French webzine The Drone has a video interview (in English) with Dean Wareham talking about Galaxie 500 and including some live clips of Dean & Britta playing Galaxie 500 songs at the Fleche D’Or in Paris in last year.
Dean Wareham interview at The Drone.
The Paris Review has posted Dean Wareham’s diary of his recent trip to Tokyo to play a couple of “Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500″ shows, 20 years after Galaxie 500 had split meaning they never got to play there.
From the stage tonight I notice three different people crying as I sing “Blue Thunder,” which is a song about the power-steering action in my old 1975 Dodge Dart and doesn’t quite seem worth crying about, though admittedly it is also a song about being alone behind the wheel, and I wail about driving “so far away,” so maybe that’s what did it.
Read the whole diary at The Paris Review
Backstage at the Liquid Room, we are trying to staying awake before the show, eating rice cakes and unusual candy bars and staring at the poster of Kurt and Courtney on the wall
Not sure how this slipped by but last week Everett Truerevisited his review of Galaxie 500′s Blue Thunder single.
The record was given the Single of the Week accolade in the Melody Maker’s singles reviews on 22nd January 1990 and was a pretty important step in Galaxie 500′s success.
The review covers the a-side as well as the two ace covers on the flip (Victory Garden and Ceremony) and the article is more about ET revisiting his writing than about him revisiting the single – but makes for a fascinating read all the same…
The latter half of this sentence works fine, but really I should have said: Dean Wareham can’t quite hit the notes he’s reaching for, and man that’s disorientating over such a meticulous rhythm section. The sax just confused the hell out of me. Still does.
Read the full article on ETs rather good Collapse Board site and you can see the original review on the excellent, but currently dormant, Archived Music Press blog
Design blog Rock That Font has a short interview with designer Frank Olinsky the designer of Luna’s Penthouse sleeve, as well as many subsequent Luna and Dean & Britta sleeves.
Dean had discovered Ted Croner’s magical photos of New York City and knew they were just right for the package. Three pictures were used: the cover photo of the lit-up skyscraper, a group of light-streaked high-rise buildings, and a blurry speeding taxi. (This same taxi photo appeared on the cover of Bob Dylan’s 2006 album, Modern Times.)
See also Frank Olinsky’s website
There’s an interview with Naomi Yang on the design website Imprint.
Of the Galaxie 500 covers, if I had to choose a favorite I think it would be On Fire—I took that photo myself—I made a crazy contraption with my camera so that I could press the shutter and be in the photo and I really wanted it to look like a 60′s Elektra records cover (Love, the Stooges, Tim Buckley). It was a moment when Bruce Mau was doing all those beautiful Zone Book covers—the colors of those covers were so amazing, unlike anything I had ever seen before, so I actually called him (I didn’t know him) and asked how he did it.
The Portable Naomi Yang — Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers
Dean Wareham has just blogged about Dean & Britta’s recent excursions to Brazil and Europe – the blog is accompanied by a stack of pictures and a reappraisal of Nantes from “rainy and ugly” in 1999 to “a jewel” in 2011.
'The Hemawurst was not the best but the pink dessert was delicious'
Damon has written a piece on Leonard Cohen’s Various Positions for the excellent Delusion of Adequacy‘s Artists-on-Albums series.
The production is hair-raisingly mid-‘80s, with live drums mic’d to sound like a drum machine, and synthesizer parts that sound like presets being put through their paces at a Guitar Center. The arrangements and mix only really sound good on my equally dated car stereo. And yet lately I can’t stop listening to this record.
Dean Wareham has just posted a lengthy, photo-packed blog post about the recent tour of Europe. Head over to deanandbritta.com to read about Europe, lollipops, giant bulls and Mark E Smith.
As I get older I find I have to explain to some younger fans (and even to my own bandmates) who Kojak was, due to the line “watching Kojak on my own” in “When Will You Come Home.” So imagine my delight at finding these lollipops at a gas station in Spain.
Dean & Britta arrived on this side of the pond with just drummer Jason Lawrence meaning that they’d be performing the songs of Galaxie 500 in the format of Galaxie 500 – as a three piece. The first show was at The Workman’s Club in Dublin on Friday night…
Next stop was Stereo in Glasgow
Then on to the Leeds (not found any links yet – email me any reviews, pics or videos)
And last night at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester:
I’m off to Brighton tomorrow so expect more. If anyone has (or comes across) anything to add to this post either leave a comment or email me.
Dean & Britta took their “plays Galaxie 500″ show to Chicago at the weekend, playing two nights at the Lincoln Hall. On the second night they were joined for the encore by former Luna bandmate Sean Eden, playing Indian Summer, 23 Minutes in Brussels and Tiger Lily.
Review & photos: A lovely review and some stunning photos in Soundcheck Magazine from Friday night.
Reviews: Scooparrilli went both nights and has reviews and setlists from each – Friday night, Saturday night
Photos: Time Out Chicago has a nice gallery of photos from Friday’s show
Quite a few cool videos on YouTube:
rljacob has clips of Strange, Snowstorm and When Will You Come Home. (Friday)
EvilMinion has this nice clip shot from the balcony of Tugboat (Friday)
A recording of Friday night’s show is available to download from dimeadozen (bittorrent – registration required)
Haven’s as yet tracked down any pictures or video of Sean’s encore appearance – if anyone has (or finds) anything please get in touch!
I’m sure there’s plenty more out there – please leave any more links in the comments.
