North Carolina's Sneakers are known for containing Chris Stamey and Will Rigby of the dB's and Mitch Easter of Let's Active. Before those people formed their respective bands, they released some of the most challenging and well-recorded independent Power Pop records of the 1970's.
Released on RSD of 2014 in a limited pressing of 1,500 on clear vinyl by Omnivore Recordings, their self-titled debut 7" six-song EP is now a nine-song 10' EP. The songs have a very samey-quality to them; they're all very good but none are immediately memorable and none sticks with you for very long. In that regard, it begs you to return to it since it's obviousness is initially elusive. And the returns, are not diminishing.
So, for fans of The dB's, Let's Active and Power Pop in general.
In 1977, Alex Chilton was in a time of
transition. The band he'd fronted as a teen idol The Box Tops broken
up in 1970 and the Power Pop legends Big Star – the band that Chris
Bell had formed with Alex, Andy Hummell and Jody Stevens - had broken
up in early 1975. Chilton had just released the Singer Not The
Song EP and to properly promote it he moved in New York. There he
formed a band with Chris Stamey (later of the dB's) on bass and Lloyd
Fonroff on drums. Later that year the band was known as Alex Chilton
and the Cossacks and had Fran Kowolski on keyboards.
Ocean Club '77 is what might be
dubbed an official bootleg. It was approved by the Chilton estate. It
claims to be a soundboard show. Which it may well be, albeit a
poorly-mic'd one. The cover art font doesn't do it any favors either.
However, the packaging is nice enough, with nice liner notes as well.
The first thing you hear is Chilton
ordering a “Canadian Whiskey & Coca Cola on the rocks” from
the stage to the bar. So, immediately you know it's going to be a
fairly loose affair. Which it is. Although, it's not too loose as the
rhythm section of Stamey & Fonoroff are tight-enough.
The song selection is pretty wonderful.
“September Gurls”, “In The Street”, “O My Soul”, “Way
Out West” and “Back Of A Car” all get confident airings. The
Third nugget “Nightime” does as well – a good year before it's
release. “The Letter” gets a different, slower arrangement.
“Can't Seem To Make You Mine” (a cover of the Seeds' classic),
“Window's Hotel”, “All Of The Time”, “My Rival” and “She
Might Look My Way” all of which appeared on the rejected Elektra
Demos, are in fine form here. As well as covers of the rock classics
“Memphis”, “Wouldn't It Be Nice”, Walk Don't Run” and
Nelson Slater's Lou Reed-produced “Dominating Force”.
Definitely recommended for the
Chiltonphile of Big Star devotee.
Here's the very special video review version:
Special Thanks to: Ebet Roberts, Norton Records and Dave Rerecich for making me vanish at the end. Into thin air.
Alex Chilton had been a teen idol in the mid-late 1960's with blue-eyed soul band The Box Tops. He'd then been a power pop innovator in the early 1970's with Big Star. He then embarked on a long and sometimes controversial (amongst fans) solo career. The first release from his post-Big Star period was the Singer Not The Song EP released in 1977 on Ork Records. This was recorded in Memphis and was produced by rock critic Jon Tiven in 1975, and was released in its' entirety in 1981 as Bach's Bottom (a play on "Box Top"). But these recordings aren't really representative of the first true solo music Alex made with his first solo band.
Alex moved to New York City in February of 1977 and formed a band with Chris Stamey on bass (later of The dB's) and Lloyd Fonoroff on drums. Shortly thereafter Fran Kowalski joined the band on keyboards and they became known as Alex Chilton & The Cossacks. They regularly performed at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club. They were approached and courted by Elektra Records' Karin Berg, whom Alex had known for some time. Elektra funded recording sessions that were engineered by John Klett at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford, Connecticut with the hopes of signing the band.
These sessions yielded unique and interesting recordings of "She Might Look My Way" (which Alex had co-written with Tommy Hoehn), "Shakin' The World", "My Rival", "Windows Hotel", "A Little Fishy", "All Of The Time" and a cover of The Seeds' "Can't Seem To Make You Mine". Sadly, Elektra passed on these recordings deeming them "too uncommercial". This is a great shame as it is an excellent document of where Alex was at during this stage of his career (he wooed the critics during his time in NY, but not the major labels). Two recordings that were in fact released that Alex had recorded with Chris Stamey at Trod Nossel - the fantastically produced "The Summer Sun" b/w '"Where The Fun Is", released as a Chris Stamey single (produced by Alex, he also plays guitar, drums, percussion and shares vocal duties with Chris).
The Dusted In Memphis bootleg contains six of the seven Cossacks songs (omitting "All Of The Time"). Other songs included are a rough mix of "Lovely Day" (an outtake from Big Star's Third which eventually came out on the Keep An Eye On The Sky box set), "Baron Of Love Part Two" which appeared on the Peabody Records version of Like Flies On Sherbert in 1979 and "Take Me Home And Make Me Like It" & "The Walking Dead" (both later appeared on the Razor & Tie version of Bach's Bottom, the latter in an edited form). The Cossacks material (excepting "Little Fishy") later appeared in digital form on (also a bootleg) Beale Street Green.
"My Rival" was re-recorded in a drastically different arrangement and released on Like Flies On Sherbert and "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" was re-recorded an released on the B-Side of Alex's "Bangkok" single in 1978. A live version of "A Little Fishy" came out on the Japanese-only release One Day In New York. "She Might Look My Way" came out of Tommy Hoehn's Losing You To Sleep album.
Allegedly, the only copy of these recordings that anyone associated with band had was lost in the house fire that claimed Alex Chilton's mother's life. If this is true, and the masters have been lost, it is truly a great, great shame as these are possibly the best post-Big Star recordings of Alex's long solo career.
If you find this release, I high recommend you pick it up.
Here's the video review:
Special Thanks to: Ardent Records, Stephanie Chernikowski, Michael O'Brien & Allan Tannenbaum
Winston-Salem North Carolina's The dB's
were one of the leading-lights of the American Power Pop/Jangle Rock
movement of the late 70's/early 80's. In 1988, after ten years and
four albums the band called it a day. In 2005 the original line-up
reformed to play various shows and in 2011 they released the Picture
Sleeve single on their own
Orange Sound Records (“The Label With Appeal”) and the Falling
Off The Sky album on Bar/None
Records in 2012.
Released
on Record Store Day in 2013 Revolution Of The Mind
(also on Orange Sound Records) is a four-song EP on Orange Vinyl in a
limited pressing of 2,000 (and includes a digital download). The EP
is basically a four-song distillation of makes the band special. The
title-track is a minor-key rocker that features a hypnotic
siren-esque lead guitar riff. “Lakefront” is compelling ballad
with Mellotron-strings that would've been a lovely addition the most
recent full-length album and recalls earlier dB's tracks such as
“Nothing Is Wrong” and “From A Window To Screen”. “Orange
Squeezer” is a whimsical Chris Stamey composition about a Dan
Armstrong compressions pedal. And rounding things out is a live
version of “pH Factor” (which first appeared as a the B-side to
their 1982 “Neverland” single). “pH Factor, which references
song author Peter Holsapple, is a sleepy Raybeats-like surf
instrumental. And
this is a very-well recorded live version of the song.
The EP
is once again, a nice distillation of what makes the dB's a special
band (i.e. good songwriting, a thoughtful approach to playing and
challenging hooks). The vinyl itself is of nice quality and is on
nice Orange Vinyl. All-in-all a nice piece for the dB's fan. And also
quite appealing for the uninitiated as well.
