A Head Full of Wishes

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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Dean Wareham on 'Dream Pop' for Pitchfork

Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500

Dean Wareham has written a Galaxie 500 centred introduction to Dream Pop for Pitchfork's The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums

Galaxie 500 were called a lot of things. New York magazine called us “plain soporific.” A VJ at MTV England told us we were “wimpy.” Later, we were dubbed “slowcore,” along with bands like Low and Codeine who played a lot slower (and in a more controlled fashion) than we did. “Proto-shoegaze” was another, but I know we were not shoegaze; those bands buried their vocals and the guitarists strummed chords through a whole slew of effects pedals or a multi-effects processor. […] Shoegaze bands are more of an assault, a wall of sound, while there is more empty space in dream pop—allowing more room for melody and counter-melody, whether on vocals, keyboards, or guitars.

In the article Galaxie 500's On Fire rolls in at No.4 and writer Jenn Pelly suggests that …

as in all great dream pop, these impressionistic elements congeal into a single atomic sound, as if the instruments have eclipsed one another, moving with the crawl of a cloud.

… and Today shows up at 16 and Quinn Moreland points out that…

No matter how high Damon Krukowski’s primal, jazz-inspired drums, Dean Wareham’s psychedelic guitar ramblings, and Naomi Yang’s robust basslines soar, their playing always returns to Earth. Their heads, however, stay in the clouds…

Damon tweeted that back in the day he simply thought of Galaxie 500 as "punk rock" and now aspires to get filed under 'acid folk'!