Dean (& Britta) at Maxwell's (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Dean Wareham continues his juggling act of playing Galaxie 500 songs one night (like he did at Maxwell's recently) and 13 Most Beautiful... songs the next (both with Britta Philips taking different roles). The pair play Hanover, Germany on Saturday 4/8, and after a couple days in South America, return to Europe before heading back to the US for some dates.

Those US dates include The Bell House on June 17th, where Dean will play the Galaxie 500 set. Tickets are on sale and if you have missed recent Galaxie 500 shows, Wareham suggests you make it this time: "We won't be playing this show of Galaxie 500 songs again soon in the NYC area". All tour dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Dean Wareham playing one more Galaxie 500 show in NYC (and other dates) "

photos by Chris Gersbeck

Pittsburgh Post Gazette: What made you want to revisit the Galaxie 500 catalog now?

Dean: We did one show of all-Galaxie 500 songs at a Spanish festival about a year ago, and it sounded really good. I came home and the CDs were all being re-released, and I thought now that I have re-learned the songs I might as well go play them -- while I can still hit all the notes. [Critic] Michael Azzerad asked me if I had dropped the key on any of the songs to do that, but I have managed to get there without resorting to that.

Dean Wareham and band (Britta included) played another excellent set of Galaxie 500 songs at Maxwell's in Hoboken last night (1/13). Their friend and collaborator Cheval Sombre opened the show (Britta on drums and then bass for two songs included). A picture of the set list (Galaxie's 'Ceremony' New Order cover included), with more pictures from the show, below...

Continue reading "Dean Wareham played 'Galaxie 500' @ Maxwell's (pics, setlist)"

Dean Wareham playing Galaxie 500 8/18 (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Damon & Naomi will take the stage of Knitting Factory TONIGHT (10/29) with Magik Markers, supporting Masaki Batoh of Ghost. The show is not the first time that members of Ghost and 2/3 of Galaxie 500 have shared the same stage, and based on their recorded/live history, it most likely will not be the last (especially since they are both scheduled to play Northampton, MA one day later). All dates below.

Damon & Naomi, both ex-Galaxie 500, meanwhile have not been participating in the "Dean plays Galaxie 500" shows that their ex-bandmate Dean Wareham has been doing, like at Bowery Ballroom on 10/22 during CMJ:

"Headliner Dean Wareham sat poised to play an exclusive set of music from the Galaxie 500 catalogue, encircling the 90's dream-pop band's fans with memories and treating them to a set of classics like "4th of July", "Flowers", "Blue Thunder" and "When Will You Come Home". Sans original band mates, Wareham invited bassist Britta Phillips (Luna, Dean & Britta), drummer Jason Lawrence (Dean & Britta) and guitarist Matt Sumrow (HeaveN) to play with him for the sold-out stint, which was as warm, subtle and pretty as the band's music".-[Sonic Diet]

The Bowery show was one of three shows on 10/22 for Dean & Britta , who brought said project to Bowery Electric as the surprise guest for the Village Voice/Red Eye day show in addition to their previously discussed performance "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests" at NYU's Skirball Center. Crushable was there:

"In a Q&A after the show, Dean and Britta explained that with hundreds of tests to choose from they wanted to compose for people who were part of Warhol's daily life -- and not folks who merely stopped in at the Factory once or twice (this is why we don't get any score for Bob Dylan's test, grr). Among the 13 compositions are videos for Billy Name, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Paul America and Nico.

The songs are dense and beautiful, some have lyrics and some are purely instrumental. It was fascinating to see both product and inspiration at the same time. There was something so raw and almost intrusive about the experience, and I imagine that's just how Andy Warhol would have wanted it."

If you missed Dean Wareham "plays Galaxie 500" at the Bowery show, no worries. He'll be back in NYC to presumably play the same set (or similar) at Music Hall of Williamsburg on 12/17. Tickets are still available.

All dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Dean & Britta played CMJ, Damon & Naomi play tonight "

Dean & Britta played Galaxie 500 in August (more by Chris Gersbeck)

Dean Wareham Plays Galaxie 500 is already happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg in December. Turns out, Dean and friends (Britta, etc.) will be doing the same thing much sooner as part of CMJ. The new show takes place at Bowery Ballroom where they did the Galaxie 500 thing previously, one night after the same show at Rock Shop. Catch them at Bowery Ballroom again on Friday, October 22nd, on an eclectic bill with Crocodiles, Wakey! Wakey!, Brian Bonz & The Major Crimes, James Vincent McMorrow and Young Buffalo. Tickets are on sale now (you can also try and get in with your CMJ badge).

And actually, Dean & Britta do a "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests" set earlier that same night (10/22) at NYU's Skirball Center. Tickets for that are up too. That makes at least two CMJ shows for Dean and Britta who were part of our own CMJ show at Bowery Ballroom in 2007.

For Crocodiles this gig comes a few days before they kick off a tour with Golden Triangle at Maxwell's.

Recent live videos are below...

Continue reading "Dean & Britta playing two CMJ shows, one as Galaxie 500 w/ Crocodiles (dates) "

photos by Chris Gersbeck

"Dean Wareham just played ALL the hits. Perfect set. The Rock Shop is the best new ny show space I have been to in a looong time." - Erik

"Sometimes living in ny rules. Seeing Dean Wareham do Galaxie 500 songs at The Rock Shop to a crowd of under 75 people. This show space rules" - Erik

Dean Wareham (with Britta Phillips) played a secret show at Rock Shop last night (8.18), as a prelude to "the Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500" series of shows that continue at Bowery Ballroom tonight with Crystal Stilts. Bowery is, much like Rock Shop was, sold out. Pictures and the setlist from the Brooklyn show are in this post.

The pair have quite a few shows on their docket for the coming months, though some fall under the guise of "plays Galaxie 500", others as "13 Most Beautiful..." shows and some under the "regular" Dean & Britta tag. A show that falls under the first category is a recently announced show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Dec 17th. Tickets are currently on AMEX presale, and go on regular sale Friday 8/20 at noon.

Full tour dates for the forthcoming Dean & Britta trek (that extends far into the new year) and what version of Dean & Britta you can expect at the show, as well as a recent video taken of them performing at East Village Radio and another from the Phoenicia porch show, with the setlist and more pictures from Rock Shop, below.

Continue reading "Dean & Britta played Galaxie 500 @ Rock Shop (pics, setlist)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Weekend - End Times (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Weekend - All American (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Procedure Club - Feel Sorry for Me (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Procedure Club - Rather (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: No Joy - No Joy (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ceremony - Someday (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Games - Everything is Working (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Family Trees - Dream Talkin (MP3)

Weekend @ Cake Shop

I hope you all survived the insanity that was last week. Thankfully, this week is not quite as action packed but still a lot of cool stuff going on. Let's get to it.

Lovers of shoegazy noisepop will want to be at Silent Barn tonight (8/18) for a pretty killer quadruple bill at which earplugs are definitely recommended. San Francisco's Weekend and New Haven, CT's Procedure Club are both signed to Slumberland Records. Weekend are pretty clean-cut looking dudes who make a dark-edged squall that shows a direct through-line from Joy Division to Jesus and Mary Chain to Ride and beyond. I caught them last night at Cake Shop and despite a few microphone problems I thought they were pretty good. Loud. Really loud. The band have already released singles on Transparent and Mexican Summer -- download tracks from those at the top of this post -- and the Slumberland album, Sports (is the title perhaps a tip of a hit to fellow Bay Area musician Huey Lewis?), is out in November. Weekend also play Death by Audio tomorrow (8/19) tomorrow night with sonic compatriots A Place to Bury Strangers.

Procedure Club

Procedure Club, meanwhile, are more on the bedroom pop side of things. Their album, Doomed Forever, came out in June and is a pretty low fi affair, but the songwriting begins to shine through the cacophony on repeated listens. Check out two tracks from the album above, and there's a video for "Rather" at the bottom of this post.

As for the rest of the Silent Barn bill, there's LA/Montreal duo No Joy who I've written about before (but still haven't seen) and are possibly the loudest band on a very loud night. The band's debut 7" is out now on Mexican Summer (grab the b-side above) and is recommended to those whose taste leans towards the sludgy side of things. No Joy are also playing the Death by Audio show with APTBS and Weekend tomorrow night, and will then head out on tour with Dungen, and those tour dates are at the bottom of this post.

Rounding out the show are Fredericksburg, VA's Ceremony who crib more than a little from JAMC (and Medicine and The Radio Dept.), though their album, Rocket Fire, has some nice moments on it -- you can download an MP3 of "Someday" at the top of this post.

Dean and Britta

Dean Wareham kicks off his "Plays Galaxie 500" tour tonight at the Rock Shop, and he'll do it again tomorrow night at Bowery Ballroom with Crystal Stilts opening. Both shows are sold out so I won't go on and on here, but I'm looking forward to this trip down Memory Lane. Hopefully he'll pull out some of my favorites ("Strange," "Parking Lot," "Oblivious"). Dean talked to the AV Club about the difficulties of rearranging the songs for his current band:

AVC: You play with four people now instead of three.

DW: We like four people, because I listen to the records, and there's generally two guitars, because there's an overdub on each track. Or sometimes Matt [Sumrow] plays keyboards; he switches back and forth. I think it sounds fuller with the live guitar. When I go back and look at the old Galaxie 500 live recordings, sometimes Kramer would get onstage with us and play a few songs. It sounded a little fuller. There are times when it works great as a three-piece, too.

AVC: Does touring the Galaxie songs as a four-piece involve some rearranging?

DW: It involves some rehearsing. The songs are more difficult to play than I remember. I listened to the live Galaxie 500 album from Copenhagen, and I realized that's at the end of a tour, after we had been touring for a couple of months and had gotten pretty good at it. In terms of chord structure, the songs are incredibly simple. For example, a song like "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste" is only one chord, but there's a whole lot going on in it.

AVC: Peter Buck talks about how hard it was late in R.E.M.'s career to relearn some of their early songs. Because they didn't know what they were doing at first, it's incredibly difficult to replicate.

DW: On "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste," when I was going over my guitar solo, I had no idea what I was doing and I was completely lost. Then I'm like, "How did I do that?"

AVC: It's hard to stumble into the same thing twice.

DW: Well, obviously I don't have to replicate it note-for-note. Mind you, I've got fans who get mad if I play "Snowstorm" and I do the solo with the fuzz pedal instead of the wah-wah. "What! How could he do that?"

Dean & Britta, meanwhile, have a new album, 13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, which they'll be touring in the fall.  (NYC's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on 10/22.) All Dean Wareham Plays Galaxie 500 tour dates (including the Music Hall of Willimsburg one that was just added in December) , HERE, and video of the original band doing "Strange" is at the bottom of this post.

Deva

And a few more picks, day-by-day of shows that weren't covered above.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18

Family Trees, who probably own a Galaxie 500 record or two, play their dreamy folk pop to Pianos tonight opening for Julian Lynch and Family Portrait. Check out Family Tree's lovely "Dream Talkin'" at the top of this post.

Quality indie rockers Diehard highlight a fun bill at Bruar Falls that also has The Vandelles and The Sanctuaries.

Air Waves, The Beets, Easter Vomit and Rifle Recoil play a benefit for Yellow Fever's Jennifer Moore at Death by Audio.

continued below...

Continue reading "Weekend, APTBS, Procedure Club, Galaxie 500, Games, No Joy, Ceremony, Family Trees & more in This Week in Indie"

Sunday in Phoenicia, NY

Dean Wareham (with help from Britta) is about to kick off the first dates of his upcoming sorta-tour where he'll be "playing Galaxie 500". The August 19th Bowery Ballroom show, and the secret show at The Rock Shop on August 18th, have both sold out, but Dean has added yet another NYC show happening on December 17th at Music Hall of Williamsburg (four months after the Bowery show for those counting). It's also billed as "Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500" and Tickets go on sale Friday, August 20th at noon.

Updated tour dates, and a video from Sunday's free porch show in Phoenecia (where Dean & Britta performed with Jonathan Donahue & Grasshopper of Mercury Rev), below...

Continue reading "Dean Wareham adds more Galaxie 500 shows, played a porch in Phoenicia w/ Mercury Rev members (video) "

Dean, Naomi & Damon (Galaxie 500)

Following the re-release of Galaxie 500's three classic albums on Domino and 20-20-20, Dean Wareham will perform a set of Galaxie 500 songs, backed by the Dean & Britta band (featuring Britta Phillips, drummer Anthony LaMarca and guitarist Matt Sumrow). Galaxie 500 formed in Cambridge, MA in 1987 and recorded three studio albums (Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music). They met with much acclaim in their short time together but disbanded in 1991. Wareham went on to form Luna.

That's the official description of the event that Dean Wareham is bringing to various states across the country before the end of the year. Two of the shows will be opened by Crystal Stilts including August 20th at the Troc in Philly (tickets on sale) and August 19th at Bowery Ballroom in NYC (tickets on sale).

The Bowery Ballroom show is one of two Dean and Britta have scheduled in NYC at the moment. The other is the previously mentioned "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests" show happening at NYU on October 22nd. They also have other Andy Warhol tour dates scheduled in support of the July 2th release of that CD too. More info and all dates below...

Continue reading "Dean Wareham (and Britta) releasing & performing Galaxie 500 songs & their Andy Warhol album "

A Hawk and a Hacksaw @ Mercury Lounge 1/10 (more by Natasha Ryan)

The bond between Jeremy, Heather and their Hungarian associates finds glorious voice on Délivrance. "The songs were all written and inspired by our time there. It felt like we were trying to document what we had learned and played in Eastern Europe. So we tried to get everyone we had played with on the album, plus a few people whom we love and admire," Heather explains.

Recorded in Budapest during mid-2008 around the core of the Hun Hangár group, with a variety of specialists (Jeremy would often take the train to different places around the city and record musicians like Kálmán Balogh, one of the world's foremost gypsy cimbalom players), it is wholly evident that months of being submerged in the local culture and making music the focus of daily life has seeped right through Barnes and Trost's songwriting and playing. This is by far their most vivid, intense and confident work to date. [neufutur]

That record comes out August 25th (in North America, it's already out overseas) on Leaf Label.

The band will be touring North America this fall. Joining them on most dates will be Damon & Naomi. Both groups will be at a Sepember 19th show at NYC's (Le) Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale.

Damon & Naomi are releasing a comp of their four Sub Pop albums (put out between 1995-2002) on an appropriately titled collection The Sub Pop Years, which comes out September 8th on 20/20/20. They also have a DVD, "1001 Nights," due September 29th on Factory 25. That disc is touted as "a comprehensive anthology of the ethereal Damon and Naomi with videos and live performances by the duo from 2001 through 2009."

Before their duo days, Damon & Naomi used to be in Galaxie 500 (a trio with Dean Wareham of Dean & Britta who are playing Prospect Park on Saturday). All three of Galaxie 500's studio albums were recently remastered and re-released as vinyl and mp3s available through the band's own online store.

All tour dates and videos from AHAAH's Délivrance are below...

Continue reading "A Hawk and a Hacksaw - new record & 2009 tour dates (LPR) w/ Damon & Naomi who are reissuing a bunch of stuff"

today in NYC
* FREE STUFF
* DANCE STUFF
* Takka Takka @ Union Hall
* Keith Murray @ Knitting Factory
* Murphy's Law @ Knitting Factory
* The Homosexuals @ Death By Audio
* Nat Baldwin & Angel Deradoorian @ Issue Project Room (Angel cancelled)
* Prefuse 73, Antipop Consortium & Catchdubs @ Hiro Ballroom

Mascott is opening for Takka Takka tonight. Mascott is Kendall Jane Meade from Juicy. She plays a song called "Fourth of July". Watch (the timely) video of it below.

Angel Deradoorian is in Dirty Projectors (but she isn't playing tonight).

Sonic Youth & The Feelies: tomorrow

Ronnie Spector plays McCarren Pool on Sunday: SET TIMES.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Thursday?"

Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance

In his grumpy but informative memoir, Wareham, the lead guitarist and vocalist for seminal independent rock bands Galaxie 500 and Luna, recounts the highs and lows of his life as a musician. While Wareham's narrative voice is not particularly warm, he is refreshingly frank (though quite defensive) about the personal conflicts that broke up Galaxie 500, as well as about his later, somewhat more conventional rock and roll antics, which included drug use and infidelity. For most readers, the heart of the book will come in the first hundred odd pages, which focus on the financially difficult but artistically fruitful run of Galaxie 500, featuring Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, in the late 1980s and early '90s. The stories of nights spent on the floors of college radio station managers and recording classic albums in three days are the stuff of do-it-yourself legend, and at its best, the book serves as a clear narrative of the travails of independent musicians in the days before mp3s and Pitchfork Media (which gets a snarky shout-out). Wareham gets a lot of mileage out of frustration with booking agents, band mates and radio stations, and over the course of the book, one gets a prevailing sense of how truly difficult it can be for some great musicians to break through the mass media wall. [Publisher's Weekly - Amazon.com]

Dean Warehem makes a free promotional book tour stop at Union Hall in Brooklyn tonight (March 18). All dates and stuff below....

Continue reading "Dean Warehem's (Luna) new book & related tour dates"