The Split Squad

Chris Stamey (the dBs) and Johnny Leitera (Tuff Sunshine)

Presented by: The Oxted Sessions

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0	OXTED: Hurst Green Community Centre
P	Sunday 29th October, 2023
N	5:00pm

Event information

This is the story of five men who’ve been there and done that – from the Bowery to the Arctic Circle, from countless dive bars to one of the landmarks of baseball – and when they had done
it all, well, they went out and did it again. And again after that. And when they finally stopped to catch their breaths, they saw each other and said let’s get together ... and do it again!

The Split Squad, founded in 2011, is one of the finest all-star teams you might never have heard before. They don’t get together too often, as, hey, they have these other gigs, too. But when they do unite, watch out! Five fingers of a closed fist.

Now they’re back with Another Cinderella, their first full-length album since their 2013 debut, Now Hear This… (In between was 2018’s The Showstopper EP, which spawned an Underground Garage Coolest Song in the World, “Stop Me (If You’ve Heard This One Before)”.)

This generation of Cinderella Men can take a punch and give one back that’s just as hard, if not harder. And they skillfully mix up a variety of punches. They come to the center of the ring in a hurry and a flurry of relentless power-pop beats (“Hey DJ,” “Another Cinderella” and “Sinking Ship”), rope-a-dope with some deep-fried blues (“Palpitation Blues”), counter with psychedelia (“Taxi Cab” and “Bigger Than Heroin”), then unload a romper-stomper (“Invisible Lightning”), assault you with a combo of late-‘60s-style soulful rock (“Showstopper” and “Trying to Get Back to My Baby”), a jab of ‘70s hard rock (“Not My Monkeys”), set you up with a gentle ballad (“As Bright as You Are”) before catching you and sending you to the canvas with a full-on uppercut to the jaw (“Hey (Soul) DJ”). A TKO.

So who are these bare-knuckled stars of the musical ring, anyway? Let’s go to their corner:

Keith Streng: One of the four handsomest guys in rock’n’roll, an uncrowned king of pop and soul, Keith and his glitter boots have trod on stages all over the globe the past four and a half decades as the guitarist and co-founder of one of the most enduring bands of all, The Fleshtones. These days, he also can be found recording with other acts, from Radio Birdman legend Deniz Tek to Swedish garage fiends Stupidity, Strengsbrew, and The Master Plan.

Clem Burke: The band’s resident legend. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer, and Blondie founding member, is still bashing away with the same passion, fury and timing he’s had since before he first walked into a Blondie rehearsal session. Constantly moving and always playing, Clem is still highly in demand as a session musician, having worked in the past with Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, The Eurythmics, and more recently with The Tearaways, The Rockats, and Echo & The Bunnymen.

Michael Giblin: Working from his laboratory deep in the center of Pennsylvania, Mr. Giblin, the well-dressed bass player, singer, keyboardist, producer and connoisseur of fine cuisine, is the glue that keeps the band together and the fuel that keeps it moving ahead. A member of ‘90s power-popsters Cherry Twister, he assembled The Split Squad after his current band, Parallax Project, encountered the other band members on various tours and recording projects. He also has a pretty extensive career as a sideman bassist, having recorded and/or performed with The Minus 5, Dan Kibler, Peter Buck, John Wesley Harding, and many others. Michael has also recently seen his stock rise as a producer and engineer, having his hand on new releases from The Fleshtones, Dan Kibler, The Cynz, and Stupidity.

Kurt Bloch: Long regarded as one of the secret architects of the Seattle music scene from his days in The Fastbacks (cited as a big influence by no less than Kurt Cobain), Kurt has gone on to leave his mark on the music of The Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5, Alejandro Escovedo, Filthy Friends, and countless others. A highwire act of the first order on guitar, Kurt’s unique blend of precision and chaos, as well as his keen ears as an engineer and producer, have made him one of the most revered figures of the American Underground.

Josh Kantor: How many people in the biz can say they played with four Rock and Roll Hall-of Famers (Clem, Peter Buck and Mike Mills of R.E.M. and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin) and at least one future Baseball Hall-of-Famer (and maybe more)? When not playing with The Split Squad or The Baseball Project, Josh is the longtime organist extraordinaire for the Red Sox. Yes, those Red Sox, the ones up in Boston. From his perch at Fenway, Josh dishes out arguably the wildest array of songs in the history of the game, many by request, and has been on board for three World Series titles.


Opening the show will be Chris Stamey (The dBs) and Johnny Leitera (Tuff Sunshine).

Chris Stamey

Chris Stamey burst onto the scene in 1976, with the self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American “indie” records. The following year, he relocated to Manhattan to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB rock scene, then formed The dB’s with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made several acclaimed records of original material, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt).

During the next decade and a half in New York, Stamey worked with a wide variety of musicians. He recorded well-received solo records for A&M and Warners, and was a part of Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos project, alongside an international touring cast that included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), Carla Bley, and Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, George Clinton).

His recent releases include The Great Escape, Lovesick Blues and Euphoria, as well as Falling Off the Sky with The dB’s and A Brand-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Travelers. As a producer and a featured singer/songwriter with 2023’s Paris-based Salt Collective project, he collaborated with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Juliana Hatfield, Richard Lloyd (Television), Matthew Sweet,Peter Holsapple and Susan Cowsill, among others.

As a producer, arranger,and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Ryan Adams, Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, Those Pretty Wrongs, and Yo La Tengo.

From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Third, alongside Big Star’s Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Friends, a concert film of these arrangements, was released by Concord in March 2017.

A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018, followed in 2019 by his first printed collection, New Songs for the 20th Century, with a companion two-disk CD (Omnivore Recordings).

Johnny Leitera

Johnny Leitera is a NYC/Maine-based musician who tours both solo and with a band as Tuff Sunshine.

He attended uni at the University of Sheffield, has toured the UK several times, and his music has been lauded by Louder Than War, American Songwriter, PopMatters, The Big Takeover, and The New York Times, among other

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