This Time Around, Part II

The tuition for Dean Wareham's son must be coming due soon because Wareham's two most recent projects are racked with the sort of nostalgia that pays the bills. The first, a collection of songs for Warhol's series of "Screen Tests" films, isn't objectionable. Wareham and his wife, Britta Phillips, who was Luna's bassist during the second half of the band's life, have been performing live accompaniments to Warhol's movies for several years now, and ever since Wareham moved to New York to start Luna around 1992, he and the band were viewed as the stylistic descendants of the Velvet Underground -- cool, pulsing, New York.

But for the second, Wareham has decided to head on tour playing songs from Galaxie 500, his beloved first band. This seems to make sense, considering the band's oevure was recently reissued .... on the label owned by Wareham's two former bandmates, who only speak to him out of professional need and haven't seem in his years because Galaxie 500's breakup was so bitter. Rather than allow for a proper reunion, which the band has long said won't happen, Wareham now just seems to be cashing in. They're great songs, but not only his and not the same when played by only him and a backing band.

Also worth noting is the tour schedule: While New York, Philly, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta get the requisite stops, Boston, Galaxie 500's hometown, is noticeably absent. Perhaps Wareham's heart would've ached too strongly if he returned to his post-collegiate home to play the triumphant songs of his 20s without his bandmates behind him. Perhaps those bandmates, Damon and Naomi, who still live in town, would've shown up in the crowd just to spite him, glare at him, or egg the crowd into chants of a reunion only to walk out the back door. Perhaps they actually would've played the encore together.

You can go searching for past glories, but fully confronting the past is tough.

Anyway, to the good times, above is Galaxie 500 playing "Tugboat," their great single, in April 1989 at a school in Boston. Thank you, YouTube.