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.
Happy 35th birthday to Galaxie 500's On Fire
Today† is the 35th anniversary of the release of Galaxie 500’s masterpiece second album On Fire - there was a little uncertainty as to its release date but I’m pretty certain that it was released in the UK on 23rd October 1989. At the bottom of this page you can see the reasons why I’m confident that today is On Fire’s birthday.
But if I remember one of the happiest moments, it must have been the night after we finished On Fire. I remember so clearly being in my room at my parents' house in New York, listening to the dub of the final mixes while lying in bed in the dark room. All I had to listen to the tape on was a tinny cassette player, running out of batteries. The light from the streetlight came in the window that night, as it had all my life. Yet it all took on a magical quality for me as I listened and listened. I was so happy and proud of what we had done. Kramer's production had, as usual, taken the songs to a level I could have never imagined in our rehearsals - but even without that, all that worrying and rehearsing and plan- ning and editing of the material before we even entered Noise had really done it. We had made something so real. I think I listened all night. I was so astonished.
Naomi Yang - Galaxie 500 box set booklet (1996)
I remember everything being in sync for _On Fire_ [...] It was exciting, to be making that happen in the studio. It felt like anything we threw into the mix would work.
Damon Krukowski (Temperature's Rising, p103)
It was recorded in two separate sessions [...] we took our time with this one, spending at least seven days making it, maybe more like ten. Kramer really put on his producer's hat and gave this album a lot more attention.
Dean Wareham (Temperature's Rising, p103)
We made that record so easily! [...] It's one of the easiest records I ever made.
Kramer (Temperature's Rising, p103)
On Fire was recorded over two sessions at Noise New York, the first in February 1989 was to make some demos for Slash Records, and the second in August 1989 - these two sessions produced all the tracks for the album, the three extra tracks for the Blue Thunder EP, and a few extras some that turned up on the box set Uncollected disc, and others on the recent Uncollected Noise New York release.
And so, armed with a full album so that “we would be able to avoid a discussion with labels about who was going to produce the album” Dean Wareham, (Black Postcards, p66) they passed on Slash and towards the end of August 1989 they signed with Rough Trade.
Rough Trade is proud to announce the signing of Boston-based trio, Galaxie 500. The band's first release on Rough Trade will be a full LP On Fire recorded at Noise New York, and produced by Kramer (Bongwater, Butthole Surfers, B.A.L.L.)
Rough Trade press release, 28th August 1989
Shortly after the release the band headed out on an extensive tour of the UK and Europe.
For the 30th anniversary of the album Dean recorded a “commentary” for the album for streaming service Pandora:
For On Fire’s 30th birthday I produced an slbum/fanzine, it has long since sold out but you can download a copy of the booklet here and listen to / buy the album on Bandcamp.
For On Fire’s 25th birthday I posted a birthday tribute post ~ like this but with different words and pics.
† Why today?
This is the evidence that Galaxie 500’s On Fire was released on the 23rd of October:
- This UK press release claims that “Boston based trio Galaxie 500 […] are set to release their second album ‘On Fire’ on 23rd October”.
- Simon Reynolds review of the album was in the 28th October edition of Melody Maker.
- Melody Maker always came out the Wednesday before the date on the cover which would have been 25th October.
- Records in the UK were released on a Monday and you’d want the record to be in the shops when folk opened their Melody Maker on Wednesday - so On Fire must have been released on the 23 October.
Records in the US were apparently released on a Tuesday - so US release date was possibly the 24th October - a US press release dating from August 1989 when Galaxie 500 signed to Rough Trade, suggests the album would be released on 20 October, but as that’s a Friday I’ll dismiss it.
There is also a radio promo press release that suggests it will be released on the 16th October but suspect that either this was a mistake, or that at some point release was delayed a week.
Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong - but I’ll need some strong evidence to change my mind :)