A Head Full of Wishes

My record collection: [392] Galaxie 500 - Tugboat / King of Spain

Andy — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:00:00 +0100

When I started this series back in January 2023 I never really thought about the end. I just put together a spreadsheet, randomised it, and started picking releases off the top of the list. At some point I started to think that it probably ought to finish with some significance so the last post is about where it all began,

Galaxie 500 - Tugboat

Galaxie 500 recorded Tugboat and King of Spain at Noise New York in February 1988 and it was released on Marc Alghini’s Aurora Records which came into existence specifically to release Galaxie 500’s first single (and LP). The single was released in May 1988, I’m not sure of the actual date but here are a few dates I am fairly sure of (garnered from the excellent Temperature’s Rising book):

There’s an invoice for production of the single from Nashville Record Productions dated 11th May. Total cost for 1000 copies: $980.22 (that would buy you about eight or nine copies now!)
There’s a series of pictures of the band, and Marc, numbering the singles dated “May 1988”.
There’s an interview by Francis DiMenno where he mentions being with the band, and the single, on 25th May.

So, given that record release day in the US was on a Tuesday I’d guess that the single was released either on the 24th or 31st May (at a push maybe 17th but that seems unlikely, although it’d be nice if it shared my birthday!)

I of course only discovered the band much later so I never owned a copy of the single.

A quick aside:

The other challenger for last post in the series was the cassette on which I first heard Galaxie 500. The cassette had been lent to me by Ken, and returned to him, so I don’t actually have it. But it does still exist since he sent me a photo of it a few months ago. Unfortunately the casette had been filed away (misplaced) by the time he sent me the pic so he wasn’t able to get it to me. So, sadly it’s not in my collection. All I have is a photo!

Galaxie 500 - On Fire (cassette)

It was hearing On Fire on that cassette in summer 1989 that made me a fan.

Anyway… so I didn’t own a copy of Galaxie 500’s first single and by the time I was a collector they were priced beyond my reach. At some point in the early 2000s I obviously let slip to Damon and/or Naomi that I didn’t have this single, or in fact any Galaxie 500 7” vinyl. Shortly after that a package arrived that fixed that in a spectacular way.

Note from Damon (June 2004)

A beautiful pile of 7” singles arrived, including this. My copy is from the first run in blue vinyl and hasn’t been numbered. I keep saying it but I’m so lucky that I fell in love with such a lovely band!

Catalogue Number: 11/048
Artist: Galaxie 500
Title: Tugboat / King of Spain
Format: 7”

And that’s the end of my collection. Although, of course it’s not, it will continue to grow because thankfully Dean, Damon and Naomi seem to have no intention of calling it quits, and there are still some gaps in my collection that need filling.

Two posts a week for three and a half years for something I thought I’d rattle off in a couple of months. Thanks for reading. I’ll do a proper series post mortem at some point although the next few weeks of my life will be a bit busy. The collection is now all boxed up and ready to move with us a few miles up the coast.

Boxed up and ready to go

My record collection: [391] Luna - Dear Paulina (framed)

Andy — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

I’ve probably said pretty much all there is to be said about how the single of Luna’s “Dear Paulina” came about, so I’m not too sure what this post is going to be. I suspect It’ll cover a lot of ground that’s been in the three earlier posts (see below), the long lost tracks post I made a few years ago, and the Substack rehash from last year.

Dear Paulina in 'the museum'

Having completed the single, and sold as many as I could I decided that I really ought to have a signed copy of it on my wall so I asked Dean if he could sort that out for me. I had paid the band in copies of the single, so Dean took one around the band, got them to sign it, and sent it back to me. I bought a couple of cheap frames and it has lived on the wall of the three homes we’ve had since the single was released… and will be on the wall of the fourth soon (I hope).

In May 2017 Luna launched a Pledgemusic campaign to fund the covers album, A Sentimental Education and for one of the extras you could buy, Dean would write out by hand the lyrics of a song of your choice. I initially resisted, it was tricky to justify the cost, but by July the idea of having Dear Paulina written out by Dean hanging next to the signed single seemed perfect, so I just went for it.

Signed sleeve and lyric sheet

Now, I know people put out singles all the time, I know it must be a thrill, but also it’s what they do. I ran a mailing list and a web page, that’s what I did. Putting out a single was a significant event. It wasn’t a record label putting out another single, it was a fan putting out a single by a band he loves. Of course labels love their bands… but it’s surely a different kind of love? When there’s another single by another band you love coming along I guess it’s something you just get on with. For me this was a one-off. It was important for me to do it right, and do it as well as I could. And I wanted it to be something that I could look back on and say “wow, I made that happen”.

Having said that I didn’t really have any idea how to make it happen so am grateful to a lot of people who helped with that, whether it was friends or acquaintances, or the companiues I used to get it over the line. There were a number of significant milestones on the road to getting the single out… here are a few that pop into my head:

Asking Dean if I could and him saying “yes” - I really had no idea what I was doing, and it really was just a half-baked idea that I didn’t really expect to come to anything. When Dean said “yes” I suddenly had to start figuring things out.
The DAT arriving. Dean had suggested he might dig out a couple of demos for the single, which of course would have been amazing, but, more amazing was getting something as unique as Dear Paulina. A genuine Luna rarity that (as of now) only exists:
- in an unpleasant scene in a film
- on a 7” single released by me (546 copies)
- on the rarities bonus disc on the Long Players 92-99 box set (2000 copies)
Getting the single cut at Abbey Road Studios
Now, thousands of records have been cut at Abbey Road, so the fact that “Dear Paulina” was cut at Abbey Road doesn’t really mean anything. Except, it was cut at Abbey Road with Hazel and myself sitting on a sofa watching. It’s the only record that that has happened to† (so far).
Getting a finished article into my hands, and into the hands of the friends I had made on the mailing list. I just read through the archives with a glow at how it was received. I think because, while it reached a lot further than the mailing list members it was actually made just for them/us!

The big surprise to me was that I never actually managed to sell all the copies I had. It was trickier in the pre-Paypal days, and I guess ‘99 was close to vinyl’s nadir, but I really was expecting them all to go instantly. In 1999 there were about 350 subscribers to the mailing list.

You can probably tell that, 27 years on, I still look back on “Dear Paulina” with a ridiculous amount of pride.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/048
Artist: Luna
Title: Dear Paulina / Seven-Eleven
Notes: Signed and framed and in ‘the museum’
Format: 7”

Previously in my record collection:

† I had been to Abbey Road for a single cut once before, when I sat on the sofa with Ken watching the Brian single being cut, that was also a thrill. You can read about that on Substack too.

My record collection: [390] Damon & Naomi - More Sad Hits (20|20|20 LP)

Andy — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

It’s just occurred to me that the items I’ve picked for the run-in are (with one exception) all releases that have already had multiple appearances in this series. This is the 20|20|20 vinyl reissue of Damon & Naomi’s first album, and this is the third post in the series to cover More Sad Hits.

Damon & Naomi - More Sad Hits

The album was reissued in Autumn 2008 and Damon and Naomi were particularly pleased with the release:

The vinyl reissue of More Sad Hits is here! Long live vinyl -- this album really looks and sounds the way it was intended on LP. But the truth is, back in 1992, it could only sound this good in the studio. The remastering by Alan Douches, and LP cutting by Kevin Gray, do an amazing job of translating the original master tape to both CD and vinyl. Some technological advances you can't argue with!

Damon & Naomi newsletter - 2nd September 2008

Whereas the CD had come in a gorgeous, glossy, card, gatefold sleeve, the LP sadly didn’t get the gatefold treatment. The LP package is still lovely but rather surprisingly not as good as the CD. The album is of course exceptional and it seems the reissue garnered some well-deserved reviews, particularly in the UK press.

When the cult 1980s band Galaxie 500 split at the end of that desolate decade, their singer, Dean Wareham, enjoyed commercial success with Luna. Wareham's old rhythm section, the drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang, set up a surrealist publishing company, finally re-entering the studio at the behest of the producer Kramer. Nearly two decades later, their 1992 debut feels subtly significant, as Damon & Naomi have become modest figureheads to acid-folk outsiders. Pit-a-pat percussion underpins dreamy descending riffs on lazy guitars, bisected by hazy lead lines and, on Astrafiammante, atmospheric samples of Saturday-morning-radio opera broadcasts. The sometimes tremulous vocals only solidify More Sad Hits' somnambulistic sense of disassociation, of lovers confided in a closed and close embrace.

Stewart Lee (Sunday Times, 14th December 2008)

When Galaxie 500 fell asunder in 1991, bookish, romantically linked rhythm section Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang almost quit music to devote themselves to their cult publishing house, Exact Change (which still thrives). Persuaded of their latent songwriting talents by New York Svengali/producer Kramer, the pair gravitated to guitars and keyboards, first as the short-lived Pierre Etoile, then reverting to their given names to unite with Kramer and cut More Sad Hits. Rudimentary of strum and clattering of drum as it is, Yang and Krukowski's sophisticated pop ear is nonetheless much in evidence, notably on opener E.T.A. -- its Velvets-indebted indie chug emblazoned with the duo's soaring, plagal harmonies. Little Red Record Co, meanwhile, comes with medieval woodwinds and This Car Climbed Mt. Washington (first aired on Pierre Etoile's sole EP) rocks out to unlikely but pleasingly anthemic effect.

Dacvid Sheppard (Mojo, January 2009)

D&N posted a load more 4+ star reviews on their website back in the day.

In January 2009 they toured Europe and I saw a great show at The Luminaire in Kilburn. I thought I had a recording of this show but it seems not, but if memory serves the only track from More Sad Hits they played was their cover of Soft Machine’s “Memories”. Alasdair from The Clientele guested.

Damon at The Luminaire 2009

Naomi at The Luminaire 2009

Alasdair at The Luminaire 2009

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/011
Artist: Damon & Naomi
Title: More Sad Hits
Notes: 20|20|20 reissue
Format: LP
I assume I bought this from D&N, although maybe in a shop, or at the show?
Buy ‘More Sad Hits’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [389] Dean & Britta - Quarantine Tapes (LP)

Andy — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

So for Dean & Britta’s appearance in the final run in I’ve managed to pick an album that has already made three appearances in the series. I love Quarantine Tapes, both because of what it is, a fantastic collection of great songs delivered with a sweet, low-key beauty; and because of what it represents, a record of a strange and scary time and of the shows that helped us through it.

Dean & Britta - Quarantine Tapes (LP)

But, do I have enough to say about it that hasn’t already been covered in the three previous posts, or in the two Substack posts that I wrote about Dean & Britta’s live-streamed shows during COVID? I suspect not. All of those posts are linked below.

I guess while it was lovely hearing the Luna, Dean & Britta, and Galaxie 500 songs performed during their live streamed shows I guess the treats were the unexpected covers that turned up. Now, we are all very well aware of Dean’s ear for a cover version, and how he manages to pick out the most obscure ones he can, so maybe the real surprises might be the ones that everyone already knew!

“The Carnival is Over” spent three weeks at number one in the UK charts for The Seekers in 1965 and even longer atop the Aussie charts. Apparently it wasn’t a hit in the US so maybe that ticks Dean’s obscurity box?

Dean & Britta - The Carnival is Over (play on YouTube)

“Massachusetts” spent four weeks at number one in the UK, and reached number eleven in the US for The Bee Gees.

Dean & Britta - Massachusetts (We Love The Betsy, June 2020) (play on YouTube)

The LP is a lovely package, with Brian Calvin’s lips on the front, and a lovely picture of Dean and Britta on the back, and being an LP it’s a nice big, lovely picture, although since the sleeve doesn’t mention who it’s by or what the album is called, the shrink-wrap was adorned with a pink sticker to fill in those details. The printed inside sleeve has the track listing in large, colourful type, and the credits on the reverse. The LP itself is translucent green vinyl.

The LP was sold in a double pack with Dean’s then new album I Have Nothing to Say to The Mayor of LA for $55 for the two, but postage bumped up the cost by another 50%. Maybe when this series is over I’ll go back and count how many times I’ve moaned about the cost of international postage.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/083
Artist: Dean & Britta
Title: Quarantine Tapes
Format: LP
Buy ‘Quarantine Tapes’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

Substack posts:

My record collection: [388] Miscellany

Andy — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

We’re now approaching the final straight of this series. After this post there will be one more post each for Dean & Britta, Damon & Noami, Luna, and Galaxie 500 and then, probably a retrospective/wrap-up. But before we reach that final run in I thought I’d maybe run through a couple of things that technically don’t fit the criteria and yet are still in “my collection” and maybe one or two that aren’t!

Miscellany

I have of course already ignored my own rules on a few occasions… but, here are a few more:

AHFOW 10/090 and AHFOW 11/047 Elefant Records tributes to Galaxie 500

The “tribute album” had a flourishing in the late 80s, notably those produced by Hal Wilner, but a watershed moment might be considered Terry Tolkin’s The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young perhaps because of its lean towards more left-field/alternative artists. In the wake of this so many tribute albums came out. It wasn’t until 1997 that Galaxie 500 got a long ovedue tribute, on Spanish label Elefant. The album Snowstorm: A Tribute to Galaxie 500 was preceded, a few months earlier, by a 7” EP called A Tribute to Galaxie 500 that was described as an “advance single”.

The EP had four tracks:

US band Hula Hoop covered “Sorry”
US band Holiday Flyer covered “It’s Getting Late” - John Conley of Holiday Flyer later provided his invaluable layout and design skills for the two AHFoW tribute albums On Fire | 30 and This Music is Ours.
Japanese band Venus Peter covered “Blue Thunder”
Spanish band Pequeñas Cosas Furiosas covered “Snowstorm” (listed on the sleeve as Snow storm)

The EP was a proper tribute, it mentioned the albums the songs were from and what year they were released in, and credits all three memners of Galaxie 500.

A few months later a double CD arrived, of the four tracks on the “advance single” only two were on the album (Hula Hoop and Holiday Flyer).

The CD is great, inevitably there are hits and near-misses on a 29 track album, but I love more than I just like. Maybe I can’t help but love anyone who wants to cover Galaxie 500. There are of course stand-outs but I feel a little mean picking favourites when there are so many I love. But I will mention a couple that have an AHFoW connection:

The album opens with The BMX Bandits cover of “Tugboat”, with guest vocals by Angel Corpus Christi, who I’ll call a friend even though I’ve never met her in the flesh, or indeed spoken to! She has of course put in a few appearances in this series already.

BMX Bandits feat. Angel Corpus Christ - Tugboat (play on YouTube)

Polar who cover King of Spain, is long time friend Miguel (a friend I have actually met in the flesh) who contributed to both of my tribute albums as the fabulous The Standby Connection. The drummer of Polar, and The Standby Connection Paco Grande also mastered On Fire | 30

Polar - King of Spain (play on YouTube)

Holiday Flyer, as mentioned above.

Holiday Flyer - It's Getting Late (play on YouTube)

Watoo Watoo cover When Will You Come Home. Watoo Watoo appeared on the mailing list compilation Decomposing the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna and Michaël of Watoo Watoo also appeared on On Fire | 30 with his current project Vacance.

Watoo Watoo - When Will You Come Home (play on YouTube)

The sleeve notes for the album were written by Andrea Troolin, who has already put in appearances in this series, as the person who steered the Galaxie 500 box-set into existence, and as the proprieter of Grimsey Records who released what might be my favourite Damon & Naomi single.

AHFOW 10/096 - Never Lose That Feeling vol.2

Never Lose That Feeling was a series of three compilation albums released by indie label/promoters Club AC30 from 2005 to 2009, The albums were collections of mostly fairly obscure indie bands covering (generally) slightly less obscure indie/shoegaze classics. Volume two found its way into my collection because it contains a cover of Spectrum’s “How You Satisfy Me” by Britta. It also contains an interesting cover of Galaxie 500’s Blue Thunder by East Anglian band Fiel Garvie (who released three very lovely albums between 1999 and 2006 a couple of which you can find on their Bandcamp).

Britta Phillips - How You Satisfy Me (play on YouTube)

The album also has a track by Sing-Sing, Emma Anderson’s post-Lush project, covering Lush! They have just kicked off a reissue project.

I’m not entirely sure why I decided to include this compilation in my collection and not…

The Belltower - Exploration Day EP

The Belltower was Britta’s post-Jem pre-Luna band that were active in the early 90s. Exploration Day is the only release I have by them, and I only picked it up a couple of years ago in Beatdown Records in Newcastle. It is however rather lovely. I do have most of the rest of their catalogue downloaded and their one album, Popdropper, is so wonderfully early-90s. The band set up camp in London for a while and I may well have seem them… but there are so many support acts I might have seen!

This clip of them is perfect, it has Britta with lovely dark hair making eggy-bread. This is the sort of thing that YouTube was made for!

The Belltower - Lost in Hollow (1991) (play on YouTube)

Max Q - Sometimes

Luna’s first London show was at The Underworld in Camden (in the basement of The World’s End pub) at the end of February 1992. One of the support bands that night were called Winterset and they gave out free singles. Not their singles but clearly they had acquired a load of 7”s from a charity shop, or one of The Record and Tape Exchanges. I never kept the one I got, to be honest I probably left it at the venue. I have no memory what it was.

A while back I reminisced about the show and Mike got in touch and sent me a photo of the single he still had. It sort of made me feel a little negligent for not having kept mine. I kept in occasional touch with Mike and a couple of years ago he asked for my address and this arrived.

The sticker on the front reads “Taking a lead from Carter and Sonic Boom Winterset thought we’d give away a free seven inch single at tonight’s gig” - this was the one that Mike got. To be honest I’ve nver listened to it, and never hunted down the track. The “vocals by Michael Hutchence” hype sticker is the sort of thing that does the exact opposite of what it should do with me… but… I guess I should…? I guess!?

Max Q - Sometimes (play on YouTube)

Well, that was quite appalling to hear, and especially to look at. Sorry.

I did record one Winterset track that night, it had Gina Morris (formerly of Stereolab) guesting on vocals.

Winterset - Stark Naked Truth (play on YouTube)

My record collection: [387] Luna at The Whisky a Go Go, LA 1992-12-06 (DVD-R)

Andy — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is a video recording of an early Luna show that has been doing the rounds for quite a while. I have it on DVD-R but have no idea whether it was something I burnt myself from a download, or it was sent to me. I don’t have a download on a drive which suggests the latter, but it is on a brand of DVD-R that I did use, and that is my handwriting, which suggests the former.

Luna at the Whisky a Go Go DVD

Back in 2006 Jim from the Galaxie 500 Mailing list posted his fairly low-res copies onto YouTube. His channel has plenty of Luna from back then, and more recently. I suspect the copy I is from this source, possibly sent to me by Jim… possibly even on VHS (although I couldn’t find a VHS but I may have ditched it after digitisation).

Ten years later Shayne, the person who videotaped the show, posted a superior copy on YouTube. That was still so many years ago it dates from when YouTube had limits so it was posted in five parts.

This is one of only 2 times that I paid a club money to videotape. The Whisky's policy was $50 to tape. I was (am) such a huge Luna fan, I could not resist. I plunked down the cash and still don't regret it. Great set, and the best sounding Luna show I have. Taped with the Sony TR81.

3 Cameras and a Microphone

Here’s a playlist of all five parts.

Playlist: Luna at The Whisky a Go Go in 1992 (play on YouTube)

It’s worth checking that channel since there’s lots of great early Luna video and audio there.

Catalogue Number: 13/023
Artist: Luna
Title: Luna - Whisky a Go Go 6th November 1992
Format: DVD-R

Naomi Yang's 'Superfund: The Unseen Landscape' and a retrospective

Andy — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 14:50:00 +0100

Last week in the [AHFoW Substack newsletter] I briefly mentioned Naomi’s next film project, Superfund: The Unseen Landscape, this week the project was officially announced along with a crowd-funding campaign to help fund it.

Superfund: The Unseen Landscape

"Superfund: The Unseen Landscape" is about the formerly toxic sites that have been cleaned up by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and transformed into places where we live, work and play. The documentary is a story of renewal, the people involved, and the hard choices we make in coping with a toxic legacy. We follow the path of the contaminated waste, from cleanup to disposal, as these places are converted to new landscapes, hidden in plain sight, and already in our backyards.

Superfund announcement on Naomivision

You can make a tax-deductible donation and anyone who donates $50 or more will get a credit in the finished film.

Ahead of that Naomi’s previous films, and filmed projects, are being given a retrospective in the run up to Damon & Naomi’s show as part of the Something in The Hills festival in Hudson, NY.

Sorry, I manaaged to miss posting about the first of these which was her 1001 Night’s project first released in 2009. I wrote about that a few months back as part of my record collection.

This coming Thursday, 17th September, at Old Books in Hudson there’ll be a screening of Fortune supported by “a selection of music videos”.

Then on the 24th at Return Brewing in Hudson Naomi’s wonderful feature-length documentary/essay Never Be a Punching Bag for Nobody will be screened.

The actual Something in The Hills event with a Damon & Naomi live show is on Saturday 26th September.

My record collection: [386] - Dean Wareham - Anesthesia (No. 6 single)

Andy — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is a copy of the No. 6 edition of Dean Wareham’s first post-Galaxie 500 release Anesthesia. It only arrived in my collection a couple of weeks ago when a Discogs seller in the UK had a copy.

Dean Wareham - Anesthesia / I Can't Wait (No.6)

This single actually has a very confused existence as follows:

The sticker on the front of the sleeve declares that the b-side is called “I Don’t Care” - it isn’t. The label does have the correct title for the b-side although initial pressings didn’t actually have the correct b-side. It was released in two vinyl editions, one yellow and one black, and the first pressing had a Dogbowl track called “I Am Drunk Every Night Because of The Blue Fur Bosom Girl”. It was then re-pressed in both colours with the correct b-side.

So availabe as:

mispressed black vinyl
mispressed yellow vinyl
correctly pressed black vinyl
correctly pressed yellow vinyl

My copy is No.3. I never owned this before because I already had the lovely Mint Records 12” single.

The two songs were the demos Dean recorded at Fun City, produced by Wharton Tiers. Anesthesia with Jimmy Chambers on drums; I Can’t Wait with the late Hamish Kilgour on drums.

After Lunapark was relased a few months later I settled into the opinion that the demo version of Anesthesia was better than the Luna LP version. I still think that now although I do wonder if this was as much to do with the relief that I mentioned in the earlier Anesthesia posts.

Completist me would of course like copies of 1, 2, and 4.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/085
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: Anesthesia / I Can’t Wait
Notes: black vinyl, correct pressing
Format: 7”
Bought from a Discogs seller for £6.40

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [385] - The Mabuses - self titled LP

Andy — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

The Mabuses were a London band, and this is the first of two albums they released on Rough Trade in the early 90s. Dean guests on backing vocals on tack two, In The Long Run.

The Mabuses (LP)

… that track, and most of the album, was recorded by Kramer at Noise New York which I guess explains Dean’s appearance. Maybe he just happened to be in the neighbourhood? The album was released in 1991 so dates from around the end of Galaxie 500.

I didn’t buy this album at the time, but was aware of The Mabuses (and may well have seen them supporting someone back in the day… although I do think that about a lot of bands, but… I did see a lot of support bands in the early 90s). When I started the website I think someone sent me a copy of the album on cassette but I only got around to buying a copy last year.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/107
Artist: The Mabuses
Title: The Mabuses
Format: LP
Bought on Discogs for £10

My record collection: [384] - Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (promo CD)

Andy — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is another Sonic Cathedral radio promo CD that I picked up on eBay for the sake of the collection. The Dancer Disappears was the first single from Dean Wareham’s self-titled album released in 2014.

Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (promo CD)

Unlike the other single I bought at the time, this one is maybe a little more difficult to justify buying since it is a one track CD and contains only the album version of the track.

But, I think I can justify it because it has some lovely promo rubbish, I guess written by Nat at Sonic Cathedral!?, to try and convince the radio stations to play it:

It's a disco inflected ode to having one last big blowout, and sounds not unlike The Go-Betweens getting down with New Order and The Field Mice.

According to the BBC 6Music last.fm account The Dancer Dissappears was played three times on the station during April 2014.

There was a video to accompany the single, but was closer to one of those “FilmFinders” clips that used to turn up on The Old Grey Whistle Test back in the day than it was to a proper video.

Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/178
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: The Dancer Disappears
Notes: Radio promo
Packaging: plastic sleeve
Format: CD
Bought from an eBay seller for £3.49

Luna tour and new T-shirts available

Andy — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:29:00 +0100

Luna head out on a tour of the US that runs from the middle of September into October and in preparation they have made a couple of new T-shirts available on their website (and will of course be available at the shows). One is a new design by Rob Carmichael, the second is a new edition of the “Faye Dunaway” shirt that the band first used in 1993.

caption

Upcoming Luna shows

Subscribe to a feed of upcoming Luna shows

16th September 2026	Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL, USA Luna
18th September 2026	Sony Hall, New York, NY, USA Luna
19th September 2026	Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, USA Luna
20th September 2026	Ottobar, Baltimore, MD, USA Luna
22nd September 2026	Wilbur, Boston, MA, USA Luna
23rd September 2026	Montreal Pop festival, P'tit Ours, Montreal, Canada Luna
24th September 2026	Higher Ground, Burlington, VT, USA Luna
25th September 2026	Center for the Arts, Homer, NY, USA Luna
26th September 2026	Asbury Hall, Buffalo, NY, USA Luna
28th September 2026	Lee's Place, Toronto, Canada Luna
29th September 2026	Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Luna
30th September 2026	Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH, USA Luna
2nd October 2026	City Winery, Nashville, TN, USA Luna
3rd October 2026	Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC, USA Luna
4th October 2026	Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw, NC, USA Luna
6th October 2026	Terminal West, Atlanta, GA, USA Luna
7th October 2026	40 Watt, Athens, GA, USA Luna

My record collection: [383] Luna - EP (Shock CD)

Andy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

1998 was almost certainly the year when I became a collector of all things AHFoW related. Up until then I just bought the records that were released and easily tracked down, in shops. But in 1998 this EP came out and was released by Australian indie lable Shock to promote the bands tour of Australia in September 1988†.

Luna (Shock EP)

I actually can’t remember how I acquired this EP but suspect it was either direct from Shock, from an Australian online store, or perhaps a fan in Australia nabbed it for me. I was hoping the mailing list archives could shed some light but sadly not.

The EP contains the album version of Tracy I Love You and five tracks recorded live for radio shows.

Pup Tent, Everybody’s Talkin, and Bobby Peru were recorded for KCRW, the sleeve says in September 1997, but my db says 1st October 1997 which I suspect was the broadcast date.
IHOP and Friendly Advice were recorded at Pachyderm Studios (where Pup Tent was recorded) for REV109 in December 1996.

This is the second Luna release that is known a “EP”, the other one was released in 1996.

I wrote about the sleeve in the second part of the Substack post about Luna’s sleeves:

Justin Harwood recently posted a flyer on his Instagram for a show at The Supper Club in NYC that he described as being “one of about 50 with different graffiti” - and some of those were collected on the front cover of this EP which was released to coincide with Luna’s Australian tour in September/October of 1998.

The “graffiti” artists listed on the sleeve are Sean Eden, Steve Ellis (I guess the same one responsible for Romantica above), Lisa Burnett & Kirsten Collins (although on Justin’s Instagram post the Devo artwork was credited to Mollie Brown.)

The defaced photo was taken by Jill Greenberg.

The Luna record sleeve art gallery (part two)

Supper Club flyer from Justin's Instagram

You will notice the rather wrinkled state of the sleeve of my copy. This shows that as well as the point I became a collector, this release was also the point where my not being a particularly careful collector came to light. This got dropped this into the bath shortly after it arrived!

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/057
Artist: Luna
Title: EP
Notes: Shock Records EP
Packaging: Slimline jewel case
Format: CD

† - Also in 1998 I subscribed to the Sub Pop Singles Club just to get a Luna single so this year was definitely the point at which I became a collector

My record collection: [382] Frances Ha (DVD / LP)

Andy — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

After a couple of misses we finally get to the Noah Baumbach film I do rather love. I suspect that so much of it is down to the charm of Frances, or maybe the charm of the way Greta Gerwig plays Frances since Frances isn’t always charming. But Greta is the film, she’s in pretty much every scene so you can’t like the film if you don’t like Frances and I can understand that some people might not like her. But I do.

Music from the motion picture Frances Ha

I first saw Frances Ha at the BFI in July 2013 and have now seen it twice since and my love of it hasn’t tailed off at all.

Dean and Britta have appearances in the film at a dinner party and also have an “additional music by” credit. That additional music is the Ann Buchanan Theme (from 13 Most Beautiful) which appears early on in the film, and Million Dollar Doll by Britta (although credited to Dean & Britta for the film and on the film’s soundtrack) which plays in the background of a bar scene.

Britta and Dean in Frances Ha

The soundtrack album was originally released only as a pink vinyl promo so wasn’t easy to get hold of so I emailed Britta to ask if she had a digital copy of Million Dollar Doll - she sent me a copy - “Here it is. Let me know if you have trouble playing this since I bought it on iTunes” - which embarrassed me since… I probably could have done that!

I was intending it for my solo album, but they wanted it credited to D&B for the film score. We did it as background music in a bar scene in the film - with no vocals, so you probably won't even notice it. But the film is great! It was quite a last minute request to have the song on the sound track so it's kind of a rough mix. I still might put it on my solo "thing." Maybe give it a fresh mix.

Email from Britta (20th June 2013)

Of course it did get released on Britta’s Luck or Magic - and had a video made for it:

Britta Phillips - Million Dollar Doll (play on YouTube)

The soundtrack finally got a proper release in 2024, also on pink vinyl, and that’s the copy I bought via Rough Trade’s Discogs for a shocking amount of money!

The film does have a great soundtrack, and so the soundtrack LP is also rather great - as well as (Dean &) Britta’s Million Dollar Doll there’s Chrome Sitar from the hugely underrated T.Rex album Futuristic Dragon; an outtake, Blue Sway, from Paul McCartney’s excellent McCartney II (an album I sang the praises of on AHFoW a couple of years back); Hot Chocoloate’s Every 1’s a Winner.

It also has Modern Love by David Bowie - now I’ve always had problems with 80s Bowie (Let’s Dance and Tonight are albums I find very hard to love) but I’ve come around on Modern Love, and part of that coming around is thanks to its use in Frances Ha, which is so gloriously joyous.

David Bowie - Modern Love - Frances Ha (play on YouTube)

My DVD is a very basic UK release with no extras apart from a trailer.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/022
Title: Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013)
Format: DVD
Bought from Amazon Marketplace for £1.62

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/109
Artist: Various artists
Title: Music From The Motion Picture Frances Ha
Notes: Pink vinyl reissue
Format: LP
Bought from Rough Trade Discogs for… too much!

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [381] Various artists - The Wire Tapper 12 / MOJO Presents Dream Pop

Andy — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

As a buyer/subscriber to various magazines over the years I used to have boxes and boxes of cassettes and CDs that had been given away stuck to their front covers. For a while my collection included quite a few of these that contained album tracks. These magazines quite often had appearances by Galaxie 500 and Luna, and occasionally by Damon & Naomi. At some point I decided that they probably didn’t warrant inclusion. A couple however slipped through the net.

The Wire Tapper 12 / MOJO Presents Dream Pop

The Wire Tapper 12 is a double CD that was included with the December 2004 issue of The Wire, the UK magazine that focuses on the more avant garde and experimental wing of modern music. The CD is packed with just what you’d expect from a double CD given away by The Wire. Buried in the middle of disc two is Damon & Naomi’s Beautiful Close Double.

MOJO Presents Dream Pop was given away with the April 2010 issue of UK adult rock magazine MOJO, and is a mixed bag of tracks that supposedly fit into that difficult “Dream Pop” classification that sometimes leans heavily on the dream and sometimes on the pop. Included is Galaxie 500’s Tell Me.

Most of the rest of my covermounted MCs and CDs were offloaded on charity shops a long time ago in a decluttering exercise - including many which I probably ought to have hung on to. These two probably survived because…

The Wire Tapper 12 is in a lovely cardboard gatefold sleeve and has enough of interest to make it worth hanging on to.
I think I had actually got rid of the MOJO CD but a copy was given to me by a friend (Jim I think) a few years later who was possibly going through a similar decluttering.

I nearly left these out but since they had rows in my spreadsheet…

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/108
Artist: Various artists
Title: The Wire Tapper 12
Packaging: Gatefold card sleeve
Format: 2xCD
Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/181
Artist: Various artists
Title: MOJO Presents Dream Pop
Packaging: Jewel case
Format: CD

Galaxie 500 radio interview from summer 1989

Andy — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:36:00 +0100

Jen has just sent me this lovely 10 minute radio interview of Galaxie 500 from before the release of On Fire. Recorded for “Boston Rocks” on WFNX and touches on signing for Rough Trade, making videos, and the UK music press,

Dean: The English press is bizarre. It's just like really strange.

Damon: That's our, that's our latest new experience. The album just got to England and they're explaining to us what it means. It's a treat to find out.

Dean: Like they ask you really tough questions and you just go, hell, I don't know. So they decide.

Damon: But that's our image. So it's all right.

Dean: So like Melody Maker, the, you know, we tried as hard as possible just to say nothing like philosophical or nothing important, you know, in answer to all these big questions. But then like in the front of the magazine in the content section, it's Galaxie 500, the band that celebrates the demise of youth culture.

I’d guess this was from about August since they mention signing for Rough Trade “in the summer” and that they’re heading to the UK for a show in September.

Galaxie 500 interview on WFNX (play on YouTube)

Jen has a fabulous radio show, Cycles Per Second that you should listen to.

My record collection: [380] Britta / Dean - Don't Think Twice... / Hey Paula

Andy — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is my second copy of the split Dean / Britta single released on Great Pop Supplement in 2015. I’m not too sure why I occasionally felt the need to own two copies of certain releases - it seems a bit off having two copies when there were only 400 in total. My ‘one for show and one for blow’ reasoning doesn’t really seem all that sound now. I apologise.

Britta / Dean - Don't Think Twice... / Hey Paula

In the previous post I mostly drifted off on tangents about what constitutes rock and roll and whether a Dean/Britta duet should really be credited as Dean solo (no, btw).

It’s a lovely single, with two gorgeous cover versions on it so, not much more to be said. But… that sleeve… not so grogeous. I’m so prudish that I’ve manged the two posts without showing the front cover of the sleeve.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/060
Artist: Britta Phillips / Dean Wareham
Title: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright / Hey Paula
Notes: #336/400
Format: 7”
Bought direct from Great Pop Supplement

Previously in my record collection:

[284] Dean / Britta - Don’t Think Twice… / Hey Paula