Galaxie 500 casts such a long shadow in the indie rock universe (including but not limited to the long career of Damon and Naomi) that it’s easy to forget that they were together for only a few years and produced only three studio albums, culminating in 1990′s This Is Our Music. They broke up shortly thereafter, in 1991, spawning the aforementioned duo of drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang. (As a side note, I could have sworn that I had seen Galaxie 500 open for They Might Be Giants at the Hatch Shell in Boston in 1992, but I realize now that that was impossible. Now that I think about it, it was probably Dean Wareham’s post-Galaxie 500 band Luna. Good story, right?)
Damon and Naomi, of course, have now been a band for over twenty years and released eight full-length albums, and probably wince every time some pointy-headed music dork refers to them as “Damon and Naomi of Galaxie 500.” Sorry guys.
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“2-1 is a very cool Yoko Ono cover. Why doesn’t Naomi sing more Galaxie songs? She’s much better than Damon.” “Dreamy...” “Zzzzz - puts me to sleep!” “Title of LP taken from an Ornette Coleman album of the same name. They’d never heard the album, but thought the title was a great one.” “It’s nice, but too long in H, move it down.” “Also on CD.” “I like this in the way I really like a lot of the Go-Betweens and I almost really like Cocteau twins.” “Most palatable in small doses.” “Quiet guitar-based older-people music with some psychedelic guitar.” “These guys are slowly becoming my favorite band of last couple of years. The lead singer his awesome, kind of like Neil Young’s high whiny voice. Way cool psychedelia.” “I agree, [with the Neil Young whiny voice comparison], but that’s why I don’t like it.” “Yes H!!” “‘Melt Away’!” |
2 Comments
How the hell does Damon & Naomi get all the love and Dean Wareham gets a slight mention? What sad mega-indie bubble does this Levi guy live in anyway? Hey, I dig D&N as much as the next person, but praising them over Dean is like saying “those John Entwistle solo joints were creme fraiche - and that Pete guy did some stuff outside The Who as well”. I’m so enraged I’m going to vote Republican, so I can get something done about such asinine opinions!!!
Ha ha, thanks Eric. Yeah, I have to admit I kinda dropped the ball on this one. Of course Dean Wareham’s done a ton of great work since Galaxie 500, between Luna (whom I did mention, albeit cursorily) and Dean and Britta. For whatever reason (maybe the Sound Opinions in-studio they did recently, and the fact that currently they do seem to be more active), Damon and Naomi were more prevalent in my mind, but I should have talked more about Dean’s fine post-G-500 work. Thanks for calling me out.