Mitch Easter – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E17: Chris Stamey

Chris Stamey is one of the leading figures of American indie rock as we know it. Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Stamey grew up in Winston-Salem and earned a degree in philosophy from NYU. While living in New York, Stamey became the bass player for Alex Chilton’s band for around a year and released a 1978 by another Big Star alum Chris Bell on his own Car Records imprint with “I Am the Cosmos” and “You and Your Sister.” Around that time he formed The dB’s with Peter Holsapple. That band’s jangle guitar and post-punk sensibilities in terms of literary lyrics and willingness to write emotionally complex songs made it a favorite of college radio throughout the 1980s before splitting in 1988 (though back together since 2005). Stamey is renowned for his production and his credits would be too long to list. For example perhaps unexpectedly he produced the first two Le Tigre records and Pylon’s classic 1983 album Chomp. Simply put indie rock and pop bears the hallmarks of Stamey’s work directly on indirectly for decades. He has played in numerous bands during the course of his lifetime including a short stint in Let’s Active with his friend and also legendary producer Mitch Easter and he has had an acclaimed solo career as well.

Stamey’s latest long player Anything Is Possible released via Label 51 Recordings on July 11 on 12” LP vinyl (out August 8, 2025), CD, digital download and on streaming. The new record Stamey says “is a love letter to the kind of harmonically rich yet often lyrically innocent pop music I heard, on the family turntable and especially on AM radio, growing up in the late 50s and mid-60s in the American South.” With contributions from Tthe Lemon Twigs, Mitch Easter, Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Marshall Crenshaw among other luminaries of modern music the album has the sophisticated and sonically detailed pop songcraft that Stamey has perfected across a lifetime. Shades of Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson can be heard throughout the album supported by Stamey’s knack for fusing texture and tone into the kinds of pop hooks and moods that linger with you.

Listen to our interview with Chris Stamey on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below.

chrisstamey.com

Chris Stamey on Apple Music

Chris Stamey on YouTube

Chris Stamey on Instagram

Chris Stamey on Bluesky

Chris Stamey on Facebook

Chris Stamey on Twitter

Chris Stamey on Deezer

Chris Stamey on TIDAL

Chris Stamey on qoboz

Chris Stamey on Audiomack

Chris Stamey on Amazon Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E39: Paul Chastain of The Small Square

The Small Square, photo from farmtolabelrecord.com

The Small Square is the duo of mult-instrumentalist and vocalist Paul Chastain and drummer, percussionist and vocalist John Louis Richardson. The project released its self-titled album in 2015 and in 2023 following the reissue of that record, the new album Ours & Others dropped on October 31 via Farm to Label Records on digital download, on streaming platforms and CD. Fans of classic power pop like Big Star and the psychedelically tinged pop rock of The Paisley Underground will find much to like about what Chastain and Richardson have been crafting together. Chastain, some may know as the songwriter and co-founder of power pop band Velvet Crush that enjoyed critical and commercial success in the indie rock circles of the early-to-mid-90s before the group split for a couple of years in 1996 and reforming in 1998. Velvet Crush worked with in studio and live with Matthew Sweet, Mitch Easter, Roger McGuinn, Susanna Hoffs and Tommy Keene and in recent years has been one of the undersung acts of the alternative rock era. Its 1993 album Teenage Symphonies was reissued on vinyl in 2023 to mark its 30 year anniversary.

Chastain and Richardson recorded the new album at the latter’s Drum Farm Studio where the unique and differing musical roots and ideas have been fruitful in bringing a freshness and energy to the creative process. With contributions from Adam Ollendorf (lap steel, 12 string guitar), R. Walt Vincent (bass, keyboards, engineering) and the band Shoes, Ours & Others is a sonically rich and at times orchestral collection of vibrant songs and while most fit in that classic power pop sensibility that has rendered the aforementioned so re-listenable over the years there are songs (for example “Insta,” “Days In” and “Baby Face”) that are more experimental in their incorporation of synths and unconventional song structures. It all gives the album a depth of songwriting and emotional expression not common enough in modern pop music.

Listen to our interview with Paul Chastain on Bandcamp and follow The Small Square at the links below.

The Small Square on Instagram

The Small Square on Facebook

The Small Square on YouTube

The Small Square on Farm to Label Records

smallsquaremusic.com

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E34: Bark

Bark is a rock duo based in Water Valley, Mississippi comprised of Susan Bauer Lee (drums and vocals) and Tim Lee (Fender VI bass and vocals) . It’s sound is akin to the kind of imaginative yet zesty power pop and jangle rock one heard in the 80s among artists out of The Paisley Underground, C86, Flying Nun Records and the various projects in which Mitch Easter and Chris Stamey were involved. In fact, Tim Lee was a touring member of foundational indie pop band Let’s Active when it was supporting the release of Cypress (1984). Prior to that Tim was a member of The Windbreakers and later on Swimming Pool Q’s. In 2021 Tim published his memoir of his time as a touring and recording musician as I Saw a Dozen Faces…and I rocked them all: The Diary of a Never Was. It recounts the story of a musician who experienced success and played in important bands but never quite became a household name and yet there are significant stories of American cultural history in the tales Tim relates. For the past two decades Susan and Tim toured with both Bark and Tim Lee 3. The band’s latest album Loud dropped on September 5 on 12” vinyl LP, CD and digital download via Dial Back Sound/Cool Dog Sound. The record is a looking back on being a band in recent years and the joys and foibles of being touring musicians with some choice cultural Easter eggs in the various references made to enhance and deepen the meaning and impact of the songs. Also on the record is poetic and sage social commentary that reveal Bark’s collective sensitivity to the challenges all of us seem to face in the world as we know it now.

Listen to our interview with Bark on Bandcamp and follow Bark at the links below.

Elegy’s Jangle Pop Single “Mississippi” is a Song For Anyone That Has Ever Felt Penned in by All Too Familiar Places

As Elegy’s “Mississippi” begins one is reminded of classic 1980s power pop with the guitar jangle and vocals that are strong on emotion and texture if slightly rough around the edges in a way that is often more compelling than something more in the pocket of mainstream pop. The title of the song suggests it might be about a place but really the song is about a memory that a place may bring strongly to mind. This one about a time long ago about a time when someone you once trusted betrayed it by working to get you to question yourself and your own self-worth and the spirited resistance to that kind of behavior. It’s a song in which a certain place brings back these memories and ties it to a sense of needing to break free of old habits, patterns and associations in order to live with joy and integrity. Fans of records produced by Mitch Easter will appreciate the feel and songwriting style and how it transcends the specificity of time and place and speaks to relatable experiences for anyone who has felt like the place they’re from is too small and provincial whether in the titular Mississippi or New York. Listen to “Mississippi” on YouTube and follow Elegy at the links below.

Elegy on TikTok