Showing posts with label Galaxie 500. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galaxie 500. Show all posts

Friday, April 8, 2022

Galaxie 500 - Victory Garden (1990)

Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang had met at the Dalton School in New York City in 1981, but began playing together during their time as students at Harvard University in 1987. Wareham and Krukowski had formed a series of punk-influenced student bands before Wareham went back to New York, and when he returned in 1987 he and Krukowski formed a new band with Yang on bass guitar, and called themselves Galaxie 500, after a friend's Ford Galaxie 500 car. The band began playing gigs in Boston and New York City, and recorded a demo which they sent to Shimmy Disc label boss and producer Mark Kramer, who agreed to produce the band. With Kramer at the controls, the band recorded the 'Tugboat' single in February 1988, and gave 'Oblivious' to a Chemical Imbalance flexi-disc, and then moved on to record their debut album' Today', which was released on the small Aurora label. The band toured the United Kingdom in late 1988/early 1989, signing to Rough Trade and releasing their second album 'On Fire' that year. 'On Fire' is considered the band's defining moment, reaching number 7 in the UK Indie Chart, and meeting with much critical acclaim, bizarrely more in the UK than in their native US. The band recorded two sessions for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 programme, and this is where they really indulged their passion for off the wall cover versions, in particular their take on Jonathan Richman's 'Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste', which was voted number 41 in 1989's Festive 50 by listeners to the show. The band split up in the spring of 1991 after the release of their third album 'This Is Our Music', with Wareham later saying that it was just time for the band to be no more. In their short time together they released three of the very best indie records ever made, and even today, thirty years after they split, they are still spoken of in hushed tones by their legions of fans. After leaving Galaxie 500, Wareham tried his hand at production, working with Mercury Rev, and he also released a solo single 'Anesthesia' in February 1992, before forming a new band, Luna. Krukowski and Yang continued to record under the moniker Pierre Etoile (French for "Rock Star"), then Damon and Naomi (whose first two releases were also produced by Kramer), and finally as members of Magic Hour. Galaxie 500's music has been an influence on many later indie bands, such as Low, and their music has been covered and referenced by several well known artists. I wanted to post something here to introduce the band to people who might not know them, and I couldn't decide whether to post a b-sides compilation or a collection of their cover version, but it turned out that many of those covers were issued as b-sides to their singles, so this is actually both ideas in one post. As well as the b-sides, which include a couple of original compositions, there are four of the Peel session cover versions, and the 'Blue Thunder' single edit, which differs from the album version by including saxophone. If you don't know the band and like what you hear then do check out their three superb albums, and for current fans then don't miss out on the excellent 'Uncollected' release of rarities from 2004. The album is named after the Red Crayola song, referencing Victory Gardens, which were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks during World War I and World War II, and the cover is an original poster.   



Track listing

01 King Of Spain (b-side of 'Tugboat' 1988)
02 Blue Thunder (w/sax) (single 1990)
03 Victory Garden [The Red Crayola] (b-side of 'Blue Thunder' 1990)
04 Ceremony [New Order] (b-side of 'Blue Thunder' 1990)
05 Cold Night (b-side of 'Blue Thunder' 1990)
06 Here She Comes Now [The Velvet Underground] (b-side of 'Fourth Of July' 1990)
07 Rain [The Beatles] (single 1989)
08 Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste [Jonathan Richman] (John Peel session 1989)
09 Submission [The Sex Pistols] (John Peel session 1990)  
10 Final Day [Young Marble Giants] (John Peel session 1990)
11 Moonshot [Buffy Saint-Marie] (John Peel session 1990)

Friday, August 13, 2021

Various Artists - Never Mind The Ballads (2010)

The current court case involving John Lydon and his former band-mates Steve Jones and Paul Cook, over whether the band's music can be used in a forthcoming biopic, reminded me just what a unique band The Sex Pistols were when they first appeared in 1976. This is borne out by the fact that I can't recall ever having heard a cover version of one of their songs - and although I know that there are loads out there, it's just that they aren't by any bands that I've ever been that interested in hearing. There are perhaps two exceptions, with Galaxie 500 covering 'Submission' for a John Peel session, and Bananarama attempting 'No Feelings' for the soundtrack to the 1982 film 'Party Party', but the rest have generally passed me by. I though that in the ensuing 40-odd years there must be some intriguing covers out there, so I attempted to put together an album along the lines of my earlier 'A Slow And Quiet Sabbath' post, with covers that almost verged on easy listening. It wasn't easy to find ballad versions of these most raucous punk songs, but mostly I managed it, and to my ears it sounds pretty good. The Bad Shepherds is the band led by former Young Ones star Adrian Edmundson, and adding pipes to 'Anarchy In The UK' was inspired. Hayseed Dixie can always be relied on to provide a yee-ha country twang to any song that they cover, while Nouvelle Vague and Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson really pull off the easy listening vibe. Hotrats were a band formed as a side project by former Supergrass members Danny Goffey and Gaz Coombes, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star make albums full of lullabye versions of punk classics, and in the end I found a subdued version of every track from the 'Never Mind The Bollocks' album, now retitled as 'Never Mind The Ballads' (and I know they're not all strictly speaking ballads, but the title was too good not to use).      



Track listing

01 Holidays In The Sun (Hayseed Dixie)
02 Bodies (Veruca Salt)
03 No Feelings (Bananarama)
04 Liar (Micro Grande)
05 God Save The Queen (Nouvelle Vague)
06 Problems (Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star)
07 Seventeen (Detune)
08 Anarchy In The UK (The Bad Shepherds)
09 Submission (Galaxie 500)
10 Pretty Vacant (Sofia Allard & Carl-Michael Herlofsson)
11 New York (Opium Jukebox)
12 E.M.I. (The Hotrats)

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Solstice Tidings: An Alternative Christmas Album (2019)

If, like me, you've heard the same dozen Christmas songs over and over on the radio and in the shops over the past few weeks, then here's an album to take the edge off the festive period. They're still Christmas/Winter-themed songs, but by some of my favourite bands (most of them already have a post on the site), and the majority are in the alternative genre, with just a couple of more mainstream acts, but with songs that tend not to make it to the ubiquitous Christmas compilation albums. Low issued one of the best ever Christmas albums in 2010, and I was tempted to include the up-beat 'Just Like Christmas', but instead I went for a lesser-known song from it, although do check out the whole thing as it's a classic. Cheap Trick, Ramones, The Flaming Lips, Sparks and AC/DC give us a cynical or left-field viewpoint of the holiday, while the offerings from Squeeze, Smashing Pumpkins and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are surprisingly restrained. Galaxie 500's take on Yoko One's 'Listen, The Snow Is Falling' is simply breath-taking, and I've also included songs by two of my favourite current singer/songwriters, with  'Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)' from Laura Marling and 'Winter Song' from Billie Marten. I hope that this hour-long collection of little-heard Christmas songs adds some joy to your holiday. 



Track listing

01 Christmas Christmas - Cheap Trick
02 A Christmas Song - Jethro Tull
03 Christmas Was Better In The 80's - The Futureheads
04 Listen, The Snow Is Falling - Galaxie 500
05 Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - Ramones
06 Christmas Time - The Smashing Pumpkins
07 If You Were Born Today (Song For Little Baby Jesus) - Low
08 All I Want For Christmas - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
09 Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
10 Winter Song - Billie Marten
11 Christmas At The Zoo - The Flaming Lips
12 Father Christmas - The Kinks
13 Home For Christmas - Kate Bush
14 Thank God It's Not Christmas - Sparks
15 Christmas Day - Squeeze
16 (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas - The Fall
17 There Ain't No Santa Claus On The Evening Stage - Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
18 Mistress For Christmas - AC/DC
19 Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) - Laura Marling