Love songs come in many chords and melodies. But love songs addressed to guitars? Less common, though sometimes shot through with more genuine emotion.
Dean Wareham’s musical career spans nearly 40 years, from his time leading the influential group Galaxie 500 to his subsequent work with Luna and as a solo artist. Only recently did he pen an ode to his most trusted companion.
“I had read this old French poem about somebody restoring an old cabinet of drawers or something, and it sounded vaguely sexual, and I was like, wouldn’t that be funny if I wrote a song about a guitar that was also vaguely sexual?” Wareham said.
That song ended up as “We’re Not Finished Yet,” a light and sweet but dryly funny tune, with references to rubbing and polishing and a key question: “Are you a boy or are you a girl?” It’s a whimsical highlight of Wareham’s newest album, “That’s the Price of Loving Me,” released in March on Carpark Records.
He’ll bring material from that record to Radio Social’s backyard for an 8 p.m. show on September 19.
To be fair, the guitar in question is a semi-recent acquisition: a 1968 Gibson ES-335, similar to one played by The Velvet Underground’s Sterling Morrison. Wareham picked it up at a Guitar Center in Hollywood a few years ago.
He played it on the new album, but he won’t be bringing it with him for this tour.
“I get nervous about putting it on a plane,” he said.
No matter. Wareham’s other Gibsons have served him well on stage, dating back to the late 1980s and early ‘90s, when Galaxie 500 were regular road warriors. He grips one in the photo that adorns the defunct band’s latest archival release, “CBGB 12.13.88,” released in August. That live show, like the group’s three beloved studio albums, was recorded by the producer known as Kramer, whom Dean has referred to as the “fourth member” of Galaxie 500.
The making of “That’s the Price of Loving Me” found Wareham and Kramer reunited for five days in Los Angeles — a pace Wareham appreciated.
“It was five days, but eight hours a day,” Wareham said. “There are Luna songs where it took five days to record [only] the guitars.”
The album finds some unexpected surprises from Wareham, long associated with a sound best summed up by writer Ryan Reed as “sleepy-eyed and gently psychedelic.” One of them is a carnivalesque cover of Nico’s “Reich der Träume,” which Wareham sings in German. Another, “Dear Betty Baby,” is Wareham’s take on a folk tune from Red Krayola’s Mayo Thompson.
Wareham said his mental calculus for a cover is simple: “I love that song. I wonder if I can do it convincingly.”
Sometimes he finds he can’t. Luna once took on Led Zeppelin’s “Dancing Days,” but Wareham said it ended up closer to comedy. Their take on Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up,” though?
“I talked my way through that,” he said.
The Galaxie 500 catalog remains bolstered by streamlined but cinematic reinterpretations of songs by George Harrison, Joy Division, the Velvets and one of Wareham’s heroes, Jonathan Richman. They crossed paths on Richman’s 74th birthday at a festival in Big Sur earlier this year.
“We did the song ‘Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste,’ which was a Galaxie 500 cover of Jonathan Richman, hoping he might hear it,” Wareham said. Later, the two caught up backstage.
Indeed, one of Wareham’s best songs, 1989’s “Blue Thunder,” is a spiritual sequel to Richman’s iconic “Roadrunner” — both concern floating down the road on Massachusetts’ Route 128 and being lifted by the allure of forward momentum.
Wareham’s Boston roots — really, Boston via his native New Zealand and New York City) — have since given way to L.A., his home for the past several years. The relocation has allowed him to pop up not just onstage but on film. With his wife and musical collaborator, Britta Phillips, Wareham has penned scores for several films by Noah Baumbach. The pair have also appeared in several of Baumbach’s works, beginning with the eternally charming “Frances Ha” in 2012.
“He doesn’t make me audition,” Wareham said. “Sometimes it’s just a couple of lines or one song, or it can be a whole soundtrack.”
Baumbach’s upcoming “Jay Kelly,” out in November, stars George Clooney and Adam Sandler — and naturally features Wareham in one scene as well. He was en route home from recording a Christmas album in Portugal when he stopped by Baumbach’s film set in London.
“I haven’t talked to either of them, but they’re both in the shot when I deliver my line,” he said.
Phillips, meanwhile, will play bass with Wareham in Rochester, in a band rounded out by Roger Brogan on drums and Skylar Kaplan on guitar. It’s the first time Wareham and Phillips (who also release music under the simplified name Dean & Britta) have gigged in town since a Lovin’ Cup show about 15 years ago.
The set promises a blend of old and new songs. Unlike one of Wareham’s heroes, he’s happy to dip into his entire repertoire stretching back decades.
“[With] Jonathan Richman, if you’re lucky, if you get one,” Wareham said. “But mind you, he’s still worth going to see. You get something special, something weird.”
Given Wareham’s penchant for humid, deft songs that can stretch into the instrumentally amorous, he’s keen to bring the same.
Dean Wareham performs an 8 p.m. show at Radio Social on September 19. Local neo-psychedelic band Maybird opens. Tickets and more information here.
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@roccitymag.com.
