Should Dean play Galaxie 500?

A discussion has struck up on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List about whether Dean should be doing these "...plays Galaxie 500 shows" or getting on with new material - here's my defence of the Galaxie 500 shows (as posted to the list)...

OK - here's a dissenting voice - although I'll qualify my defence by linking to my previous rant against Dean & Britta covering Galaxie 500.

This will be just a bunch of thoughts - a lot of which I won't explain the relevance of - partly because they may not have relevance...

Dean has on a number of occasions mentioned how hard he finds it coming up with new songs/song ideas - I think it was (and I don't have copy of Black Postcards to hand to double check) one of the contributing factors to Galaxie 500 breaking up - the two Dean & Britta albums and the 13 Most Beautiful soundtrack are all liberally sprinkled with covers - I think it's safe to assume that while he has consistently been producing great material it doesn't just fall out of him.

Galaxie 500 are back on the radar now - the Domino and 20|20|20 reissues have seen to that.

While reunions are de riguer we're all painfully aware (and in my case grateful) that a Galaxie 500 one is not on the cards

I've generally loved Luna covering Galaxie 500, and enjoyed Dean & Britta's forays into that part of Dean's past (with the exception linked above) - also one of my high-points of 2010 (high oints of any year prob) was Damon & Naomi covering Blue Thunder at The Luminaire - I don't mind, and actually genuinely love, that these songs can still work.

13 Most Beautiful - as a project - has eaten a chunk out of the "write the next album" time so clearly the next new album is not ready.

The music industry is a different animal now - without record companies proffering huge advances to make albums the money is having to be made elsewhere... actually I wonder if this is the key point. Smaller bands/artists need to find new ways to make if they want music to be a career rather than a side project - and whether its advertising, soundtracks, reunions, or rehashing your back catalogue (or any/all of the above) - then that is what needs to be done.

Galaxie 500 shows are going to make money - for some of the reasons mentioned above.

I know that there will be new material from Dean (& Britta) at some point in the future - and I can wait - it's not like there isn't stacks of other great music to listen to - and in the meantime I'm happy to enjoy hearing (of) Galaxie 500 reunion shows knowing that they're not Galaxie 500 and it's not breaking anything by happening.

I'm a fan.

Come ride the fiery breeze...