V.O.T.E. was a limited release in October of 2004 that saw a much wider, slightly altered official release (including four additional tracks) in January of 2005 as
A Question of Temperature by
the Chris Stamey Experience. With a public service announcement as the title and lead track (the jingle is relegated to a bonus track on the newer release),
V.O.T.E. was one of many attempts by the rock & roll community to help get the vote out in the 2004 presidential election. While it may not have been successful in its unstated goal of unseating the incumbent (
Stamey claimed
V.O.T.E. stood for "Very Obvious Total Emergency" in press releases), it certainly left an impact on
Stamey's catalog. With generous help from
Yo La Tengo -- with whom
Stamey first collaborated in 1987 on the band's sophomore effort, New Wave Hot Dogs -- and other key contributors like
Caitlin Cary, keyboard wizard Tyson Rogers, and
Stamey's former
dB's bandmate
Gene Holder,
V.O.T.E. features a broader, harder-hitting sound than
Stamey's previous recorded solo fare. The first half of the record is given over to covers, including Vietnam-era corkers like
Cream's "Politician" and
the Yardbirds' "Shape of Things." These classic rock warhorses share billing with chiming pop gems more typical of
Stamey, including a worthy re-recording of his 1978 single "Summer Sun" and an almost-as-gorgeous one-take-only version of
Television's flawless "Venus." But it's
Yo La Tengo that provide most of the musical muscle via their particular pastiche of melody and dissonance, which is precisely what
Stamey had in mind from the outset (the pre-
Stamey Experience record is officially credited to
Chris Stamey with
Yo La Tengo). The
YLT signature sound seeps into almost every song, in fact, nowhere more so than on
Stamey's "McCauley Street (Let's Go Downtown)." A ten-minute-plus voyage written with his former New Jersey neighbors in mind, it unfurls as adventurously as any of
Yo La Tengo's own classic feedback-happy marathons. To his credit,
Stamey sounds as comfortable yowling in front of the rock band as he does cooing one of the gentler cuts, and
V.O.T.E./
A Question of Temperature serves as a nice foil for his more demure and twangy solo pop constructions. Recorded primarily in one three-day August 2004 session,
Stamey's record is a worthy addition (in either incarnation) for fans of both bands. ~ John Schacht