Damon & Naomi

Following the 1991 breakup of the seminal trio Galaxie 500, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang planned to retire from music; stung by the group's bitter disintegration and left without a label due to the bankruptcy of Rough Trade, after issuing a lone 1991 EP under the name Pierre Etoile, the couple opted to concentrate on running Exact Change, the small surrealist publishing house they founded the year prior. Occasionally, however, they dragged their instruments out of mothballs and wrote songs; soon, producer Kramer, who earlier helmed all three of the Galaxie 500 records, contacted the duo about cutting their new material for his label, Shimmy Disc. After repeatedly turning down the offer, Krukowski and Yang finally agreed, and travelled to Kramer's Noise New Jersey studios to begin recording. Dropping the Pierre Etoile name to work as Damon & Naomi, they issued the LP More Sad Hits in 1991; featuring Krukowski on vocals, guitar and percussion and Yang on vocals and bass, the record continued the ghostly ambience which defined the best work of their previous band while creating a more emotionally expansive backdrop. Following its release the couple again retired, but later turned up as the rhythm section of the Magic Hour. Borrowing the record's title from an old Sonny and Cher album, Krukowski and Yang resurfaced as a duo in 1995 with The Wondrous World of Damon and Naomi; following the breakup of the Magic Hour, they returned in 1997 with the single "The Navigator." Playback Singers followed a year later. The duo collaborated with the Japanese psych-folk band Ghost for their 2000 album, appropriately dubbed Damon & Naomi with Ghost. Two years later, the CD/DVD Song to the Siren: Live in San Sebastian was released. It was followed in 2005 by The Earth is Blue, the follow-up to Damon & Naomi with Ghost. Damon & Naomi returned to the studio once again the following year; the result was Within These Walls, which was released in 2007.