New Song On Sunday

 

Today's track comes from Gardens, a new band from Vienna who released their debut album Flaws already a few months ago, but I have only just discovered it for myself. The members of the quartet come from Vorarlberg, a mountainous region in western Austria, and knew each other more or less from their youth, but only found each other in Vienna. Their music is astonishingly fresh and catchy. Luca Celine Müller's voice is vaguely reminiscent of Margo Timmins, and the songs, with their playful, psychedelic-tinged guitar playing, are reminiscent of Galaxie 500. Enough name-dropping, Gardens simply have a knack for writing good, catchy songs.

CBGB 12.13.88

 

I was really surprised when I read about a new release from Galaxie 500 one of my favorite bands from this era. After the release of their debut they played a concert in New York's famous club together with Sonic Youth and others. This gig was recorded an was long time only available as a bootleg.

Now it was remastered and released on vinyl. It shows how great this band were. Their drawn-out, sometimes somewhat amateurish post-Velvet Underground guitar sound, accompanied by the delicate whispering of singer/guitarist Dean Wareham, is certainly not to everyone's taste but hit me from the first time I listened to their songs. It's a musical document of a time long gone by. For me just superb.

New Song On Sunday

 

It's the middle of October and some artists are already thinking about Christmas. I could always imagine a collaboration between Dean Wareham, the former member of Galaxie 500 and Sonic Boom, but I never thought it possible that they would release an album of Christmas songs together.

But that's exactly what happened. In November, they will release A Piece Of Us, their personal compilation of Christmas songs. Only a cover of Willie Nelson's Pretty Paper has been released in advance. What in the original is nothing more than another sentimental country ballad now becomes a pulsating synth piece carried by Sonic Boom's baritone and Britta Phillip's alto voice. I'm certainly not a fan of Christmas albums, but this is one I'll be listening to.

Uncollected Noise

 

When I was recently clearing out my inbox of adverts for new records, I came across the announcement of a new album by Galaxie 500. A band from Boston that was active at the end of the 80s and released a little masterpiece with On Fire. The synthesis of the slightly distorted strummed electric guitars, Wareham's soft vocals, which lead into a high head voice and the accentuating drums, represents something unique in its form. The melancholic tone underpins the sound perfectly. I've always liked this high school sound, reminiscent of Johnathan Richman and the Velvet Underground, ever since this record was recommended to me by the owner of my local record shop

After the band split up three decades ago, Galaxie 500 are releasing a double album with outtakes and other unreleased material in a few weeks. With the songs now released, they show that power-pop and jangly guitars are also part of their repertoire. 

Maybe it's just sentimental to hear this music again, but why shouldn't good music be heard? Even if it only makes you listen to and enjoy the old albums again.

Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

 

As I grubbed in the depth of my hard drive a few days ago I found some songs I didn't listen for a long time and it made me smile to listen to them once again. Once of them was by Galaxie 500 an American alternative band existing four years from 1989 on.  It was the time when American alternative music sounded fresh and new. I really like their sound guitar dominated sounds inspired by The Velvets and Spaceman 3. Sadly they didn't got the recognition they should have because their first two albums should be named as one of the best guitar albums of this decade. This song is from a Peel session in the late 80's.

Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

Tuesday's Cover

In this series it should be shown that some great (and forgotten) songs other artists keep alive doing their very own thing with this song. Not only to fill a record or serving the audience the song for an encore. I will try to promote some versions that are rather different to the original or close to it but in a way the song could be one of the songs that the band who made the cover has written originally. Ceremony by Joy Division was one of these examples. A song that never made it on an album by them was covered by Galaxie 500, a post-punk influenced band from greater NYC and they were active in the late 80's, I remember that their second record On Fire was on almost every independent turntable at these days and I have to admit that I loved their reduced independent guitar sound. The cover of Ceremony was the start to grab out the old vinyl of Galaxie 500 and it still makes me happy to listen to them after a very long time.

Dancing And Blood

We all have seen band come and go, joining and disbanding. There are less bands that are alive with the same personal. Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker keep Low alive for more than 20 years. They were named as pioneers of slowcore and bands like Sun Kil Moon, Galaxie 500 or Red House Painters that were stamped for this genre. Now they are back with their latests album Double Negative. And Low is still a band that takes excursions into new sounds or other genres. Crumbling loops and beats ignite a musical storm with Parker's voice and in another song they create a sacrale sound that could be played on the way to Hades. This record doesn't grab you from the first listen but it grows the more I listen to it.