Dean Wareham-Black Postcards

And they likewise of him!

I have not yet read it but plan to this summer. I <3 me some Luna.

^ Above post not to be taken out of context. Har.

Just finished it. Not a bad read.

And they likewise of him!

Yeah. The one time I met DW he was kind of a dick. I have always given him the benefit of the doubt and hoped it was a bad night but who knows.

I used to have a friend that 'worked' Luna for Elektra when he worked at WEA and I remember the couple post-show times I met him he was kind of a dick, too. Although despite my friend's efforts for whoever he was working for the label, the artists tended to lump him in with how they were getting screwed, despite his best efforts to the contrary (Jason Falkner really comes to mind in this case).

This was a pretty good book, but yeah while I was reading it I felt like I wouldn't want to just hang out with him.

The one time I met him, he was a bit of a dick, too, thogh admittedly I was drunk and flatly told him that for that evening's show Luna had sounded tired. Sean seemed okay, though.

Glad this isn't an is-he-a-dick poll, or Dean would be about 0-4 now. I love Penthouse and On Fire, liked an excerpt of the book I read in some magazine; keep forgetting to look for this in bookstores.

i've known dean fairly well for 21-22 years, and think he's a great guy. maybe a bit chilly or cold or whatever at first, but he'd fucking funny and actually very generous.

i haven't loved all of luna's music in the same way that the last g500 album isn't my favorite thing in the world. but i quite like the new direction, the dean and britta stuff; it seems he's got a good sense of when he's starting to get stale and then reinvents himself, even if only slightly it's always enough for me. also i really like his book a lot.

i remain a fan of damon and naomi's work, i should add -- especially their exact change press which sadly appears to be defunct -- umm, but from what i saw of the band and at one point was pretty close to all of them, hanging out int he studio while they recorded a few songs, putting on a few shows they played at, etc. -- i'll just say i would not want to have been in that band even though i loved their music. and it's always tough to be in a trio with a band where the other members are a couple -- you're guaranteed to get voted down "democratically" each time. i'm sure this doesn't apply to yo la tengo, but anyway.

dean's not a dick!

that should read he'S f'ing funny...

I was just thinking about the book the other day when I found some clips he did for a small amp company:
http://swartamps.com/dean_wareham_swart_atomic_spacetone.htm

Is it worth reading for interesting stories/backstage life of a underground rock 'star' even if you're not a huge G500 or Luna fan?

FWIW, Luna played at my wedding and were just incredibly sweet. Dean called me up to go over the set list and didn't get annoyed when I got nervous and started blanking on titles of songs I'd heard 5,000 times. And even though it was probably a little embarassing for them (we caught them just after they lost their record contract) they put on a great show. He also got us into a sold-out new years gig a year later, and again was completely wonderful. So 2 votes for nice Dean.

I admit I have a few questions. Out of admiration, you understand.

I never pick up when people are xposting, but if that was for me then sure, fire away.

In this case it was! Without asking you to divulge too much, I admit I'm just curious how you get a band like Luna to be your wedding act! Personal connections, I rather assume.

Actually no! I don't know if things have changed since 2000, but back then when we contacted Luna's management (contact info found on a CD) we were told that we could basically get just about any indie band this side of Sonic Youth to play a wedding. Oh, we were also told that 1/2 Japanese were too cool to do something like that. I remember that Yo La Tengo were mentioned as a possibility if Luna's schedule didn't fit.

It cost about the same as a regular wedding band. Like I said, I don't know what the economics of these things are now, but at the time it very quickly went from a crazy idea to something very easily done. FWIW, we aren't rich so when I say "easily done" that probably applies to a large chunk of the 30-somethings on this list. They had their own PA and sound man who was incredibly professional and got things set up with a minimum of fuss.

Should probably give special mention to both Britta and Sean who were stunningly friendly. I didn't get to talk to the drummer, who had pretty much every female guest hot and bothered.

Anyway, it was completely worth it.

That's really something. Thanks for sharing!

awes

Haha, put me in the "not a dick" club -- Dean was pretty nice when I interviewed him. Planning on reading this book when I get a chance. And it is kind of funny -- the ongoing Dean vs. Damon & Naomi controversy. I'm at least a decade younger than those guys and it's hard for me to imagine still talking about problems I had with people I was in bands with in college ... Granted, they were a pretty awesome band ... and yeah -- why didn't Luna play MY wedding?!

i will only get married if g500 reform to play at my wedding

Great story DLP!

I once got to watch an entire Luna show (around 2002 if memory serves) from a couple feet or so behind the drummer. Everyone was incredibly friendly and chatty afterward - so add another "no dick" vote. If anything, I was struck at how much attention Dean was paying to sound, playing, dealing with tour manager, keeping band going, etc. so a casual meet could be interpreted differently.

Aw, now I feel bad about starting the "he's a dick" posts because as I said originally, I always assumed it was a bad night for him. I have seen Luna more than any other band and my admiration/respect for them/DW is pretty strong.

Luna played at your wedding? That is incredible. why didn't Luna play MY wedding?! Exactly.

Dean was nice to my bandmate. she gave him a joint.

I read this over the weekend. Good hangover book, not too taxing. I'm not even a Luna fan so I'm not sure why I picked it up. Book struck me like the band - pretty enjoyable on the whole - the guy has good taste - but ultimately a bit samey and safe and maybe a bit self-impressed. But that's just me.

He loves side 2 of Tattoo You. Mentions it at least twice. This useless information will stay with me for years.

Damon and Naomi are the nicest 'famous' musicians i've ever met. I told them where I worked during their show and the next day they turned up to say hello and thanks for coming.

I see them all the time at my local record store (Twisted Village in Cambridge, MA) and I'm always too scared to say hello...

yeah i've seen 'em a t.v. too but it's like their hangout and i'm shy so i haven't said anything. they seem awes and adorable tho.

I wish I liked their solo stuff more. I certainly prefer Galaxie 500 to Luna and definitely love his drummer, her bass, her singing, etc, so I want to like their stuff. I should listen to it more, I really haven't heard much. I did see them w/ Major Stars play with Ghost many years ago, one of the best shows I've ever been to.

Book is on my amazon wish list, if anybody wants to buy it for me.

book is pretty good, though a little weird in terms of tone -- I get the feeling some of it is taken directly from his diaries of the time, while some of it is written way after the fact. so it has a kind of weird "in-the-moment" vs. "hindsight" dissonance. or something. one thing it did for me was to make me appreciate Dean's lyrics a bit more -- he can be super lazy in that regard at times, but it made me think that he actually was pretty canny at creating little character portraits with as few words as possible, like with his doomed a&r rep or his older brother ...

He's (Dean W) a nice guy. Talked to him a bit outside a recent Spectrum show where he and Britta and Sonic Boom backed a Bklyn songwriter called Cheval Sombre. We talked about the joys and perils of releasing music on your own nowadays. I'm glad I got to thank him for G500.

dean & britta are doing a Q&A session as part of melb's annual arts festival, gonna go along. there's a very good chance i'll get to be introduced to the great man. anything you guys want me to ask him?? i am a little afraid of getting starstruck.

I actually drunkenly talked to him after their last gig here, recently. He's pretty cool, actually. I wouldn't let myself get too over-impressed.

this book made a bigger luna fan out of me, love it

Luna = secretly the best band of the 90s.

... well, my favorite anyway.

I really enjoyed this book. I like it because it doesn't really try for anything profound, just tells what happened and that is interesting enough. In some ways it seems strange that it was published, since it's not like they are esp. famous or anything. A great inside look at the more modest end of the alt-rock 90s thing. And I'll bet it is good hangover reading.

Q&A session was good, they were both friendly, dean seems like he'd be great value once you were more familiar.. they seemed genuinely fond of the remix of theirs i worked on

Just finished this book myself. I'm a Galaxie 500 fan but strangely not too familiar with Luna, so the first portion of the book was very compelling in the sense that I "knew" the characters involved; while the post-g500 stuff was really interesting in the sense of just hearing about a mid-level band's travails. All the song references went over my head but the discussion of recording, touring, budgets, etc. were all really interesting.

goddamit how can this guy have had a hand in blue thunder w/sax and still be just some normal dude

how is this possible

fuckin genius artists and normality, i just don't get it i gotta say

The "Tell me do you miss me" dvd is a bittersweet portrait of the last days of the band - where Sean Eden is mostly the bitter side and Wareham stands out as a calm, private but definitely pleasant guy.

I might be the only one, but I'd love a Sean Eden solo record -- those two tracks he sings lead on from the last Luna record are great. And he is a pretty phenomenal guitar player, as anyone who saw the band live will attest to.

Who's he working with now?

http://seaneden.net/
I heard Elk City and it wasn't that great. He was just adding guitar, though.

I always like Sean's guitar work and he can certainly sing as well as Dean (not saying all that much, I know).

Just finished this book myself. I'm a Galaxie 500 fan but strangely not too familiar with Luna, so the first portion of the book was very compelling in the sense that I "knew" the characters involved; while the post-g500 stuff was really interesting in the sense of just hearing about a mid-level band's travails. All the song references went over my head but the discussion of recording, touring, budgets, etc. were all really interesting.
― scott pgwp (pgwp), Thursday, 15 October 2009 03:57 (13 hours ago)

This ^^. I'm a huge Galaxie 500 fan from way back, but never really paid attention to Luna during their lifetime (partly because I was convinced they'd let me down after G500). The book made me think I should really give Luna a go. But still haven't got round to it. It's true the book isn't the finest piece of prose out there, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I can see how a big fan of G500 wouldn't warm to Luna, but I love both bands (and Damon & Naomi). Luna's Bewitched and Penthouse are stone cold classics, rest of the records are underrated.

Wareham quotes a review of mine in the book, which is amusing. I liked Luna a lot, but once Demeski and Harwood were out as collaborators the band really went hit or miss. Never bad, though.

Wareham himself, who I've spoken with a couple of times, is very droll, which is no doubt why some might read him wrong. I once saw Sugar Plant opening for the Magnetic Fields in New York, and Wareham was there watching. Sugar Plant, at least then, sounded exactly like G500, so my friend, on his way to the loo, winkingly asked Wareham if the band sounded familiar. Wareham just chuckled.

Yeah, it's true, Demeski is an awesome, awesome drummer -- I'm glad he's playing again with the Feelies. Crazy that Wareham fired him, but from the book, it doesn't sound like Stanley was ever super-committed to the group. He definitely sounds great on the 3 Luna records he plays on though.

The "Tell me do you miss me" dvd is a bittersweet portrait of the last days of the band - where Sean Eden is mostly the bitter side and Wareham stands out as a calm, private but definitely pleasant guy.

― Marco Damiani, Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:50 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I really enjoyed this and would watch again. Would also be into a Sean solo album.

Droll seems an apt description. Maybe the book won't win a prize but I actually liked the way it was written. It's kind of stilted, and it glosses over a lot, but at the same time I felt like Wareham was intentionally going for that tone, which I liked. I never felt like the writing was bad. He keeps his own feelings at a distance for a lot of the book, only to undercut that distance with an extremely dry observation that more or less cuts right to what he was, in fact, feeling.

https://soundcloud.com/deanwareham/love-is-colder-than-death/s-eThXg
new tune from forthcoming solo album...
wife and i were just listening to Luna's last album on a road trip over the weekend. first half is fantastic, second half *sounds* good, but it's amazing how checked out dean is, lyrics-wise. just muttering non sequiturs. which is sort of his thing, but he seems super lazy on some of the tracks.

Whereas half of L'Avventura is covers...

sweet

Loved "Black Postcards." Made me appreciate Luna (and, for that matter, Galaxie 500) all the more. Also enjoyed Dean's revelation that Bryan Gregory of the Cramps used to work at my local King Karol records way back when. I'd no idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNN1BziFzTI

just in case anyone felt like listening to this. never got into luna, but galaxie 500 is a huge deal to me. when i first heard them it was like i had found the band i never knew i was always looking for.

Wow thanks Treeship, never heard Galaxie 500 before

NOT

I liked the memoir too – my favorite of the recent ones. "Droll" is the right word, and the only way to appreciate the horrors of late nineties labeldom

curious to see his turn in Frances Ha

Didn't even recognize/realize until the credits. Not a big role in any case.

lol at treeship / waterface

zing and yang i guess. i just ordered black postcards btw. it's cool that waterface has heard galaxie 500 before.

you should get into luna, they are fantastic.
speaking of those guys, this is from a few weeks back. reunion?
https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1012114_559592590749319_1306741737_n.jpg

which luna album is the best for a fan of galaxie 500?

there's a really good luna thread which goes into a lot of detail

Penthouse is easily their best imo, and I came to them as a Galaxie 500 fan. Also, Damon & Naomi's More Sad Hits.

always a good idea to open up a memoir with an acid trip in the woods

thanks. playing penthouse now. xp

"which luna album is the best for a fan of galaxie 500?"

nothing of the post galaxie projects ever topped it.

i think the reason ls the lack of interesting production.
Kramer was the man.

Luna is a pretty different beast. I rate the first three albums all equally, it wasn't until Puptent that the cracks started to show.

(Kramer is on the first Luna album btw)

really?
good to know.

curious to see his turn in Frances Ha

― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier),

He's a handsome guy, so he stood out imo

we listened to Lunapark over the weekend too. Some slightly early 90s production techniques are the only thing that keeps it from being a total classic. agree that there was a downhill slide after penthouse, but they never made a "bad" record.

as for favorite Luna album? These days it's Romantica. "Lovedust," "Black Postcards," "Renee is Crying" -- perfect drolleries.

Even Puptent has some awesome songs

sweet. i had no idea luna was so beloved. (i had only heard california and tiger lily and lamented the fact that they didn't sound much like galaxie 500). enjoying penthouse so far.

Some slightly early 90s production techniques

I hear this mostly in the drums I guess, but I know what you mean.

true story: the summer that album was released I was working at a shitty chain record store and the day we had to go to an "employee training seminar", Lunapark was one of the albums the label PR flaks were flogging. they said it was very "velvet underground-y". I lol'd and got a free copy.

I think I listened to Romantica once...? there were some surprisingly ugly guitar sounds on that album, and not in a good way.

the velvet underground comparisons w/ galaxie never made sense to me except in the most superficial way.

xp haha, see there are some slightly early 00s production techniques on Romantica. i probably prefer early 90s to early 00s tho.
on Lunapark, it just seems like a lot of the guitars are all chorus-ed out. which isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world, but maybe a bit overused on the record.

Luna >>> Galaxie 500

but I'm in the minority

Luna: S&D

I have opinions on this thread

yousendit I mean hightail links in that thread are broken btw

Luna >>> Galaxie 500

i agree with this completely. also pup tent is their best record.

I think I listened to Romantica once...? there were some surprisingly ugly guitar sounds on that album, and not in a good way.

Fridmann strikes again.

I don't see how anyone could think "Bewitched" is not the best Luna record. Start to finish, a perfect mood piece. Bunch of the first album and third album are good, too, but "Bewitched" is where it's at. One of the best road trip albums of all time. Band really, really lost something when the rhythm section quit. Esp. Justin, who clearly brought so much to the songs.

A review of mine gets quoted in Wareham's book, where I wrote something along the lines of "Luna isn't a great band but is always good enough, which is more than most bands manage" (or something along those lines, but less bitchy than I'm remembering it). Wareham responded with "ouch!" But I meant it as a real complement. There's something so consistent and comforting about Luna, even if I never considered much of it terribly compelling.

45s and b-sides

if anyone has the Slide EP I appear to have lost that...

http://www.spin.com/articles/galaxie-500-dean-wareham-solo-emancipated-hearts-album-stream/

incredible string band cover is kind of surprise, but a nice one