you have your Submarines, your Rosebuds, your Mates of State and then…then you have your Dean and Britta. While they are garnering more and more attention what with Dean’s new book and Men’s Vogue excerpts on how they met (including some sordid motel and visible panty line stories) this half british, half scandinavian in spirit married couple, have taken part in several semi-iconic ventures of the 90s and the 00s.
To begin with…
Dean Wareham bowed out of two beloved indie rock bands…
While Galaxie 500(with its Harvard academic pedigree and intense atmospherics) imploded into indelibility, Luna (that Britta was part of as well) outlasted nearly every other darling of the 1990s until finally calling it quits in 2005.
Then, In 2005 they recorded their nostalgic, stylish, named after an Antonioni movie “L’avventura” with the help of Tony Visconti (who himself has done producing work for everyone from T.Rex to David the Bowie) album and in2006 released “Back Numbers” which, we will argue to death with you on this, is the definition of classy/intelligent pop lounge.
(the fact that the 2 names it gets most compared to are Serge Gainsburg and Briggitte Bardot’s 60s kitten music, should speak for itself)
And as though that just wasn’t enough the duo also started doing film scores (in their ample spare time, we are sure) including the (more than semi) iconic score for Noah Baumbach’s “The squid and the whale”.
Plus as far as cool points will get you, Britta herself was at one time the voice of “Jem (and the Holograms)” and starred in “Satisfaction” with Julia Roberts.(the tag line being these girls just want to have fun)
How is that for being around?
they’re playing a show this Wednesday (tomorrow) at the Cat mainstage (with The Supremely delightful Keren Ann opening) and you would be silly to miss it, with its 90s and 00s iconography merging one one stage.
to wet you appetite, stream their new remixes EP here:
Tony Visconti: also produced the most recent albums of Kristeen Young and Morrissey
which songs did she sing from Jem?
the biggest “Love is Here” fan, checking in
which came first, jem the singer or jem the cartoon?
February 26, 2008 at 7:21 pma google search for Jem answers all questions
via wikipedia
Jem was born in 1975
Jem the cartoon ran from 1985 to 1988
but considering Jem starting writing and singing at age 13, namely in 1988, Jem the TV series has her beat
February 27, 2008 at 9:48 amI bet they’ll even do their version of Serge Gainsburg and Briggitte Bardot’s “Bonnie & Clyde” if requested. They’ve done multiple requests the 2 times I’ve seen them since Luna disbanded. One can also find a recorded version of the song, which Luna did with Stereolab (with Laetita Sadier doing vocals with Dean, before Britta was in the band) on their stellar album Penthouse. it is the final, hidden track. show will be awesome tonight - dig it
February 27, 2008 at 12:01 pm
the opening scene from ‘tell me will you miss me’ in which a pantie clad britta dresses for the final luna show has caused me so much pain i’m thinking of retaining an attorney. class action anyone?
February 26, 2008 at 4:27 pmthese remixes are rough. leave to the electronica crowd to ruin a batch of good songs.