A Head Full of Wishes

Listening party for Damon & Naomi's live album of Galaxie 500 covers

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:06:00 +0000

Damon will be hosting a Bandcamp listening party for What’s Past is Prologue, Damon & Naomi’s live album of Galaxie 500 covers. The party will be on Friday 17th (tomorrow) at 12:30pm Pacific, 3:30pm Eastern or 8:30pm BST.

What's Past is Prologue

The album was recorded over three wonderful nights at Cafe Oto in London and featured a number of guest appearances.

Here’s Damon’s invite:

I'm going to host a Listening Party of our Bandcamp-exclusive release What's Past is Prologue on Friday April 17 at 12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern / 8:30pm UK time. Come listen to the album with me and chat about it - this is a live recording of Galaxie 500 songs Naomi and I played as encores during our recent residency at Café Oto in London, with friends Laetitia Sadier, Mark Webber, Richard Youngs, Jess Hickie-Kallenbach, Alabaster DePlume, Gina Birch, Marie Merlet and Stewart Lee. There's lots to discuss!

Damon Krukowski on Bandcamp

Head over to Bandcamp to RSVP.

Night three at Cafe Oto

I wrote about the shows back in January.

Fingers crossed that there’ll be a physical release at some point!

My record collection: [344] Decomposing the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2004 some discussion on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List turned to the idea of making a fan-tribute album and I volunteered to co-ordinate the efforts. It took a couple of years since the volunteer co-ordinator was a bit rubbish, but this finally saw the light of day some time in 2006!

Decomposing fan tribute CDR

The project started with grand ambitions but eventually ended up with me burning a bunch of CDRs and laser-printing sleeves and selling them to whoever wanted a copy for $5 including postage. It deserved better. There are a bunch of lovely contributions, some faithful, some interprative, but all made by people who loved what they were doing enough to give it a go.

One of the reasons for the delay was that I wanted to be a part of it and was hoping that some talent would be bestowed upon be by some higher being. Thankfully lost are my efforts at covers of Blue Thunder and I Want Everything!

The album is available to download here and is worth it - it’s lovely to have an album made by friends (even if the internet becoming less social means I’ve lost touch with most of them).

For the later AHFoW tribute albums I had invaluable help from Hannah and John and Miguel that meant they took only months instead of years to see the light of day. A couple of the tracks on Decomposing made it onto other releases:

Watoo Watoo’s lovely loungey Chinatown was released on their second (I think) album La fuite which can be bought on Bandcamp.
Ron Harrity’s cover of Cold Night was included as a bonus-track on a better organised tribute album On Fire | 30.

The Apollo Generation, whose cover of This Time Around was included on the release, put out an album a few years ago that I’ve only just come across and is being played right now and is sounding good!

I just noticed that the sleeve in my copy was on second-hand paper… that’s how cheap/rubbish I was!

Second-hand paper!

This of course is another entry that doesn’t pass the criteria for inclusion but since it was a child of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List it seemed a shame not to include it. I wrote about the mailing list in a Substack post last year - you can read it for free (as all my Substack posts are).

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/091
Artist: Various artists
Title: Decomposing the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna
Format: CDR
Download for free

My record collection: [343] Galaxie 500 - On Fire (orange vinyl LP)

Andy — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back in February 2019 Newbury Comics started releasing limited edition coloured variants of Galaxie 500’s LPs - the first of these was On Fire that was released on orange/gold vinyl.

Galaxie 500 - On Fire (orange LP)

Of course I already had many copies of On Fire but… I couldn’t help myself and bought a copy for $25 plus $15 postage (which is twice the postage I had been charged for an LP from the US just two years previously. They then released a maroon (with a black smudge) Today and a Blue (with a grey smudge) This Is Our Music… I bought both of them.

Later came a pink On Fire and a purple This Is Our Music but I had decided to draw the line!

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/042
Artist: Galaxie 500
Title: On Fire
Notes: Orange vinyl
Format: LP
Bought from Newbury Comics for $24.99 plus postage.
Buy ‘On Fire’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [342] The 6ths - Wasps' Nest (LP)

Andy — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On first release in 1995 the only vinyl release of Wasps’ Nest was a box set containing four seven inch EPs with all the tracks (and one bonus one) across them. Mean-ness and my full embrace of CD media meant that I didn’t buy that but bought the CD that I’ve already posted about, In 2017 Captured Tracks released the album on an LP - this is that.

The 6ths - Wasps' Nest

The LP came in white vinyl and sadly didn’t include the extra track it did howver have a larger booklet than the CD which meant that it could include the artist self-portraits that had been included in the box set but were missing from the CD package. Some were lovely and detailed, some were realistic, some were cartoon-y, some minimalist, some impressionist… and then there was Dean’s:

Dean Wareham self-portrait

I think I said before how much I love this album and it really is a very beautiful thing, and doesn’t have a dud on it!

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/073
Artist: The 6ths
Title: Wasps’ Nest
Notes: White vinyl. Includes an 8” square booklet
Format: LP
Bought direct from Captured Tracks in 2017 for $25.00 (plus postage which was tolerable back then!)

Previously in my record collection:

[268] The 6ths - Wasps’ Nest (CD)

My record collection: [341] Galaxie 500 - CBGB 13th December 1988 (black vinyl LP)

Andy — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back at the beginning of the year Damon & Naomi played three genuinely sensational shows at Cafe OTO in London (I wrote about them here but it deserves a re-write), this copy of Galaxie 500’s recently released live LP was acquired at the second of those shows.

Galaxie 500 - CBGB 13th December 1988 (black LP)

After the show was finished I was loitering by the merch desk, chatting with Naomi and lending my pen out for signings. I mentioned to Naomi that the “ultra clear and black cloudy” vinyl copy I had bought on release was horrid and looked like a five year old had scribbled on it† and said I wanted to buy one of the black vinyl copies they were selling at the show.

records should never be this ugly

Naomi insisted on giving me a copy.

OK, it doesn’t come with a poster, and a single, and doesn’t come in a fancy fat, card sleeve (that’s too big) but it looks so much better sitting on my record player.

I love the photo by Macioce used on the cover - a couple of years ago Macioce was kind enough to send me an 11x14” print of the photo which is hanging in “the museum”.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/112
Artist: Galaxie 500
Title: CBGB 13th December 1988
Notes: Black vinyl copy
Format: LP
Buy ‘CBGB 13th December 1988’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

[276] Galaxie 500 - CBGB - 13th December 1988

† - to be honest too many of these mixed colour, splatter, splash, burst, swirl, vinyl releases are horrible… it’s time to stop and stick to single colour vinyl… and maybe more in black… I mean. when did black stop being the coolest colour?

My record collection: [340] Luna - Penthouse (MC)

Andy — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fourth and final appearance of Luna’s Penthouse and is a cassette copy that I bought (online) from Sound it Out Records back in 2013 at the same time that I bought the cassette copy of Lunapark.

Luna - Penthouse (MC)

Since this is the last appearance it’s probably time to look at the tracklisting, not it any way in-depth just with some little snippets that pop into my head… I can’t guarantee that these are actually all correct or true.

Chinatown was written “at least partially” about Terry Tolkin the A&R man who signed the band to Elektra and released Dean and Luna tracks on his own No.6 Records.

He enjoyed his new life. He drank and partied and showed up late to work most days, or worked from home. His new life inspired the lyrics I wrote for "Chinatown".

Dean Wareham - Black Postcards (2008)

Sideshow by the Seashore was a venue in Coney Island - the song contains Justin playing a theremin.
Moon Palace is named after a Paul Auster book and also references “Christopher Boyce” who was The Falcon in the film The Falcon and the Snowman.
Double Feature gave it’s name to Dean and Britta’s record label.
23 Minutes in Brussels is probably Luna’s most popular song - it consistently topped the annual survey, and a lyric was used as the title of their farewell tour rockumentary, and was played over the end credits. They first played it live in late 1994 although it changed quite a lot before it reached Penthouse. There’s an mp3 on the post about the 23 Minutes single.
Lost in Space opens side two of the LP although Dean admitted in the Life of the Record podcast that they “didn’t plan this as side one and side two because this is the CD era, the compact disc era. We just thought of it as sequencing the ten songs.”
I’m not sure I have a smippet of trivia about Rhythm King so here are Luna soundchecking it in 2016:

Luna (play on YouTube)

Kalamazoo’s origins are in a short film made by Dean’s then wife Claudia that I’ve not managed to track down but has Wally Shawn and (the late) Adrienne Shelley in it.
Hedgehog was picked to be a (radio) single and a one-track CD single was made as a radio promo… I don’t have a copy… but it was also coupled with 23 Minutes in Brussels for the proper single on Beggars Banquet.
Freakin’ and Peakin’ is a great finish to the album… but most people probably didn’t hear it as a finish since the CD has a bonus track… but since I’m listening to the cassette this is where I’ll finish!

Here’s Luna playing Freakin’ and Peakin’ in Atlanta in 2015:

Luna - Freakin' and Peakin' 2015 10 02 Atlanta GA (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 16/004
Artist: Luna
Title: Penthouse
Format: MC
Bought from Sound it Out Records in 2013 for £5.99.

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [339] Dean Wareham - Dean Wareham (test/promo LP)

Andy — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is a test pressing of Dean’s eponymous album released in 2014 and was sent to me by Nat at Sonic Cathedral, slipped in with the copy of the Lorelle Meets The Obsolete LP “Chambers” that I had ordered.

Dean Wareham - Dean Wareham (test pressing)

The LP came in a plain white inner sleeve stamped with the manufacturer details and with the catalogue number written on it in biro. It had plain white labels with the words “Only for Promotion” stamped onto it… which suggests it’s a promo rather than a test pressing?

There are a lot of nice performance clips of Dean and his band from this time doing the promo rounds.

Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (KCRW) (play on YouTube)

Dean Wareham - Happy and Free (KEXP) (play on YouTube)

Dean Wareham - Heartless People (WFUV) (play on YouTube)

Dean Wareham - Holding Pattern (Amoeba) (play on YouTube)

As much as I love Dean’s more recent albums this is the one that I go back to most.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/022
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: Dean Wareham
Notes: Promo/test
Packaging: Plain white sleeve
Format: LP
Buy ‘Dean Wareham’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [338] POT 31 - Get Yer Pots Out (CD)

Andy — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By the Winter 2001/2 issue of Ptolemaic Terrascope the magazine had reached the point where it had a CD covermount rather than the 7” EPs of previous years and this CD came with issue 31 of Ptolemaic Terrascope and includes a Eye of the Storm with Michio Kurihara.

POT 31 - Get Yer Pots Out

Eye of the Storm is on the CD to represent Michio Kurihara who has a lengthy interview in the magazine that exposes just how many musical pies he has his finger in. The interview was conducted shortly after the Damon & Naomi tour of Europe that was documented in the Song to the Siren DVD:

For me personally, that was the most satisfying tour I've been on in years. We toured the States together last our autumn, but this time communication through sound was so much deeper. Their live sound is extremely delicate and it already feels very complete in itself. I was worried about adding anything to it that would damage their original sound, so the first few times we played together were very much trial and error. It took a bit of time before I could accommodate my sound to theirs. But during the tour I was gradually able to grasp their unique sense of timing and breathing. Particularly from around the middle of the tour on there were a number of amazing moments when we got this real synergy between the vibrations of the audience and the vibrations that we on stage were putting out. I guess that's what people mean when they talk about "magic". These kinds of experiences are irreplaceable. On the best things about long tours like that one is that you can feel the quality of the band's sound getting better and better with each performance. I liked Damon & Naomi's music before, but on this tour I was reminded of just what is great about them. I don't think that they're technical players, but they've transcended that and they have a deep sense of song. That's what this tour showed me again.

We were fortunate in the choice of support acts on the tour they were local groups, but all were individual and amazing. In London we had Clientele; Richard Youngs in Glasgow, Paloma in Paris, all were striking. This was the first tour I'd been on where we had to haul our amps and other equipment around, jumping on and off trains all over Europe. It was a bit tiring at times, but still a good experience. I was especially struck by the scenery we saw from the train window: pastoral in the UK, and the desolate mountains in Spain.

Michio Kurihara - Ptolemaic Terrascop 31 (winter 2001/2)

The version of Eye of the Storm is the one that was later released on the Live in a Living Room in Cambridge, MA album, and interestingly it is a clean version without the applause added to it which I guess makes it a bit of a lost track.

Damon & Naomi with Kurihara - Eye of the Storm (the living room sessions)

The insert with the CD completely forgets to mention anything about Eye of the Storm, I wonder if that’s because of it’s imminent use in the fake live album. If you’re unaware of the deception you can read about it in the post on 1001 Nights from a couple of months back.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 05/032
Artist: Various Artists
Title: POT31 - Get Your Pots Out
Notes: Released with issue 31 of Ptolemaic Terrascope
Packaging: CD in a plastic sleeve with a printed insert.
Format: Magazine and CD

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [337] My Robot Friend - Soft Core / 23 Minutes in Brussels

Andy — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 2008 Dean & Britta re-issued their debut album L’avventura on their own Double Feature Records, the second release the following year was the excellent Sand Pebbles compilation A Thousand Wild Flowers and Soft Core by My Robot Friend was the third.

My Robot Friend - Soft Core

The album was released on CD on the 13th October 2009 and Dean added guitar to two tracks By Your Side, and Astronaut. It also includes My Robot Friend’s cover of Luna’s 23 Minutes in Brussels that had been released a couple of years before and that I have two copies of - one a 12”, and one 7” on pink vinyl - both were bought on Discogs the 12” for £1.80 in 2016 and the 7” for 99p a couple of years ago.

As well as two copies of the 23 Minutes single I also have two copies of Soft Core, or at least I should have. I bought it when it was released (I think direct from Dean probably at the same time as A Thousand Wild Flowers) but that copy has gone AWOL - either misfiled, or perhaps found its way into a charity shop box when we moved, so I bought a replacement a couple of years back.

I don’t listen to the album much but every time I do I like it much more than I expect to.

My Robot Friend has turned up elsewhere having done remixes of…

Dean & Britta - Say Goodnight released on Variations.
Dean Wareham - Emancipated Hearts on the CD release of Emancipated Hearts.
Dean & Britta - Not a Young Man Any More on 13 Most Beautiful.

There is also a My Robot Friend release from 2016 called Open the Book that has Emancipated Hearts, Not a Young Man…, and also has Dean guesting on “Gone” - this was released on CD but I only have the download so won’t be in this series.

Catalogue Number:
- AHFOW 10/171
- AHFOW 12/070
Artist: My Robot Friend
Title:
- Soft Core
- 23 Minutes in Brussels (x2)
Packaging: Digipack
Format:
- CD
- 12”
- 7”
Soft Core was bought on Discogs for £6.99
Buy ‘Soft Core’ on Bandcamp

My record collection: [336] Dean Wareham - Live at St. Pancras Old Church (green cassette)

Andy — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

So this is my fourth post covering the six copies I have of recordings from Dean’s shows in London in 2013 so I guess there’s not a great deal more for me to say!?

Dean Wareham - Live at St. Pancras Old Church

The original release was on cassette and came in two flavours one in a green shell and one in a red shell. The cassette j-card was the same for both but since it was printed on diaphanous paper it gives the impression that the difference is more than just the shell of the cassettes, and to reinforce the eye for detail the green ones came with a download code on red paper, and the red one on green.

There’s a fair chance that the download code in the picture above hasn’t been used so if you’re quick (and interested) you can grab yourself a free download!

Dean gave me a copy of both cassettes after his show at The Prince Albert in Brighton in May 2014… so I guess I can pad out this short post with a clip of Dean and band playing Tugboat at that show… and discussing air-conditioning!

Dean Wareham - Tugboat (Brighton, 2014) (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 16/006
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: Live at St. Pancras Old Church
Format: MC with green shell
Buy ‘Live at St. Pancras Old Church’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

Dean Wareham on songwriting

Andy — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:35:00 +0000

Over on the AHFoW Substack this week there’s a guest post from Scott Douglas where he asks Dean Wareham about songwriting.

Dean Wareham on songwriting

A couple of weeks back Scott commented on a Substack post…

Speaking of songwriting: Have you asked Dean why his songs never have bridges? Seems weird to never use this element, especially given his taste for 1970s radio-friendly tunes.

I must admit that the lack of a middle eight in Dean’s work hadn’t really occurred to me but, listening back Scott did seem to have a point.

He decided the best way to address this question was to head to the source and so if you head over to the AHFoW Substack you can find out how Dean responded to the question “It seems like you’re a connoisseur of late 60s/70s high-quality radio-friendly rock, where a bridge is common. Why not make use of this element?”… and a few other songwriting enquiries.

Dean Wareham talks songwriting

My record collection: [335] Luna - California Blue / Rock Yr Baby

Andy — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is my second copy of Luna’s California Blue / Rock Yr Baby seven inch released by Feral Child in 2017, last time out I spent most of the post talking about the AA-side.

Luna - California Blue / Rock Yr Baby

So, while I had a full post about the AA-side the A-side is just going to get one sentence!

The A-side is Luna’s cover of Roy Orbison’s California Blue which was recorded in the sessions for A Sentimental Education - the original dates from Roy’s late period and was written by Roy with Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.

When this single arrived the thing that grabbed me most wasn’t the A or the AA side but the sleeve which looked very familiar and then I realised why - the picture used on the front was the same used on my paperback copy of Geoffrey Fletcher’s The London Nobody Knows.

Geoffrey Fletcher was an artist and author whose drawings, mostly of London, appeared in many books, magazines, and newspapers during the 1960s and 70s. The London Nobody Knows is his best known work because in 1967 it was made into a short film featuring James Mason walking around some of the locations featured in the book and is a glorious look at disappearing London. The film was released on a DVD in 2008 which was my introduction to the work of Geoffrey Fletcher (although I suspect he had long been seeping into my unconscious).

I have still been known to take visitors to see the sewer lamp in Carting Lane. In this pic on the left is Fletcher’s sketch from the book, in the middle is James Mason from the film, and on the right is my boy posing with it a few years back.

The Carting Lane sewer lamp x 3

Around that time I had gone back to drawing, something I hadn’t done much of in years, and Geoffrey Fletcher’s style and choice of subject matter was a great inspiration to me. My second book by him was his Elements of Sketching which became my sketching bible - even if I didn’t really follow its rules and I’m not sure I improved as a result of it. I then followed it up with quite a little library of his books - here are some.

Geoffrey Fletcher library

… and here are a few examples of me desperately trying to be like him!

My Geoffrey Fletcher wannabes

I suspect the choice of sleeve was made by whoever is behind Feral Child?

Here’s Luna playing California Blue for Paste in 2019:

Luna - California Blue (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/068
Artist: Luna
Title: California Blue / Rock Yr Baby
Format: 7”
Bought via Great Pop Supplement in 2017

Previously in my record collection:

[210] Luna - California Blue / Rock Yr Baby

My record collection: [334] Luna - Inside Your Heart (lathe cut single)

Andy — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Inside Your Heart was recorded by Luna in the sessions for A Sentimental Education and originally released as a bonus download with the Pledgemusic release of that album. This single was released a couple of years later by PIAPTK.

Luna - Inside Your Heart

The single is a cover of a song by The Monochrome Set and is another example of Dean digging deep for his choice of covers - the song only really surfaced in ~~2010~~ 1995 (thanks Vincent for pointing this out) on an LP of early recordings, and possibly dates from before they were actually called The Monochrome Set. Here’s a clip of them playing it in London last year:

The Monochrome Set - Inside Your Heart (London, 2025) (play on YouTube)

Now, I love an artefact, particularly a beautiful artefact and it can’t be denied that this single is a beautiful artefact. It’s a single hand-cut into a plastic disc which, when spun in the correct lighting conditions, shows lovely and hypnotic patterns…

Luna - Inside Your Heart spinning (15 secs) (play on YouTube)

However… this is written on a PIATPK insert with the single:

Please note that this lathe cut record was made one-at-a-time, in real-time, by a real person, from plexiglass using an experimental process and 70 year old machines. It is NOT a pressed record and may have slightly more surface noise or an occasional light distortion in some frequencies, and will sound somewhat different than the original master. The volume will also be a little lower than a modern "post-loudness-war" record, so pump up the volume. It won't be audiophile, but it ought to be listenable and sound pretty good considering the circumstances of its' birth. It might also require tonearm and anti-skate adjustment in order to track correctly due to the hard plastic having slightly shallower grooves than a traditional record.

Which does raise the question of whether something that doesn’t perform its primary function well is really something that is sensible to produce? Unless of course its primary function is to look beautiful? They also obviously cost much more to produce and so they end up costing the fan a lot of money for a one track single that doesn’t sound that great.

To be honest I think my love of “the artefact” wins over the “primary function” argument - although it does help that Dean was kind enough to send me a copy for nothing!

It also helps that for a fiver you can buy a digital release of Inside Your Heart and five other post-reunuion rarities in high quality so, the artefact can be a visual treat while you listen to the song the way it should sound!

While Luna were making A Sentimental Education they released a number of videos as part of the “campaign” including a clip of them in the studio recording Inside Your Heart:

Luna - recording Inside Your Heart (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/074
Artist: Luna
Title: Inside Your Heart
Notes: One-sided lathe-cut
Format: 7” single
Bought…
Buy ‘Inside Your Heart’ as part of ‘Postscripts’ on Bandcamp

My record collection: [333] Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music / Copenhagen (2xCD)

Andy — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the third and last of the lovely double CD editions released by Domino Records in 2010 and like the previous two it has a lovely glossy booklet with an essay and some pictures and the Byron Coley piece that was used on all three releases.

Galaxie 500 - This Is Our Music / Copenhagen

The essay for This Is Our Music was by British music journalist Chris Roberts:

As Oscar Wilde once said, among many lovably smart-ass things he said, “He who stands most remote from his age is he who mirrors it best.” Galaxie 500 purred at a time when others were shouting. Things were different then. “Indie” or “alternative” music really was a minority taste, and a different colour and texture to the music flooding the mainstream. This was their music. “Slowcore,” “dream pop,” call it what you will, it was sleepy yet somehow buzzing. Cool, yet somehow trembling with anticipation. Laid-back, yet brimming with the minute emotions and implosions of the everyday inner life.

So they stole the title, from a 1960 Ornette Coleman masterpiece. A successful heist is all about the attitude. Galaxie 500, named after a car, never raced. They let the world, or the more discerning components, come to them. They met in New York, improved at Harvard University, and became known as a Boston band. It was to be, as nobody had predicted, a golden age for Boston bands. With Kramer producing alchemically, they made Today and On Fire, drowned in rave reviews (at least in the UK), found themselves compared to the Velvet Underground and Jonathan Richman and New Order. This Is Our Music, the third album, came in 1991, after Dean Wareham had moved back to New York. After much touring, he left the trio, whose last European show was released as a swansong live album, Copenhagen. See if you can guess in which Danish city that took place.

The members of Galaxie 500 went on to do further stirring and lovely things in music afterwards, but their legacy had already begun. The influence of these sounds spans far and wide to this day. It’s about restraint, delay, poise. Galaxie 500 records are as rough as sandpaper yet as elegant as jewellery. There’s a happy, maybe lucky blend between Dean’s so-wrong-yet-so-right voice and his deceptively brilliant guitar, between Damon’s minimal yet mesmerising rhythms and Naomi’s loping, groping bass. They’re gentle yet diamond-hard, sweet yet capable of savagery.

From the opening intro drone of the exquisite ‘Fourth Of July,’ This Is Our Music asserts its sparkle and self-sufficiency. There are ebbs and flows within every Galaxie 500 track and the magic is that you can never quite pin down the moments when a surge begins, when a retreat occurs. We’re hearing shards and trills of Verlaine-esque guitars, a pace stately yet seductive. We’re writing “a poem on a dog biscuit,” evidently, and even if the dog refuses to look at it, we’re hooked on a mystery. We’re getting drunk and looking at the Empire State Building, which is “no bigger than a nickel.” It’s evocative, a fresh twist on classic Manhattan lore, and for we Brits that makes for a head-full of Warhol imagery, from Edie to Lou, from grids to rooftops. There’s a lazy, languid air of almost accidental romance. “Maybe I should just change my style/But I feel all right when you smile...” Their music is both relaxed and relentless.

There are echoes, psalms, clinches. On the centrepiece, ‘Summertime,’ they are “just delicious.” How this track builds and falls and builds again. It’s a sea, a shapeshifter. There’s a kind of brittle faith and hope in Naomi’s vocal on Yoko Ono’s ‘Listen, The Snow Is Falling.’ On ‘Melt Away’ we warm our hands on a glow. ‘King Of Spain, Part Two’ brings us around and tells us all good things are timeless.

This Is Our Music was out of time and in its zone and so now sounds as timeless as birth and death and beauty. It’s just three people with guitars and bass and drums, going “doo doo doo wah.” This is deferred gratification.

Chris Roberts - This Is Our Music liner notes

So we reach the tenth and last (for now) copy of Galaxie 500’s last album in this series (not counting the two copies in the box sets). As I said before don’t believe anyone who says this is a weak album, don’t believe Dean, and don’t believe Kramer.

Previously in my record collection:

New release - Damon, Naomi, and friends play Galaxie 500

Andy — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 08:02:00 +0000

Back at the beginning of the year Damon & Naomi played three shows at Cafe Oto in London, each of these shows ended with an encore that saw them joined on stage by various guests to play from the Galaxie 500 songbook. Today they have released a (download-only) album of those encores onto Bandcamp. What’s Past is Prologue is now available for pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp and, since it’s #BandcampFriday whatever you choose to pay all reaches them.

Damon & Naomi - What's Past is Prologue

Our three-night residency at Café Oto in January was so much fun, and to close the show each night we were joined on stage by friends for a series of - for us - surprising “covers”! On March 6, we are releasing live recordings of these encores as a Bandcamp exclusive. Huge thanks to Laetitia, Mark, Richard, Jess, Alabaster, Gina, Marie, and Stewart, as well as the great staff at Café Oto and everyone who came to share those special evenings with us.

Damon & Naomi (Bandcamp newsletter)

I wrote (well gushed) about the shows back in January, you can read my gushings here and there are a few clips from those encores on YouTube.

Laetitia Sadier and Mark Webber with Damon & Naomi - Flowers (play on YouTube)

Video: Luna live in Barcelona in 1997

Andy — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:50:00 +0000

Just before Christmas Jacobo got in touch with me and related memories of Luna’s visit to Barcelona in 1997 and their show at Bikini and also passed along a video of a BTV broadcast of the show.

Luna in Barcelona 1997

The video has most of Luna’s set (although it opens with the encore) and has lots of backstage, offstage, and soundcheck clips as well plus interviews with the band members. I was surprised that this didn’t seem to have made it to YouTube so… it has now.

It’s a lovely record of Luna around the time of the release of Pup Tent and always lovely to see some Justin-era Luna!

Luna - live in Barcelona 14th November 1997 (BTV) (play on YouTube)

I had to cut out a 40 second clip of the Bobby Peru video since it was causing the whole video to be blocked in certain regions (including Europe and the US!?) but otherwise the show is complete.

I excerpted an amazing version of Time to Quit if you fancy a taster:

Luna - Time to Quit - Barcelona 1997 (play on YouTube)

Show details and setlist.