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Blog posts
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Dec 17, 10:26 AMDean's Photo Blog - Thursday December 17, 2009
I thought I would share some photographs from our recent tour. Here are a couple from Barajas-Madrid’s recently-completed Terminal 4.
And here’s a poster that was hanging outside St. Giles-in-the-Field church in London’s West End, and the view from our Travelodge hotel window – of a new complex designed by Renzo Piano.
After London’s show we traveled by plane and van to Chalons-en-Champagne, a real picturesque French town in the heart of Champagne. This was the view from our hotel window in the center of town. After the show, the promoters generously poured fine bubbly for us.
On to Gijon, all the way north on the Atlantic coast of Spain, where they drink a different kind of bubbly – Sidra (a dry apple cider), poured in small shots from on high, the bartenders holding the bottle above their heads with one hand. It is imperative to drink the cider quickly, while it is cold and fizzy. We were lucky enough to have two days off here, and we ate well – baby squid, octopus, lamb chops, and a local stew called Fabada, made with white beans and pork shoulder and sausage. And we walked, down to the beach, past the Roman baths, up the hill to look out at the sea.Our 13 Most Beautiful show took place at the Teatro Laboral, a beautiful new theater housed inside the Universidad Laboral, a truly enormous arts and educational building, that looks like it has been there for centuries, but was built during the 1950s, initially as an orphanage for the children of the city’s miners. Franco probably needed lots of orphanages, you can still see fascist symbols like the “shield of the eagle” and the yoke and arrows adorning the buildings.
We left Gijon at 6 a.m. the next morning, and saw a beautiful sunrise over Asturias. It was the day before thanksgiving, and we had a five-hour layover at Charles De Gaulle’s Terminal 2E (the shiny new one that collapsed in 2004). It sure is pretty though, and we explored every shop and restaurant from one end of the terminal to the other.
You see some odd juxtapositions at the Relay newsagent. When we came here in June I saw Michael Jackson with Friedrich Nietzsche. This time it was Albert Camus sitting next to French rock star Johnny Hallyday. Hallyday is currently in a medically-induced coma in a hospital in Los Angeles, this after a failed operation (in France) for a herniated disk. Apparently a couple of his fans were so angry about the initial operation that they donned black masks and attacked the doctor who performed it outside his home in Paris.
Home at last – baggage claim at JFK International Airport.
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Dec 09, 06:42 PMGalaxie 500 t-shirt link CORRECTION
The link to the Galaxie 500 T-shirts on our online store has been updated and now actually works. You just might have to refresh the page on your browser to load the new links.
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Dec 07, 09:30 AMDean & Britta UPDATE December 7, 2009
Three quick notes:
1. We are giving away a free download of "He's Coming Home" and "Old Toy Trains" We are giving away a free download of "He's Coming Home" and "Old Toy Trains" -- last year's Christmas 7" single. "He's Coming Home" was written as "She's Coming Home" by the Wailers (from the Pacific Northwest, not Jamaica). "Old Toy Trains" was written by Roger Miller (King of the Road, not Mission of Burma) and our version is a collaboration with Sonic Boom. Just click on the link below and enter the code!
2. We now have Galaxie 500 T-shirts available at our store -- original 1988 design by Naomi Yang, black American Apparel 100% cotton shirts. And of course the usual assortment of CDs, T-shirts, 13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests (DVD) and signed copies of Black Postcards.
3. Our band is performing an early New Year's Eve show at Southpaw in Brooklyn -- doors are at 7:30 and the show will be over by 10pm.Great new press for the new My Robot Friend album, Soft-Core!
You can order "Soft-Core" by My Robot Friend directly from us at:
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Nov 30, 06:49 AMAmerican Laundromat Charity CD "Sing Me To Sleep"
We've recorded a song called "Making Me Smile" written by the artist Jack Early. Jack also wrote the lyrics & melody for one of the Warhol Screen Tests. You can pre-order the CD here:
http://www.alr-music.com/index.php?content=shop&no=alr-0021
Sing Me To Sleep | Spring 2010
Peter Broderick • The Coctails • Violet Clarke (Grand Duchy) • Dala • Dean & Britta • Tanya Donelly • Laura Gibson • Neil Halstead • Greg Laswell • The Leisure Society • Casey Mecija (Ohbijou) • Memory Tapes • O+S • Papercuts • Julie Peel •The Real Tuesday Weld • The Rest • Say Hi • Sigur Ros • Snowbird • Stars • Telekinesis • Trespassers William • Jenny Owen Youngs
Benefitting The Valerie Fund http://thevaleriefund.orgAMERICAN LAUNDROMAT RECORDS
P.O. Box 85 Mystic CT 06355 USA | FX 860.245.3669
http://alr-music.com
http://twitter.com/indieforkids
http://twitter.com/laundromat13 -
Nov 17, 01:15 PMDean's Blog - Tuesday November 17, 2009November 17, 2009
We have arrived in a windy London, after shows at the Tanned Tin Festival -- in Barcelona on Friday night (at the Apolo, where Luna played our last show in Barcelona), and at the Neu Club in Madrid on Saturday night. We shared the bill with Cheval Sombre, who sounded great with both Sonic Boom and Britta sitting in on keyboards. We discovered an interesting Norwegian band on the bill Saturday night too – Rocket to the Sky.
Upon arrival here we went out for a meal which I shall not describe, and then went over to the Borderline and caught some of the set by L.A.’s Darker My Love. In the audience was one Mark E. Smith – an incongruous and surprising sighting, but apparently some members of Darker My Love have also played with the Fall.
We are at the Travelodge on Drury Lane, which I thought would be a step up from the Columbia Hotel, but it is not. Still, our room has a nice view of a new complex by Renzo Piano, and we are only steps from tomorrow night’s venue – the lovely St Giles Church. Anthony and Britta and I popped our heads in there today, on our way to Foyles bookshop, and saw a choral group rehearsing. This is going to be an intimate show, and you will be sitting in wooden pews if you show up Wednesday night. Cheval Sombre (with Sonic Boom) goes on at 8:15, we will start at 9:30.
- Dean -
Nov 10, 07:45 PMDean's Blog - Tuesday November 10, 2009
November 10, 2009
Tuesday morning here in New York, we are rehearsing today for a couple of weeks’ shows in Europe, Britta and I and Matt and our pal Anthony Lamarca, who is back with us for a bit after a couple of tours drumming for St. Vincent. Last night I deejayed at a fundraiser for Words Without Borders, an organization that promotes translation of foreign literature. Apparently only 3% of literature published in the U.S. has been translated from another language. The fundraiser took place at the Bohemian National Hall on the Upper East Side, and my DJ set started right after Paul Auster finished reading a poem to the audience. I should have started with “Moon Palace” but instead I led with Jarvis Cocker’s “Running the World.”
Friday night we’ll be in Barcelona, Saturday night in Madrid, both shows part of the Tanned Tin Festival– a small festival featuring just a handful of bands, including our friends Cheval Sombre and Spectrum. Then it’s on to London for a show at theSonic Cathedral (also with Cheval Sombre) November 18, our first London gig in quite some time. We’ll play a mix of Galaxie 500, Luna and Dean & Britta songs. Then back to the Continent for shows in two towns we’ve never been to – Chalons(France) and Gijon (Spain). We have a few days off in Gijon; I’m not sure what we’ll do those days but apparently the International Bagpipe Museum is located there.
We had a great time in Melbourne in October, playing the Warhol show three nights in a row at the Malthouse Theatre, and a memorable in-store at Pure Pop Records in St. Kilda, where they sell records and CDs and have a little bar out back where bands play live. The in-store gig was organized by the Sand Pebbles (formerly penpals, but now real flesh-and-blood friends). I apologize to those of you who stood in a long queue (line) outside the shop but couldn’t get in, on account of the Irish folk band who were on before us running a bit late, and their fans preferring to stay and drink and hear the Sand Pebbles play great versions of “23 Minutes in Brussels” and their own “Speed and Intensity” and “The Day Summer Fell.” The whole afternoon was subsquently immortalized by underground comic Fred Negro.
Thanks again to Chris Hollow and Ben Michael X and Andrew Tanner and the rest of the group for showing us around Melbourne, showing us where to buy jeans and where to drink beer.
One other note - we are playing an early New Year's Eve show at Southpaw in Brooklyn -- onstage at 8:30, done by 10:00 p.m., giving you time to reach another destination by midnight. . .- Dean -
Oct 19, 03:37 PMNice review of one of our Melbourne shows last week -
Oct 06, 02:08 PMWarhol Show at UC Santa Barbara this Saturday Oct. 10th @ 8p.m!
Dean & Britta at UCSB campus (Campbell Hall)
Saturday, Oct 10 @ 8:00 PM
Dean & Britta perform with their band beneath projections of Andy Warhol's Silver Factory Superstars
UCSB campus (Campbell Hall)
552 University Road,
Santa barbara, CA -
Sep 29, 12:48 PMDouble Feature Records release party this Friday, Oct. 2nd @ 92ytribeca in NYC
Join us for our record release party for Soft-Core, the new CD from
"My Robot Friend." Featuring a rare live performance by My Robot Friend, Cheval Sombre, DJ Dean Wareham & "special guests". MRF's live show is a stunning, multi-media event and should not be missed! Show starts @ 9pm.92yTribeca INFO & TIX
200 Hudson Street
New York, NY
Price: $10 advance, $12 at -
Aug 19, 06:28 PMWalk/rally with Britta for Health Care Reform in NYC on Sat. Aug. 29th
I just signed up to be a "walk captain"! Meet me at noon on 8-29-09
Sign up to walk with us: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpfcrc
Sign up for the rally here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpfc3r
We also need LOTS of volunteers at the rally to hand out information, direct the crowds, etc. If you can help out at Times Square on the 29th, please email Allie Feldman: allie.feldman@gmail.com
