Audiopile Review: Some labels really stand out from the general Reissue Industrial Complex. Recent releases on Silver Current have had such a pleasing look-and-feel that we’re thinking of making it the next label we try to harass into releasing a vinyl edition of the godlike Peter Hammill’s ‘Loops & Reels’. Especially since Black Editions finally replied to our many emails with: “Please stop messaging us, we only release Japanese music!” Liars. Anyway, the latest desirable object from our future best friends at Silver Current is a 1988 live recording by Galaxie 500. This captures a fascinating moment in the minimalist dreampop legends’ trajectory, when they were simultaneously at the height of their powers and essentially just one of many striving indie rock bands. It was recorded by the man Kramer, at CBGB, at a zine benefit featuring a bill including Sonic Youth. We know, right? It’s like they’re all just some tousle-haired Vancouver indie punks playing at Green Auto or something. But one listen to the opening rendition of ‘Tugboat’ and you’ll hear how this band became legendary. The expected Silver Current look-and-feel is present-and-correct here, and it also sounds fantastic. The restored version of Kramer’s original board recording is waaay above bootleg standard and the band is, to use a popular phrase, on fire.

***

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.