Luna

The seeds of the band were sewn by the demise of Galaxie 500, a dream-pop band from Cambridge, Massachusetts who had a man called Dean Wareham as their guitarist. In 1991, he felt creatively exhausted with the band and left them after they’d finished a U.S tour supporting the Cocteau Twins, and off the back of Galaxie 500’s success, scored a demo deal with Elektra Records almost immediately after he left the group. Teaming up with Jimmy Chambers, drummer for Mercury Rev, he recorded a demo tape that lead to a proper record contract with Elektra and began to form a band around the songs he had. After putting a group together featuring members of The Chills and Ultra Vivid Scene, they recorded their debut album “Lunapark” and released it in August 1992.

Wareham was adamant that the band would be called Luna, but due to the existence of a new age singer under the same name, their debut album had to be released under the name Luna². However, by the time that “Slide”, their first E.P, was released the two acts had come to an agreement and Wareham’s band was officially Luna from then on. In the summer of 1993 the band managed to hit some of the biggest stages of their career supporting the reunited Velvet Underground on their world tour, and continued their association with some of the most respected names in the history of indie rock by having Television legend Tom Verlaine guest on their third album “Penthouse” in 1995. However, like their influences, Luna’s albums were critically adored but not selling, and the band were dropped from Elektra after their fifth album “The Days Of Our Nights”, wasn’t deemed “commercial” enough.

The band struggled on for a couple more albums but split up in 2005 after a sold out show at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. However, soon before the release of “The Days Of Our Nights”, the band had recruited a new guitarist in the form of Britta Phillips, with whom Wareham began a relationship with after she joined. After the band split, Wareham and Phillips continued performing together as Dean & Britta until 2014, when the band reunited in full for a reunion tour in Spain and the United States of America. One of the most respected cult bands of the 1990’s are back and playing the best shows of their entire career. For continuing to remain relevant after their reunion, effectively doing what so many bands before them have failed to do, they come highly recommended.