The dB's: Falling Off the Sky

In terms of the grand musical historiography, a dB’s resurgence is around par with that Feelies reunion in terms of pure necessity. A mostly forgotten group of oddball innovators with two albums of slick, power-pop firepower breathlessly adored in record-clerk circles—it felt like a flashbang even at their prime. They rolled loose and liquid out of North Carolina, specializing in indelible, insect-reflex guitar hooks out of the forever-frantic Peter Holsapple. Candy-coated jams like “Black and White” still reverberate, quite possibly because they were the finest examples of pop genius that their Southeastern beatnik crew had to offer. R.E.M. ain’t got...  read more