The new label Propeller Sound Recordings next month will release a 23-song compilation of rare and obscure early material from jangle-pop progenitors The dB’s, a collection that will include remastered early singles, demos and live recordings.
The compilation, titled I Thought You Wanted to Know: 1978–1981, will be released Oct. 15 as a single CD, a 2LP vinyl set and digitally. It’s available for pre-order now in a variety of bundles.
The new set pulls together material from the earliest days of The dB’s, after the original lineup of singer-songwriter/guitarists Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, bassist Gene Holder and drummer Will Rigby coalesced. Holsapple, in the announcement of the project, calls the music the “home and field recordings of the dB’s.”
“I think that I Thought You Wanted to Know shows an important phase of the band, the stuff we were playing when we first got together in New York that we honed our sound on,” Holsapple said. “It was a great time to be young North Carolina transplants in a band in Manhattan, eyes wide open and charged with electric energy!”
The compilation is the first in a projected series dB’s releases by Propeller Sound Recordings, a new label founded by former R.E.M. manager Jefferson Holt, who has a longtime association with The dB’s, and partner Jay Coyle.
Holsapple adds: “We’re hoping to present the entire catalog of the band to the modern listening public in improved editions that will feature lots of extras, and in formats like vinyl. It’s important to us to make sure that The dB’s’ recorded body of work get an esthetically appealing treatment that reflects its validity decades after it was originally released.”
Below, check out the full tracklist, and listen to early versions of “Bad Reputation” and “Tell Me Two Times.”
The dB’s, I Thought You Wanted to Know: 1978–1981
1. “(I Thought) You Wanted to Know” (2021 Remix)
2. “Black and White” (Don Dixon Version)
3. “Soul Kiss”
4. “Bad Reputation” (NY Rocker Sessions)
5. “If and When” (Westbeth Sessions)
6. “The Fight” (NY Rocker Sessions)
7. “Nothing Is Wrong” (NY Rocker Sessions)
8. “Dynamite” (NY Rocker Sessions)
9. “We Should Be in Bed” (Westbeth Sessions)
10. “Ash” (Westbeth Sessions)
11. “You Got It Wrong” (NY Rocker Sessions)
12. “Everytime Anytime” (NY Rocker Sessions)
13. “Death Garage” (Live)
14. “What About that Cat?” (NY Rocker Sessions)
15. “Tell Me Two Times” (NY Rocker Sessions)
16. “What’s the Matter with Me?” (NY Rocker Sessions)
17. “She’s Green I’m Blue” (NY Rocker Sessions)
18. “Time Has Come Today” (Live)
19. “My Sire Wristwatch” (Live)
20. “Let’s Live for Today” (NY Rocker Sessions)
21. “Tomorrow Never Knows” (Live)
22. “My Back Pages” (Live)
23. “Goin’ to the Club” (NY Rocker Sessions w/ New Vocal)
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Free MP3: Chris Stamey of The dB’s, ‘Astronomy’ — first track off ‘Lovesick Blues’ LP
- The dB’s to release ‘Falling Off the Sky,’ first album in 25 years, this June, play SXSW
- Free MP3: The dB’s, ‘Revolution of the Mind’ — ‘Falling Off the Sky’ album coming in 2012
- Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey of the dB’s release ‘Here and Now,’ announce tour
Some of this material looks like it overlaps with “Ride The Wild Tom Tom”, the odds ‘n’ sods collection from Rhino in the 90s. Love the dBs though, and look forward to quality re-releases of their proper albums.