EP - Luna

My soft-spot for Luna has been publicized in the tabloids before, and I'm not going to shrink from the accusation. Yes - I love Luna. They are not as spiritually and musically transcendant as Galaxie 500, nor will they ever be. Yes, their first couple of records were overly commercial. But they got past that, and they are one of the, if not THE, best straight-up rock and roll bands around.

This EP, released on No. 6 records in 1996, was recorded between Luna's twin artistic peaks - 1994's "Penthouse" (a witty chronicle of the lives of bored urban hipsters adorned with Velvets guitars and a duet with Laetita Stereolab) and 1997's "Pup Tent" (a witty and sometimes paranoid chronicle of the same urban hipsters simulataneously looking towards the future and back into the past while avoiding maturity adorned with superfuzz guitars and droney synths). This EP is the exact median in terms of style.

The EP's first track, "Sideshow By The Seashore", is from "Penthouse", so we'll discount that from consideration. The second track is a garagey rave-up of Talking Heads song, "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel", very much in the Feelies-esque vein they often tapped. The third song is "The Moviegoer", and is the penultimate mid-period Luna song. Fuzzy psych guitars wrap around characteristically Wareham vocals and lyrics like "In Hollywood I hear they have/discoteques for dogs/and summer camps where you can send/your Cabbage Patch dolls". Following that is "It's Bringing You Down", a fast and dynamic power-pop number. The instrumental "The Enabler" is their most overt Velvets, um, "tribute" on the EP, and it seems more like a song without words than a straight-up Yo La Tengo endurance fest. Wrappign it all up is a cover of Tom Rush's "No Regrets" done in a style reminiscent of the first Luna LP. Good stuff for $8.


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Mike Keegan
5.29.2000

Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence