Sneakers

Before Chris Stamey and Will Rigby formed the dB’s, and before Mitch Easter produced R.E.M. or formed Let’s Active, they all worked together in the short-lived but seminal North Carolina band Sneakers. They only stayed together long enough to release one EP and one full-length album in the late 1970s, but their offhand mix of power pop and jangle rock helped create a template that would be followed by scores of other bands in the early '80s. In 2007, the band’s catalog finally entered the digital age with a comprehensive anthology.