A lot has changed since Dean Wareham's first band, the haunted, now-defunct Galaxie 500, played Boston's haunted, now-defunct Rathskeller ten years ago. Back in those wintery days of 1988, the band performed for three nights and made $30. Afterwards, an L.A. "talent scout" named Lloyd asked the singer-guitarist how the band felt about adding a vocalist and waxed rhapsodic about Bon Jovi. "And on top of that," remembers Wareham, "we had to pay for our own parking."

Before Wareham's somewhat acrimonious split with his Galaxie 500 bandmates Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang at the dawn of the '90s, the trio recorded three albums that Rykodisc recently reissued separately and as a box set. These days, Damon & Naomi continue to record as a duo, and for the past six years, Wareham has fronted Luna, who are getting ready to return to the road in support of their fourth album, Pup Tent (Elektra). Their latest album represents a departure of sorts for the band. The record is awash in guitar textures and treated vocals, fuzzed-out bass, and sonic tics that lend the band's usually languorous sound a touch of claustrophobic tension.

There's always been an element of voyeurism to your songs, but there's a sense of paranoia that comes through on this album especially. What is it about that perspective that attracts you?

There is a slightly paranoid theme to this album, I suppose. I don't know, maybe it's just a defense mechanism of mine, that I'm hiding beneath all of this stuff. I know I worked really hard on these lyrics and that it was a strange and long process. Some of it's autobiographical, but most of it's not. Some of it I got from watching Columbo. That's a deeply satisfying show.

What themes interest you the most as a lyricist?

Voyeurism. My life's not exciting enough to fill out all of these albums and I have to fill them out somehow.

Is there anybody out there whom you take cues from or whom you especially respect as writers?

Yeah, I think Steve Malkmus [from Pavement] and Beck are great. They're my favorite writers right now, because of their intelligence. When you listen to them, you don't feel as if you've heard those lyrics before.

Although there are perhaps a few bands that mine similar musical territory, I don't think there's anybody who really sounds like Luna. Can you point to any particular aspect of the band that sets it apart, or gives it its distinct personality?

I agree with you, I don't think anybody sounds like us, and I think that has to do with our fascination with different guitar sounds. I think we're more interested in texture than a lot of American guitar bands. It's something we work very hard on.

How do you hate to hear yourself or the band described? What's the biggest misconception people have about Dean Wareham?

Well, obviously, we get this stuff that we sound like the Velvet Underground and I get pretty sick of that. But I guess that's more apt than comparing us to Black Sabbath. The other weird thing is that people think I'm really wealthy.

How do you feel about your old band, Galaxie 500, and those albums?

I like the records. I like the first two (Today, On Fire) better than the last one (This Is Our Music). I think they've stood the test of time because they don't sound like anything else that was being done back in 1988 or 1989.

Are you in contact with Damon and Naomi at all? Did you get together with them to talk about the box set?

We just sent faxes to each other. We still don't speak. They're still mad at me for leaving. But it's not like a marriage, y'know? We put out three albums and that's more than some people.

There's always been a lot of cinematic imagery in your songs, which are also very character-driven, so I've got to wonder: Who would play you in a movie about the Life and Times of Dean Wareham?

Warren Oates, maybe.

JONATHAN PERRY
(February 12, 1998)