A discussion has struck up on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List about whether Dean should be doing these "…plays Galaxie 500 shows" or getting on with new material – here's my defence of the Galaxie 500 shows (as posted to the list)…
OK – here's a dissenting voice – although I'll qualify my defence by linking to my previous rant against Dean & Britta covering Galaxie 500.
This will be just a bunch of thoughts – a lot of which I won't explain the relevance of – partly because they may not have relevance…
Dean has on a number of occasions mentioned how hard he finds it coming up with new songs/song ideas – I think it was (and I don't have copy of Black Postcards to hand to double check) one of the contributing factors to Galaxie 500 breaking up – the two Dean & Britta albums and the 13 Most Beautiful soundtrack are all liberally sprinkled with covers – I think it's safe to assume that while he has consistently been producing great material it doesn't just fall out of him.
Galaxie 500 are back on the radar now – the Domino and 20|20|20 reissues have seen to that.
While reunions are de riguer we're all painfully aware (and in my case grateful) that a Galaxie 500 one is not on the cards
I've generally loved Luna covering Galaxie 500, and enjoyed Dean & Britta's forays into that part of Dean's past (with the exception linked above) – also one of my high-points of 2010 (high oints of any year prob) was Damon & Naomi covering Blue Thunder at The Luminaire – I don't mind, and actually genuinely love, that these songs can still work.
13 Most Beautiful – as a project – has eaten a chunk out of the "write the next album" time so clearly the next new album is not ready.
The music industry is a different animal now – without record companies proffering huge advances to make albums the money is having to be made elsewhere… actually I wonder if this is the key point. Smaller bands/artists need to find new ways to make if they want music to be a career rather than a side project – and whether its advertising, soundtracks, reunions, or rehashing your back catalogue (or any/all of the above) – then that is what needs to be done.
Galaxie 500 shows are going to make money – for some of the reasons mentioned above.
I know that there will be new material from Dean (& Britta) at some point in the future – and I can wait – it's not like there isn't stacks of other great music to listen to – and in the meantime I'm happy to enjoy hearing (of) Galaxie 500 reunion shows knowing that they're not Galaxie 500 and it's not breaking anything by happening.
I'm a fan.
Come ride the fiery breeze…
