Dean Wareham

Most of Wareham's memoir reads like it was lazily copied over from tour journals. "This time, King Tut's had that Sunday night feeling. Sunday night is not a good night to rock. Afterward I went out for a Scotch with Stephen and Katrina of the Pastels. Stephen Pastel was trained as a librarian, and worked as a buyer in a bookshop, John Smith's, that was also the coolest record store in Glasgow.

"Tuesday night was Leicester..." No more details on how Sunday night was disappointing, or what Stephen and Katrina are like: just on to the next day. Wareham writes in short sentences with what psychologists call a flat affect, as if he's distant and disinterested in his topic. The book only sizzles a bit when he's explaining the circumstances under which he left Galaxie 500, and especially when he talks about his divorce. Wareham mentions more than once in the book that he tends to be a withholder: band members and significant others complain that he doesn't tell them what's on his mind. I'm afraid he hasn't really let us in here, either. Nearly every paragraph leads us to some obvious question, even if it's only "and what did you feel about that?" Instead, we're held at arm's length.… (mehr)

This book gives a great deal of insight into the mind of Dean Wareham, lead singer of Galaxie 500, Luna, co lead in Dean and Britta. It reads much more like an autobiography of a person in bands than anything else. Like true autobiographies, it begins in childhood back in New Zealand. Dean talks about his family, most notably his brother who gets into all sorts of trouble throughout his life, and all of the music he listens to. That was one of the fun things about the book-we get to see how his music tastes evolved just as later on we see how some of the lyrics came about.

Dean does give his side on the breakup of Galaxie 500, in case you're wondering. He also talks about his wife and son and his affair with Britta Phillips. He deconstructs the idea of the classic rock star life and yet most of the elements are there-he's visiting glamorous places, doing drugs, having one night stands and the finally hooking up with Britta. Really, the only thing missing is that he doesn't have much money and Luna isn't selling out clubs regularly until their last farewell tour. Other themes include major label vs. minor labels, big bands more as corporations, and the recording experience.


I think one of the most difficult things about the book is that I just wanted Dean to be a better person..probably as much as he wants to be. I didn't want him to do tons of drugs and to cheat on his wife. It's probably true that he wasn't doing drugs all of the time, just when it became available in certain cities, but it still bothered me. Dean is an incredibly intelligent person, and that's apparent, but he's a very conflicted person morally.


The novel ends with the farewell tour of Luna and it's an incredibly honest ending besides. There's a good sense of closure with the ending band wise because of it. Still lingering is his personal conflicts within himself, though. Obviously, he's with Britta now and still makes music but I wonder about his relationship with his first wife and his son and I hope that has been resolved. I think there are so many good qualities to Dean, intelligence, talent, sense of humor and I wouldn't have known much about this just from watching him on stage. Though I did appreciate Luna as a live band (I saw them once at the Metro and once at The Abbey, then Dean and Britta at Schubas and then Lakeshore Theater), it's much more revealing to hear about his personal story. It takes alot of guts and honesty to come out with this, anyhow.… (mehr)