sound of the suburbs

Galaxie 500 are very much your typical cult band, criminally ignored during their life time despite being critically acclaimed their record sales were not to follow suit, indeed as was the case with for example the Velvet Underground their post split sales far exceeded those during their life span. They first came to my attention with their dreamy enigmatic single 'Blue Thunder', containing Wareham's aloof vocals and slow motion like guitar, the Peel session version here lacks a little of the majesty of the vinyl version, maybe because there is no saxophone, though it still remains a fine example of what they did best. Galaxy 500 were also one of those bands capable of doing justice to a cover version and as such their career (1986-1991) featured a good many, of their two Peel Sessions (September 1989 and October 1990) four of the eight songs were covers and it was for the BBC that they recorded their version of the Sex Pistols 'Submission', the eight tracks are available today on CD. The strain of touring lead to the demise of the group with Dean Wareham forming the recently defunct Luna and the other two thirds regrouping as Damon And Naomi after having given the name Pierre Etoile (a tongue in cheek translation of rock Star) a try.