Dean Wareham -
“Luna Demos 1991”
By
Jesse E. Mullen
Before I begin this
review, here is some context; In Mid-1991, shortly after informing Damon and
Naomi that Galaxie 500 was finished, Dean Wareham recorded demos funded by
Elektra Records, in hopes of scoring a recording contract with them. He used
the moniker “Luna,” and stuck with it, when he assembled a band with bassist
Justin Harwood and drummer Stan Demeski to create the record “Lunapark” which
was released in 1992, and featured all of the songs here with fuller
arrangements.
In June of 2015, after Luna’s final
incarnation reunited, Dean Wareham decided to dig through the archives, and
treat the fans to a collection of songs only heard in brief spurts on B-sides
and Eps; The original Luna demo tape. This was done to benefit Terry
Tolkin, the A&R man at Elektra who first heard Luna, and gave them the greenlight.
Some of these demos might be even better than the finished
tracks. It's easy to see why Elektra said "Yes." (For what it's
worth, Dean's multiple layers of guitars at the end of "Anesthesia"
had me blown away especially. And the “Clean”-esque jangle of "I Can't
Wait" sounds even better with an actual member of the legendary group
joining him. "Slash Your Tires" is brilliant and cutting in any form
you can find.) Buy it now.
Luna/2015
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