dean wareham's voice

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Is it ever any good? Is it better than Lou Reed's voice?

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

What's wrong with it? I think it's purty.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 01:56 (twenty-three years ago)

it all depends on whether your face is better than Lou Reed's ass.

Galaxie 500 own.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:08 (twenty-three years ago)

it should be awful, but somehow it's one of the prettiest things ever.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Jim has no bias on this point whatsoever, of course. ;-)

Strange as hell speaking accent, though. NZ meets Bahston.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's very pretty at times, but some times it weakens and kind of gets under my skin. Same with Lou Reed's later singing. It's often inconsistant.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes I think it's quite funny...like a snarky bunny.
Sure it can sound a bit coy....but its the rhymes that annoy.
or maybe it's the speed...a bit of drive's what I need.
though he often sounds...if I'm in the right mood.
Though I still hate that slow...Wareham falsetto.

LAAAAAAAAAAAAA LAAAA LAAA LAA LAA LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I'm thankful that Dean switched to boxers when he started Luna. Unless that was Naomi doing the la la's.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

ack, joke wrecked by a typo. He often sounds "good."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I think many people sound like ellipses.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:21 (twenty-three years ago)

good still doesn't rhyme with mood

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Dean would do it anyway, so I can too!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 02:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I've always thought he sings like a NZer (c.f. Martin Phillipps), and it's successful, in that Tom Waits couldn't get away with rhyming "Singapore noodles" with "oodles and oodles". Getting away with it is the point.

― B.Rad (Brad), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 03:02 (twenty-three years ago)

total fucking classic, esp. w/Luna

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 08:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes and yes.

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 10:50 (twenty-three years ago)

He's got a fucking awful voice. I actually set up a thread about how much i hate it a few months back. It's one of the few examples I can think of of a voice that RUINS good music, rather than merely detracting from it a bit.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

His best vocal performance is in Luna's cover of "Everybody's Talkin.'" Totally gorgeous and earnest and yearning and all of the things that it needs to be. Post-Penthouse though his voice has really bothered me. Before that, classic.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

kilian you're talking piffle. i don't think G500's music suits a strong, thick voice at all - it just wouldn't have worked.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 22:18 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, i remember you disagreed strongly with me on my own dean-bashing thread, jim, but i will not be swayed! As I said then: Dean Wareham = shrill, off-key and irritating. never a good thing, imho.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 22:57 (twenty-three years ago)

the ol' spectre of differing tastes halts yet another argument in its tracks

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I the only one who actually *prefers* it when he sings in that weird, keening falsetto? He didn't do it for awhile, and then when it resurfaced on "The Days of Our Nights" I was so happy. Oddly, I haven't really been too interested in anything Luna's released since (besides the Dear Paulina/Sucking Ice Cubes 7") - somehow I feel like I've gotten all I can from Wareham's schtick.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 5 February 2003 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't imagine anyone else singing the 6ths song "Falling out of Love (with You)," even though Bob Mould (!!) was the intended singer for that song.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I do think his voice would suit "It Ain't Easy Being Green".

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 04:24 (twenty-three years ago)

shakey mo we have found common ground again!!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 17:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Good God, Mould would have sounded awful on that track.

I like both of Wareham's voices: the low drawl he uses for jangling pop and the big dramatic yowl for the more majestic G500 stuff. I'm trying to figure out which I think of as more "his voice" -- like "and in my dreams / I slash your tires" versus "AND I LISSSTEN TO THE WYEA-THERRR."

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 17:44 (twenty-three years ago)

eight months pass...

I always thought I'd like G-500 before I heard them, but That Voice makes me doubt if I can stand the entire meta-genre. "Tugboat" leaves me cold.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

that's because all the good songs went to his later band

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Out of curiousity, which songs?

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

hey you're mean!

(in-joke, possibly)

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 02:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a big big Luna fan and like Galaxie 500 some, so I'm biased as all fuck. But I'd start with "Black Postcards," "Slide," "Slash Your Tires," "Tiger Lily," "IHOP," their cover of "Sweet Child o' Mine," "Dear Diary," "The Old Fashioned Way," "Lovedust," and the entirety of Penthouse.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 03:04 (twenty-two years ago)

It's strange... about five minutes before this thread got revived I made a comment on AIM about how a photo of Spencer's on the FAP thread reminded me of the Penthouse cover. Compare:

http://www.rotovibe.com/images/nyc/empire.jpg

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd300/d354/d35417o2nm7.jpg

― Annouschka (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Dean Wareham = Lou Reed @ 45RPM. Check it out for yourself.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

this is astonishingly new and different information how again?

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 03:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Because I said it, obviously.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:01 (twenty-two years ago)

ah.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:20 (twenty-two years ago)

eight years pass...

His voice was kinda weak today, but I still enjoyed this:

13 Most Beautiful . . . Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
November 12 at 4:00
East Building Concourse, Auditorium
Dean & Britta in performance
Dean and Britta (Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips) make their Washington debut performing songs on guitar and keyboard to the backdrop of Warhol's Screen Tests. The mesmerizing images, filmed in the Silver Factory in the mid-1960s, align the glamour of Hollywood with the edginess of the art world. Among the subjects are "Baby" Jane Holzer, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, and Edie Sedgwick. The program was commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum. (Approximately 60 minutes)

They had other band members with them also at this National Gallery of Art in Washington DC show

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 November 2011 07:26 (fourteen years ago)

Nice retro Velvets feel and of course they do a Nico cover and an obscure Velvets song from a bootleg

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 November 2011 17:56 (fourteen years ago)

Oh weren't they doing this as a tour a while ago? Iirc GBX saw this in Minneapolis a couple years ago?

His voice is amazing, obv. Last time I saw them last year (D&B) they played an entire set of Galaxie 500 songs. It was phenomenal.

― Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Sunday, 13 November 2011 18:50 (fourteen years ago)

They've been touring this on and off for awhile but this was the first time in DC. Amazingly average voice.

― curmudgeon, Sunday, 13 November 2011 21:12 (fourteen years ago)

yeah i think d&b are just part of the package when some museum wants to do the warhol screen test thing. that soundtrack has some great stuff on it.
love dean's voice.

― tylerw, Sunday, 13 November 2011 21:20 (fourteen years ago)

i saw the G500 show in melb a couple of weeks ago. britta was phoning it in a bit (playing like someone who learned the songs without especially liking them) but dean's voice was as strong as it's ever been

― dogs in hot cardies (electricsound), Sunday, 13 November 2011 21:49 (fourteen years ago)

two years pass...

http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/listen_dean_wareham_releases_first_single_off_forthcoming_solo_debut_album

― tbd (Eazy), Friday, 17 January 2014 18:29 (twelve years ago)

Although it's been over 20 years since Galaxie 500 made any new music, there's one voice from the group that still has something to say and we're glad for it.

oh fuck you

― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 17 January 2014 18:53 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

happy and free, for a while

― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 9 May 2018 01:33 (eight years ago)

four months pass...

his voice is aging really really well. from how annoying he could sound in galaxie 500 to something as croontastic as "the longest bridge in the world" is a pretty amazing upgrade

― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 12 September 2018 04:34 (seven years ago)

three years pass...

Wareham's latest album, I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor Of L.A., is a great and varied listen. "Cashin' In" sounds like a Michael Rother song off one of his first two '70's solo albums, which is kinda funny in the year in which Damon & Naomi release an album titled A Sky Record.

― willem, Tuesday, 7 December 2021 09:34 (four years ago)

three years pass...

was watching this law and order episode and saw this bartender... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629185/characters/nm0999134/

― fpsa, Sunday, 6 April 2025 15:02 (one year ago)

https://oblivious.fullofwishes.co.uk/post/32628139418/incrediblebittersweet-dean-wareham-as-one-of

― fpsa, Sunday, 6 April 2025 15:03 (one year ago)

No discussion of his new album? It’s very good

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Sunday, 6 April 2025 16:34 (one year ago)

It's gorgeous. I love I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. more -- it ranks with his very best -- but the production here is outstanding. Would love to hear Kramer take a crack at a Luna album.

― Blood On The Knobs, Tuesday, 8 April 2025 19:32 (one year ago)

new one is great — beautiful production, killer songs.

― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 April 2025 19:42 (one year ago)

nine months pass...

Late as well to That’s the Price of Loving Me and into it. Love that Kramer's doing this!

― the way out of (Eazy), Thursday, 15 January 2026 17:21 (three months ago)

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