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
[390] Damon & Naomi - More Sad Hits (20|20|20 LP)
It’s just occurred to me that the items I’ve picked for the run-in are (with one exception) all releases that have already had multiple appearances in this series. This is the 20|20|20 vinyl reissue of Damon & Naomi’s first album, and this is the third post in the series to cover More Sad Hits.
The album was reissued in Autumn 2008 and Damon and Naomi were particularly pleased with the release:
The vinyl reissue of More Sad Hits is here! Long live vinyl -- this album really looks and sounds the way it was intended on LP. But the truth is, back in 1992, it could only sound this good in the studio. The remastering by Alan Douches, and LP cutting by Kevin Gray, do an amazing job of translating the original master tape to both CD and vinyl. Some technological advances you can't argue with!
Damon & Naomi newsletter - 2nd September 2008
Whereas the CD had come in a gorgeous, glossy, card, gatefold sleeve, the LP sadly didn’t get the gatefold treatment. The LP package is still lovely but rather surprisingly not as good as the CD. The album is of course exceptional and it seems the reissue garnered some well-deserved reviews, particularly in the UK press.
When the cult 1980s band Galaxie 500 split at the end of that desolate decade, their singer, Dean Wareham, enjoyed commercial success with Luna. Wareham's old rhythm section, the drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang, set up a surrealist publishing company, finally re-entering the studio at the behest of the producer Kramer. Nearly two decades later, their 1992 debut feels subtly significant, as Damon & Naomi have become modest figureheads to acid-folk outsiders. Pit-a-pat percussion underpins dreamy descending riffs on lazy guitars, bisected by hazy lead lines and, on Astrafiammante, atmospheric samples of Saturday-morning-radio opera broadcasts. The sometimes tremulous vocals only solidify More Sad Hits' somnambulistic sense of disassociation, of lovers confided in a closed and close embrace.
Stewart Lee (Sunday Times, 14th December 2008)
When Galaxie 500 fell asunder in 1991, bookish, romantically linked rhythm section Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang almost quit music to devote themselves to their cult publishing house, Exact Change (which still thrives). Persuaded of their latent songwriting talents by New York Svengali/producer Kramer, the pair gravitated to guitars and keyboards, first as the short-lived Pierre Etoile, then reverting to their given names to unite with Kramer and cut More Sad Hits. Rudimentary of strum and clattering of drum as it is, Yang and Krukowski's sophisticated pop ear is nonetheless much in evidence, notably on opener E.T.A. -- its Velvets-indebted indie chug emblazoned with the duo's soaring, plagal harmonies. Little Red Record Co, meanwhile, comes with medieval woodwinds and This Car Climbed Mt. Washington (first aired on Pierre Etoile's sole EP) rocks out to unlikely but pleasingly anthemic effect.
Dacvid Sheppard (Mojo, January 2009)
D&N posted a load more 4+ star reviews on their website back in the day.
In January 2009 they toured Europe and I saw a great show at The Luminaire in Kilburn. I thought I had a recording of this show but it seems not, but if memory serves the only track from More Sad Hits they played was their cover of Soft Machine’s “Memories”. Alasdair from The Clientele guested.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/011
- Artist: Damon & Naomi
- Title: More Sad Hits
- Notes: 20|20|20 reissue
- Format: LP
- I assume I bought this from D&N, although maybe in a shop, or at the show?
- Buy ‘More Sad Hits’ on Bandcamp
Previously in my record collection: