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.
My record collection
#113: Quarantine Tapes (lathe cut box of singles)
Dean & Britta’s live streamed shows were one of the few bright points in the shit show that was 2020 and Quarantine Tapes is a lovely live record of those shows.
Not all of these are from live streamed shows, some were recorded in Dean & Britta’s home studio, but I don’t have the patience (or acute hearing) to sit down and compare! One we can be fairly sure of though is He Dines Out on Death which was included in this set - announced in August 2020, but I don’t think it was played in a live stream until September.
The set was first released in this box of lathe-cut plastic discs for $75 (and individually or as digital downloads):
It sounded like a quick and easy thing when Mike Dixon called me from Tucson "hey, why not make some instant lathe-cut singles from your live stream shows?" But the plan expanded from there. We tracked four of the songs in our studio (rather than live). And instead of one generic single cover, we did six different jackets, and added the box and a die-cut silkscreen sticker (if you buy the complete set). "If it's worth doing," said Mike, "it's worth over-doing." To that end, we've added one more bonus to the complete set -- a diamond-shaped plexiglass disc with a live recording of "Parking Lot"
Dean Wareham newsletter
It is a lovely package and I love all the thought that went into it - “if it’s worth doing it’s worth over-doing” is a fine sentiment - although the over-doing meant that the overall cost with shipping to the UK rather scared me - and it was… middle of covid and the middle of us trying to sell our house and move. Then I got an email from Dean and he’d noticed I hadn’t bought a box… so sent me one. I honestly get spoiled by these people!
I will add that as lovely as it is… it’s definitely a more looking at and admiring thing, and for listening there’s an LP that I’ll come to later!
In case you need to b e reminded how wonderful Dean & Britta’s quarantine shows were here’s a YouTube playlist
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/078
- Artist: Dean & Britta
- Title: Quarantine Tapes
- Packaging: A box containing 7 individually sleeved, lathe-cut singles.
- Format: Six two-sided 7” lathe cut singles and one (not) diamond-shaped single-sided lathe-cut single.
- Buy ‘Quarantine Tapes’ on Bandcamp