Week 18: GALAXIE 500 (420 to 30: A Music Retrospective)
They weren't a particularly well-known nor long-lived band, but their music is quite timeless in spite of this. A breed of alternative rock known as "shoegaze", Galaxie 500 takes that sound of the late 80s and early 90s and makes it decidedly dreamier. There aren't very many bands better to lay back and dream to. These three were ahead of their time.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Galaxie 500.
Week 18: GALAXIE 500
#120/420 - Galaxie 500, “Decomposing Trees”
From what is probably my favorite album from the year of my birth, this tour de force is one of only 3 albums made by Galaxie 500, and I believe their very best. This song adds a tenor sax to the group’s distinctive dreamy sound, adding some discord and longing to an otherwise gentle song set among tambourine snaps and glowing guitars.
“My toes can talk, and they’re smiling at me.”
Curious indeed.
I recommend diving in and floating off to space with these guys. (Also, note, Naomi Yang has the best earrings on this album cover.)
#121/420 - Galaxie 500, “Blue Thunder”
The opening track to On Fire does a very nice job of setting a mood that is maintained for the duration of the album. The cohesion is a great wave to ride over the course of 10 songs without disruption to your journey. Dean Wareham does well with the Neil Young style vocals here, not unlike Wayne Coyne with The Flaming Lips during the same era, a complimentary band to Galaxie 500.
Despite its calmness, there is a real intensity to Dean, Damon, and Naomi’s playing on this track to appreciate.
#122/420 - Galaxie 500, “Temperature's Rising”
A catchy little song from their debut album, possibly about a bad drug trip, or possibly about being sucked into a bad relationship, or possibly about an existential crisis separate of either. But probably the drug thing.
“So now, I think I’m all tied up. So now, I think I’m tangled up.”
“I wanna come down.”
Don’t we all?
#123/420 - Galaxie 500, “Fourth of July”
“I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit. And your dog refused to look at it. So I got drunk and looked at the Empire State Building. It was no bigger than a nickel.” Ladies and gentlemen, the best opening lyrics to any Galaxie 500 song. And really, in contention for best ever. I am very fond of the words to this song.
“And I decided to have a Bed In. But I forgot to invite anybody.” Like that, really makes me laugh. This is practically a Steven Wright joke.
Really nice groove on this one too. And sweet breakdown at the end.
“I never thought that I would end up here. Maybe I should just change my style.”
#124/420 - Galaxie 500, “Strange”
“Why's everybody actin' funny? Why's everybody look so strange? Why's everybody look so (nasty/pretty)? What do I want with all these things?”
More lyrical dynamite from Galaxie 500.
“I went alone down to the drugstore. I went in back and took a Coke. I stood in line and ate my Twinkies. I stood in line, I had to wait.”
I don’t know that anything more needs to be said. Those are all of the words to the song, and then they repeat, except nasty becomes pretty. And it is glorious.
Another thing that I really like about this song is how Dean Wareham makes his vocals sound “Strange” as well. I love wild and offbeat singing when it maintains harmony and texture like this. Like howling it out, wailing it out, screeching it out. It’s great.
“I stood in line, I had to wait.”
How very wise.
#125/420 - Galaxie 500, “When Will You Come Home?”
“Staring at the wall. And waiting for your call. When? When will you come home?” Man, this is a good one. Galaxie 500 had a real knack for concise, memorable, offbeat lyrics.
It’s interesting how sparingly using specific references (here it’s watching “Kojak”, in “Strange” it’s eating Twinkies, etc.) oddly make it more universal, rather than less. Kojak becomes a synonym for “some show you waste your time with”, Twinkies are “some packaged gas station snack” — you’re able to hear it that way, effortlessly, and it’s a really cool effect of this type of writing.
I love the energy and the bounce of this one, right from the first crack of the drums by Damon Krukowski.
#126/420 - Galaxie 500, “Tugboat”
One of my favorite songs. Great on loud speakers, great on headphones, great from a car stereo. It’s there for you whenever you need it. It’s simultaneously a sunset, a starry night, a day at the beach, a rainy afternoon, a highway drive at twilight, a cabin at dawn, a psychedelic internal realm, it’s everything, really. This is a magic song, easily one of the 80s’ best.
It’s also got the emblematic concisely elaborate Galaxie 500 lyrics to twist and turn to your current frequency setting. “I don’t want to vote for your president, I just want to be your tugboat captain.” This kind of phraseology is just oh so very late 80s/ early 90s, but it is timeless nonetheless. I really admire it.
Galaxie 500 is one of my very favorite alternative rock groups that I think captures the energy and sound of the time when I was born better than anyone. It’s like a calm dream to listen to these guys and gal, like slipping back into the tranquil unknown from whence I came.
Three dynamite albums from one dynamite group named after an old car, and, if nothing else, at least one song that definitely belongs in a museum. Play this when remembering me because this is part of who I am. Rock on, G500.
Next week, G is for Garfunkel as G month continues with the iconic folk rock duo that should need no introduction, Simon & Garfunkel.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)