While it is inarguably true that there would be no Luna — and for that matter no Galaxie 500 — without the Velvet Underground, Dean Wareham’s ’90s alt-rawk jawn was never so much a Velvet Underground cover band as it was a lovely green shoot growing out of VU’s “Pale Blue Eyes”/”Femme Fatale” side, eschewing the noise and transgression of the first two VU albums for the lyrical, languid jangling pop meditations of the last two VU albums. Poor bastards had no more commercial luck with Lou Reed’s sound cloud than Lou Reed did, which is to say none, and after seven albums and a 14 years of velveteen goodness, Wareham pulled the plug in 2005 to score Warhol screen tests, wry cameos in Noah Baumbach films and make whoopee and beautiful music with longtime gal pal Britta, the Nico to his Lou. Back in the spring, after three albums and a wedding as Dean and Britta, Wareham announced plans to re-activate Luna for a spring tour of Spain and a fall tour of the U.S., which brings them to the Trocadero on Monday, with Foxygen off-shoot Diane Coffee opening. Having been on the Wareham tip since Galaxie 500’s Today came out in 1987, we can’t wait. We could not be more proud to announce that we have a couple pairs of tickets to give to some lucky-duck Phawker readers with a deep-well of trivial Luna knowledge and a willingness to jump through our social media hoops. To qualify to win you need to A) be signed up to our mailing list (below right, beneath the masthead) which will give you early warning about must-read Phawker posts and early word on groovy concert/movie/misc-cool-event-you-definitely-want-to-attend ticket giveaways B) and follow on us Twitter C) send an email to Phawker66@gmail.com telling us you have accomplished both A & B along with the answer to the following Luna trivia question: What is the name is of the Beat Happening song that Luna covered. And because we want you — yes you, you know who you are — to win for a change, we’re even dropping this not-very-subtle hint below. Good luck and godspeed.
LUNA + DIANE COFFEE PLAY THE TROCADERO ON MONDAY OCTOBER 5TH