A Head Full of Wishes

My record collection: [388] Miscellany

Andy — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

We’re now approaching the final straight of this series. After this post there will be one more post each for Dean & Britta, Damon & Noami, Luna, and Galaxie 500 and then, probably a retrospective/wrap-up. But before we reach that final run in I thought I’d maybe run through a couple of things that technically don’t fit the criteria and yet are still in “my collection” and maybe one or two that aren’t!

Miscellany

I have of course already ignored my own rules on a few occasions… but, here are a few more:

AHFOW 10/090 and AHFOW 11/047 Elefant Records tributes to Galaxie 500

The “tribute album” had a flourishing in the late 80s, notably those produced by Hal Wilner, but a watershed moment might be considered Terry Tolkin’s The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young perhaps because of its lean towards more left-field/alternative artists. In the wake of this so many tribute albums came out. It wasn’t until 1997 that Galaxie 500 got a long ovedue tribute, on Spanish label Elefant. The album Snowstorm: A Tribute to Galaxie 500 was preceded, a few months earlier, by a 7” EP called A Tribute to Galaxie 500 that was described as an “advance single”.

The EP had four tracks:

US band Hula Hoop covered “Sorry”
US band Holiday Flyer covered “It’s Getting Late” - John Conley of Holiday Flyer later provided his invaluable layout and design skills for the two AHFoW tribute albums On Fire | 30 and This Music is Ours.
Japanese band Venus Peter covered “Blue Thunder”
Spanish band Pequeñas Cosas Furiosas covered “Snowstorm” (listed on the sleeve as Snow storm)

The EP was a proper tribute, it mentioned the albums the songs were from and what year they were released in, and credits all three memners of Galaxie 500.

A few months later a double CD arrived, of the four tracks on the “advance single” only two were on the album (Hula Hoop and Holiday Flyer).

The CD is great, inevitably there are hits and near-misses on a 29 track album, but I love more than I just like. Maybe I can’t help but love anyone who wants to cover Galaxie 500. There are of course stand-outs but I feel a little mean picking favourites when there are so many I love. But I will mention a couple that have an AHFoW connection:

The album opens with The BMX Bandits cover of “Tugboat”, with guest vocals by Angel Corpus Christi, who I’ll call a friend even though I’ve never met her in the flesh, or indeed spoken to! She has of course put in a few appearances in this series already.

BMX Bandits feat. Angel Corpus Christ - Tugboat (play on YouTube)

Polar who cover King of Spain, is long time friend Miguel (a friend I have actually met in the flesh) who contributed to both of my tribute albums as the fabulous The Standby Connection. The drummer of Polar, and The Standby Connection Paco Grande also mastered On Fire | 30

Polar - King of Spain (play on YouTube)

Holiday Flyer, as mentioned above.

Holiday Flyer - It's Getting Late (play on YouTube)

Watoo Watoo cover When Will You Come Home. Watoo Watoo appeared on the mailing list compilation Decomposing the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna and Michaël of Watoo Watoo also appeared on On Fire | 30 with his current project Vacance.

Watoo Watoo - When Will You Come Home (play on YouTube)

The sleeve notes for the album were written by Andrea Troolin, who has already put in appearances in this series, as the person who steered the Galaxie 500 box-set into existence, and as the proprieter of Grimsey Records who released what might be my favourite Damon & Naomi single.

AHFOW 10/096 - Never Lose That Feeling vol.2

Never Lose That Feeling was a series of three compilation albums released by indie label/promoters Club AC30 from 2005 to 2009, The albums were collections of mostly fairly obscure indie bands covering (generally) slightly less obscure indie/shoegaze classics. Volume two found its way into my collection because it contains a cover of Spectrum’s “How You Satisfy Me” by Britta. It also contains an interesting cover of Galaxie 500’s Blue Thunder by East Anglian band Fiel Garvie (who released three very lovely albums between 1999 and 2006 a couple of which you can find on their Bandcamp).

Britta Phillips - How You Satisfy Me (play on YouTube)

The album also has a track by Sing-Sing, Emma Anderson’s post-Lush project, covering Lush! They have just kicked off a reissue project.

I’m not entirely sure why I decided to include this compilation in my collection and not…

The Belltower - Exploration Day EP

The Belltower was Britta’s post-Jem pre-Luna band that were active in the early 90s. Exploration Day is the only release I have by them, and I only picked it up a couple of years ago in Beatdown Records in Newcastle. It is however rather lovely. I do have most of the rest of their catalogue downloaded and their one album, Popdropper, is so wonderfully early-90s. The band set up camp in London for a while and I may well have seem them… but there are so many support acts I might have seen!

This clip of them is perfect, it has Britta with lovely dark hair making eggy-bread. This is the sort of thing that YouTube was made for!

The Belltower - Lost in Hollow (1991) (play on YouTube)

Max Q - Sometimes

Luna’s first London show was at The Underworld in Camden (in the basement of The World’s End pub) at the end of February 1992. One of the support bands that night were called Winterset and they gave out free singles. Not their singles but clearly they had acquired a load of 7”s from a charity shop, or one of The Record and Tape Exchanges. I never kept the one I got, to be honest I probably left it at the venue. I have no memory what it was.

A while back I reminisced about the show and Mike got in touch and sent me a photo of the single he still had. It sort of made me feel a little negligent for not having kept mine. I kept in occasional touch with Mike and a couple of years ago he asked for my address and this arrived.

The sticker on the front reads “Taking a lead from Carter and Sonic Boom Winterset thought we’d give away a free seven inch single at tonight’s gig” - this was the one that Mike got. To be honest I’ve nver listened to it, and never hunted down the track. The “vocals by Michael Hutchence” hype sticker is the sort of thing that does the exact opposite of what it should do with me… but… I guess I should…? I guess!?

Max Q - Sometimes (play on YouTube)

Well, that was quite appalling to hear, and especially to look at. Sorry.

I did record one Winterset track that night, it had Gina Morris (formerly of Stereolab) guesting on vocals.

Winterset - Stark Naked Truth (play on YouTube)

My record collection: [387] Luna at The Whisky a Go Go, LA 1992-12-06 (DVD-R)

Andy — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is a video recording of an early Luna show that has been doing the rounds for quite a while. I have it on DVD-R but have no idea whether it was something I burnt myself from a download, or it was sent to me. I don’t have a download on a drive which suggests the latter, but it is on a brand of DVD-R that I did use, and that is my handwriting, which suggests the former.

Luna at the Whisky a Go Go DVD

Back in 2006 Jim from the Galaxie 500 Mailing list posted his fairly low-res copies onto YouTube. His channel has plenty of Luna from back then, and more recently. I suspect the copy I is from this source, possibly sent to me by Jim… possibly even on VHS (although I couldn’t find a VHS but I may have ditched it after digitisation).

Ten years later Shayne, the person who videotaped the show, posted a superior copy on YouTube. That was still so many years ago it dates from when YouTube had limits so it was posted in five parts.

This is one of only 2 times that I paid a club money to videotape. The Whisky's policy was $50 to tape. I was (am) such a huge Luna fan, I could not resist. I plunked down the cash and still don't regret it. Great set, and the best sounding Luna show I have. Taped with the Sony TR81.

3 Cameras and a Microphone

Here’s a playlist of all five parts.

Playlist: Luna at The Whisky a Go Go in 1992 (play on YouTube)

It’s worth checking that channel since there’s lots of great early Luna video and audio there.

Catalogue Number: 13/023
Artist: Luna
Title: Luna - Whisky a Go Go 6th November 1992
Format: DVD-R

Naomi Yang's 'Superfund: The Unseen Landscape' and a retrospective

Andy — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 14:50:00 +0100

Last week in the [AHFoW Substack newsletter] I briefly mentioned Naomi’s next film project, Superfund: The Unseen Landscape, this week the project was officially announced along with a crowd-funding campaign to help fund it.

Superfund: The Unseen Landscape

"Superfund: The Unseen Landscape" is about the formerly toxic sites that have been cleaned up by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and transformed into places where we live, work and play. The documentary is a story of renewal, the people involved, and the hard choices we make in coping with a toxic legacy. We follow the path of the contaminated waste, from cleanup to disposal, as these places are converted to new landscapes, hidden in plain sight, and already in our backyards.

Superfund announcement on Naomivision

You can make a tax-deductible donation and anyone who donates $50 or more will get a credit in the finished film.

Ahead of that Naomi’s previous films, and filmed projects, are being given a retrospective in the run up to Damon & Naomi’s show as part of the Something in The Hills festival in Hudson, NY.

Sorry, I manaaged to miss posting about the first of these which was her 1001 Night’s project first released in 2009. I wrote about that a few months back as part of my record collection.

This coming Thursday, 17th September, at Old Books in Hudson there’ll be a screening of Fortune supported by “a selection of music videos”.

Then on the 24th at Return Brewing in Hudson Naomi’s wonderful feature-length documentary/essay Never Be a Punching Bag for Nobody will be screened.

The actual Something in The Hills event with a Damon & Naomi live show is on Saturday 26th September.

My record collection: [386] - Dean Wareham - Anesthesia (No. 6 single)

Andy — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is a copy of the No. 6 edition of Dean Wareham’s first post-Galaxie 500 release Anesthesia. It only arrived in my collection a couple of weeks ago when a Discogs seller in the UK had a copy.

Dean Wareham - Anesthesia / I Can't Wait (No.6)

This single actually has a very confused existence as follows:

The sticker on the front of the sleeve declares that the b-side is called “I Don’t Care” - it isn’t. The label does have the correct title for the b-side although initial pressings didn’t actually have the correct b-side. It was released in two vinyl editions, one yellow and one black, and the first pressing had a Dogbowl track called “I Am Drunk Every Night Because of The Blue Fur Bosom Girl”. It was then re-pressed in both colours with the correct b-side.

So availabe as:

mispressed black vinyl
mispressed yellow vinyl
correctly pressed black vinyl
correctly pressed yellow vinyl

My copy is No.3. I never owned this before because I already had the lovely Mint Records 12” single.

The two songs were the demos Dean recorded at Fun City, produced by Wharton Tiers. Anesthesia with Jimmy Chambers on drums; I Can’t Wait with the late Hamish Kilgour on drums.

After Lunapark was relased a few months later I settled into the opinion that the demo version of Anesthesia was better than the Luna LP version. I still think that now although I do wonder if this was as much to do with the relief that I mentioned in the earlier Anesthesia posts.

Completist me would of course like copies of 1, 2, and 4.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/085
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: Anesthesia / I Can’t Wait
Notes: black vinyl, correct pressing
Format: 7”
Bought from a Discogs seller for £6.40

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [385] - The Mabuses - self titled LP

Andy — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

The Mabuses were a London band, and this is the first of two albums they released on Rough Trade in the early 90s. Dean guests on backing vocals on tack two, In The Long Run.

The Mabuses (LP)

… that track, and most of the album, was recorded by Kramer at Noise New York which I guess explains Dean’s appearance. Maybe he just happened to be in the neighbourhood? The album was released in 1991 so dates from around the end of Galaxie 500.

I didn’t buy this album at the time, but was aware of The Mabuses (and may well have seen them supporting someone back in the day… although I do think that about a lot of bands, but… I did see a lot of support bands in the early 90s). When I started the website I think someone sent me a copy of the album on cassette but I only got around to buying a copy last year.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/107
Artist: The Mabuses
Title: The Mabuses
Format: LP
Bought on Discogs for £10

My record collection: [384] - Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (promo CD)

Andy — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is another Sonic Cathedral radio promo CD that I picked up on eBay for the sake of the collection. The Dancer Disappears was the first single from Dean Wareham’s self-titled album released in 2014.

Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (promo CD)

Unlike the other single I bought at the time, this one is maybe a little more difficult to justify buying since it is a one track CD and contains only the album version of the track.

But, I think I can justify it because it has some lovely promo rubbish, I guess written by Nat at Sonic Cathedral!?, to try and convince the radio stations to play it:

It's a disco inflected ode to having one last big blowout, and sounds not unlike The Go-Betweens getting down with New Order and The Field Mice.

According to the BBC 6Music last.fm account The Dancer Dissappears was played three times on the station during April 2014.

There was a video to accompany the single, but was closer to one of those “FilmFinders” clips that used to turn up on The Old Grey Whistle Test back in the day than it was to a proper video.

Dean Wareham - The Dancer Disappears (play on YouTube)

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/178
Artist: Dean Wareham
Title: The Dancer Disappears
Notes: Radio promo
Packaging: plastic sleeve
Format: CD
Bought from an eBay seller for £3.49

Luna tour and new T-shirts available

Andy — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:29:00 +0100

Luna head out on a tour of the US that runs from the middle of September into October and in preparation they have made a couple of new T-shirts available on their website (and will of course be available at the shows). One is a new design by Rob Carmichael, the second is a new edition of the “Faye Dunaway” shirt that the band first used in 1993.

caption

Upcoming Luna shows

Subscribe to a feed of upcoming Luna shows

16th September 2026	Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL, USA Luna
18th September 2026	Sony Hall, New York, NY, USA Luna
19th September 2026	Crossroads, Garwood, NJ, USA Luna
20th September 2026	Ottobar, Baltimore, MD, USA Luna
22nd September 2026	Wilbur, Boston, MA, USA Luna
23rd September 2026	Montreal Pop festival, P'tit Ours, Montreal, Canada Luna
24th September 2026	Higher Ground, Burlington, VT, USA Luna
25th September 2026	Center for the Arts, Homer, NY, USA Luna
26th September 2026	Asbury Hall, Buffalo, NY, USA Luna
28th September 2026	Lee's Place, Toronto, Canada Luna
29th September 2026	Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Luna
30th September 2026	Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH, USA Luna
2nd October 2026	City Winery, Nashville, TN, USA Luna
3rd October 2026	Grey Eagle, Asheville, NC, USA Luna
4th October 2026	Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw, NC, USA Luna
6th October 2026	Terminal West, Atlanta, GA, USA Luna
7th October 2026	40 Watt, Athens, GA, USA Luna

My record collection: [383] Luna - EP (Shock CD)

Andy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

1998 was almost certainly the year when I became a collector of all things AHFoW related. Up until then I just bought the records that were released and easily tracked down, in shops. But in 1998 this EP came out and was released by Australian indie lable Shock to promote the bands tour of Australia in September 1988†.

Luna (Shock EP)

I actually can’t remember how I acquired this EP but suspect it was either direct from Shock, from an Australian online store, or perhaps a fan in Australia nabbed it for me. I was hoping the mailing list archives could shed some light but sadly not.

The EP contains the album version of Tracy I Love You and five tracks recorded live for radio shows.

Pup Tent, Everybody’s Talkin, and Bobby Peru were recorded for KCRW, the sleeve says in September 1997, but my db says 1st October 1997 which I suspect was the broadcast date.
IHOP and Friendly Advice were recorded at Pachyderm Studios (where Pup Tent was recorded) for REV109 in December 1996.

This is the second Luna release that is known a “EP”, the other one was released in 1996.

I wrote about the sleeve in the second part of the Substack post about Luna’s sleeves:

Justin Harwood recently posted a flyer on his Instagram for a show at The Supper Club in NYC that he described as being “one of about 50 with different graffiti” - and some of those were collected on the front cover of this EP which was released to coincide with Luna’s Australian tour in September/October of 1998.

The “graffiti” artists listed on the sleeve are Sean Eden, Steve Ellis (I guess the same one responsible for Romantica above), Lisa Burnett & Kirsten Collins (although on Justin’s Instagram post the Devo artwork was credited to Mollie Brown.)

The defaced photo was taken by Jill Greenberg.

The Luna record sleeve art gallery (part two)

Supper Club flyer from Justin's Instagram

You will notice the rather wrinkled state of the sleeve of my copy. This shows that as well as the point I became a collector, this release was also the point where my not being a particularly careful collector came to light. This got dropped this into the bath shortly after it arrived!

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/057
Artist: Luna
Title: EP
Notes: Shock Records EP
Packaging: Slimline jewel case
Format: CD

† - Also in 1998 I subscribed to the Sub Pop Singles Club just to get a Luna single so this year was definitely the point at which I became a collector

My record collection: [382] Frances Ha (DVD / LP)

Andy — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

After a couple of misses we finally get to the Noah Baumbach film I do rather love. I suspect that so much of it is down to the charm of Frances, or maybe the charm of the way Greta Gerwig plays Frances since Frances isn’t always charming. But Greta is the film, she’s in pretty much every scene so you can’t like the film if you don’t like Frances and I can understand that some people might not like her. But I do.

Music from the motion picture Frances Ha

I first saw Frances Ha at the BFI in July 2013 and have now seen it twice since and my love of it hasn’t tailed off at all.

Dean and Britta have appearances in the film at a dinner party and also have an “additional music by” credit. That additional music is the Ann Buchanan Theme (from 13 Most Beautiful) which appears early on in the film, and Million Dollar Doll by Britta (although credited to Dean & Britta for the film and on the film’s soundtrack) which plays in the background of a bar scene.

Britta and Dean in Frances Ha

The soundtrack album was originally released only as a pink vinyl promo so wasn’t easy to get hold of so I emailed Britta to ask if she had a digital copy of Million Dollar Doll - she sent me a copy - “Here it is. Let me know if you have trouble playing this since I bought it on iTunes” - which embarrassed me since… I probably could have done that!

I was intending it for my solo album, but they wanted it credited to D&B for the film score. We did it as background music in a bar scene in the film - with no vocals, so you probably won't even notice it. But the film is great! It was quite a last minute request to have the song on the sound track so it's kind of a rough mix. I still might put it on my solo "thing." Maybe give it a fresh mix.

Email from Britta (20th June 2013)

Of course it did get released on Britta’s Luck or Magic - and had a video made for it:

Britta Phillips - Million Dollar Doll (play on YouTube)

The soundtrack finally got a proper release in 2024, also on pink vinyl, and that’s the copy I bought via Rough Trade’s Discogs for a shocking amount of money!

The film does have a great soundtrack, and so the soundtrack LP is also rather great - as well as (Dean &) Britta’s Million Dollar Doll there’s Chrome Sitar from the hugely underrated T.Rex album Futuristic Dragon; an outtake, Blue Sway, from Paul McCartney’s excellent McCartney II (an album I sang the praises of on AHFoW a couple of years back); Hot Chocoloate’s Every 1’s a Winner.

It also has Modern Love by David Bowie - now I’ve always had problems with 80s Bowie (Let’s Dance and Tonight are albums I find very hard to love) but I’ve come around on Modern Love, and part of that coming around is thanks to its use in Frances Ha, which is so gloriously joyous.

David Bowie - Modern Love - Frances Ha (play on YouTube)

My DVD is a very basic UK release with no extras apart from a trailer.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/022
Title: Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013)
Format: DVD
Bought from Amazon Marketplace for £1.62

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/109
Artist: Various artists
Title: Music From The Motion Picture Frances Ha
Notes: Pink vinyl reissue
Format: LP
Bought from Rough Trade Discogs for… too much!

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [381] Various artists - The Wire Tapper 12 / MOJO Presents Dream Pop

Andy — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

As a buyer/subscriber to various magazines over the years I used to have boxes and boxes of cassettes and CDs that had been given away stuck to their front covers. For a while my collection included quite a few of these that contained album tracks. These magazines quite often had appearances by Galaxie 500 and Luna, and occasionally by Damon & Naomi. At some point I decided that they probably didn’t warrant inclusion. A couple however slipped through the net.

The Wire Tapper 12 / MOJO Presents Dream Pop

The Wire Tapper 12 is a double CD that was included with the December 2004 issue of The Wire, the UK magazine that focuses on the more avant garde and experimental wing of modern music. The CD is packed with just what you’d expect from a double CD given away by The Wire. Buried in the middle of disc two is Damon & Naomi’s Beautiful Close Double.

MOJO Presents Dream Pop was given away with the April 2010 issue of UK adult rock magazine MOJO, and is a mixed bag of tracks that supposedly fit into that difficult “Dream Pop” classification that sometimes leans heavily on the dream and sometimes on the pop. Included is Galaxie 500’s Tell Me.

Most of the rest of my covermounted MCs and CDs were offloaded on charity shops a long time ago in a decluttering exercise - including many which I probably ought to have hung on to. These two probably survived because…

The Wire Tapper 12 is in a lovely cardboard gatefold sleeve and has enough of interest to make it worth hanging on to.
I think I had actually got rid of the MOJO CD but a copy was given to me by a friend (Jim I think) a few years later who was possibly going through a similar decluttering.

I nearly left these out but since they had rows in my spreadsheet…

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/108
Artist: Various artists
Title: The Wire Tapper 12
Packaging: Gatefold card sleeve
Format: 2xCD
Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/181
Artist: Various artists
Title: MOJO Presents Dream Pop
Packaging: Jewel case
Format: CD

Galaxie 500 radio interview from summer 1989

Andy — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:36:00 +0100

Jen has just sent me this lovely 10 minute radio interview of Galaxie 500 from before the release of On Fire. Recorded for “Boston Rocks” on WFNX and touches on signing for Rough Trade, making videos, and the UK music press,

Dean: The English press is bizarre. It's just like really strange.

Damon: That's our, that's our latest new experience. The album just got to England and they're explaining to us what it means. It's a treat to find out.

Dean: Like they ask you really tough questions and you just go, hell, I don't know. So they decide.

Damon: But that's our image. So it's all right.

Dean: So like Melody Maker, the, you know, we tried as hard as possible just to say nothing like philosophical or nothing important, you know, in answer to all these big questions. But then like in the front of the magazine in the content section, it's Galaxie 500, the band that celebrates the demise of youth culture.

I’d guess this was from about August since they mention signing for Rough Trade “in the summer” and that they’re heading to the UK for a show in September.

Galaxie 500 interview on WFNX (play on YouTube)

Jen has a fabulous radio show, Cycles Per Second that you should listen to.

My record collection: [380] Britta / Dean - Don't Think Twice... / Hey Paula

Andy — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

This is my second copy of the split Dean / Britta single released on Great Pop Supplement in 2015. I’m not too sure why I occasionally felt the need to own two copies of certain releases - it seems a bit off having two copies when there were only 400 in total. My ‘one for show and one for blow’ reasoning doesn’t really seem all that sound now. I apologise.

Britta / Dean - Don't Think Twice... / Hey Paula

In the previous post I mostly drifted off on tangents about what constitutes rock and roll and whether a Dean/Britta duet should really be credited as Dean solo (no, btw).

It’s a lovely single, with two gorgeous cover versions on it so, not much more to be said. But… that sleeve… not so grogeous. I’m so prudish that I’ve manged the two posts without showing the front cover of the sleeve.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 11/060
Artist: Britta Phillips / Dean Wareham
Title: Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright / Hey Paula
Notes: #336/400
Format: 7”
Bought direct from Great Pop Supplement

Previously in my record collection:

[284] Dean / Britta - Don’t Think Twice… / Hey Paula

Another newly digitised Galaxie 500 show on the Internet Archive

Andy — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

Another Galaxie 500 show is being shared on the Internet Archive. This one is part of The Jeff Lazar Audio Collection, another taper whose extensive collection is currently being made available.

This is from a show that I didn’t have listed in my database, recorded at The Knitting Factory in NYC and apparently the last of four sets the band played over two nights at the venue.

Galaxie 500 at Knitting Factory on 1990-04-06

Total running time  [59:49]

01  Here She Comes Now
02  Decomposing Trees
03  Snowstorm
04  Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste
05  Summertime
06  Melt Away
07  Temperature's Rising
08  When Will You Come Home
09  Victory Garden
10  Ceremony
-- encore --
11  Pictures


Band line-up:
Dean Wareham - guitar, vocals
Naomi Yang - bass, vocals
Damon Krukowski - drums

Notes:
The band played two sets (9PM and midnight) on each of two consecutive nights. This was the midnight set on the second night.

A few weeks back a couple of previously unavailable recordings were shared as part of the Aadam Jacobs Collection.

My record collection: [379] The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi (Sub Pop CD)

Andy — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

In late 2006 Damon & Naomi announced a sale in their shop which included 24 copies of the out of print Sub Pop edition of Wondrous World. SHamefully until that point the only copy I had of their second album was the radio promo picked up in a London record shop so I took the opportunity to correct that.

The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi (Sub Pop CD)

I also ordered a Galaxie 500 T-shirt, to make the shipping more acceptable. I emailed Naomi and admitted my Wondrous World shame, although since this is now the fifth copy of Wondrous World in this collection I guess I’ve somewhat redeemed myself?

The booklet is a beautiful piece of Naomi’s art and design although that art and design does sometimes make the lyrics hard to read. The insert that came with the LP was missing most of the booklet but did have readable lyrics.

I rather love the (tiny) pic of Damon & Naomi sitting under a tree and looking so folky on the back of the booklet. I happen to know however that Damon is not so keen on it.

The artwork that was used in the booklet was included in an exhibition of Naomi’s art called Victorian Girls in 2016. I didn’t make the exhibition (it being so far away) but did get a signed copy of the beautiful booklet.

Naomi Yang - Victorian Girls

The CD arrived with a hand-written note from Naomi.

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/115
Artist: Damon & Naomi
Title: The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi
Notes: Sub Pop edition
Format: CD
Bought from Damon & Naomi in December 2006 for $10
STILL not available on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

My record collection: [378] Margot at the Wedding (DVD)

Andy — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

Another Noah Baumbach film so, of course, another Dean Wareham contribution. This time credited with Britta as “music consultants” and also Dean & Britta’s Northern Blue appears in the film.

Margot at the Wedding

Also… another Noah Baumbach film so another film I just don’t get. In my post on The Squid and the Whale I say that “I don’t understand the characters and the way they behave […] all I see is horrible people behaving horribly to one another” and Margot at the Wedding dials that up to eleven. I must admit I do feel a bit bad not liking these films but they are so unlikeable and Margot at the Wedding is probably the most unlikeable of Noah’s films.

Sorry to be repeating what I said about The Squid and the Whale but I genuinely think there must be some regional disconnect at play here, or maybe a social one. There’s something about the way these people behave that makes absolutely no sense to me.

I do like the way the film has been made, the movement of the actors, and the camera. The way people interact makes it interesting as a visual spectacle… and the acting can’t be faulted - and that is quite a cast that has been assembled here. But it’s not a film I can like and not one I’d want to see again.

I haven’t as yet managed to track down a copy of the soundtrack album but do have a download of it and it certainly has the fingerprints of the film’s “music consultants” on it. As well as Dean & Britta’s “Northern Blue” it has Evie Sands “One Fine Summer Morning” and Donovan’s “Teen Angel” both of which have been covered by Dean and/or Britta.

The thing about the Dean & Britta song is that it’s listed first implying that it’s the first song heard… but it isn’t, that’s Steve Forbert’s “Romeo’s Tune” which is heard in the car as Margot and Claude are being driven to Pauline’s. So… where is Nothern Blue? Is it what Claude is listening to on his headphones on the train? I guess it has to be - but, I can’t hear it.

I’m rather surprised that I haven’t shared Northern Blue before since it is a rarity, having just shown up on the soundtrack album (and maybe not even in the film).

Dean & Britta - Northern Blue

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/020
Title: Margot at the Wedding
Format: DVD
Bought in a charity shop a while back for a quid (or less).

Previously in my record collection:

[294] The Squid and the Whale (DVD)

My record collection: [377] Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste (DVD)

Andy — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 01:00:00 +0100

The previous copy of Galaxie 500’s 2004 DVD release in this series was still in it’s wrap so this is the first look at the actual content.

Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste (DVD)

Disc 1

Disc one opens with the four videos made for the band by Sergio Huidor. These had previously been available as tiny Quicktime videos on the box set discs (and subsequent CD releases) but it was good to finally have them in decent quality.

Tugboat is packed with explosions and crashes and other violent imagery - intercut with occasional shots of the band. The film is dusty and scratches and the cutting is quick and repetitive and ends up being hypnotic, as well as disturbing. Naomi’s wearig her spiral earrings. - (Watch Tugboat on YouTube).
When Will You Come Home opens with actual shots of the band, in colour, which is probably why it’s my favourite of the four. Dean’s wearing a Shimmy Disc T-shirt, It is intercut with other random shots, some with the camera pointed at the TV - (Watch When Will You Come Home on YouTube).
Blue Thunder is completely colour inverted, someone a while back “fixed” the colour and popped it on YouTube but the band had the video taken down since it (literally?) contradicted the film-makers vision - it was nice to see the band like that though. It is the w/sax version. Lots of car crashes in this one - (Watch Blue Thunder on YouTube).
Fourth of July is the one with sparklers and a gorilla and Naomi as an angel, which makes it the most fun of the three - although… more explosions and I guess literal Fourth of July references. Quite a few costume changes in this one - I think Dean wears at least three different shirts, maybe more - (Watch Fourth of July on YouTube)

Next up five live performances billed as a live archive:

Middle East, Cambridge MA - May 1988

An afternoon show supporting Beat Happening

“pretty much the first time we played in front of an interested audience” (Damon)
“the truth is we were just learning to be a band” (Dean)

It has two songs that were never released - a cover of Jonathan Richman’s “Back in Your Life” and an original called “Buzz In My Head”.

It’s sweet to see the band at this early stage.

Commonwealth School, Boston MA - April 1989

When Damon was collecting material for this release he asked me if I could ask the Galaxie 500 Mailing List if we had (or knew of) any videos of the band. Dan Pearson got in touch with me that he’d seen a video of them playing at The Commonwealth School under a basketball hoop. I mentioned this to Damon and he confirmed that they already had a copy of it andthat it was “one of the surprises I promised you for the finished DVD!” (on a side note Dan put on Galaxie 500’s last show and I wrote about it on Substack a few months back - and about Dan who sadly passed away at the beginning of the year).

So this is the “basketball hoop” show. Also you get a first good look at the Damon’s very cool bass drum head:

The Galaxie 500 logo was hand painted on Damon's bass drum head in 1990 by Sam Stone, who had been a sign painter in Boston since 1932 — the sign on his door said, "Sam Stone: Man of Letters". We asked him to paint the name the way a jazz band would have done in the 1930's or '40s and he obliged. He retired and closed his shop in 1993.

You can buy a T-shirt with the design on it.

My drum head T

Kennel Club, San Francisco CA - March 1990

This opens with a classic VHS title overlay which is so quaint (if I remember the next set has more of this). The band have a rather lacklustre liquid light projection. I love liquid light shows but this one is rather unimpressive - although maybe the muted VHS colours aren’t helping. Dean’s wearing a Spacemen 3 T.

Club Lingerie, Hollywood CA - March 1990

Yep a very high quality title screen for this one (thanks to VIDEO BOB).

Two days later and Dean is still wearing his Spacemen 3 T-shirt. Kramer is on-stage with them for Pictures and Ceremony. Dean’s voice is really struggling by the time the band get to Pictures. Two songs from this show were released as a single with pre-orders of this DVD set which I’ve written about twice - [088] Galaxie 500 - Snowstorm / Pictures (7”) / [222] Galaxie 500 - Snowstorm / Pictures

Kennel Club, San Francisco CA - October 1990

Back to The Kennel Club and another projection… although this one is more colourful and so better. Dean’s wearing a proper shirt and Naomi has her black and white flower earrings on. The show finishes with Melt Away which follows a storming version of Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste which seems an interesting choice - … Youth… sounds like a set closer so it almost feels like the band are being purposely contrary by playing another song after it.

I’ve always been rather impressed that the live archive section of the DVD manages to not repeat any songs despite being from five different shows. Although I do wonder if that means there were some repeats left off that we aren’t getting to see.

Finally on disc one is a performance recorded in London for MTV Europe that has a couple of songs and an interview with Paul King (whose band King had had a couple of top 10 singles before he became an MTV VJ). The YouTube channel ScottishTeeVee has a version of this that intercuts with a later interview recorded in the summer of 1990.

Galaxie 500 - London 1990 Live - MTV 120mins (play on YouTube)

Disc 2 - BOOTLEGS

The second disc has bootlegged video of two complete shows, the first in Atlanta at the beginning of 1990 is fun. The band seem relaxed and comfortable and Dean is quite chatty. Dean’s in his Spacemen 3 T-shirt again and tries to blow some bubbles, and fails.

The second show is from London and this was the second and last time I saw the band live - I wrote about my memories of this show (or lack of them) for a Substack post a while back:

Our very last English show was at the University of London Union (ULU), the biggest venue we ever headlined. Kramer slathered us in reverb and delay, and we sounded huge. The next day we set off for Rennes.

Dean Wareham - Black Postcards (Penguin, 2008 - p95)

And so we come to the gig I was at, the second, and last time I saw Galaxie 500 - sadly I can remember very little of the show…

I was there with Ken and Graham… pretty sure Nino was there too (I haven’t seen Graham or Nino for years so can’t confirm) - I suspect there were others I’d talked into coming along.
I might have bought a T-shirt at the gig (although I might have bought that at the Subterania gig).
It was pretty crowded, we arrived too late to get too good a spot so I was more than half-way back.
Someone in front of us shouted for “Submission” between every song. The Galaxie 500 Peel session with “Submission” had been broadcast a just over a week before the gig. They didn’t play it.

The one other thing I know about this show is that Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl were at the show. Tracey writes about it in her fab memoir Bedsit Disco Queen:

After 'I Don't Want To Talk About It' was a hit, Ben and I went to a gig at ULU (the University of London Union) one night, to see Galaxie 500. A couple of studenty Beavis and Butthead types recognised us and nudged each other.

'Look, I-don't-wanna-talk-about-it, chuckled one, and his mate quipped back, 'I-don't-wanna-hear-about-it, and they both snickered, right there in front of us.

Had we suddenly become people who were not supposed to be at a Galaxie 500 gig? Who didn't fit in there any more? Jesus, were we the enemy now? This hadn't been the point. How on earth had THIS happened? There were moments when I found myself wondering, 'Was this really what we meant when we said we opposed all rock 'n' roll?'

Bedsit Disco Queen - Tracey Thorn (Virago, 2013 - p208)

The booklet

The booklet has an interview with Dean, and Damon and Naomi by James McNew of Yo La Tengo - it actually reads like it was meant to be an audio commentary which would have been nice, but ends up as a written commentary. It is a nice read and you can hardly notice that it was obviously two interviews. It’s very casual and sometimes quite funny.

The booklet also has some photos of memorabilia that later turned up in the oral history book. The other significant bit of the booklet is on the back page…

Thank You

Sergio Huidor, Todd Ploharski abd Nick Wickham for their help locating master tapes used in this compilation; and Andy Aldridge and the Galaxie 500 mailing list, who helped search for live recordings of the band.

DVD booklet credits

OK, so just significant to me… but hey. It’s an official Galaxie 500 release that has my name on it. How is that not exciting?

I pre-ordered this from Plexifilm when it was announced - I actually bought two copies but gave one away as a prize a few years ago (although by then I’d already acquired the a third copy).

Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/004
Artist: Galaxie 500
Title: Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste
Format: DVD
Bought from Plexifilm for $27.95 (+ postage)

Previously in my record collection:

[195] Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste (DVD)