Peel Sessions

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Total Tracks: 8   Total Length: 34:56

eMusic Review

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Keith Cameron

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Think this indie trio was a product of brilliant producers and studio magic? Think again.
Label: 20/20/20 / Revolver

Suspicions that Galaxie 500's groovily somnolent romanticism was purely a product of the recording studio were spectacularly disproved on encountering the band live, where the brooding interplay between Dean Wareham's guitar strafes and the limber rhythm section of Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang was simply intensified. Thanks to the Peel Sessions 'live-with-optional-overdubs format, these eight tracks present a fascinating congruence between the two disciplines. The earlier session (October 1989) features three off-beam covers, demonstrating G500's facility for metamorphosing conceivably anything into one of their own. You don't need to know the original to tremble at Dean Wareham's arch reading of the Sex Pistols'"Submission." From November 1990, the version of "Flowers" arguably bests that on debut album Today, while Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste" is transformed from gnomic sliver to epic soundtrack. Anyone curious to fathom the devotion still harboured towards this unique group need only listen and understand.

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shoulda bought it sooner

DGLS2

Some of the stuff on here beats the Uncollected tracks by far. I love the sense of immediacy throughout. Round out your collection!

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Great Album

pluralz

Good to see Galaxy 500 on emusic...love the Sex Pistols cover!

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Great Album

julier99

Another great album from a great band!

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ACCCKKK!

Legree

What happened to the rest of the catalogue!!!

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Additional treats for fans

markr

Another pleasant surprise to get "new" songs from one of my favorite bands. It pays to be choosy here though, since the versions of songs found on their studio albums ... sound very much like the songs on those albums, including the Richman cover. Not worth getting those if you already own them. Get all the other covers though (helpfully identified here.) Dean actually covered "Moonshot" recently with Britta, on "Sonic Sourenirs". It's interesting to contrast his early Muppet-like falsetto with his current style. I prefer the Muppet singing, along with his distinctive, hypnotic guitar style, which had much less presence in his later Luna work.

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The amazing thing about Galaxie 500, as evidenced by the many covers featured on their excellent Uncollected disc and the box set, is their ability to take a song, cover it, and make it into something uniquely their own, sounding as if the song emanated from the minds of the group themselves. Capturing their October, 1989 and November, 1990 Peel Sessions for BBC Radio, this disc includes songs from Jonathan Richman, the Sex Pistols, Young Marble Giants, and Buffy Sainte-Marie, all falling under Galaxie 500′s spell, with the remainder of the disc being rounded out by various EP and album cuts. The band is in top form, sounding every bit as fresh and relevant in 2005 as they did 15-years prior. There’s a good chance die-hard fans will already own bootlegged copies of this with substantially worse sonic quality; the high pedigree of sonic quality here is enough to warrant purchasing this disc, even for the most stalwart of fans. – Rob Theakston

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