Out Now: Chris Stamey's music memoir, 'A Spy In The House of Loud'

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Press Release) — Popular music was in a creative upheaval in the late 1970s. As the singer-songwriter and producer Chris Stamey remembers, “the old guard had become bloated, cartoonish, and widely co-opted by a search for maximum corporate profits, and we wanted none of it.” In A Spy in the House of Loud, he takes us back to the auteur explosion happening in New York clubs such as the Bowery’s CBGB, as Television, Talking Heads, R.E.M., and other innovative bands were rewriting the rules. Just 22 years old and newly arrived from North Carolina, Stamey immersed himself in the action, playing a year with Alex Chilton before forming the dB’s and recording the albumsStands for deciBels and Repercussion, which still have an enthusiastic following.

A Spy in the House of Loud vividly captures the energy that drove the music scene as arena rock gave way to punk and other new streams of electric music. There are engrossing backstories about creating in the recording studio, as well as insights into other people’s music and the process of songwriting. Photos, mixer-channel and track assignment notes, and other inside-the-studio materials illustrate the stories. A Spy in the House of Loud reads like a Mozart in the Jungle for indie rock, depicting a Southern artist’s coming-of-age in a New York scene that has been stereotyped as all punk rock, safety pins, and provocation. Stamey’s book shows another side of the CBGB era, as he searches for new ways to break the rules and make some noise. 

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A Spy in the House of Loud is available for sale or order from your favorite bookseller. 

Book Tour Events, 2018

In and around New York
Date: April 19
Time: 7 p.m. 
Place: McNally Jackson Bookstore (Soho, NYC), musical performance and reading event, free; with guest cellist Jane Scarpantoni and an interview by David Fricke 

Date: April 20
Time: 7 p.m. 
Place: Little City Books (Hoboken, NJ) musical performance and reading event; with guests Jane Scarpantoni and Dave Schramm. $30 ticket price includes a signed copy of the book. 

Date: April 21
Time: 1 p.m. 
Place: Rough Trade (Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY) for Record Store Day, musical performance with Matt Brandau, bass; Lydia Kavanagh, harmonies; and Dave Schramm, guitar; free, followed by book signing. 

In North Carolina
Date: April 15
Time: 2 p.m. 
Place: Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh), musical performance and reading event, free; with guests Leah Gibson, cello; Peter Holsapple, guitar and Wurly; and Karen Galvin, violin. With an interview by David Menconi. 

Date: April 28
Time: 5 p.m. 
Place: Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill), musical performance with strings and reading event as part of Independent Bookstore Day; free. 

Date: May 12
Time: 8 p.m. 
Place: the Ramkat (Winston-Salem), “Yesterday's Tomorrow: Winston’s Psychedelic 60s and Beyond,” a concert based on the book, with sets by Sacred Irony, Rittenhouse Square, Sneakers, Little Diesel, and the Imperturbable Teutonic Griffin and songs by Captain Speed and the Fungi Electric Mothers, Arrogance, and the “5” Royales. Guest appearances galore, including Don Dixon, Peter Holsapple, Mitch Easter, and Will Rigby.

Date: May 13
Time: 3 p.m. 
Place: Bookmarks (Winston-Salem), musical performance and reading; free.

Date: May 19
Time: 8:30 p.m. 
Place: Greensboro Bound Literary Festival, Greensboro Project Space, musical performance and reading, with interview by Eddie Huffman; free. 

Date: June 18
Time: 6 p.m. 
Place: Malaprop’s Bookstore (Asheville), musical performance and reading, free. 
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In Los Angeles
Date: June 9
Time: 5 p.m. 
Place: Book Soup (WeHo), musical performance and reading; free. 

Date: June 10,  
Time: 11 p.m. 
Place: The Federal Bar (NoHo) as part of the Mimosa Series, musical performance and reading; free, with book signing to follow.