Luna: The First Four
How Dean Wareham destroyed one of the best indie bands in America to make something even greater.
Dean Wareham’s band, Galaxie 500 was ascendant in the spring of 1991. Critical acclaim had poured in for Galaxie’s newest LP, This Is Our Music, and lengthy international tours with larger acts like Cocteau Twins had massive boosted their profile. Even still, Wareham was blowing up the band.
Citing the age old excuse of “creative differences”, Wareham began work on whatever his next project might become. In his mind, the last Galaxie500 albums have been difficult to make and the band were no longer getting on,
“We broke up as a result of internal contradictions. Columbia Records was interested in signing us, but the making of the previous album had been very difficult--and clearly we weren't getting along--so why should we continue to
sit in a room and make music together?"
Within relatively short order, Wareham had formed Luna, a trio rounded out by Stanley Demeski, former Feelie’s drummer, and the Chill’s ex-bassist, Justin Harwood. While additional players were used for the band’s debut, this lineup would comprise the first iteration of the band.
Lunapark, the debut Luna LP arrived on August 18th, 1992. In addition to the full-time lineup, the record featured contributions from members of Mercury Rev as well as producers Fred Maher and Kramer, adding keys and guitar.
The resulting album feels like a well recorded set of demos. Wareham is still parsing out the Luna sound on this first effort. The lineup has yet to solidify and gel. There are moments of cohesion, but they fail to last through a side.
Charming numbers like ‘Time’ play quiet counterpoint to the rumble of late-era Galaxie 500. On Lunapark, Wareham’s compositions still carry the DNA of the Velvet Underground and Modern Lovers that was present in Galaxie 500, but are now weighted further with a restraint and maturity that had been lacking. Luna, for lack of a better word, was a bit more grown up.
As the band played shows in support of their debut, guitarist Sean Eden was recruited to the lineup. The new four piece incarnation allowed Wareham and Eden to trade guitar licks and solos in their performances. Very quickly, this new conversational guitar approach became integral to the sound that was Luna.
After the release of an EP, Slide in 1993, - the first with the full four piece lineup - Luna headed into RPM Studios in New York to begin work on their sophomore album. Wareham even invited famed Velvet Underground guitarist, Sterling Morrison to come in and record solos on a pair of songs.
Bewitched, the second Luna LP is an assured and tightly wound work. In many ways, it also feels like the first official Luna LP. While Lunapark was meandering and demo-esque, Bewitched is confident, and restrained.
‘California All The Way’ opens the festivities with a road movie on wax that sees the narrator living, “like a trucker does, although he hasn't got the belly.” Tracks like ‘This Time Around’, and ‘Tiger Lily’ meld the simplicity of Velvet’s song craft with a resplendent power pop charm. Imagine an intellectual Fountains of Wayne wearing a cardigan waiting patiently by the phone while you’re out chasing Stacy’s mom.
Glowing reviews, steady college radio rotation, and solid sales of Bewitched saw Luna as a band on the rise. The band were even tapped to open for a series of incredibly rare Velvet Underground reunion shows.
The twins guitars that chime and tumble from the grooves to open Penthouse are the sound of evolution. By the time Luna assembled to record their third album in the spring of 1995, their conversational guitar interplay had reached a new zenith.
Wareham’s newest set of compositions incorporated his fretwork with the interlocking guitars of his bandmate, Sean Eden. This call and response of guitars is on delightful display from the opening moments of ‘Chinatown’. The rhythm section of Demeski and Harwood ride tightly below the surface of guitar and vocal harmonies.
Penthouse is the crowning achievement of the Luna catalog, and one of the truly great records of the 1990’s. Rolling Stone declared it one of the hundred best albums of the decade. Even more, the album stands as a glorious bridge between The Velvet Underground, The Feelies, and more recent bands like Pavement.
Television founder Tom Verlaine was the special guest this time around as he added his signature string-work to a pair of tunes on the album, most notably the epic ‘23 Minutes In Brussels’.
The lyrical prowess of Dean Wareham is rarely center stage for the average Luna fan. However, his playful word association approach to lyric writing leads here to some effective results. Drunken afternoons on the road are laid bare on ‘Kalamazoo’, and then fold into the tightly wound paranoia of ‘Double Feature’
Penthouse was the mission statement that justified the destruction of Galaxie 500. This quartet was capable of handling a three minute pop gem performed with quiet acumen only to pivot and roar away into a tight 20 minute guitar freakout. Wareham was leading a band filled with confidence and ideas.
Pup Tent is filled with more oddly drawn characters like ‘Bobby Peru’ who Wareham pulled from a bit part in the film Wild At Heart played by Willem Dafoe. While the call and response guitar work is still in place, this fourth album is more urgent and louder than its crystalline predecessor.
While Penthouse was littered with restraint, Pup Tent is bubbling with restlessness. The gritty opening drone of ‘IHOP’ hints at a new, unsettled Luna. Subdued numbers like ‘Beautiful View’ that sounded relaxed and calm on Penthouse are now filled with anxiety and dread.
A distorted vocal delivery on the title track brings finds Wareham dancing around an impression of Tom Waits or Mark Oliver Everett. The result is an eerie sense of suspicion and unease. Things here are simply not right.
Working again with Pat McCarthy who had produced Penthouse, the band hits again in specific moments. While Pup Tent lacks the consistent brilliance of its predecessor it does hint at some of the timeless sonic quality that Penthouse achieved so perfectly.
After the first four albums, Luna encountered lineup changes, Wareham’s divorce and the addition of partner Britta Phillips to the band as replacement for Harwood after their 1999 album The Days Of Our Nights, which also saw them dropped from Elektra Records.
After a hiatus of several years, Luna are now back making new records and touring regularly. These first four albums are the bulk of what the band continues to play at live shows, reinforcing the quality therein.
In an age of of more, faster, bigger, it’s wonderful to have a simple guitar band that trades solos, sings songs of love and fear, and makes us feel as though rock and roll might still save us after all.
Cheers,
Matty C
Found the band with Romantica, which is outside of your purview here, but I absolutely love it. I agree with your assessment the Penthouse is their pinnacle. Great band.
Great stuff, Matt. Luna is very important to me and my wife. We first met in person (from Twitter) as friends at an Atlanta show in Oct. 2015. We were married less than a year later. We saw them again in Atlanta two years later. The last time we saw them was Oct 2019. We flew to NYC to see a Penthouse show at the Bowery Ballroom and Justin was a guest on bass for that show. Thanks for writing this up!