For the first time in many years the three original Galaxie 500 albums are available on vinyl — from the just-launched official Galaxie 500 store, fierybreeze.com, along with deluxe digital downloads (320k mp3 or Apple lossless files) of those recordings. Orders are being taken now and will ship out July 6.

Click below for a free download of Galaxie 500’s 1990 single, “Fourth of July”

Ask A Straight Couple: Dean & Britta

http://thenewgay.net/2009/06/dean-britta.html

Britta and I ate dinner over the weekend at Wichcraft on 20th Street, where our friend Sisha Ortuzar cooked us delights like pork ‘n’ pickle, avocado with a burnt chili sauce, and cannelloni stuffed with sweet-pea puree. Thursday we’ll be eating cheesesteak sandwiches in Philadelphia; before our show at Johnny Brenda’s, Friday it will be chili dogs before our gig at the Black Cat in D.C., and Saturday night we will eat and perform at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street in Manhattan. This last is an early show – Cheval Sombre will go on at 7:30, we’ll be on at 8:30. These will likely be our last non-Warhol shows of the year, at least here in the USA.

Matthew Buzzell emailed from Los Angeles over the weekend; he wanted me to know that one of my favorite films, Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, has at last been released on DVD. Matthew has always liked Luna’s “Roll in the Sand”, a B-side recorded during the Penthouse sessions, which was an ode to Mark Frechette, the actor who played the lead role in Zabriskie Point, a young university student who steals a small plane after a riot on campus. In real life, Frechette was a member of Boston’s nutty Fort Hill Commune, to whom he gave his earnings from the film. His co-star in the film, Daria Halprin, also joined the commune after making the film, but quickly got out.

Antonioni staged a great love scene in the desert; dozens of naked bodies rolling in the Death Valley sand, set to Jerry Garcia’s “Dark Star.” Apparently critics laughed aloud during this scene; the film received nasty reviews and flopped at the box office. The soundtrack is unbeatable – Garcia, Kaleidoscope, Patti Page singing “The Tennesse Waltz,” the Rolling Stones, and an incredible slow-motion sequence of explosions at the end, set to the music of Pink Floyd.

In 1973 Frechette was involved in a botched bank robbery ordered by the Commune, was sent to jail, and died there in 1975 – in an accident in the weight room.

He fell from the skies
With his sensitive eyes
And he dropped out of school
With his evil sunglasses
And the desert he crossed
Was a picture to see
A roll in the sand
He had it all in his hand

May 21, 2009.

I recently received an email from a pen-pal of mine, formerly in Cambodia, now living in Washington, D.C.; he wondered if we might be performing some Galaxie 500 songs at our upcoming shows (in Philadelphia, D.C., and at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City). Yes, we are planning on playing a bunch of Galaxie 500 songs; we did this at the Zipper Factory last year and it was fun and I managed to hit all the high notes. The Galaxie 500 video “Fourth of July” ran on New York Noise last week, followed by amusing comments from some young children. Warning: the video contains violent war imagery in addition to gorilla and clown suits. You can view it here; click on Episode 89, Section 1:

http://nyc.gov/html/nycmg/nyctv/html/music/nynoise.shtml

We rehearsed this week with drummer Jason Bemis Lawrence, who usually sits behind the traps for the Caledonia Mission, and is (like Anthony Lamarca), a graduate of the New School’s jazz program.

June 30 will find us performing the Andy Warhol Screen Test show at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles June 20. We will also be doing a live radio session on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic – June 18. And I’m doing a book reading at Skylight Books 5pm Sunday the 21st (Father’s Day). One father wrote to us this week – said that he was clearing the table after dinner and stumbled upon this drawing of yours truly, created by his 10-year-old son Lucas. Thank you Lucas.

- Dean

May 2, 2009

Yesterday was May Day, International Workers’ Day, which we do not recognize here in the United States. I spent the morning at the periodontist. She installed a titanium post where I had a tooth last year. It’s an odd sensation having that screwed in; I didn’t really enjoy it, and she did not reward me with good painkillers.

Wednesday last we played another show, sitting in with Cheval Sombre at Death By Audio in Williamsburg, a club that reminded me of 8BC in years gone by. Once again I watched the first three songs from the audience before getting on stage, and Cheval Sombre played a hypnotizing set.

Thursday night I went to the premiere and after-party for the new Jim Jarmusch film. Bill Murray was there (he’s in the film for about a minute near the end) and Tilda Swinton, and Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers (who is not in the film). I don’t know any of those people; instead I was there with film producer (and high school classmate) Jason Kliot. Jason directed me in Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit back in twelfth grade. Now I am remembering that my former band-mate Damon had a small part in the play too (he played the valet). Jason and I got to talking about high school, and he reminded me that we first met in 1977, at age 14, at a model U.N., which took place in a big hotel right across from Penn Station. At model U.N.’s high school students come together and pretend that they are diplomats arguing the important issues of the day. I was lost, knowing nothing about disarmament, strategic arms limitation treaties, the plight of Yemen; all I remember is someone yelling at me for eating their draft resolution.

I do not have a personal Facebook account, but my paperback, Black Postcards, does.  I set the page up a couple of weeks ago and my book now has 373 fans. You can visit it here

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Postcards/65987958881

and learn about upcoming activities. Penguin releases the paperback on May 5, and at 7pm next Friday night (May 8th) I’ll be doing a reading at the newly-expanded Book Court in Cobble Hill. This is a book release party, which means wine will likely be involved, you could stop by for a drink on your way home from work.

April 27, 2009

Slept late today, we were up late, celebrating the release of the Cheval Sombre CD. Sunday night was the record release party at Mercury Lounge; Cheval Sombre (joined by Britta on keys and bass, myself on electric guitar and Sonic Boom on the Casio) opened for Psychic Ills and Spectrum.

Cheval Sombre is a pseudonym of course; it is French for dark horse. After sending the record out to press a couple of months ago, one reviewer asked me if Cheval Sombre was in fact just Sonic Boom under a different name (and Time Out NY suggested he might be Jason Pierce). No, he’s a real person, which was proven at the live show – there he was for all to see, playing his acoustic guitar and singing in his unique, and very American, voice.

The Cheval Sombre disc was several years in the making, the whole thing started when he sent some of his demos to Sonic Boom. Next step was a recording session at Nick Kramer’s studio in Jersey City, NJ. Then Britta and I were invited to play on a few tracks, a few songs were mixed for a few 7” singles (now out of print).
The album was finally completed late in 2008.

The self-titled (with great cover art by UK-artist Ben Javens) is available in stores, or direct from our website, and is also downloadable on iTunes and Amazon. I love this album; it reminds me more of the early recordings by Opal (the band that became Mazzy Star), and is one of those rare records that captivates from the first track to the last. Here’s a review from the people at 17 Seconds:

http://17seconds.co.uk/blog/2009/04/25/album-review-cheval-sombre/

Click here to order Cheval Sombre

Cheval Sombre will be opening shows for Dean & Bitta on June 4, 5, & 6 -

CLICK HERE FOR SHOWS DETAILS

Dean & Britta
PMB 303
341 Lafayette St.
NY, NY 10012
www.deanandbritta.com

April 20, 2009

Last week I visited the local branch of my bank (a bank with roots in the Pacific Northwest that has recently been taken over by a bank with roots in Manhattan) and deposited a couple of checks.

“We will be holding these checks for seven days before the money is released,” the teller informed me. “That’s our policy.”
“But how am I going to pay my taxes tomorrow if you’re holding my money for seven days?”

I walked out in a bit of a huff, and who should I run into by the ATM machines but comedian Todd Barry. We chatted for a bit about our summer plans. Todd is performing at some rock festivals, including Bonnaroo and All Points West. I told him that our drummer Anthony LaMarca is leaving our band to play drums with St. Vincent this summer, and they’ll be at Bonnarroo and All Points West too.

Turns out Todd, who is a drummer himself, is friendly with one of St. Vincent’s previous drummers. It’s a small world, we both agreed. I told Todd about my banking troubles.
“You need to talk to the assistant manager,” he said. “She can take care of that.”
So I followed Todd back into the bank and got on line behind him. Just then in walks Sean Eden (he has an account at the same branch).
“Dean looks angry,” said Sean.

I calmed myself, and asked to speak to the assistant manager, who kindly agreed to release those funds into my account after two days.

We are going to miss Anthony LaMarca, who was just a 19-year-old kid when he started playing with us (he’s a wise 21-year-old now). But we have a couple of people lined up to take Anthony’s place on the drum throne. Jason Lawrence (of the Caledonia Mission) will play our shows June 4-5-6, where we’ll be playing Dean & Britta songs and a bunch by Galaxie 500 too. And Lee Waters (who has played with Essex Green and Camera Obscura) will be taking over on the upcoming Screen Test shows.

April 14, 2009

Fedex woke me up early last week, delivering a box from Penguin – the paperback edition of my book had arrived! The paperback looks great; it has that distinguished Penguin logo right on the front, along with a quote from Liz Phair’s review in the New York Times Book Review: “Fast paced and memorable, peopled with characters you could only find in the music industry. . .  It’s as if a curtain were brushed aside and we all got to go backstage.” It almost makes me want to read it myself.

The book is officially available May 5, and it’s a whole lot cheaper than the hardcover. You can get pre-order from Amazon for $10.88.

I will be doing a couple of readings for the book locally:

May 8 – the paperback release party at Book Court in Brooklyn
June 17 – at the Cakeshop in Manhattan, with Nick Flynn and Chuck Klosterman

After performing this Andy Warhol Screen Test show in museums across the country for the past six months, the DVD from Plexifilm has finally arrived and is a thing of beauty. The DVD is housed in an elegant hardcover booklet with with forty pages of notes and photographs. It contains the original Andy Warhol films, with our songs (brand new studio recordings) as the soundtrack, along with a short documentary about the making of the live show. The DVD officially hits the streets April 7, but we have copies available now.

We are playing our last 13 Most Beautiful show for a while, this Saturday night at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, but will pick up again July 2 with a show at the Ann Arbor Arts Festival, followed by July shows in Marseille, Dunfermline (Scotland), St Etienne and Paris.

Here is the official description of the DVD from the Plexifilm site:

Released in conjunction with The Andy Warhol Museum, 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests features 13 of Warhol’s classic silent film portraits. Subjects include Nico, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, and more. Shot between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol’s Factory studio in New York City, the Screen Tests are presented with newly commissioned soundtracks performed by Dean & Britta (and band).
This is the first ever authorized DVD release of films by Andy Warhol.

The DVD is presented in a slipcovered hardbound package. DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes documentary on the live production of the 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Testsperformances, and a video interview with Dean & Britta about Andy Warhol, the music and the project. The booklet includes brief biographies of the Screen Test subjects, liner notes from the Warhol Museum’s Thomas Sokolowski, Geralyn Huxley, and Ben Harrison and notes on the music from Dean Wareham.

13 Most Beautiful: Songs for
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
13 “Screen Test” portrait films
by Andy Warhol, with songs
performed by Dean & Britta

DVD (Region 0 - World)
$30
BUY NOW

thanks,

Dean