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Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips' recent appearance on the popular kids' show Yo Gabba Gabba! — the pair belt out "Let's Ride" as they ride indolently through the sky on a two-seat bicycle — served as a reminder of just how puerile and thrown-together Galaxie 500's lyrics sounded. Wareham, who fronted the proto-shoegaze/slowcore trio from 1987 to 1991, sang about dog biscuits, tugboat captains, Twinkies, and plastic birds with shattered legs. Such silliness was deceptive. He sang in an upper-register monotone, sapping the words of their playfulness, filling them with heavy-hearted despair. It was like discovering Shel Silverstein was a childless hallucinogen addict — and this trickery is what made Galaxie 500 so wonderful. Wareham's guitar work was essentially limited to G, D, and C chords. Bassist Naomi Yang admitted to typically playing on just the top two strings of her instrument. But few bands were more proficient at taking such simple constructs and creating music so emotionally complex. As classics like "Blue Thunder" or "It's Getting Late" demonstrate, Galaxie 500's grasp of high drama was hardly child's play.
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