Some bands are hugely popular with fans while other musicians will turn up their noses.

The dB’s, however, are one of those influential groups beloved by other bands and musicians, but that have never managed to sell millions of records.

Formed in New York City’s incredibly fertile music scene in the late 1970s by musicians from North Carolina, the quartet’s melodic power pop inspired many bands that followed and that found much bigger success, including the likes of R.E.M., with which The dB’s Peter Holsapple long toured as a supporting musician (he served in the same role with Hootie & the Blowfish).

To coincide with the reissue of the group’s second album – 1982’s “Repercussion,” due out Oct. 18 on Propeller Sound Recordings – The dB’s (Chris Stamey, Will Rigby, Peter Holsapple and Gene Holder) have reunited and hit the road and will play Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave., Saturday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $30 and Milwaukee’s own Terry Alan Hackbarth opens.

The dB’s also have some Milwaukee connections, with Stamey having mixed recordings for The Wooldridge Brothers (Holsapple played on some of those) and having invited members of that group and Trapper Schoepp to take part in some Big Star tribute shows in Minneapolis.

In advance of The dB's return to Brew City, we had the opportunity to to hit Holsapple and Rigby with some questions. Here’s what they had to say...

OnMilwaukee: Do you think The dB's were ahead of their time, in the sense that the group was extremely influential, but sort of behind the scenes, among other musicians and it maybe took a little longer for the general public to catch on?

Peter Holsapple: It's hard to feel that the general public has ever 'caught on'; it doesn't reflect in album sales or radio airplay, especially when the first two albums were not released in the U.S.

We've somehow successfully navigated a career making records that are very good and having them largely ignored by everyone but a select group of listeners. Not sure that it ultimately matters, except perhaps on a financial security level. We can only hope that the reissues from 2024 extend our audience ever so slightly.

New York in the late '70s was definitely an exciting time for music, but The dB's were a little unique among the scene. Did you have any trouble being accepted into that scene? Did you feel like you had fellow travelers?

Peter Holsapple: We were fully accepted when we were in the New York music scene in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I think most people who live in New York have come there from somewhere else, seeking the audience they couldn't find wherever they came from, which was certainly the case for us in North Carolina at the time.

And we had a lot of friends in bands when we lived there; the Fleshtones, the Zantees, Raybeats, Bush Tetras, Bongos, Nervus Rex, Individuals, the Scruffs, etc. There was never a sense of competition, only camaraderie within a pack of like-minded, pleasant, smart people who loved music.

And, yes, I'd concur that The dB's didn't really sound like any other of those second-wave bands. Part of the reason for that is because we had all been playing music for many years in Winston-Salem N.C., so we came ready to write, arrange and perform. Some bands were new to their instruments and to creating music, which was obviously a great way to come up with something fresh and original; we were steeped in AM radio from the 1960s and our own sorties into more eclectic stuff in the 1970s.

You mentioned the Bongos. Of course, Hoboken had some bands that were perhaps more akin to The dB's, like them and the Feelies. Do you guys have the sense that those bands helped inspire the Athens scene, too, which of course leads to R.E.M.?

Peter Holsapple: It is my impression that most local scenes develop by themselves, and Athens strikes me that way, too. The B-52s had made the trip to NYC to play at Max's Kansas City in 1978 where they got a certain amount of attention; New York Rocker magazine featured Pylon on its cover in 1981, and it featured some of the newer artists like R.E.M. in the same issue. But the incubator for Athens bands was Athens itself, having spent some quality time there at the time.

Like any good local scene, it had rabid supporters and a strong college radio station and a few clubs that supported a clutch of great bands – like Love Tractor, Oh OK, etc. I would say that Maxwell's (in Hoboken) and its owner Steve Fallon definitely developed a relationship with many of those bands and made them feel at home on that little stage in the back room at 1039 Washington St.

The records have a really enduring quality, as is evidenced by the reissues. How did the relationship with Propeller and the idea of reissuing these now – and why now – come about?

Will Rigby: The owner of Propeller Sound Recordings, Jefferson Holt, was a fan of The dB's well before he became R.E.M.'s manager. He has always been a big supporter and it was his desire to see The dB's albums back in print that has been the main impetus behind the releases, and indeed behind the creation of the label.

Are other reissue projects in the works?

Will Rigby: The rights to the third dB's album “Like This” are in the process of being returned to the band's control. When any re-release might happen it's too soon to say. Hopefully it will at least return to streaming services soon. The status of the fourth album, “The Sound of Music,” is unknown and murky. We have attempted to discover what can be done, and continue to.

There was also a posthumous dB's album, “Paris Avenue,” that came out in the ‘90s, consisting of demos for what would have been the fifth album. Its status is also unclear but we hope to make it available again someday.

What's the status of the band these days? Are The dB's permanently reunited?

Will Rigby: The reunion of the band for the touring currently occurring is directly related to the re-release of our first two albums, and is meant as promotion for the albums. It is doubtful that there will be further dB's shows in the future, but I suppose it's possible.

Will there be a new record or are you happy to get together once in a while and play some gigs?

Will Rigby: There are no current plans to record new material. There are a number of unreleased tracks, mostly dating from the F”alling Off the Sky” recording sessions. It is possible that we will find some use for these in the future.

Do you have memories of playing in Milwaukee?

Peter Holsapple: We are happy that we can come back to Milwaukee this fall. One lovely memory I have from playing Milwaukee back in the early 1980s was performing at the Starship (Note: Likely Sept. 25, 1981).

Kenny Baldwin, R.I.P., was such a sweet guy – he couldn't pay us the complete fee we'd been contracted for after the show, but he swore he'd get us the rest of the money as soon as he could.

And he did, of course, Kenny being Kenny. A man of his word, and deserving of his beloved reputation.