Monday's Long Song

What a great band Galaxie 500 were. They split up in 1991 leaving three studio albums behind them (Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music) on the verge of a tour of Japan. Singer/ guitarist Dean Wareham calling it a day when the band had a tough time making what was their final album and in Dean's words 'clearly weren't getting along'. Later in the same year Rough Trade went bust and the other two, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang bought the rights to their own music at auction. The three former Galaxie 500ers have been really careful with what happened to those recordings ever since and last year released a archival album, Uncollected Noise New York '88- '90. 

One of the many highlights of their back catalogue is their cover of The Modern Lovers song Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste, Jonathan Richman's sub- two minute sketch turned into a just shy of seven minute slowcore/ dreampop epic by Galaxie 500. It was on 1988's Today and later released as a B- side in 1990 and re- recorded for a Peel Session too. 

Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

The bass and drums become an exercise in hypnosis while Dean's guitars (two of them, one chugging away like Lou Reed, the other spindly and bright like Sterling Morrison) create some tension. Dean's brittle, upper register voice singing Jonathan's lovelorn, tragic lyrics at the very edge of breaking down.

Dean Wareham is about to release another solo album, the follow up to 2021's I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of LA. A few songs have appeared ahead of it including this one- That's The Price Of Loving Me is a gorgeously understated song, sublime chord changes and padding bassline, Dean's voice in a lower register now than it was back in the late 80s. Kramer, the man who produced those Galaxie 500 albums, is back at the controls and it shows. 

 

You Were The Ones I Had To Betray

Dean Wareham, ex- Galaxie 500, ex- Luna, solo artist and half of Dean and Britta, has a new album out at the end of March, That's The Price Of Loving Me. A single appeared last week ahead of it, a gloriously Velvets indebted slow paced guitar song, two chords and some cello and Dean's distinctive voice- You Were The Ones I Had To Betray. It's produced by Kramer who was at the controls back when Galaxie 500 were a going concern. It's a beautiful song, one that reveals a little more with each play. 

Kramer had always wanted to make another record with Dean but it didn't happen until last year, the pair recording ten songs in six days in Los Angeles, with Kramer playing piano, organ and synths, Britta on bass and backing vox, cello from Gabe Noel and Dean upfront on vocals and guitar. There's a Nico cover on the album too, Reich der Traume (Realm Of Dreams) from 1981's Luul (recorded with Lutz Ulbrich). 

In 2021 Dean released his second solo album, I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of L.A. The title of the album was the first line sung on the album, in this song...

The Past Is Our Plaything

'The past is our plaything/ We're making it up as we go', he sings in that casual half sung/ half spoken delivery over some Lou Reed/ Sterling Morrison third Velvets album guitar chords. There are nine more Dean Wareham sung and played songs on that album, with Britta on bass, two covers (Scott Walker and Lazy Smoke), the usual deal, excellence as standard. Which reminds that there was a Galaxie 500 compilation out last year with a load of previously unreleased stuff on it, that I never got round to getting hold of.