Home Read Classic Album Review: The Chris Stamey Experience | A Question of Temperature

Classic Album Review: The Chris Stamey Experience | A Question of Temperature

This came out in 2005 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


Music geeks will know Chris Stamey from ’80s jangle-pop outfits like The Sneakers and The dBs — or more recently, as producer of bands such as Whiskeytown and Yo La Tengo.

On his latest solo disc A Question of Temperature — his second in a year after a lengthy drought — Stamey delivers the best of both worlds (and gets in touch with his inner rocker to boot). Enlisting Yo La Tengo and some other pals, Stamey bashes out a 15-song set that alternates between his own twangy melodies, a few soothing lullabies, some left-field covers of Tom Verlaine and Tift Merritt, and — best of all — blistering garage-band versions of ’60s classics like Cream’s Politician, The YardbirdsShapes of Things and Les McCann’s Compared to What. Reflective of his political dissatisfaction, some of these cuts were issued as an EP last fall in a bid to rock the vote. Clearly, they didn’t. But listening to Stamey crank up and vent his frustration is guaranteed to rock your world.