:
was a seminal
American Slowcore /
Shoegaze guitar
Band from the late
1980s .
Guitarist
Dean Wareham , drummer
Damon Krukowski and bassist
Naomi Yang began playing together during their time as students at
Harvard University . In their early years, Krukowski didn't own a drum kit, so he borrowed one from his Harvard classmate
Conan O'Brien , who'd bought a kit but had recently given up playing it. This drum kit can be heard on many of Galaxie 500's early recordings. In interviews on the Galaxie 500 DVD "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste", Wareham cites the
Spacemen 3 as another key inspiration. The band's name comes from a
Ford car of the
1960s , the
Ford Galaxie 500 .
Galaxie 500 leveraged fairly minimal instrumental technique with intense atmospherics, provided by producer
Mark Kramer , and their distinctive sound bore an influence beyond the small audience for their independently released
Album s. With Kramer's live sound production at the mixing board at the band's every gig, the sound and the increasingly loyal audience grew with each release until Wareham quit the band in 1991 to form
Luna .
Krukowski and Yang, devastated by Wareham's departure, remained inactive for two years until Kramer convinced them to return to his
Noise New Jersey recording studio. They continued to record under the moniker
Damon And Naomi (whose first two releases were also produced by Kramer), and additionally began the avant-garde press Exact Change.
Galaxie 500's records were released in the US and UK on the independent
Rough Trade label. When Rough Trade went bankrupt in 1991, the group purchased the masters at auction, reissuing them on
Ryko in 1997.
Galaxie 500's music had an influence on many later
Indie Music groups. It has been covered and referenced by several well known artists. In
Liz Phair 's song "Stratford-on-Guy," she sings, "And I was pretending that I was in a Galaxie 500 video." In
Xiu Xiu 's song "Dr. Troll",
Jamie Stewart sings, "Listen to ''
On Fire '' and pretend someone could love you." The Submarines did a cover of "Tugboat" in their recent ''iTunes Live Session EP'', recorded with famed indie rock producer
Adam Lasus .
The group's oeuvre included a fair amount of cover songs, often with arrangements that were drastically different from their original counterparts. These include:
- ''Galaxie 500'' ( Box Set ) (1996)
- ''The Portable Galaxie 500'' (best-of, (1998)
- "Tugboat"/"King of Spain" (1988)
- "Blue Thunder"/"Hail" ( Split w/ Straightjacket Fits ) (1989)
- "Blue Thunder EP " (1990)
- "Rain"/"Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste" (1990, Caff Records )
- "Fourth of July"/"Here She Comes Now" (1990)
- "Snowstorm" (live)/"Pictures" (live) (2004)
- ''Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste'' (2004)
- A Head Full of Wishes – comprehensive site that includes a discography, lyrics, tablature, and a tour and setlist archive.
