Liz Phair reviews Dean Wareham‘s memoir, Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance, for the New York Times. Apparently, the frontman of Galaxie 500 and Luna “portrays himself as a surprisingly unsympathetic character.” Frontman:
One of the things “Black Postcards” does so well is shatter the illusion that rock ‘n’ roll is all fun and games. Things pile up. The weight of the accumulated past begins to take its toll. Wareham fights to stay engaged in his creative efforts, sometimes at the expense of the stability of both his family and his band. Sick of rumors, sick of disgruntled fans, bad hotels, bad gigs, he may be writing down his remembrances partly to set the record straight. But his supreme interest is clearly and purely music. It is the scaffold on which he hangs most of the feelings and fragments included in the book.
Jeez, they let anybody write for the New York Times these days, don’t they?
MP3s:
• Dean & Britta – “Singer Sing” from Back Numbers.
• Dean & Britta – “Ginger Snaps (and Sugar Winks)” from Sonic Souvenirs.
Amazon: Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance by Dean Wareham.
I’ll definitely be checking this out. Loved G500 (well, On Fire, anyway), never quite got into Luna (meh), but he was around at a crucial time and the fact that his success is relatively modest makes it all the more interesting. It’s nice to hear he talks about music, because it seems almost a prerequisite for any rock memoir these days to A. all be written by the same ghost writer; and B. mention music as an afterthought between name-drops.