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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A Head Full of Wishes newsletter #35
Luna - Penthouse (2xLP deluxe test pressing)
In 2017 a beautiful double LP of Luna’s masterpiece Penthouse was released on Record Store Day and I’ve already written about the copy that Dean sent me. This is a test pressing of that release.
Jason Reynolds has a long Luna history - it was his label Summershine from Melbourne in Australia, that was the only one to release a copy of Luna’s first album on LP (and also a 7” single of Indian Summer). He was also working for Warners when the deluxe Penthouse was released and was its “reissue producer”.
I’ve been a social media friend/follower of Jason for quite a long time and back in June he messaged me on Instagram - “I did just discover I had some spares of the test pressing of the Penthouse Deluxe 2LP […] let me know if it’s of any interest to you!” … it of course was very much of interest!
Now, if you follow Jason on Instagram you’ll notice that he does a lot of travelling for his work and had an upcoming UK trip and was kind enough to bring a copy over and post it to me from London, sadly I didn’t get a chance to meet him and at the very least buy him a coffee as thanks. I hope to some day!
The release was of course amazing, Penthouse deserved a special release and this was really special - Dean described the album to me as “the best-sounding vinyl version out there” and it really is.
I have been really lucky over the years with the folk I’ve encountered thanks to my love of these bands.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/110
- Artist: Luna
- Title: Penthouse
- Notes: Test pressing of the deluxe 2xLP reissue
- Packaging: Plain white card sleeve - dated 31st January 2017
- Format: 2xLP
Previously in my record collection:
Luna - The Garage 16.12.95 (MC)
I’m squeezing an extra record collection post in this week because this one arrived in my randomised list almost exactly 30 years on from the show it is a recording of and it seemed a shame not to take advantage of that, although I did post about it on its 25th anniversary so this is mostly a re-hash of that one (and barely re-hashed at all).
In 1995 photography was analog and almost nobody took photos at gigs so I’ve never seen any of this show. People did record gigs though and a couple of weeks after the show someone (can’t remember who, maybe Paul? Sorry!) sent me a recording.
A Head Full of Wishes (as a mailing list and web site) had been running for about a year by then but this was the first show where I met internet friends in real life. I’m not a particularly social person but somehow in-the-flesh meetings with A Head Full of Wishes friends sort of pulls me out of that shell - and this was the first time I was pulled!
First up Trenton introduced himself to me in the queue outside the venue - I don’t think I handled this as well as I ought but, while I knew people I’d interacted with online where going to be there I didn’t really expect any to talk to me. So Trenton caught me off guard!
Next up Lauren, in the venue, who tried to convince me to speak to Dean after the show. I didn’t. It was a couple more years and a few more shows before I was brave enough to do that.
I thought I’d first spoken to Paul that night but a diary entry I came across recently suggests that I first met him at a Damon & Naomi show at the 12 Bar.
I think most times I’ve seen Luna they’ve finished the night with Indian Summer - here they are finishing that night in that way:
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 16/018
- Artist: Luna
- Title: The Garage, 16.12.95
- Format: MC
Dean & Britta - Variations (CD)
And so we arrive at what should be the last (of three) Christamases of this series. Most posts are picked at random but for Christmas I’ve tried to be seasonal for a couple reasons:
- It seems right for AHFoW to get into the Christmas spirit.
- It would seem odd writing about Christmas songs in July!
“But”, I hear you ask, “what has a compilation of Dean & Britta rarities got to do with Christmas?”, well…
Variations was a digital only EP released in January 2008
“But”, I hear you ask, “digital only!?”
Officially it was digital only release but Dean & Britta had some CDs made to sell on their US tour in February and Dean sent me a copy, obviously packed up and posted around Christmas - it arrived on the 10th January.
The EP contains six songs from Back Numbers remixed by a number of different folk - Scott Hardkiss, My Robot Friend, Britta, Sonic Boom, Sand Pebbles, and Richard Formby - and one track, Song of You which was actually a solo Britta number that was released on an Esopus covermount CD in 2005. The version on Variations is a Tony Visconti mix and credited to Dean & Britta.
You can hear the Esopus version on their website and the Tony Visconti mix on YouTube (or wherever you stream).
The sleeve of the EP was a photo of Dean and Britta taken by Michael Lavine and is a riff on the image used for the poster of the 1966 film Blow-Up (carrying on the Antonioni theme from L’avventura) - the original shot features the photographer (played by David Hemmings), with his shirt unbuttoned, straddling his model (player by Veruschka). Dean and Britta’s variation has Britta in the David Hemmings role (but buttoned up) and Dean being the model… but… unbuttoned!
Mubi did a blog post about the posters for Blow-Up a few years back (where I lifted that image from!).
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/009
- Artist: Dean & Britta
- Title: Variations
- Notes: Signed by Dean
- Packaging: Digipack
- Format: CD
Previously in my record collection - Christmas edition:
- [100] Luna - Time / Egg Nog (red vinyl)
- [101] Old Toy Trains / He’s Coming Home - Dean & Britta (blue vinyl)
- [202] Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - A Peace of Us
- [208] White Christmas - Damon & Naomi
- [209] Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom- He’s Coming Home / Old Toy Trains
In case you missed it - a selection of posts from 2025
As well as posting to this website, since April I have been posting weekly pieces on the A Head Full of Wishes Substack - the intention was just to re-hash some old posts but over time it turned into more than that. They were, of course, of varying quality so I’ve picked a few of the ones I think were more interesting and am posting them here in case you missed them.
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/from-the-archive-luna-in-london
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/handwritten-set-lists
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/damon-and-naomi-in-the-uk-this-week
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/the-making-of-lunas-dear-paulina
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/galaxie-500-at-the-subterania-27th
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/my-copy-of-dean-warehams-black-postcards
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/galaxie-500-the-band-and-the-car
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/the-velvet-undergrounds-femme-fatale
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/brian-ealing-and-understand
https://aheadfullofwishes.substack.com/p/obsessed-with-the-weather
OK… I did track down the interview, it’s the one by Jen that I reprinted some of in Everything’s Swirling #3, although it wasn’t in the bit I used - you can see it in the Wayback Machine:
Dean: The most obvious thing is when you walk outside — what kind of day it is hits you, and that finds its way into your music.
Jon (NSD): Do you like sunny days, grey days...?
Justin: Dean is obsessed with the weather. He watches the Weather Channel every morning.
Dean: It's just lazy songwriting. I don't watch the Weather Channel every morning.
Justin: You do so.
Dean: I listen to it on the radio.
Justin: We used to ring him up and ask, "What sort of day is it going to be tomorrow?" "Well, it's going to be overcast with a... "It's really bizarre. And he'd be right. Every time. "It's going to get cold in the afternoon, but then in the evening it's going to warm up..."
The coming week in AHFoW history
Christmas week so fairly quiet I guess… here’s Dean & Britta’s “card” from Christmas Day 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mgMlLoxcU0
This week’s discoveries and rediscoveries
- Luna and Yo La Tengo are playing three shows in SF next week dates here
- Luna have announced another show for April in Kingston, NY - you can see all upcoming shows here
- A couple of two minute extracts from Dean’s show in Utrecht back in April have just turned up on YouTube - Snowstorm and 23 Minutes in Brussels.