Heard 20 years on, Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music prove not every aspect of that era’s indie rock as been stripmined in recent years. No one is currently offering Galaxie 500’s melange of trebly guitar, serpentine basslines, fragile vocals and oddly jazz-inflected drumming (This Is Our Music borrowed its title from Ornette Coleman). Certainly, no one currently sounds like singer Dean Wareham. Listening to his high voice floating wildly off-key in a way that simply wouldn’t be allowed these days for fear of upsetting daytime radio play, you’re reminded of a vanished age before Auto-Tune, when alt-rock’s aims and ambitions and audience were noticeably different.

On 22nd March Domino Records will be re-issuing the three Galaxie 500 studio albums on vinyl (with download voucher) and double CD packages. If you pre-order the albums from Domino by March 7th you will be able to download the tracks on March 8th (two weeks before release).

The CD issues are all released with bonus discs: Today comes with the Uncollected disc that was first made available as part of the Ryko box set and was subsequently released by Rykodisc as a single CD; On Fire comes with the Galaxie 500 Peel Sessions album (previously released in the US on 20|20|20 and This is Our Music comes with the Copenhagen live album previously released by Rykodisc. The vinyl editions don’t include the bonus discs but do include a download voucher for mp3s.

Even if you have already all of this it’s worth heading over to the Domino site to read the three essays written for the albums – in particular the lovely one written for Today by Stewart Lee…

I had a new life in a shared flat way out west, and a walkman primed with a tape of Today soundtracked a year of snowy winters, data input jobs in offices on industrial estates, and cigarettes smoked on night bus journeys back from unpaid open-mike stand-up gigs in far flung corners of the city. I saw Galaxie 500 three times in 1990, every gig a transcendental experience, and I clocked the back of my own head bobbing on live TV footage of a show in Ladbroke Grove.

• Pre-order Today from Domino records
• Pre-order On Fire from Domino records
• Pre-order This is Our Music from Domino records

]]> http://www.fullofwishes.co.uk/2010/02/24/pre-order-galaxie-500-deluxe-reissues-and-get-the-music-early/feed/ 1 http://www.fullofwishes.co.uk/2010/02/09/dean-britta-songs-for-charity/ http://www.fullofwishes.co.uk/2010/02/09/dean-britta-songs-for-charity/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:13:54 +0000 Andy http://www.fullofwishes.co.uk/?p=1816

Sing Me to Sleep

Dean & Britta have provided a remix of the track International Velvet Theme to The Right Track: Tunes to Target Cancer which is “a series of concerts, events, and music download[s ...] to help raise funds for rare and underfunded cancers”. The series also includes tracks by Ween, Linda Thompson, Buffalo Tom and The Cowbly Junkes (and more).

And while we’rementioning Dean & Britta’s sharity contributions a quick reminder that they have also have a track on the forthcoming Sing Me to Sleep compilation of “Indie Lullabies” for The Valerie Fund. You can hear and download Dean & Britta’s contribution, Making Me Smile, on Muruch.com and pre-order the album from American Laundromat.

Damon & Naomi's 1001 Nights

This weekend Damon & Naomi are performing two special shows in New York City and Boston. The events will feature a theatrical screening of Naomi’s tour film diary Song to the Siren and will be followed by a Q&A session hosted by Haden Guest, director of the Harvard Film Archive. This will be followed by an opening set by the excellent Sharon Van Etten and finally Damon & Naomi will perform a set accompanied by guitarist Michio Kurihara.

The show in New York will take place on Saturday the 30th January at 92Y Tribeca and tickets cost $20. The show in Boston will be on Sunday 31st January at The Brattle Theatre, Cambridge and tickets are $15.

Naomi has just launched a new site to make some of her photography avaialable to view and buy/download in high quality. Naomivision has galleries of photos from her trips around the US as well as to Japan, Morocco, Portugal and many other countries. There’s also a gallery of protraits available to view, although the portrait pictures are not available for download.

More galleries of new (and old) photographs will be added.

Other Damon news in Damon & Naomi’s January update finds Naomi added as an endorser of Nord Keyboards and a reminder of the two special shows coming up in NYC and Boston at the end of the month.

Another A Head Full of Wishes survey comes to an end, and comes to an end with precious few surprises. It looked for a while as if an upset was on the cards for favourite Luna track but a flurry of last minute votes restored the status quo.

So here are some highlights, head over to the results page to see the full details.

General

More than 100 responses for the first time since 2006. There’s been one voter from the Lebanon in all but one survey since 2002

Galaxie 500

On Fire topped the favourite album poll with almost half of all votes cast. Fourth of July just beat Tugboat for favourite track.

Luna

Until the last week of the survey California (All the Way) was topping the poll but a strong finish saw 23 Minutes in Brussels retain the top spot it’s held in every survey since 1998. Penthouse was comfortable album winner as usual.

Damon & Naomi

More Sad Hits always runs away with the favourite Damon & Naomi album and This Car Climbed Mt. Washington does the same for favourite track.

Dean & Britta

I slipped 13 Most Beautiful into the list despite it having only been released as a DVD, no one complained and it picked up a healthy 15% of the vote. L’Avventura was comfortably top. Night Nurse was the favourite track.

Thanks as usual to everyone who voted, and thanks especially to everyone who took the time to write in the comments field. I might put another post together with some of the interesting points raised.

From the liner notes have been written for the Domino reissue of Today comedian (and long-time fan) Stewart Lee writes…

I saw Galaxie 500 three times in 1990, every gig a transcendental experience, and I clocked the back of my own head bobbing on live TV footage of a show in Ladbroke Grove. Soon, previously hardcore strummers the world over had taken note, slowed down and blissed out, but Codeine, Low, Bedhead, Bay, and the rest of the slowcore scene never packed the punch implicit in the fuzzy felt-wrapped fist of Galaxie 500.

At the same time in the USA and Canada 20|20|20 will release the three albums in paper “mini LP” replica sleeves and the three bonus albums will be released for download through the Galaxie 500 store at fierybreeze.com.

Facebookers can head over to the event page for more details.

Here’s a clip of Luna playing 23 Minutes in Brussels from the film so you can imagine how great it will be to see this in a room full of Luna fans watching it on a big screen.

The two dates will feature Damon & Naomi playing with Kurihara and will also include screenings of Naomi’s films from the 1001 Nights DVD and a Q&A session moderated by Haden Guest, director of the Harvard Film Archive. Support for both shows will be from Sharon van Etten. The shows will be at 92Y Tribeca in NYC on January 30th and The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA on January 31st.

The update on their website also includes a Christmas pressie from Damon & Naomi, an mp3 download of their cover of White Christmas that was released on a very limited CDR last year and was featured in the film Lovely, Still. Head on over to Damon & Naomi’s web page, read the full update and click on the Have a happy, everyone! link.

Dean & Britta are giving away a download of their lovely Christmas single from a couple of years ago. He’s Coming Home was originally released as a 7″ single on Chimney Rocks! Records but now is available in digital form from Dean & Britta in return for your email address. Head over to the He’s Coming Home promo website and enter your email and the code oldtoytrains.

If you’re looking for pressies for friends, family (or yourself) you can also grab the very lovely black Galaxie 500 T-shirt from Dean & Britta’s online store (as well as lots of other goodies).