The Cosmopolitans - Chevy Baby - 1981
from 2006 Bacchus Archives CD "Wild Moose Party: New Wave Pom Pom Girls Gone Go-Go, NYC 1980-1981"

It's a tragic twist on the usual tale. Southern artists head for the bright lights of Manhattan to seek success in the court of culture but dream is cut short just on verge of fulfilment.

Jamie K. Sims of Asheville, who played in a high school psychedelic band, met future dB's Chris Stamey and Will Rigby at UNC, forming a modern dance ensemble including Rigby (doesn't get to move around too much behind his drum kit). Sims headed to NYC with Stamey into the maelstrom of the legendary late '70s CBGBs scene and hooked up with Nel Moore of Wilmington to revive the Cosmopolitan Dance Troop (with appearances by Stamey).

Troop struggled through the modern dance world, getting kicks on the side performing as go go dancers during dBs and Fleshtones gigs, then performed a song of their own at CBGBs and were an immediate hit. The renamed Cosmopolitans start playing the clubs, singing and dancing with drum (often Rigby) and tape backing, then headed back to NC to Mitch Easter's new home studio to lay down three tracks for a demo tape with backing from Easter, Faye Hunter and even Mitch's mother Lib and help from Don Dixon and Stamey.

Sims' neighbor just happened to be Shake Records label founder Alan Betrock, who loved the tape and turned it "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy"/"Wild Moose Party" into a hit single with NYC radio stations and college stations elsewhere. Sims and Moore added more musicians and headed out on tour and started work on an album.... But then Sims was diagnosed with chronic Epstein Barr infection and the band abruptedly called it a day.

25 years later, the Cosmos' single is suddenly out on CD along with a bunch of never released studio and live tracks ("Chevy Baby" appeared on B-side of British release of the single). Both Sims and Moore still play music and talk of a reunion is in the works. It's a wacky world. Buy the disk!

Posted by: Zach Coleman

Faye Hunter - Blinded - 1988
from Water Music Records, The Water Music Compilation Album LP

Faye Hunter was part of the same Winston-Salem high school crowd as Mitch Easter and the dB's, apparently the one female in the lot and perhaps naturally the focus of a lot of male attention. By the time Easter organized Let's Active, Hunter was his girlfriend as well as sharing lead vocals and playing bass.

Hunter broke a lot of hearts during her tenure with Let's Active. A reviewer citing knowledgeable sources says the dB's song "Never Before" is about the Hunter-Easter relationship. The high school classmate of mine who introduced me to the club scene had his eyes on marrying Faye not least because they already shard the same surname. (Personally I was more taken by bassist Kitty Moses of the X-Teens...)

Hunter left Let's Active and broke up with Easter after the debut album Cypress. She toured with Chris Stamey for a while and played backup on some of his recordings as well as tracks laid down by Marshall Crenshaw and the Windbreakers (both while Easter was producing), but this track seems to be the only thing she's ever released under her own name.

She's backed here by three members of the dB's (Jeff Beninato, Will Rigby and Gene Holder), future solo success Amy Rigby (Will's ex wife), Janet Wygal and Mary Mac.

Posted by: Zach Coleman