This week on Live & Local, Aaron welcomed Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby of the dB’s to celebrate the remastered re-release of their classic 1981 debut album “Stands for Decibels.”
Today, “Stands for Decibels” is widely recognized as one of the most influential albums of the early 1980s, a pioneer in jangle pop that directly inspired bands like R.E.M. (with whom Holsapple later played). In 1981, though, the dB’s were a fledgling band still looking to make their name, and they were unable to find an American distributor for their album.
As a result – surprisingly – this year’s re-release marks the first time “Stands for Decibels” has ever been available on vinyl in the U.S.
“It was pretty much an underground thing at the time,” says Rigby. “We weren’t getting any kind of major label support, it really was not a high profile release at the time – but we’re pretty proud that it stood the test of time.”
Eventually the album got widespread airplay, led by lead single “Black and White,” and by year’s end it was already being cited by American critics as one of the year’s best – all the more impressive considering the fact that Americans who wanted copies of the album had to get them from overseas.
“The radio airplay that we got, for the most part, was people who had bought their import copies and had brought them into the stations themselves,” says Holsapple. “My hope is that they’ll be able to replace their old scratchy copies with brand new pristine ones.”
Newly remastered by Bob Weston, “Stands for Decibels” is back out now, along with a bonus track, “Judy.” And the band is celebrating this fall by coming together for a tour, beginning in Raleigh with a pair of shows: a pre-Hopscotch show with Kate Rhudy at the Rialto on Wednesday, September 4, followed by a Hopscotch show at Moore Square on Saturday, September 7.
Visit HopscotchMusicFest.com for the full schedule and ticket info for the September 7 show.
“We love these songs,” says Holsapple. “We love playing them for people. It’s going to be great. I hate to sound like the cheerleader guy, but I’ll be the cheerleader guy: I think we’re going to do a great, great job.”
Peter Holsapple and Will Rigby stopped by Live & Local to discuss the album and play three remastered tracks: “Black and White,” “Cycles Per Second,” and “Judy.” Listen:
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