A Head Full of Wishes

A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.

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Seven tracks Dean Wareham released solo before he released what Pitchfork called "his debut solo album"

Photo: Norman Gholson Von Holtzendorff 1990

With the recent releases of Dean Wareham's Emancipated Hearts and the more recent Dean Wareham you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was the first ever solo releases by Dean... this is a little thrown together post to prove otherwise:

Here's what I believe was Dean's debut solo outing on the Shimmy Disc compilation What Else Do You Do? released in 1990. It's an early, acoustic version of Smile which got it's full band release on Luna's debut LP Lunapark a couple of years later.

In 1991 Dean released a solo electric guitar piece called West Broadway on the No6/Glitterhouse compilation Guitarrorists

Also in 1991 Dean released a version of Beat Happening's Indian Summer (later to become a regular in Luna's set) on a promo 7" single given away with Chemical Imbalance magazine.

After Galaxie 500 split Dean was given some money to record some demos, these made an appearance on the Mint Records Anesthesia single as a solo release.

In 2005 Dean recorded a solo version of Pink Floyd's Hey You for the soundtrack of the Noah Baumbach film The Squid and The Whale

... and then in 2014 Love is Colder than Death was released, the track was on Emancipated Hearts which Pitchfork described as "astonishingly, his debut solo release"

So Pitchfork, this post is to prove you wrong.