Contemporary Authors

1. A spy in the house of loud : New York songs and stories https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055297 Stamey, Chris, author. A spy in the house of loud : New York songs and stories / Chris Stamey. First edition. Austin : University of Texas Press, 2018.©2018 x, 277 pages : illustrations, music ; 23 cm. ML420.S81127 A3 2018 ISBN: 9781477316221 (hardcover) (library electronic book) (nonlibrary electronic book)

• Chris Stamey - http://www.chrisstamey.com/bio.html

  began recording career in 1963 with a mono Sony reel-to-reel, playing "radar" and off-the-air tapes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. backward.

  while playing bass, cello, and guitar in a multitude of high school bands, learned the basics of sound capture by operating a basement four-track studio in Winston-Salem, NC, with future producer Mitch Easter.

  studied composition and music theory at UNC--Chapel Hill with Roger Hannay, while assisting producer Don Dixon in various live and studio recording projects

  self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American indie records, in 1976

  relocated to New York to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB's rock scene

  started Car Records, 1977; among the label's releases: "I Am the Cosmos," by Chris Bell

  formed the dB's with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple; made several acclaimed records, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt)

  active in New York, London, and Paris throughout the eighties as solo artist (It's Alright, Fireworks [Coyote/A&M]), producer (Pylon, Yo La Tengo), musican (Matthew Sweet, Bob Mould, Golden Palominos, Yo La Tengo)

  made Mavericks, well-received collaboration and coproduction with Peter Holsapple, in 1992;

  relocated to Chapel Hill in 1993; began Modern Recording in 1996, resuming production work. First project was Whiskeytown (with Ryan Adams & Caitlin Cary).

• Yep Roc - http://www.yeproc.com/artists/chris-stamey/

  Chris Stamey

  .........................................................

  “To me, euphoria lives inside an electric guitar,” Chris Stamey says of his new Yep Roc release. “That’s a place I find freedom, passion, exhilaration: in the spaces between the notes, in the distance between the frets.”

  Euphoria is a distinctly compelling entry in a body of work that already contains a startling amount of acknowledged classics and underappreciated gems. As solo artist and founding co-frontman of seminal indie combo The dB’s, the North Carolina-bred singer-songwriter-guitarist has built a beloved and influential catalog that’s earned him a devoted international fan base and established him as a godfather to the Southern alternative pop community.

  Arriving on the heels of his widely acclaimed 2013 chamber-pop excursion Lovesick Blues and 2012’s long-awaited dB’s reunion album Falling Off the Sky, Euphoria finds Stamey reembracing his electric roots with an emotionally resonant set of rocking, melodically infectious, sonically bracing new tunes, with expansive arrangements incorporating horns and other unexpected sonic textures, and a supporting cast that includes Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, Pat Sansone of Wilco, Django Haskins of the Old Ceremony and longtime cohort Mitch Easter.

  “I found these songs inside the same dilapidated old Silvertone lipstick guitar that I’d written my first records on,” Stamey asserts. “Maybe that’s why it sounds a bit like those records in some ways.”

  While Euphoria‘s songs carry echoes of Stamey’s earliest work, they also explore some unfamiliar sonic and compositional territory. “The songs sound simple, but I’ve been listening to Gershwin and Cole Porter, and trying to use chord changes in places where, on other records, I might have used echo or mixing tricks,” he says. “On songs like ‘Where Does the Time Go?’ and ‘Make Up Your Mind,’ it seems like the parts repeat, but actually they’re shifting around all the time, with little modulations and variations. I’m finding new places to go.”

  In addition to Stamey’s own memorable compositions, Euphoria‘s highlights include the rousing opening track “Universe-sized Arms,” a previously unreleased Ryan Adams composition that Adams suggested he record.

  While the heartfelt “You Are Beautiful” ranks with Stamey’s finest ballads and “When the Fever Breaks” is one of his punchiest rockers, the propulsive “Rocketship” offers a tip of the hat to legendary punk progenitors the MC5, whose 1971 visit to Stamey’s hometown of Winston-Salem was a seminal event in the lives of those who witnessed it.

  “I’ve grown very fond of the last several Wes Anderson movies,” Stamey notes. “I love how handmade and ‘auteur’ they look, and I wanted to make a record that sounded a bit like that. At the same time, my teenage daughter got a turntable and regularly spun some of the Beatles’ records, including Rubber Soul and Revolver, albums that I’d not paid much attention to when I was growing up but that now drew me in.

  “That sound—of a few musicians working up a song and playing it together, leaving a little room for George Martin-isms to fill in the gaps—was very appealing to me,” he continues. “I liked how funky and natural it all sounded. A lot of modern records sound like they’re made by people wearing new, shiny clothes who are scripting in car crashes and Marvel superheroes and the Perfect Snare. But I wanted a T-shirt sound.”

  To that end, Stamey assembled some longtime friends from Chapel Hill’s fertile musical community—Tony Stiglitz, F.J. Ventre, Wes Lachot, Matt McMichaels and producer Jeff Crawford—and did some literal woodshedding.

  “We started rehearsing in a tiny old shack out in the woods, and I wrote some new songs so we’d have something to play together,” Stamey recalls. “Then we ran down the road to Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium studio to cut tracks together as a band, with Mitch on guitar as well.”

  Having already explored the possibilities of string and woodwind arrangements on Lovesick Blues, Stamey, using the Beatles’ Revolver as his inspiration, incorporates a horn section—including members of New York’s legendary Uptown Horns—throughout Euphoria, along with some “Tomorrow Never Knows”-style loops on the album’s title track. The latter element was drawn partially from a woodwind piece that Stamey wrote in his youth. That composition, like several other early classical pieces he’d written, was long thought to have been accidentally destroyed, but a recording of it resurfaced last year at the tail end of the master tape of the dB’s’ 1978 debut single “If and When.”

  Euphoria‘s birth cycle also found Stamey reacquainting himself with another early source of inspiration. “I was joyfully reunited with my old family piano, a Steinway baby grand that I’d first played when I was six,” he explains. “‘Make Up Your Mind’ and ‘Where Does the Time Go?’ both came from this beloved instrument.”

  For the wistful, bittersweet “Invisible,” Stamey, seeking to capture a classic Winston-Salem sound, reunited Easter and Let’s Active drummer Eric Marshall, with Stamey on bass.

  The sense of discovery and adventure that energizes Euphoria is a consistent thread that runs through Stamey’s expansive catalog, which he began assembling while making avant-garde home-recording experiments in his teens. Those early efforts set the stage for obscure, but ultimately influential, independent releases with his early outfits Rittenhouse Square (with his future dB’s bandmate Peter Holsapple) and Sneakers (including dB Will Rigby and future Let’s Active leader Mitch Easter).

  Moving to New York at the dawn of the ’80s, Stamey launched his own pioneering indie label, Car Records, and played bass in Alex Chilton’s band, before making a pair of now-classic albums, 1981’s Stands for deciBels and 1982’s Repercussion, with The dB’s. He then began turning out a series of personally charged, musically adventurous gems including It’s A Wonderful Life, Instant Excitement, It’s Alright, Fireworks, his 2004 Yep Roc debut Travels in the South and the holiday-themed Christmas Time.

  The Stamey oeuvre also includes a pair of duo albums with Peter Holsapple, Mavericks and Here and Now, and A Question of Temperature, on which he was backed by Yo La Tengo. He’s also worked as a sideman with the likes of Bob Mould and the Golden Palominos.

  Stamey has also produced and recorded a wide variety of artists at Modern Recording, the Chapel Hill studio that he’s operated for the past two decades, including recordings by the likes of Whiskeytown, Alejandro Escovedo, Flat Duo Jets, Le Tigre and Tift Merritt.

  Since 2010, Stamey has also been the musical director and orchestrator for a series of all-star international concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Sister Lovers aka Third, with a rotating musical cast that includes Big Star’s Jody Stephens as well as members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco and Yo La Tengo.

  Prestigious as Stamey’s resume is, Euphoria makes it clear that the veteran artist is presently making some of the most vital and expressive music of his career.

  “A lot of people who’ve heard this album have expressed the opinion that it’s very much a Winston-Salem album, and I can definitely hear that,” Stamey says, adding, “To me, these songs really lend themselves to be played live, and I’m really looking forward to doing that.”

  UPCOMING DATES
  Performing with Big Star’s Third concert at First Avenue, Sept. 30 – Buy Tickets
  Performing with Big Star’s Third concert at Great American Music Hall, Oct. 1
  Performing with Big Star’s Third concert at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on Oct. 2. – Buy Tickets
  Ponysaurus Brewery, Durham, Oct. 24

Stamey, Chris: A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOUD
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Stamey, Chris A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOUD Univ. of Texas (Adult Nonfiction) $26.95 4, 15 ISBN: 978-1-4773-1622-1
A charming, knowledgeable memoir by an esteemed first-generation indie-rock musician.
Stamey, a founding member of the dBs, exemplifies the underground rock veteran whose influence outweighs their commercial fortunes, and this debut is a rich recounting of his personal and musical narratives. The author's passion comes through in the book's organization, which combines personal chronology with the associations attached to a "jukebox" of significant songs. Although he captures his shoestring musical beginnings during a bohemian North Carolina upbringing, he writes, "it was always New York. My life before Manhattan seemed simply a coiling before the leap north." He vividly depicts the creative ferment and rough edges of New York in the late 1970s. Proximity to legendary venues like CBGB fueled his ambition, as did the innovative music being made by acquaintances like Television and Alex Chilton. "It was a time when lines were being drawn in pop music culture," he writes. Stamey found that underground musicians could eke out a living, despite major label disinterest, due to a growing network of low-budget studios and the first regional independent record labels: "Suddenly there was just enough money changing hands to bring managers into the act." This allowed bands like the dBs to tour worldwide and release albums, developing a cult following, particularly after their friends in R.E.M. broke through. Yet Stamey felt constricted as a songwriter by the band he'd started. "It was not a tabloid breakup," he writes, also noting that "it didn't seem to come as a surprise to the rest." This indeed allowed him to broaden his horizons, both as a recording artist and as a producer of artists like Yo La Tengo and Ryan Adams. The author deftly combines a wry, self- effacing tone with clear, precise discussions of the intricacies of songwriting and production and the surreal transformations of the industry, remaining positive and thoughtful throughout.
1 of 2 6/10/18, 10:09 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
A standout addition to the crowded shelf of recollections by the underground iconoclasts of the 1980s and '90s.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stamey, Chris: A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOUD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959760/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0a950409. Accessed 10 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959760
2 of 2 6/10/18, 10:09 PM

"Stamey, Chris: A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOUD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959760/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=0a950409. Accessed 10 June 2018.

• Festival Peak
  https://festivalpeak.com/a-review-of-chris-stameys-a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud-b647b5317117
  Word count: 1239

  A Review of Chris Stamey’s “A Spy in the House of Loud”
  Turn It Up
  “A Spy in the House of Loud” Book Cover

  Chris Stamey is not a household name; rather, he’s a musician’s musician. However, the stature he has left behind in the furrow of commercially lauded indie rock is impressive. He was a founding member of the dB’s, and then went on to some renown as a solo artist and a producer. In the era when everyone and their dog can get a rock star autobiography published (Bob Mould, I’m looking at you), Stemey swoops in with a memoir that is more about the songs he has written and less about the life he’s lived — though his book, A Spy in the House of Loud, does blend elements of the two. If you’re looking for a gossipy tell-all, however, you’re looking in the wrong place. (There is some gossip, but it’s not really the thrust of the book and some of it is already on the public record.) Refreshingly, Stamey doesn’t have much of a scorched earth policy and when he shares stories, they tend to be positive. Unlike others of his peers (Bob Mould, I’m looking at you again).

  Essentially, this memoir focuses squarely on the days when Stamey was a resident of New York City, covering punk and new wave’s ascent from about 1977 to his relocation in North Carolina, circa 1992. In between, Stamey regales the reader with tales of living in the city and writing songs. It’s the songs that take centre stage, and the book reads like an annotated guide through Stamey’s songbook. In fact, a whole section at the end of the book is for music theory nuts as the author deconstructs how to play some of his material, which, if you’re not a musician, will leave you exclaiming “!!!???!!!” Stamey loves to geek out on how records are made, too, right down to the engineering, which can be a bit dry if you’re more of a music fan, and less of a musician. But I did say that Stamey is a musician’s musician, right?

  The book is crammed with all sorts of photos from the era, which is appealing for its time capsule quality. Seeing Stamey and his cohorts play high school dances in the late ’60s will have you giggling at some of the haircuts and fashion choices. A Spy in the House of Loud also boasts colourful tales at times. One that sticks out is how the dB’s were recording on a console that ruined takes with its pop and cackle, and it wasn’t until someone opened it up much later down the road, and dust and a large quantity of hashish was discovered inside, that the solution to the problem was discovered: clean the inside of the console. (And, presumably, hide the evidence.) Thus, there are some nifty takeaways from this volume.

  What the memoir does, and does really well, is chart the rise of DIY indie ethos. While Stamey points out how common recording technology that is affordable is these days, he recounts the cumbersome process of releasing a record on your own back in the late ’70s heyday of independent releases before they became a cottage industry. Still, despite the effort, what Stamey and his cohorts did was something that couldn’t have been done even a decade before. The book is not only a personal memoir, but a memoir of a scene and a movement. It doesn’t hurt that Stamey has a winsome style. Again, he doesn’t burn any bridges — which is refreshing — and you get the sense that he’s passionate about not only the music he made, but the people he made it with.

  That all said, you have to be both a fan of Stamey’s musical output and of behind-the-scenes studio wizardry to get an appreciation for the book. This musician basically gives you a blow-by-blow of how a record was produced and engineered, so if you aren’t a budding knob twiddler, this section of the memoir may leave you quite cold. At the expense of being as friendly as possible with his bandmates past and present, by zooming in on the behind-the-curtain aspects of a record’s production, Stamey does come across as being a bit clinical. Most rock autobiographies and biographies don’t really get into the process of music-making, focusing instead on the personal stories. While that aspect is evident in A Spy in the House of Loud, it’s muted. So be prepared to dig in for a lot of reading that you might not understand if you play records rather than play on them.

  However, that’s probably par for the course, as this book is being published by an academic press. I suspect that the title will be used in music classes all across the United States — which would be a great dream, because Stamey is such a nice guy and definitely knows what he’s talking about (even when he doesn’t seem to know what he’s playing in concert, as recounted in the book) — and will be of most interest for not necessarily the fans of the music, but music theory students. This memoir also serves as an introduction to seminal records that shaped the artist, from Pylon to R.E.M. to Television to even Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. So, all in all, this is a guitar master speaking to the up-and-comers, and it’s up to them to listen or not.

  Essentially, A Spy in the House of Loud is a dizzying concoction of a read — you probably haven’t read something like this. It’s a sopping wet love letter to music and a specific era in time, as well as a bustling metropolitan music scene. Consider it a companion volume to the oral history of NYC music of the double aughts in Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom. Fans of Stamey’s music will probably enjoy this, though it will probably depend on how much Wizard of Oz-esque peering into back stages they will want to do, or how much of the technical nuts and bolts of how a song is created and a record is made they want to read. Overall, though, A Spy in the House of Loud is a pleasure, as much as it might be, at times, tedious, and makes me want to reach into my collection of CDs and pull out Stands for deciBels and Repercussion one more time. A Spy in the House of Loud deftly feeds this desire, so excuse me while I go have a listen.

  Chris Stamey’s A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories will be published by University of Texas Press on April 16, 2018.

  Of course, if you like what you see, please recommend this piece (click on the clapping hands icon below) and share it with your followers.

  MusicBooksBook ReviewChris Stamey

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• Pop Dose
  http://popdose.com/book-review-chris-stamey-a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud-new-york-songs-and-stories/
  Word count: 648

  Rob Ross

  Rob Ross has been, for good, bad or indifferent, involved in the music industry for over 30 years - first as guitarist/singer/songwriter with The Punch Line, then as freelance journalist, producer and manager to working for independent and major record labels. He resides in Staten Island, New York with his wife and cats; he works out a lot, reads voraciously, loves Big Star and his orange Gretsch. Doesn't that make him neat?

  It goes without saying Chris Stamey is one of my favorite songwriters/musicians. Having fallen under the spell of The dB’s from 1981 onward, the band he formed in New York in 1978, I’ve followed Mr. Stamey’s career and have enjoyed every album he’s released, both with The dB’s and solo. He’s also the driving force behind the (incredible) “Big Star Third/& Friends” live performances that have appeared sporadically over the last 8 or so years. Now Mr. Stamey has written his autobiography and it’s not your typical story.

  In many ways, the manner of Mr. Stamey’s book, A Spy In The House Of Loud: New York Songs & Stories (a clever play on a classic dB’s track that ISN’T a Chris Stamey song) is comparable to his songwriting style; it’s measured and thoughtful; it has imagery and flow with a mixture of intellect and very sophisticated yet never pretentious humor. It’s a book that’s warm, fun and deeper than what you may expect. It’s not one of those “I was born in…” stories that just tell a direct (and sometimes, flat) tale. This is a compendium of Mr. Stamey’s life in conjunction with songs and experiences – the how, when and where he wrote some of the more-beloved tracks in his formidable canon. While Chris Stamey (or The dB’s) are not (criminally) a household name, he’s had many experiences from the time he began playing in bands with his childhood friend, the equally-legendary Mitch Easter, as they grew up in North Carolina. His tales, musical travelogue and experiences go from his leaving home to moving to New York in 1978, where he immediately began working with one of his idols, Alex Chilton and being right in the epicenter of the New York punk movement. His friendship with Richard Lloyd of Television led to the debut release from “Chris Stamey & The dB’s” and the start of a remarkable band. While in those earliest days of living in New York, he also released (on his Car Records label) the only solo record from Big Star’s Chris Bell, “I Am The Cosmos”/”You And Your Sister”. Those first few years were enough of a wild ride in reading about it; Mr. Stamey’s descriptions allow a very clear picture in your mind.

  As the various songs and stories unfold, you cannot help but gain a new (or in my case, greater) appreciation for his work. And if you’ve never heard his songs, you have sorely missed out on 40 years of quality pop construction. Never lightweight but never overbearing, the music of Chris Stamey is a marvel. As is this book. So it would stand you in good stead to pick this book up, read it and then seek out Mr. Stamey’s catalog. It’s very easy to embrace it all.

  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

  A Spy In The House Of Loud: New York Songs & Stories is currently available

  https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/stamey-a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud

  Related

  Reissue Review: "Ork Records: New York, New York"November 30, 2015In "Music"

  Cycles Per Second: A Look At The dB's "Repercussion"December 4, 2014In "Album Reviews"

  Album Review: Chris Stamey, "Lovesick Blues"June 19, 2013In "Album Reviews"

  autobiographyChapel Hill NCChris Stameypower popRob RossThe dB's

• The Big Takeover
  http://bigtakeover.com/books/chris-stamey-a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud-new-york-songs-and-stories-university-of-texas-press
  Word count: 495

  Chris Stamey - A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories (University of Texas Press)
  A Spy in the House of Loud by Chris Stamey.
  19 May 2018
  by Elizabeth Klisiewicz

  I’ve long been an admirer of Chris Stamey’s, not only through his work with the seminal dB’s, but also his collaboration with childhood pal Mitch Easter in Sneakers. After reading this excellent walk through his musical and personal history, I have to say I never knew much about his background beyond the surface stuff most listeners know. For instance, I had no clue that Stamey was such a musical scholar, or that he knows a ton of people in the indie scene, both past and present. While I couldn’t really wrap my mind around the musical descriptions, I really related to his descriptions of the music scene, because I was there. And he’s also a great writer, both poetic and a good storyteller to boot.

  He tosses out anecdotes about Paul McCartney, Alex Chilton, and David Bowie like it’s no big deal, though of course as readers we know what a huge deal it really was. I really dug his childhood stories about early tape experiments and working with Mitch like the music geeks they were straight out of the gate. His impressions of NY are brilliant and spot on, from everything I have heard from others on the scene and from my own travels. He was there when it was all happening, when the music scene was exploding, and I am not sure we will ever witness another creative era like this. I was particularly keen on reading about his work with Peter Holsapple, Gene Holder, and Will Rigby in the dB’s, and it was cool to read about how those two fantastic first albums came together, and what led to the dissolution of that original lineup. Though he gives major props to Holsapple for his highly melodic compositions, the same can be said for Stamey if you take a deep stroll through his work. The man is supremely talented, can play multiple instruments, has a good singing voice, and is flat out amazing in my book.

  So many times when reading this, i was tugged back to my own youth, and I could relate to so much of what Stamey relates about what it was like to grow up in the 60s and 70s. His Southern experience was definitely different than mine, but the commonalities outweigh the regional differences.Things are so different now, and Stamey hasn’t missed a beat in keeping up with the times. He drops many excellent quotations, and no doubt this book will stay with you long after you finish reading and set the book aside. Highly recommended for all music lovers, especially those who appreciate the work of Stamey, Easter, Holsapple, and Chilton. Just great work!

• The Current
  https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2018/05/21/chris-stamey-spy-house-loud
  Word count: 821

  Chris Stamey talks about his new book, 'A Spy in the House of Loud'

  by Colleen Cowie
  May 21, 2018
  rock and roll book club
  Chris Stamey's book 'A Spy in the House of Loud.'
  Chris Stamey's book 'A Spy in the House of Loud.' (Jay Gabler/MPR)

  In addition to being a musician, songwriter, and producer, Chris Stamey is now the author of a new book, titled A Spy in the House of Loud. The book, published this April, chronicles Stamey's childhood in North Carolina, move to New York City, and details his experience in the New York music scene in the '70s, playing at clubs such as the iconic CBGB.

  Stamey grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and had visited New York a number of times as a teenager. In 1975, Stamey visited a bar in New York to see the band Television perform. That performance sparked his interest in the New York scene and ultimately influenced his decision to relocate to the city in 1977.

  "It's like when you first eat broccoli, you want it to be the best broccoli ever, and then you love the vegetable from then on. If it's really overcooked, you're not going to go back," Stamey told The Current's Jim McGuinn at SXSW. "I pretty much took away from that [show] that every band was like Television and started immediately plotting to write music like that and move to New York."

  Stamey later realized that his initial impression of New York was not entirely accurate, and not every band in the city was like Television. However, he doesn't regret his decision to move to the city, as it gave him the opportunity to immerse himself in a newly flourishing music scene.

  "I think everyone [in New York] had felt like a lot of doors had closed and a lot of things were uninteresting, and all of a sudden these new doors had opened," Stamey said about the music scene in New York in the late '70s. "There was a feeling that there were rays of light."

  Once in New York, Stamey started his own record label and Richard Lloyd of Television asked Stamey to record one of his songs. Television's label wouldn't let Lloyd release the song under his own name, so Stamey sang on the record and released it under "Chris Stamey and the dB's." After releasing the song, Stamey asked his friends from North Carolina to join him in New York and the dB's were formed.

  After his time with the dB's, Stamey recorded his own solo work and collaborated with a number of musicians including Ryan Adams and Le Tigre.

  "I think what I look for in people I work with," said Stamey, "is what can I learn, where can I go, what's different here, what's not boring?"

  Since 2010, Stamey has directed a series of live performances of Big Star's album Third, along with musicians such as Big Star's Jody Stephens; Ray Davies; and members of the Posies, R.E.M., and Wilco.

  "Some things we tried to do exactly but some things were very open," said Stamey about the Big Star project. "I liked it because it was a challenge."

  Stamey described Third as a "dark" record. Despite the album's haunting themes, Stamey explained that the project kept going because of the community that he found in his fellow collaborators.

  "We found a community that liked to hang out, and it was an incentive to go dark in the theaters with the somewhat bleak but euphoric tunes, partially because we got to see each other," said Stamey, although he added that he doesn't think that the concerts will continue.

  While Stamey's book divulges plenty of personal anecdotes and tales of the New York scene, Stamey said that at its core, A Spy in the House of Loud is a book about songwriting.

  "There are a lot of books about CBGB. Mine is not really a book about me. It uses things that happened in the '80s; a great deal of detail about specific songs. I'm hoping in those details it'll reveal something about the process of creating. I'm hoping that at the end of the book you might feel like going to do something creative."

  Colleen Cowie runs the blog Pass The Mic.
  Related Stories

  Big Star's Third perform in The Current studio Ahead of their gig on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Big Star's Third stopped in to The Current's studio for a live session hosted by Bill DeVille. The musical collective perform tracks from Big Star's legendary 'Third' album, and DeVille chats with Ken Stringfellow and Big Star original member Jody Stephens.

• The Wall Street Journal
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud-review-notes-on-cbgb-the-dbs-and-rem-1527277418
  Word count: 931

  A Spy in the House of Loud’ Review: Notes on CBGB, the dB’s and R.E.M.
  Chris Stamey hit New York in 1975, just as the downtown music scene was gathering steam.
  By Tony Fletcher
  May 25, 2018 3:43 p.m. ET
  3 COMMENTS

  Chris Stamey is a musician’s musician. That’s the nice way of saying that, while he enjoys great respect among his peers for his influential 1970s and ’80s bands the Sneakers and the dB’s, as well as his work as a solo artist and producer, he has little name recognition with the wider music-buying public.

  As an author, Mr. Stamey faces a similar dilemma. In “A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories,” he blends his music-composition education with his degree in philosophy to produce a book that demonstrates his deep thinking and critical mind. His self-reflective chapters dive deeper into the process of songwriting than most memoirs about the CBGB era: The book is less Dee Dee Ramone’s “Lobotomy” and more David Byrne’s “How Music Works”—but without, alas, the effortless everyman accessibility that Mr. Byrne displays.

  Like R.E.M., a band with which the author has close ties—partly through his North Carolina childhood connection to some of that group’s future production and performing partners—Mr. Stamey often writes music that is alternately elegiac and exhilarating. But he hasn’t enjoyed the same degree of appeal as R.E.M., and this book shows us why. In his prose as in his music, Mr. Stamey lets his technical ambition overpower his commercial instinct. Writing about distortion, for example, he notes that “overloading the medium of tape with high input produces odd-order harmonic content not present at the source.” He describes the dB’s 1981 song “Ask for Jill” as being “based on a minimalist ostinato composed of some syncopated guitar major-second double-stops.” The book’s appendix is even more esoteric—though it does announce the existence of an accompanying Spotify playlist, information that would have been more useful in the introduction.

  It’s when Mr. Stamey writes about the wider music-making culture that he rocks. He explains how multitrack recording allowed “rock ’n’ roll composers” in the late 1960s to become the musical equivalent of cinematic auteurs, enlivening traditionally disciplined stanzas with special effects, unexpected melodic repeats or inversions, and subtle rhythmic alterations. (The 1967 song “The Letter,” a No. 1 hit by the Box Tops featuring Mr. Stamey’s early idol and later recording partner Alex Chilton, offers a seminal example of all of the above.) The author observes how studio consoles and analogue tapes could be recognized by their brand-distinct aromas, as different manufacturing processes produced unique scent mixtures of burnt dust and metallic oxide. His experience with audio splicing—editing by physically cutting and pasting sections of a recording with a razor blade and tape—informed this erstwhile studio regular that “the magnetic particles on both sides of a cut would pull on each other overnight . . . crossfading together.” No wonder some recordings sounded better in the fresh light of day.
  On a bill with Let's Active and the dB's during the 'Who's on First?' tour..."
  On a bill with Let's Active and the dB's during the 'Who's on First?' tour..." Photo: Carol Whaley/The University of Texas Press
  A Spy in the House of Loud

  By Chris Stamey

  Texas, 277 pages, $26.95

  These vignettes alternate with Mr. Stamey’s personal story, which has him arriving in New York in 1975 just as the CBGB scene was gathering steam. It was the art rock of the band Television that first caught his attention at the downtown club; more than 40 years later, Mr. Stamey still compares the band’s music to Debussy, Ravel and Tchaikovsky. He is similarly gushing of Television’s debut single, “Little Johnny Jewel,” in the first of several “Jukebox” interludes in which Mr. Stamey critiques recordings other than his own. Some of the best singles, he eloquently notes, are “urgent, brief, to the point, a horseback ride across enemy territory with a crumpled-up piece of paper in a back pocket.”

  One longs for more of these excursions, especially as a subsequent interlude on R.E.M.’s debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” provides surely the most comprehensive analysis of the song’s structure. There is also a late chapter about Mr. Stamey’s experience touring with the Golden Palominos—alongside Cream bassist Jack Bruce, Funkadelic organist Bernie Worrell, R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe and others—that finally allows for “lost weekend” anecdotes in the rock ’n’ roll-memoir tradition, humanizing an author whose dedication to his craft sometimes comes at the expense of his emotional freedom.

  Readers will come away from “A Spy in the House of Loud” with no doubt about Mr. Stamey’s credibility as that rare kind of pop musician—equal parts theorist, scientist, tinkerer and artist. Now that he has produced for his cult followers a behind-the-scenes guide through his own back catalog, one hopes he will apply his wealth of experience and knowledge to writing books for a more general—and substantial—readership.

  —Mr. Fletcher is the author of “All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music From the Streets of New York 1927-77” and “Perfect Circle: The Story of R.E.M.”

  Appeared in the May 26, 2018, print edition as 'Notes on CBGB, the dB’s and R.E.M..'

• nj.com
  http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/06/world_dog_expo_at_secaucus_meadowlands_expo_center.html
  Word count: 1386

  '80s icon Chris Stamey returns to Hoboken with new memoir
  Updated Apr 18; Posted Apr 18
  Chris Stamey - best known for his years in the dB's, but a renowned singer, songwriter, musicians, and producer - will sign his new memoir A Spy In The House Of Loud: New York Stories And Songs at Hoboken's Little City Books on Friday, April 20.
  Chris Stamey - best known for his years in the dB's, but a renowned singer, songwriter, musicians, and producer - will sign his new memoir A Spy In The House Of Loud: New York Stories And Songs at Hoboken's Little City Books on Friday, April 20.(Photo by Daniel Coston)

  By Jim Testa

  For The Jersey Journal

  Like so many artistically minded young people in the late '70s, a bright, talented 20-something named Chris Stamey followed his muse from his native North Carolina to Manhattan, at that time a near-bankrupt megapolis with a seedy, disreputable downtown that just happened to be giving birth to some of the most exciting and original music of the 20th century.

  Within a few years, though, Stamey and his nascent rock band the dB's had left the city for the cheap rents and the kernel of a music scene that was coalescing around a small club called Maxwell's in the post-industrial ghost town across the river called Hoboken.

  The rest, as they say, is history.

  Today, Stamey – a renowned musician, singer-songwriter and producer living back in North Carolina – has told that tale in "A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories,'' which functions both as a memoir and a beginner's guide to the intricacies of music theory and production. Stamey will be back in Hoboken on Friday, April 20, at Little City Books for a signing and a special chamber-pop performance with two old friends from those early days, guitarist Dave Schramm and cellist Jane Scarpantoni.

  In his foreword, Stamey writes that this project began as an annotated song book – "concise paragraphs attached to sheet music, words and melodies and chords suitable for parlor playing in the old way." But the "concise" part grew and grew, until eventually the annotations overwhelmed the sheet music and the book became a memoir.

  "A lot of what I do starts as one thing and then I follow it where it leads, down a different road, some left turns, getting pulled into neighborhoods I've never been to before," Stamey said from his home in Chapel Hill. "This is nice, metaphorically, but it does make road trips a pain for the other people in the car."

  And, he added, we'll actually see the original project in the near future.

  "The songbook (without the annotations) still exists," Stamey said. "In fact, I have printed up a limited, numbered edition of 100 (I'll bring a few with me to the events) and plan on releasing it publicly in a larger pressing in the fall. It's called 'New Songs for the 20th Century.'

  "As far as the 'Spy' book, once I'd started writing the annotations, I found I enjoyed getting up on a clear morning and pulling the thoughts out of my gourd, like the pensive silver threads in the Harry Potter books," he continued. "There was no publisher at that point. I kept at it because it was fun, I guess, and new to me -- usually the best reasons to do something. And better to split the two up -- there are a lot of people who read words but not music. And it was becoming unwieldy -- hard to have a fat book on a music stand or at the piano, it won't stay open to the right page."

  While fans will relish the stories of '70s Manhattan, when Stamey collaborated with another young ex-pat named Alex Chilton or popped into his neighborhood bar to catch a new band called Television woodshed some tunes, musicians will appreciate his explanations of how songs come together, how one chord feeds off another or how a chorus can be crafted to complement a verse.

  "None of this was all that crafted. I don't know anything technically about writing books at all, I just wrote about stuff that I found interesting, in hopes that others would, as well," Stamey sad. "I guess I hoped for it to somehow be inspiring. I moved the music theory stuff to the end notes, so they function as an afterthought, so it wouldn't distract the non-specialist reader unfairly. But I thought of this as a slightly devious book about songwriting, to be honest. Or maybe about the creative process as it applies to writing music?

  "(dB's bandmate and longtime collaborator) Peter Holsapple says that he likes it because it reads same as the way I talk," Stamey added. "I think he means 'run-on sentences' and parenthetical asides and semicolons ... like this sentence? Maybe it reads the way I think. It is not, on the surface, a book about me for the most part, as I point out in the last chapter; that would be a very very different book. But I imagine that there is some reveal there, even if not direct."

  The book is subtitled 'New York Stories' and Stamey sticks to that theme so fans (and veterans) of the early-'80s Maxwell's scene might be disappointed to find that those memories only comprise a few pages. Stamey didn't think that was surprising.

  Looking back at Maxwell's roller coaster as club announces closing, two final send-off shows

  Looking back at Maxwell's roller coaster as club announces closing, two final send-off shows

  How times have changed. Back in the 1980, bands like the Bongos, Individuals, and dB's spread the word about Hobken, where a two-bedroom furnished apartment would rent for less than $100 a month.

  "The dB's always rehearsed in Manhattan and started there," he said. "And beginnings dictate endings don't you think? My time in Hoboken was after the dB's. But I love Hoboken and am grateful for all the camaraderie I found there, especially with the Water Music folks and with Steve (Fallon) and Todd (Abramson) at Maxwell's. Rob Grenoble, Robert Miller, James McMillan made Water Music into a home away from home for a lot of folks, it was a studio run by musicians and it was easy to find a sound there. And they even let us record in the elevator! There are things about place that affect music -- for example, I always thought that Minneapolis bands played a little faster than most because it was so cold and it helped warm them up a bit."

  Although Stamey has also scheduled several book events in New York City, his return to Hoboken feels special.

  "Music and books seem to belong together in Hoboken, as Little City Books is run by singer/songwriter Kate Jacobs," Stamey said. "I've heard from lots of people that they really enjoyed appearances there, and I'm really looking forward to this evening, and being reunited with two of my favorite musicians, both with strong Hoboken roots: Dave Schramm and Jane Scarpantoni.''

  After writing a book about his own early years breaking into music, what words of advice does Chris Stamey have for young people following the same path today?

  "Practice," he said succinctly. "Hang out with people who are better or more advanced than you."

  IF YOU GO:
  Chris Stamey will appear at Little City Books, 100 Bloomfield Ave., Hoboken, on Friday, April 20, at 7 p.m. Advance tickets are available from Little City Books and will include a signed copy of "Spy in the House of Loud." Other area appearances include a ticketed performance on Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m. at McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince St., NYC, with Jane Scarpantoni and an interview by Rolling Stone's David Fricke; and a free event on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 21, at 1 p.m. at Rough Trade, 64 N. Ninth St., Williamsburg, with a musical performance by Stamey, bassist Matt Brandau, singer Lydia Kavanaugh, and guitarist Dave Schramm, followed by book signing.

• Indy Week
  https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/chris-stamey-chronicles-his-connections-to-north-carolina-and-new-york-in-a-new-song-inspired-memoir/Content?oid=13699564
  Word count: 1110

  Chris Stamey Chronicles His Connections to North Carolina and New York in a New Song-Inspired Memoir
  By Jim Allen
  Chris Stamey

  Photo by Gail Goers

  Chris Stamey
  CHRIS STAMEY
  Sunday, April 28, 5 p.m., free
  Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill
  www.flyleafbooks.com

  I definitely believe in monogamy, but not musical monogamy," says Chris Stamey about the fertile Winston-Salem rock scene of the late sixties and early seventies that marked his entry into music, alongside budding impresarios like Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. But the subject of his new book, A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories, covers Stamey's time transitioning from that world to the late seventies New York City punk and new wave underground.

  In addition to his long career as solo artist and producer, the book chronicles Stamey's work with The dB's and Big Star's Alex Chilton, not to mention the bands of his psychedelic youth. Stamey's spending the spring giving what he calls "musical readings" across North Carolina, as well as in New York and L.A. On May 12, he'll even reconvene a batch of the bands of his youth at Ramkat in Winston-Salem for a show that benefits American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. But A Spy in the House of Loud began as something else entirely. He first envisioned the project as a songbook that had New York as a central theme.

  "I thought, 'Well I don't want to have a restricted audience for this, I'll write something to go with the songs,'" Stamey says. "Like anything I've done, it took a lot of left turns. The annotations really took over the notation pretty quickly. I also found out that the two don't really go together. So I did the tough love thing and separated them out."

  Stamey's main goal in writing the memoir was not so much to document his career as to inspire creativity, to encourage others to stop reading and write their own songs. That kind of artistic enthusiasm was abundant in the Winston-Salem scene of the seventies that occupies the early part of the book. Stamey bounced from one group to another in a musical community he and his cohorts called "combo corner," playing with school pals like his future dB's bandmate Peter Holsapple and future Let's Active frontman and R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter.

  "There was a constant 'change partners.' There was a new band about week," Stamey says.

  Along with the garage-band fervor came a period of laboratory-like experimentation for him. He and Easterregularly teamed up to work on writing and recording, putting together their own four-track studio. Stamey says they spent a couple of years just figuring how to make records and writing songs; with those musical muscles built up, they continued to spawn new acts.

  In the later seventies, Easter joined Stamey in the seminal Sneakers, a prescient power-pop band with a punky edge. By 1977, Stamey had followed his muse to the center of the punk revolution, New York City. Things moved quickly. Stamey befriended Ork Records founder Terry Ork, who wanted to make a record with him. Ork asked for Stamey's help in recruiting a band for Alex Chilton, who came up from Tennessee to spend about a year in the city.

  After playing with Chilton for a spell, Stamey started his own label, Car Records, and Chilton suggested he release the first solo single by the other erstwhile Big Star singer-songwriter, Chris Bell. The track was the cult classic "I Am the Cosmos." Stamey remembers,

  "[Chilton] didn't have a tape of it, so he actually came over to my apartment and played and sang it for me," Stamey remembers. The song duly made its appearance on Stamey's imprint.

  In 1978, inspired by the electrifying New York scene, Stamey started the dB's, a New York-based band of fellow Winston-Salem expats: drummer Will Rigby, bassist Gene Holder, and eventually, Holsapple on vocals, guitars, and keys. The band's idiosyncratic blend of new wave and power pop made them a vital part of the NYC underground.

  "It was on the cusp of change, and no one knew where it was going," Stamey says. "That is always a wonderful place to be, when your eyes are open and you're not sure what's gonna happen. A lot of art blooms in those moments.

  After two critically lauded albums with The dB's, Stamey left the band in 1982, releasing his first solo album, It's a Wonderful Life, that same year. In addition to his own music, he began working as a producer and musician on recordings by others, including Pylon, Yo La Tengo, and The Golden Palominos. But in 1992, the Chapel Hill native moved back to the town of his birth, and eventually opened his own studio there, Modern Recording, which he operates to this day.

  From his Chapel Hill perch, Stamey has produced, engineered and mixed countless albums over the last couple of decades. But the man who produced Whiskeytown's first album reckons his production approach was informed by one of his best-known clients

  "I learned a lot of stuff from Ryan Adams, just his attitude and his clarity," Stamey says. "Every time I worked with Ryan it was, 'Let's do something real and great right now.' It wasn't like, 'Let's make a demo and then we're gonna think about it.' And it was inspiring."

  Stamey also credits his early New York experiences with influencing his studio approach. With Alex Chilton, he saw a skilled producer at work up close.

  "Maybe I would compare him to the way Wes Anderson is a film director. You've got the chops but you're really just gonna bend stuff to your vision. That was an education," Stamey says. Ultimately, he had to leave North Carolina and discover himself in New York in order to return more fully realized.

  "When I arrived in New York, I was thrilled to be there. There was such energy in the air," he recalls. "When I got back to North Carolina, and was living about a mile from where I was born, this sense of home became very strong, and a sense of being at rest. This is where I still feel like I belong, and I'm glad I went away in order to find that out. It's an incredible gift to be here."

  music@indyweek.com

  Tags: Music Feature, Chris Stamey, Winston-Salem, memoir

• Stomp and Stammer
  http://stompandstammer.com/book-reviews/a-spy-in-the-house-of-loud/
  Word count: 1378

  A Spy in the House of Loud
  John Sewell
  on May 16, 2018 at 12:59 pm

  A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories
  By Chris Stamey
  [University of Texas Press]

  The “hit” is something of an onus/craw-sticker for any musician of note – even when said “hit” is not really a hit, just a fan fave. A given artist’s fan base will form a death grip on a certain song, or album, even – and said fixation goes on, and on and on. The end result is that the fans expect the artist to play said song, or album, even, at every concert for all eternity. If the hit is “Lust for Life,” or even “Freebird,” well, fair enough: Iggy and Lynyrd Skynyrd, respectively, will smile, play the song, and reap their due adulation and whopping paychecks. But there are many times where the world plays cheap tricks on artists – and the artist, in suit, has to play along. For example, there’s a contingent of diehards at every Cheap Trick show clamoring to hear Cheap Trick’s cringe-inducing sellout track, “The Flame.” So, the members of Cheap Trick just buck up and play the damned thing – as they will continue to do for the rest of their days. C’est la vie and all that crap. Even fucking KISS bears the burden of “Beth” at every show. The customer is king.

  And here’s where the old art-versus-commerce thing comes in. Both “Lust for Life” and “The Flame” reaped (and continue to reap – in the present tense) filthy lucre for the artists. So even if the artists hate the song (I daresay Iggy doesn’t hate “Lust for Life” and the members of Cheap Trick at least kinda/sorta hate “The Flame”), there’s a rationalization for playing it. Then there are the lesser known artists who never had a hit (or the accompanying filthy lucre) whose fans nevertheless have expectations that the artist plays their death grip/fixation songs – even when the artist’s not necessarily crazy about them, at every concert for all eternity.

  For former dB’s auteur, Chris Stamey, there’s the bulk of the songs on The dB’s first album, Stands for Decibels, a work that “has not worn well for me [Stamey], frankly.” In fact, the whole “power pop” mantle has become something of a Sisyphean onus for Stamey, even though he’s considered, for better or for worse, a figurehead of the genre. I mean, if you look in the Webster’s Dictionary under “power pop,” there’s a picture of Stamey. (Well, not really. If there were a picture of an individual personifying power pop in the dictionary, it would probably be Saint Alex, or maybe The Knack’s Doug Fieger. I digress.)

  Stamey spends a goodly portion of his memoir, A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories, denouncing or at least deconstructing his legacy and the constrictions of what he defines “the power pop box.”

  Stamey writes: By the early eighties, power pop practitioners seemed to us [The dB’s] to be overly reverent of the past, with slight chips on their shoulders, a British gear fetish, and hair dryers at the ready. …We were too scruffy, too “disheveled,” and our tastes were too catholic. Some of the dB’s tracks could undoubtedly fit in that power-pop box, but for every one that did, another would be busy punching holes in the paper.

  Yeah, Stamey’s the power pop guy. And yeah, Stamey doesn’t necessarily like much of his beloved-by-fans, early ’80s material – or being classified as power pop. And yeah, it frustrates him when people want to hear those old songs again and again and again. I get it.

  Sorry, Chris, but people like your old stuff. And I’m also sorry, Chris, but power pop is what you’re really good at. Buck it up, get over it, and play “I’m in Love” one more time.

  House of Loud is a pretty cool book, yet another retelling of NYC’s fabled protopunk downtown scene – but this time the story is told from more of a southern-outsider-who-lives-uptown perspective. The problem, however, is that Stamey oftentimes tries too hard to prove how learned and urbane he is, lunging for a certain gravitas of sophistication and expertise that just barely exceeds his grasp.

  The book is laden with waaaaaay too much gearhead studio shop talk – and gearhead songwriting shop talk, too. Stamey continually blunders into conceptual cul de sacs with artsy fartsy pontifications likening his songwriting to William S. Burroughs’ cut-up technique and explaining how elements of the dB’s classic (power) pop nuggets were influenced by the compositions of Terry Riley, John Cage, Harry Partch, Stockhausen, and Charles Mingus. And throughout the book, Stamey tirelessly remind readers that he’s, like, a “real” musician who can write music and read charts and stuff. He claims he can play chord progressions on studio recordings as they are being played backwards. (Now, why on earth would anybody do that, anyway?) And there’s a baffling passage where Stamey claims that “although I had satisfied the requirements for a music degree at UNC Chapel Hill, I had never completed the swimming requirement [?] and a few other things.” (Granted, Stamey did complete a BA in Philosophy at NYU, which is no small potatoes.) And then there are the annoying bits where he uses the Italian term “tempi” for “tempos.” I mean, well, bitch, please. That Stamey tries so hard to convince readers he’s, like, a real intellectual who can capably use Italian words and stuff belies that he’s not as confident and cultured as he would like to be perceived. I mean, what the hell?

  In spite of the aforementioned self-aggrandizing windbaggery, Stamey’s a good prose writer, a sometimes-great musician (but not that good of a live performer), and a charming, erudite and truly cool guy. And there is a lot to like about House of Loud. Stamey has an interesting story to tell. There’s just something…well…a lot of things that are more than a bit grating about the book’s construction and delivery.

  House of Loud is broken into a series of chapter-long vignettes themed around his songs, peppered by “Jukebox” selections analyzing songs of other artists that were popular in NYC Clubland, circa early ’80s. (To his credit, Stamey acknowledges the pivotal importance of Pylon in one of the “Jukebox” sections.) The “songbook” format, unfortunately, erodes the cogence that a linear narrative would have yielded. I wish he would’ve just told his story from point A to point Z, toploading it with front-end info about his halcyon North Carolina-to-NYC daze with the dB’s and toning down the later stuff about his time as a member of the Golden Palominos, solo artist and producer. In other words, I wish Stamey would have just delivered the hits.

  Still, Stamey’s an interesting guy. While he was not exactly part of the punk thing in NYC ’77, he was there, on the periphery, working with other peripheral-to-punk artists (Chilton, Chris Bell, Mitch Easter, Richard Lloyd, Lester Bangs, and of course the dB’s), all of whom (except for Lester Bangs) laid ground for the burgeoning “college rock” thing which would later pay off in the form of massive radio hits for a certain Georgia band you might have heard of called R.E.M. Stamey’s story is a “southern thing” that could have only happened in New York, a form of creole, if you will. Stamey writes: Looking back, I think the dB’s ‘punk roots’ at the time were actually NRBQ and Richard Thompson as well as Television, and with a little of Peter’s faves Kid Creole and the Coconuts – not really very solid ripped shirt credentials.
  Categories
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  Alex Chilton
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  Singer-Songwriter
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