Search - Tribute to the Db's :: Stand-Ins for Decibels-Tribute to the Db's

Must-have for dB's fans, and not bad for others...

Mr. Chips | Columbia, MO USA | 12/28/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As someone who was a young man when the dB's were hitting their stride, rock and roll left me behind about the time the Pixies broke up. Some of the musicians here -- Don Dixon, Steve Almaas, Bobby Sutliff, Tim Lee -- are of the same generation as the dB's, while the rest are likely young enough to be their/my kids.



To be honest, I've never even heard of most of the bands on here, but it's fascinating to hear the sonic and emotional slants they've given these classic power pop songs. Female renditions of songs like "Cycles per second" and "Moving in your sleep" are really refreshing. Especially evocative is Jill Olson's rendition of "Lonely is as lonely does." "Working for somebody else" is effective as a duet, and "Amplifier" as rendered by Matt Keating becomes ferociously desolate as an acoustic ballad about suicide. "Nothing is wrong" is redone as an uptempo bluegrassy mandolin-dominated number, while "She got soul" by The injured parties gets a garage treatment, like something by the Sonics or the Standells.



Other renditions can't help but display their affection for the Holsapple and Stamey originals. "If and when" by Spike Priggen reprises Stamey's great guitar break; "Storm warning" expands the samba treatment on the original, but exchanges a trumpet solo for the flute. Other cuts -- "Think too hard," "Big Brown eyes," Molly says," Love is for lovers" -- are boy-band approaches that can't seem to escape the mold of the originals, even while the vocals and instrumentation have a more modern sound. This is not a criticism -- rather, one gets the feeling that the young bands didn't want to try to improve upon the originals, that it didn't occur to them to do so, because the originals sounded so good to them. I would be interested to know how the bands were contacted to play on this album, why they chose the songs they did, and what the dB's legacy means to them.



This record will mostly be of interest to dB's fans, but it's a solid little album either way. I like to think that a new generation of young fans will be turned on to the dB's as they seek music by their favorite young bands on this album. It works the other way around too; I will definitely be checking out Jill Olson's stuff."