Galaxie 500: Temperature’s Rising: An Oral and Visual History

A fascinating oral history of one of American indie rock’s most enduring and influential acts

Slow, deliberate and deceptively simple, the music of Boston-based band Galaxie 500 was wonderfully at odds with the prevailing underground sounds of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Formed in 1987, the band split up in 1991 after releasing three acclaimed albums–Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music–as well as a Peel Sessions recording. The primary contributors to this long-unavailable history of the band are the three band members–bassist/vocalist Naomi Yang, drummer Damon Krukowski and guitarist/vocalist Dean Wareham–but dozens of people were interviewed in all, including fellow musicians, record business folks, music critics and scenesters. Galaxie 500: Temperature’s Rising provides a complex, sometimes contentious account of the band’s rise to indie stardom and their acrimonious breakup. It also includes dozens of rare and never-before-seen photographs, as well as posters and other ephemera from the personal collection of Naomi Yang, who provides a running commentary to the images. This is the definitive book about Galaxie 500 and a crucial chapter in the story of indie rock.