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 #66
I spent some time this week tinkering with the database on the website, which always feel’s a little redundant since it gets so little traffic these days, but… what else would I do with my time.
I’ve created a way that you can view shows by city/town where they were played - it’s still a bit rough around the edges but feel free to take a look (it has exposed some naming and spellling errors that I need to fix). The list of shows is still not complete so if you do notice any gaps or mistakes please do let me know - particularly Galaxie 500 shows and the early days of Luna (basically the bits that happened before the web site, and mailing list, existed.
Dean & Britta to play a free live show in Olympia WA
Dean & Britta will be playing a show in Olympia WA on the 16th August as part of the “Scherler Sundays” free outdoor concert series behind the “historic Carnegie Library” - the show starts at 3pm (local time) and it looks like it’ll be streamed live on their YouTube channel.
Britta and I going to be playing a free afternoon show in Olympia, WA – Sunday August 16 at 5pm, outdoors at the Historic Carnegie Library. It's my first time ever in Olympia and we'll be playing a set heavy on Galaxie 500 songs, in trio format (with Roger on drums).
Dean Wareham - newsletter July 2026
Full Magic Hour show from 1994 on the Internet Archive
A recording of Magic Hour playing The Knitting Factory in NYC has just been made available to download.
Magic Hour was the band that Damon and Naomi formed with Wayne Rogers and Kate Biggar that recorded three albums and played some live shows in the mid/late 90s. Naomi only sang one song for the band, a cover of Cyril Tawney/Trees Sally Free and Easy and you can hear a live version in this set.
The recording is part of the collection of taper Jeff Lazar that is being shared on the Internet Archive:
Magic Hour at the Knitting Factory on 1994-01-12
Magic Hour
January 12, 1994
Knitting Factory
New York, NY
01. intro
02. Isn't a Way
03. Always Leaving Never
04. Lower
05. After Tomorrow
06. Sally Free and Easy
07. World of One
08. The Last Mistake
09. Heads Down
Recording: Beyer M260 Dynamic Cardioid Ribbon mics > Sony D6 Walkman Pro
Transfer: Cassette (M) > Yamaha K-220 > Sony PCM-A10 > WAV 24/48
Mastering: Audacity (compress, normalize) > FLAC
Recorded by: Jeff Lazar
Transfer by: neil d
Mastered by: Brandon
Recording 0015 from the LazArchives
In related news at Terrastock IV in Seattle the members of Magic Hour performed as a Mu/Merrell Fankhauser tribute act and video of that performance is available on YouTube.
New vinyl issues of Luna’s Romantica and Rendezvous
Boutique vinyl label Wax Mage are re-issuing both Luna’s Romantica and Rendezvous each in “five exclusive Wax Mage variants” (plus it seems two others?) - pre-ordering of the release open on Friday 7th August at 7pm ET.
My record collection [375] Luna - Tiger Lily (CD)’
This is a radio promo CD of Luna’s Tiger Lily that I picked up on Discogs a few months back as a collection filler. Although technically it does contain something I never had before, or maybe more accurately one of the tracks doesn’t contains something I did have before.
There are two versions of Tiger Lily on the disc the LP version and a single edit which chops off the intro, chops out a bit of the solo, and fades early - basically lopping 39 seconds out of the song to supposedly make it more attractive for radio play, although I’m a little puzzled at how much more attractive that would make it? The single edit is still over four minutes long so I do wonder how attractive that made it for the radio.
Since this was from Bewitched it was only a “single” in the US and I wonder how much radio play it got and whether the 39 seconds helped with that.
Dean wrote about the tiger lily girl in the sleeve notes to Best of Luna:
In 1993 Howard Thompson, Elektra's head of A&R, came to Paris to see us on the V.U. tour. We hooked him up with one of our "All Access" passes for the show, but Howard was tossed out of the club by the bouncers (they caught him taking 3-D photographs of the show), and we were lectured by the Velvet's tour manager about loaning out our passes. My wife was visiting too, and Howard had some powdered ecstasy that we dropped into our wine at dinner, and he took us to a beautiful/sleazy club called Lily La Tigresse, in Pigalle (which can be seen in the opening sequence of Jean-Pierre Melville's film Bob Le Flambeur). I was struck by the presence of a skinhead girl dancing topless on the bar. She became the "tiger lily girl" as I set these lyrics to a riff that Justin had written.
There’s a lovely (if a little fuzzy and low-res) clip of Luna playing Tiger Lily on MTV back in 1994:
There’s also a nice clip of Luna rehearsing for their lockdown show back in 2021.
You can also watch Stanley playing Tiger Lily in his practice room back in 2010.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/179
- Artist: Luna
- Title: Tiger Lily
- Notes: Radio promo
- Packaging: Jewel case
- Format: CD
- Bought from a Discogs seller for £3
My record collection [376] Galaxie 500 - 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA - 23rd January 1990
My pal Chris gave me this CD ahead of a Damon & Naomi concert in London a few years ago (he also gave a copy to D&N) it’s a soundboard recording of Galaxie 500 at The 40 Watt Club in Athens recorded by the soundman Pat Biddle (aka Pat the Wiz).
I’m not sure this recording has been shared before which sort of surprised me, and it seems a shame to sit on this any longer so I’ve popped it on Dimeadozen to download (login required) and YouTube to stream.
Being a soundboard recording you can’t really hear the audience except what the on-stage mics pick up which is always a strange experience. The plus side of course is just how well you can actually hear the band (although I might like to hear the bass a wee bit more).
I’m a little surprised that I can’t find any contemporary review or comment on the show. Flagpole, an Athens indie magazine, makes a couple of mentions before the show but sadly nothing after.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/061
- Artist: Galaxie 500
- Title: 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA - 23rd January 1990
- Notes: Soundboard recording
- Format: CDR
This week’s anniversaries
8th August 1995
Luna’s masterpiece third LP Penthouse was released in the US on the 8th August 1995 which means that Saturday is its 31st anniversary… it surely can’t be that long!
Well Penthouse remains my favorite Luna record. It’s unusual that you hear a record that works from beginning to end and I think this one does that just kind of casts a spell and maintains this mood from track one to track ten. Often times, it’s just like two interesting songs and a bunch of filler. But I think this one, Penthouse, really captured us at our best.
Dean Wareham on the Life of the Record podcast
11th August 1987
On the 11th August 1987 Galaxie 500 went into 6/8 Studios in New York for their first recording session. It was engineered by Perkin Barnes and as well as the three tracks that turned up on their first demo (and properly released in the box set in 1996) they recorded four other songs that made it onto a few tapes.
- Audio: Friday recycling: Galaxie 500 the extended demo tape
- My record collection [105] Galaxie 500 - The extended demo tape
Tuesday evening I spent watching Whitley Bay FC getting well beaten by Horden CW, the final score was only 1-0 but could (and probably should) have been so much worse. This weekend the greatest of all cup competitions kicks off with the XP round of the FA Cup - so I’ll be watching The Bay play Easington Colliey - they’ll just need to win this and 12 more cup matches to get to the final in at Wembley in May :) #HowayTheBay