Luna

On Sundays, I like doing absolutely nothing.  I consider it my ultimate day of rest.  A typical Sunday afternoon involves the usual predicament of wanting to hibernate in my bed while watching football all day, but also wanting to listen to music.  This can be difficult due to my desire to listen to the commentary.  Recently, I have been finding one of my solutions to this dilemma is throwing on the album Bewitched by Luna.

Luna is the reconstructive effort of Dean Wareham, who is the lead singer of the popular late-'80s band Galaxie 500 that disbanded in 1991.  In 1992, Wareham recruited a talented group of musicians (including a drummer formerly of The Feelies, another successful '80s band) and released Lunapark, which sparked the release of a very impressive string of albums.  Bewitched is the 1994 release, which preceded their 1995 release of Penthouse.

Luna never got the mainstream success of a lot of the other early '90s rock bands (like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins for example), but their albums were still very well received.  Rolling Stone even mentioned Bewitched in their 1995 list of "essential albums".  But as what happens with time, fads fade; and people moved on from the alt-rock era to the more poppy bands of say...Blink-182 and The Backstreet Boys.  Following this switch, Luna was forgotten against the more mainstream bands.

Still, Luna stands as a very legitimate and bona fide band of that early '90s era.  It's very easy to listen to, it has a kind of soft dream-rock sound to them with some great interplay between the dueling rhythm guitars. It's not a harsh sound at all, which is why it's perfect for my football Sundays.  The music almost becomes like an ambient sound, and I tend to get lost in it, which enables me to concentrate dually on the game and the music.  That's why it's great for other things, such as doing homework or driving home late at night, utilizing it's calming nature to allow you to just sit back and relax.

Enough writing, I know the last thing people want to do on Sundays is read.  Below I have posted two tracks from their 1994 album Bewitched, "California (All the Way)" and "This Time Around"....hope you enjoy:

 California (All the Way)

 This Time Around