20-20-20

Where does a song begin? It begins in Silence.

Every song ever written begins there, in the Void.

Then suddenly, where there was no song before,

there's a song.

A few chords, a few words, a few minutes.

Galaxie 500 never needed much more.

Over the course of three years and three LP’s, i watched them summon

the thinnest strands of Nothingness, and spin them into gold.

And all i had to do was LISTEN, and work the loom.

So when first thinking of how i might "cover" this opulent

ode to loneliness by a band whose evolution and dissolution

i'd personally witnessed, i began as they themselves did;

with Nothing.

In homage to the preternatural density of their minimalism,

i’ve stripped this painless song of pain of all its birthmarks;

No guitars, no bass, no reverb or echo on the lead vocal,

and definitely no drums. i was curious to see what might

happen, if i went back to where it all began; in Silence.

And did you ever notice? They never played a waltz.

Not even once. TIME never gave them the chance.

Like all great trios, they perished before they'd finished.

“Decomposing Trees”. Or three’s, if you will.

My favorite song by Galaxie 500, the greatest

American trio since the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

- Kramer

August, 2020

Mercury Rev [The Catskills]: "I moved to NYC in 1989 and the 2 cds that were a soundtrack to my first year on Avenue B were Don Cherry’s 'Art Deco' and Galaxie 500’s 'On Fire.’ I ended up seeing both Don Cherry and Galaxie 500 play several times in 1989/1990/1991, pure magic every time. I truly love 'On Fire' as a whole, but ’Snowstorm' has always been my favorite. Growing up outside of Buffalo NY, the lyrics and music have a special childlike resonance for me. Jonathan and I would like to thank special guest John Ashton for joining us on our rendition hermetically documented at the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock NY.” - Grasshopper

Holy Shit [Los Angeles]: "I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, I WAS FIFTEEN, I WAS IN A GALAXIE 500 COVER BAND WHILE THEY WERE STILL A BAND. (1990-1991.) WE WERE CALLED TUGBOAT. WE DID GIGS AND EVERYTHING! I LEARNED HOW TO PLAY GUITAR BY LEARNING AND PRACTICING DEAN'S LEADS AND SOLOS, SO THE HEAVING, SPECTRAL MUSIC OF GALAXIE 500 IS IMPRINTED IN ME. IT'S PART OF THE VERY DNA OF MY MUSICAL SENSIBILITIES. I REMEMBER THE FIRST THING I EVER READ ABOUT THE GROUP. IT WAS A REVIEW IN THE NME (MELODY MAKER?) OF ONE OF THEIR FIRST LONDON GIGS. THERE WAS A LINE IN IT THAT I LOVED, AND REMEMBER: 'THEY HAVE ONLY ONE SONG, AND THE FACT THAT THEY PLAY IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN MAKES IT NO LESS BEAUTIFUL.' IT WAS THE FIRST MUSIC I'D EVER HEARD THAT SEEMED LIKE IT WAS MADE FOR PRIVATE LISTENING, THAT DIDN'T IMPLY AN AUDIENCE. LISTENING TO GALAXIE IS SOMETHING WE DO ON A KIND OF LOOP. RECORD ENDS + WE START IT AGAIN... THEN HAPPILY AGAIN, SO MUCH SO THAT WE ALL INEVITABLY FEEL LIKE WE HAVE A PERSONAL STAKE IN THEIR SONGS, THEY'RE OURS. A CLEVER BARGAIN, MIND YOU, FOR IN THE SAME WAY THEIR SONGS HAVE A WAY OF 'BELONGING TO US' (AND EQUAL TO THE DEGREE TO WHICH THIS IS THE CASE), THE SONGS ULTIMATELY ALSO MANAGE TO OWN US. WE ARE SEDUCED, WE SURRENDER, WE ARE SUSPENDED, WE ARE CAUGHT. WILLING CAPTIVES—CAN YOU DENY IT? ANYWAY IT'S GETTING LATE. DEAN'LL BE THE FIRST TO CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG (WE'RE NEIGHBORS), BUT AS FAR AS I KNOW GALAXIE 500 NEVER DID THIS ONE LIVE. I'LL HAVE TO ASK HIM WHY. THE VIDEO CLIP (STAN BRAKHAGE; THANK YOU HEDI EL KHOLTI) I USE IN HOMAGE TO THE (PERFECT) SLEEVE OF THE 'BLUE THUNDER' 12”. AS FOR THE SONG, THANK YOU DEAN + DAMON + NAOMI FOR IT, AND FOR EVERYTHING. XO, MF"

Versus [New York]: "Fontaine and I [Richard] opened for Galaxie 500 in the summer of 1990, at Woody's in the East Village. (I don't remember it being a particularly hot day, and the internet concurs... 86 degrees. Anyhoo...) We had just met and started playing together, and though we weren't called Versus yet, we were playing songs that Versus eventually recorded. Galaxie of course stood out in contrast to the NY scuzz-rock era, but really prefigured the coming of 'indie-rock.' A timeless band."

Real Estate [New York, Wisconsin, California]: “In the early days of Real Estate, people often assumed that Galaxie 500 were a big influence on us. In hindsight, I can definitely hear it, but at the time, I for one had never listened to them. Anyway I’m glad for the comparisons because it led me to actually check them out, and they became a favorite band of mine. So now I can say unequivocally that Galaxie 500 are indeed a big influence on us. Not that it matters! Wonderful band. Have a nice day.”

Calvin Johnson [Olympia]: “Gossamer wings. If Lizabeth Scott had gossamer wings and lived in the NECCO wafer factory she'd have a combo that sounds like Galaxie 500. We went to the YWCA and heard their pattern being rent; that convinced us. Three albums later they dissolved but what can you do? Chase ghosts through the fields. Poppies are most fragrant when disturbed. Galaxie 500 always suggested an undercurrent of disturbed.”

Papercuts [San Francisco]: "What I love about Galaxie 500 is Dean's balance of dry wit and direct sincerity, combined with great melodies and the band's elegant and never cliche presentation. That's pretty much the holy grail isn't it? This was recorded quarantine style on August 18th in my home studio, just as the bay area skies were eerily being covered in smoke from the fires."

Stephin Merritt [Brooklyn]: "I never saw the 500 but I know each of them through Dean singing on the 6ths, Naomi directing a Future Bible Heroes video, working for Damon & Naomi's magazine making scanner borders (it's complicated), touring together, and just being denizens of the Harvard Film Archive. At the first Magnetic Fields show, at TT the Bear's, we were accidentally billed as Magnetophone, a brief alias of Damon & Naomi. In short, I often feel that I'm practically a member, the one they all forgot about at a rest stop near Celebration, Florida and never went back for.”

Rebecca Odes & Alan Licht [New York]: "As a contemporary trio with some VU vibes, Love Child definitely felt a vague kinship with Galaxie (like a brattier, lower-achieving sibling, or a distant cousin with tripolar disorder). We had Boston affiliations and knew Dean’s younger brother from Vassar so there was a personal connect. But the songs always hovered outside of time/space/association in a zone of pure mood.”

Mark Lanegan & Dylan Carlson [Los Angeles]: "Dylan Carlson and I giving the garage treatment to one of my favorite songs by Galaxie 500, one of the all-time great bands."

Cotton Candy (Mark and Evelyn) [Boston]: “‘This revolutionary trio inspired a generation and us too. ‘Parking Lot’ is one of Galaxie 500’s shortest and fastest songs and one of our favorites. All of the action in the song happens in a subway train and a parking lot. We performed this in the band's hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts in the rooftop parking lot of the Alewife subway station.”

Hamilton [Isle of Skye]: “Hello, I’m Hamilton from the UK band British Sea Power. I’ve done this little tribute to the wonderful Galaxie 500 cover of The Rutles’ ‘Cheese And Onions’ – so a cover of a cover of a fond Beatles parody. But, to be honest, I’ve only recently heard the Rutles original, while the Galaxie 500 version has rattled around my head for 20 years or more. I recorded this video in our home studio where I live, on the Isle of Skye off the Scottish coast.”

Winter [Los Angeles]: "I remember first listening to Galaxie 500 in my college dorm room in Boston. It transformed my musical imagination and was a major influence that led me to start Winter. Covering Galaxie 500’s cover of ‘Ceremony’ by New Order felt like connecting to a timeless loop of creativity. It fueled me to create this video and record my own version of this classic song. What an honor, thank you Galaxie 500."

The Natvral [Princeton, NJ]: "Between being safe and making sure my kids are doing well, I feel pretty grateful to be able to be home. My daughter wrote a song called ‘Little Princess Jumping in a Puddle’ (it sounds a lot like The Kinks ‘Apeman’) and my son (20 months) likes to strum the guitar strings while I do the chords, so even if it doesn’t work out for me, soon there’ll be a new generation to carry on the family tradition."

Surfer Blood [West Palm Beach]: “Our original guitarist Thomas Fekete introduced me to Galaxie 500 when I was twenty-two years old. This song has been in rotation in the Surfer Blood van for the better half of a decade. It's an honor to have a chance to cover it, we did our best to capture the pure chaos of the original recording. Dedicated to the spirit of Thomas.”

Circuit des Yeux [Chicago]: "Thank you, Galaxie 500, for choosing to make music. The year Today was born was also the year I was born. What a sweet coincidence. Your soundtrack undoubtedly made Earth a softer place to land."

Glenn Mercer [New Jersey]: "I shot this in my home basement studio. It's a song by the Velvet Underground that Galaxie 500 covered. It's also one of the few songs by the VU that the Feelies never performed.”

Xiu Xiu [Los Angeles]: "We mention Galaxie 500’s On Fire by name in a song called ‘Dr. Troll’ on our first album. The closing lines of that song being ‘Listen to On Fire and pretend someone could love you.’ On Fire ends with ‘Isn't it a Pity’ and their masterful and impassioned take on it has never failed to shred my heart to ribbons, even more now than then.”

Rachel Haden [Los Angeles]: “I used to listen to them everyday in high school!”