and Classic (1987). Stiff was acquired by ZTT in 1987, and they deactivated the label in 1988.

Four years later, Stiff released “The Stiff Records Box Set”. It’s by no means an exhaustive chronicle of the Stiff era, but it samples from the entire Stiff era (1976-87). There are multiple tracks from Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Rachel Sweet, Wreckless Eric, Madness, Tenpole Tudor and other artists. There are also single tracks from notable artists like Dave Edmunds (who had a contract with Swan Song, but contributed to compilation albums), Richard Hell, Larry Wallis, Jane Aire and the Belvederes, Devo, and others.

I acquired this box set from a digital download. Having spent $7.68 for this set (thank you, Russian mp3 site), which is currently out of print and would cost $187.89 for new and $59.75 used, per Amazon, my expectations were immediately fulfilled. Those who acquired the box set in physical form, however, might have been a bit disappointed in the liner notes, as apparently there was very little real information about the label. I have not seen the liner notes, though. I would be somewhat disappointed as well; $187 pays for a lot of mp3s.

But for the casual fan, or someone who didn’t live through the era and wants to see what the fuss was about, “The Stiff Records Box Set” will likely be more than adequate. Completionists should seek out various compilation albums = those which did not get a CD release may be ripped from vinyl. [For the ones that have not been ripped to a digital format, there’s always thrift shops.] Also, there’s The Stiff Singles, which have been released in several volumes on Amazon. “The Stiff Records Box Set” may not be the final word on this label’s prodigious output, but it’s a good start.

In 1974, The Flamin’ Groovies, a garage rock band based in San Francisco, returned to the U.S. after some time in the U.K. They had recorded a set of Dave Edmund-produced tracks, including “Shake Some Action”. Founding member Ray Loney departed the band, and with Cyril Jordan as lead vocalist and guitarist, The Flamin’ Groovies moved away from the R&B of their early years and more in the direction of British power pop. They had no record deal in the U.S., and were shopping the recorded tracks to different labels, and, amazingly enough, there were no takers.
Enter the late Greg Shaw, who with his wife Suzi Shaw started Bomp Magazine, a fanzine promoting underground music, in 1970. Shaw liked the band’s recordings, and decided to release the record, which was included with the magazine. The magazine sold enough copies to make the record break even. Through his contacts at FM radio stations, Shaw generated enough airplay, even though the band was unsigned. This was enough to get Sire Records to sign the band, and enough to convince Shaw to continue releasing records.
Over the years, the label has featured punk, pop, power pop, old-school rock, neo-psychedelia, and other genres. Its impressive roster has included The Flamin’ Groovies, Iggy Pop, The Romantics, 20/20, Zeros, The Jook, Shoes, Stiv Bators, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, The Plimsouls, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Shaw died in 2004, but Bomp Records lives on, and is still releasing music, though more sporadically than before. [The last release was a B-Girls compilation from August 2017, and although it was almost five years ago, I hesitate to say that Bomp Records has closed up shop.]
Which brings us to the compilation album of the day: Destination Bomp (1994). To be sure, it makes a case for justifying the existence of Bomp Records, and it does include many songs from the label’s illustrious catalog. Overall, it makes for a thoroughly listenable experience.
What is unclear, however, is the selection of material. Clearly, the compilation evenly samples music from the two decades for which Bomp Records was in existence – hence, although there is music from the punk era (The Poppees, Dmz, and Iggy Pop), there is also new wave (Shoes, 20/20, The Romantics), some post-punk, pre-grunge music (The Green Pajamas), and some new-ish garage rock (The Brian Jonestown Massacre).
But that leaves some notable omissions. There’s no Venus and the Razorblades, who released “Punk-a-Rama” on the label in 1977. There’s nothing by The Jook, who released an EP in 1978. And nothing by The Modern Lovers, who released an early album on Bomp in 1981. And, I might add, nothing from “American Youth Report”, a compilation of L.A. punk rock which includes T.S.O.L. and Red Kross. Part of the problem is the vast catalog of Bomp Records. Unlike Ork Records, whose compilation I reviewed last week, Bomp released LPs, and is still active today, albeit with less frequency. Since the output of Ork Records was sporadic and consisted of singles and EPs and in any case was defunct by the end of the 1970s, there wasn’t much material and most of it was put on the 2-CD compilation. With Bomp, however, there was a lot more material to sift through, and unfortunately, much music was omitted.
Anyhow, if you don’t mind what was left out, this makes for a melodious compilation, and I don’t have much of a quarrel with those who selected tracks for this 2-CD retrospective. Just be aware that it could have been so much more.

New York City was an interesting place to be in 1975, at least musically. The punk rock movement was beginning to take hold. In the meantime, Big Star had spectacularly failed to become the Next Big Thing and had broken up. Alex Chilton headed north, as did power pop exponent Chris Stamey. The Feelies, a band from Haledon, New Jersey, were playing at Maxwells, a bar/live music venue in Hoboken, across the river. Mick Farren was active, along with his backup band, The Deviants. One might imagine that it would be a pretty fertile ground for establishing an independent record label.

Enter William Terry Ork, who was a band manager and record producer for the new wave/punk scene in New York City in the mid-1970s. He formed Ork Records, met Billy Fica and Tom Verlaine, and introduced them to Richard Hell. They formed Television, who established a residency at CBGB’s, although Hell left the band and formed his own band, The Voidoids. In February 1975, Ork released their first single, “Little Johnny Jewel”. In 1976, Ork released Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation” EP.

Next came a series of singles and EPs by the Marbles, Alex Chilton, Prix and Mick Farren. Chris Stamey, the bass player for Alex Chilton, had a single, “Summer Sun” b/w “Where the Fun Is”. Ork wasn’t particularly a prolific label, but by the time the label called it a day by the end of the 70s, they left behind a legacy of excellent music.

In September 2015, The Numero Group, an archival record label from Chicago, released “Ork Records: New York, New York” on multiple formats (a 4-LP vinyl set, a 2-CD set, and MP3s), the definitive collection of material originally released on Ork. You’ll find some familiar artists here (Television, The Feelies, Alex Chilton, Chris Stamey, Mick Farren) and some not-so-familiar artists (The Marbles, Prix, The Erasers). Overall, the album is good and consistent – you can detect the common threads running through the music, and the evolution of the genre.

In running Ork Records, Terry Ork faced two obstacles: infighting between groups and shoestring budgets. Fortunately, Numero was able to remaster a lot of these tracks, which allows this collection to be a sonic masterpeice.

This collection is a must-have for the punk fan completionist, and it’s a worthy addition for the casual fan as well. I liked Richard Hell’s cover of Chris Stamey and the dB’s “(I Thought) You Wanted to Know” particularly. And who can argue with Richard Lloyd playing a cover of the Stones’ “Get Off My Cloud”, with Alex Chilton covering the B-side (“The Singer Not The Song”), and Lloyd covering “Connection” from “Between the Buttons”, for good measure? This compilation is highly recommended.