Press launch –
Modernism is the most recent assortment from North Carolina songwriter / vocalist / guitarist / producer Chris Stamey. Conceived as a companion piece to 2025’s lauded Something Is Attainable, the brand new album is an extra “love letter” to the kaleidoscopic number of music heard on AM and free-form FM radio within the Sixties and early 70s, and options lots of his favourite songs from that period. The title is a wink and a nod to the truth that it was made primarily at Trendy Recording (Chapel Hill, NC). Modernism is being launched by Flatiron Recordings on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital obtain and streaming companies on June 19.
It options new variations of basic songs such because the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog” (with Massive Star’s Jody Stephens on drums), the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sundown” (with the dB’s), and Sly and the Household Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (that includes the Uptown Horns, Brian Dennis [DAG], and Jon Wurster [Mountain Goats, Superchunk]). Deep cuts are additionally in proof, together with “Shadows Breaking Over My Head” by the Left Banke (with Brian Wilson Band alums Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg), “Hernando’s Hideaway” (from The Pajama Recreation, and a 1954 hit for Everly Bros. producer Archie Bleyer), “At Final” (by Harry Warren), in addition to three new interpretations of his personal earlier tunes. There’s additionally a better of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” a model produced by Alex Chilton in 1977. The unique combine is now misplaced, however a captivating instrumental tough combine on an outdated reel-to-reel analog tape (Alex on drums and guitar) was lately found, and Chris and Pat Sansone (Wilco, Autumn Protection) had been in a position to change the lacking vocals and (with Don Dixon’s bowed bass and Rachel Kiel’s alto recorder) deliver the monitor to life.
“This report was a blast to make,” Chris studies. “ I had come again from touring with renewed confidence in my very own enjoying, and realized I’d been counting on a few of my associates’ huge chops for thus lengthy within the studio that I’d forgotten how a lot enjoyable it was to groove alongside on guitar and bass myself.”
Though a bevy of charismatic drummers are on board, together with Jody Stephens, Jon Wurster, Mitch Easter, Alex Chilton, and Will Rigby, greater than half of the tracks had been lower with session ace Rob Ladd (Alanis Morrisette, the Connells) within the chair. “I’ve been the beneficiary of Rob Ladd’s drumming experience throughout many reside gigs over the past decade. We met up one October day to revisit a few of these reside preparations—in hopes of discovering ‘just a few’ so as to add to a deluxe model of ‘Waterloo Sundown’ that the dB’s had lower with me some time again. After all there are such a lot of nice songs on the market: on a distinct day, it might need been a very completely different report.”
Chris is an indie-rock icon with an extended and illustrious historical past that’s encompassed co-founding seminal avant-pop band the dBs, enjoying with Alex Chilton within the 70s and extra lately with Jody Stephens’s Massive Star Quintet and the all-star smart-pop outfit the Salt Collective. The brand new album options particular visitors akin to Jody Stephens (Massive Star), Pat Sansone (Wilco), long-time cohort Mitch Easter, Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg (previously of the Brian Wilson band), The dB’s, NC legend Wes Lachot, and Emily Frantz (Watchhouse), amongst others. And the solo on “Waterloo Sundown” is by Peter Holsapple. Modernism is being launched on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital obtain, and streaming platforms on Might 1, preceded on April 18 by a 7” colored-vinyl 45 of “Waterloo Sundown,” with a nonalbum B Aspect of a track by Paul McCartney, “Goodbye,” first recorded by Mary Hopkin.
Presale hyperlinks: https://ffm.to/stameymodernismcdv.OPR
BIO
Chris Stamey started writing and enjoying music in grade college in Winston-Salem, NC, within the mid Sixties, in what is thought now because the Combo Nook scene. In 1976, whereas learning music composition at UNC-Chapel Hill, he self-released Sneakers, one of many very first American “indie” information. The next yr, he relocated to Manhattan to play and report with Alex Chilton within the burgeoning CBGB rock scene, then shaped The dB’s with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made a number of acclaimed information of authentic materials, together with Stands for deciBels (self-produced with Alan Betrock) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt).
In the course of the subsequent decade and a half in New York, Stamey labored with all kinds of musicians. He recorded well-received solo information for A&M and Warners and was part of Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos undertaking, alongside a global touring forged that included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), Carla Bley, and Bernie Worrell (Speaking Heads, George Clinton). He continued recording and producing upon returning to NC in 1993.
His current releases embody The Nice Escape, Lovesick Blues and Euphoria, in addition to Falling Off the Sky with The dB’s and A Model-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Vacationers. As a producer and a featured singer/songwriter with the Paris-based Salt Collective undertaking, he collaborated with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Juliana Hatfield, Richard Lloyd (Tv), Matthew Candy, Aimee Mann, Andy Partridge, The Lemon Twigs, Mike Mills, and Lynn Blakey, amongst others. As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has labored with over 100 artists, together with Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, These Fairly Wrongs, Ryan Adams, and Yo La Tengo.
From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for a global collection of live performance performances of Massive Star’s basic album Third, alongside Massive Star’s Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, Kronos Quartet and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Pals, a live performance movie of those preparations, was launched by Harmony in March 2017. He presently excursions as a member of Jody Stephens’s Massive Star Quintet, whose line-up contains Mike Mills (R.E.M), Pat Sansone (Wilco), and Jon Auer (Posies). His authentic radio musical concerning the early ’60s in Manhattan, Occasional Shivers, premiered nationwide on Christmas Day 2016. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy within the Home of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was printed in 2018, adopted in 2019 by his first printed assortment, New Songs for the twentieth Century, with a companion two-disc CD (Omnivore Recordings).
