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
[350] Damon & Naomi - Song to the Siren (CD/DVD)
This is the first release of Damon & Naomi’s fraudulent live album and I think I have moaned about that enough over the last few months so it’s time to talk some more about the other disc in this double disc set.
I must admit that when I talked about 1001 Nights back in February while I dipped into the videos included I never sat through them all… I had other things on my mind.
To be honest I’m not sure when the last time I sat down and watched Song to the Siren all the way through and I decided to do it this time with Damon & Naomi’s commentary which I guess I probably did when the release first arrived in 2002 but certainly haven’t done since.
A few random notes based on this viewing:
- This was Naomi’s first time making a film, she points out a couple of times her inexperience. Since then film/video making has become quite an important part of her cv.
- This tour was the first time that Damon and Naomi had encountered The Clientele, a band that would loom large in the coming years.
- They turn the camera on to journalist Carsten. Carsten as well as being a journalist was a keen and active member of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List - after the shows he was at Carsten sent me his review in English to publish on AHFoW (I think it had only been published in German before).
Another special treat - very much in the same way that “Blue Moon” had almost moved me to tears at the show in 1998 - was “Song To The Siren” by Tim Buckley. A great tune that sounded quite perfect in this sparse arrangement. Even better though was the discussion that followed. Damon pointed out that he used the early lyrics of the song (“I was puzzled like the oyster I’m as troubled as the tide”, and not “troubled as the newborn child”) and then was trying to make the connection to the Odyssey, which got him in big trouble, as Naomi couldn’t see the connection and told him that he didn’t get it right. Not knowing that my major is sociology and not literature she even asked me to back up her theory (I couldn’t) but I suppose it would be fun to find out who’s right.
Carsten Wohlfeld - Review: Something for your musical education (AHFoW, 29th May 2001)
Here’s Carsten being interviewed and Damon & Naomi playing Song to the Siren:
The camera had been handed to photographer Stefan Claudius, whose gorgeous photos taken in Utrecht were used in the CD/DVD packaging and had also been sent to me to post on AHFoW by Carsten:
The tour then reaches spain and the DVD includes a clip from the Spansih TV show that likely caused all the problems that led to the (not-) live album. Damon & Naomi with Kurihara play four songs and the presenter’s intro is hilariously sweet. You can see the whole show on YouTube:
The film ends in Barcelona with frolicking on the beach and sunset in Parc Guell.
There’s no footage from the show in San Sebastian!
- Catalogue Number: 10/028
- Artist: Damon & Naomi
- Title: Song to the Siren
- Notes: Contains a CD and a DVD of tour diary.
- Format: 1xCD / 1xDVD
- Bought from wherever I bought records when it was released.
- Buy ‘Song to the Siren’ on Bandcamp