Luna Covers Guns N' Roses On Next Disc
The Guns N' Roses revival continues in the unlikeliest places. Namely, on Luna's latest album, The Days of Our Nights, which is set for release on May 25 on Elektra and includes a meditative cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine."
Frontman Dean Wareham explains how the improbable hair-metal homage came about: "It was a B-side we did in two hours. Of course, when it got up to the record company they wanted us to put it on the album. We changed it quite a bit. It really sounds like us"
Wareham was a member of Galaxie 500 around the time of Guns N' Roses' late-'80s commercial reign. At the time, it would have been impossible to find a band further removed from Galaxie 500's frail, Velvet Underground- inspired college rock than Axl Rose's guitar- wielding posse.
The rest of Luna's fifth album, however, digs into more familiar territory, at least musically. First single "Dear Diary" offers a classic slice of Wareham's dry wit and the band's quixotic soul. And while bizarre song titles like "Seven Steps to Satan," "Requiem for a Mouse," and "U.S. Out of My Pants" might indicate the stoic Wareham has finally lost the plot, the singer reassures us that everything is quite normal.
"I've always had a sense of humor in my songs," he says. "Sometimes it comes through, sometimes it doesn't. If I go back 10 years to Galaxie 500, I would say I was more serious then. But I was just younger and more foolish."
Produced by former Grant Lee Buffalo bassist Paul Kimble, Wareham reckons The Days of Our Nights (orignal title The Young and the Restless) represents Luna's finest hour.
"Paul did a great job," Wareham says. "He was very pleasant to work with and he had a lot of great ideas. He's a musician. This is our first record that was produced by a musician. Well, our the first record was produced by a drummer, Fred Maher, but he didn't know about singing or chords. It was a bit of a revelation to work with a musician, because they have musical ideas. I forgot how useful that was."
March 3rd 1999