Most of the bonus material is on the same sweet level as Red, two stand-outs being "The Perfect Stranger," which has the kinda wuzzy harmonies Stamey would stretch even further in his solo work, and "Be My Ambulance," a proto-psychedelic song that you can imagine the Soft Boys recording. Of course, you get a coupla goofy throwaway tracks: in this case, a brief instrumental snippet of a more explicit faux spy theme ("Mark Peril Theme") and what appears to be a radio spot for B&G Pies, which sounds like a throwback to the days when bands like Shadows of Knight used to churn out radio jingles for potato chips or the "sold-out" Who sang about "Coke after Coke after Coke." "Love's Like A Cuban Crisis" even shows up in its original demo form, more simply entitled "Love that Girl" after its hooky chorus.
This is probably not the disc to introduce neophytes to either the sounds of the dB's or Let's Active. For that, I'd recommend the two Collectors Choice reissues of Decibels/Repercussion and Cypress/Afoot (though if you also happen upon the CD reissue of the Peter Holsapple-led deeBs, Like This, I'd advise you to snap it up, if only for "Spy in the House of Love"). But for those who've kept the chorus to "Ask for Jill" and "Make Up with Me" in their head for decades now, Nonsequitur of Silence is a revelation: a sign of greater things to come and a purty sweet deal all by itself. As the lads themselves croon, this is what I dig . . .
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
I'm swooning already--thanks for the reminders. The dB's "Like This" made my top ten of 2006's best reissues.
2 - Bill Sherman
After getting the above posted, I received the following message from dB's/Sneakers drummer Will Rigby:
"Saturday [January 13] brings the first appearance by Sneakers since 1976. The dB's play Bowery Ballroom in NYC with Mitch Easter opening, and orig Sneakers bassist Robert Keely is coming up and we're going to try to get through a handful of tunes..."
As Will notes, this will be the first public appearance by the original band since the mid-seventies (Stamey & Easter made an appearance at a Winston-Salem record store in the early 90's to promote an earlier reissue of Sneakers material entitled Racket, but the rest of the group wasn't involved). Sounds like it could be fun or a mess or both...
Me, I'm still reeling over the news that the dB's are back playing together...
3 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Absolutely--what a great message to get.