Galaxie 500 - Today

half of Galaxie's charm owns itself to Kramer's unique production sound.

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 13:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

I should be more adventurous I guess by their cover of 'Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste' is one of the best cover versions ever in my opinion.

Aside of that I have a soft spot of 'It's Getting Late'.

. . . and yeah, Kramer's production makes the Galaxie 500 LP's something special. By contrast Luna sound to shiny to my ears.

― AnotherDeadHero, Friday, 18 May 2012 13:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

"By contrast Luna sound to shiny to my ears"

exactly

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 13:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

about Go To Waste: when the original version is only vocals, it's not suck a hard task to make a better cover, though regardless: they did a great job of course

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 13:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

great choice for a cover

this is tugboat tho, let's b real.

― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 18 May 2012 13:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

otm

― wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 18 May 2012 13:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

Flowers vs Waste vs Tugboat

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 14:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

King of Spain

― koogs, Friday, 18 May 2012 14:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

no bonus tracks,outsmart

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 14:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

great album. what impresses me is how the naivete of the lyrics/music never sounds faux or cutesy -- and the band is made up of Harvard grads! Maybe Kramer's production has something to do with it, not sure. Could probably vote for at least half of these songs.

― tylerw, Friday, 18 May 2012 15:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

tangentially related - damon krukowski has a new blog here: http://internationalsadhits.tumblr.com/
basically picking up where that int'l sad hits comp they did a few years back left off. fun stuff! ok, mabe "fun" isn't the word.

― tylerw, Friday, 18 May 2012 15:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

Temperature's Rising folks

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

instrumental, or pictures

kramer's production is overrated

― mexican sumner (electricsound), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

Is this album really 24 years old? So much moping about in the first year at university to this thing.

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:28 (1 year ago) Permalink

Bought, I should say, cos Thurston Moore was raving about it somewhere or other.

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

This on one side of a tape, New Wave Hot Dogs on the other.

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

good tape! very 1988.

― tylerw, Friday, 18 May 2012 15:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

It was a very good year!

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Temperature's Rising has always been the standout to me

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 18 May 2012 15:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

Flowers

― Duke, Friday, 18 May 2012 15:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

"kramer's production is overrated"

not true, especially after watching the live footage, which is much less effective:

― nostormo, Friday, 18 May 2012 16:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

haaa, love those clips of them on the basketball court. i think kramer's production is great, perfect for the band -- if you hear other indie-type albums from 1988, a lot of 'em have dated quite a bit. don't feel that way about G-500.

― tylerw, Friday, 18 May 2012 16:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

I've read interviews with Dean where he talks about them being "barely able to play" when they recorded Today; the two guitar solos on "Flowers" are amongst a very few which I get an emotional charge off whenever I hear them, so I hope that one day I am able to make such a rudimentary sound!

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Friday, 18 May 2012 17:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

Are those Conan O'Brien's drums?

― dlp9001, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

I've seen that video before, but never noticed the extent to which Naomi had mastered "sexy bass player pose" at such an early date. Maybe that's what lead to Dean's ultimate direction...

― dlp9001, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

this is soooo "tugboat". as much as i love the album back to front...

― charlie h, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink

alllmost voted "it's getting late" because it probably won't get any other votes, but ended up going w/ "don't let our youth go to waste."

― tylerw, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 02:27 (11 months ago) Permalink

"Tugboat."

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 03:02 (11 months ago) Permalink

btw these videos are pretty fun. YOU ARE THERE AT GLASTONBURY WATCHING GALAXIE 500. lotsa shoegaze haircuts.
www.fullofwishes.co.uk/2012/05/18/video-galaxie-500-at-glastonbury

― tylerw, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 17:23 (11 months ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Thursday, 24 May 2012 00:01 (11 months ago) Permalink

I voted "Tugboat" but it could have been any of them.

The thing about "Tugboat" is that you're lulled into this slow shimmer and then 3/4 through you notice you're in the middle of a hurricane.

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, 24 May 2012 01:08 (11 months ago) Permalink

I feel completely at peace with the results of this poll.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Thursday, 24 May 2012 04:28 (11 months ago) Permalink

flowers and waste are probably my two least favourite galaxie songs. tugboat is just overplayed but i can remember a time it still felt powerful

― ban halen (electricsound), Thursday, 24 May 2012 04:33 (11 months ago) Permalink

I missed this poll, but would have voted for "Temperature's Rising". "Pictures" and "Parking Lot" are so great, nobody voted for those but "Instrumental" got a vote?

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 24 May 2012 20:37 (11 months ago) Permalink

i voted for instrumental but probably should have gone for pictures

― garrett still a cunt (electricsound), Friday, 25 May 2012 00:26 (11 months ago) Permalink

was instrumental in a car commercial some years back or did i dream that?

― tylerw, Friday, 25 May 2012 01:04 (11 months ago) Permalink

― garrett still a cunt (electricsound), Friday, 25 May 2012 01:08 (11 months ago) Permalink

haha, there you go. the internet.

― tylerw, Friday, 25 May 2012 01:25 (11 months ago) Permalink

"Pictures" and "Parking Lot" are so great, nobody voted for those but "Instrumental" got a vote?"

otm

― nostormo, Friday, 25 May 2012 15:14 (11 months ago) Permalink

"Instrumental" is amazing too, truly channeling the reverbed rhythm guitar workouts on <i>Velvet Underground Live 1969</i> - probably the single most important direct influence on <i>Today</i>'s amazing sound.

― Spencer Chow, Friday, 25 May 2012 17:43 (11 months ago) Permalink

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/

Galaxie 500's "Tugboat", for example, was played 7,800 times on Pandora that quarter, for which its three songwriters were paid a collective total of 21 cents, or seven cents each. Spotify pays better: For the 5,960 times "Tugboat" was played there, Galaxie 500's songwriters went collectively into triple digits: $1.05 (35 cents each).

To put this into perspective: Since we own our own recordings, by my calculation it would take songwriting royalties for roughly 312,000 plays on Pandora to earn us the profit of one-- one-- LP sale. (On Spotify, one LP is equivalent to 47,680 plays.)

― jed_, Thursday, 15 November 2012 01:26 (6 months ago) Permalink

"king of spain" - best bonus track ever

― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 15 November 2012 03:19 (6 months ago) Permalink

x-post-- interesting

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 15 November 2012 04:49 (6 months ago) Permalink

I missed this poll, but for me it would have been a toss-up b/w Flowers & Temperature's Rising - tho I too would def had voted for King of Spain, had it been included.

― mod is my co-pilot (Pillbox), Thursday, 15 November 2012 04:54 (6 months ago) Permalink

Excellent article from Damon, there - thanks for the link. I use Spotify all the time, but tend to buy the CD/LP/whatever if I want the self-righteous glow that goes with actually supporting a musician. Hardly Borgias level arts patronage, but still better than 7 cents I hope.

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Thursday, 15 November 2012 11:27 (6 months ago) Permalink

http://open.spotify.com/track/6ElLZf5e78E1YDlss0dz1O

― Mike Dixn, Friday, 16 November 2012 12:23 (6 months ago) Permalink