Luna CD & DVD
Luna
The Best Of Luna (CD)/Tell Me Do You Miss Me (DVD)
(Rhino)
Luna were never a love/hate band; they were give a shit/don’t give a shit. This sold-separately combo tells why.
The Best Of Luna is a grand compilation, but one that ultimately white-washes the 13 years spent building albums. There’s surprising coherence throughout the 17-track CD, coherence due in large part to Dean Wareham’s monodrone. Never the only band to take direct influence from The Velvet Underground, though certainly one who did, the stages of Luna are only discernable to the hardcore fan via this disc. Does this mean Luna never grew? Well, when compared to The Byrds: Yes. But there were changes; they just depended on Wareham’s mood. “Sideshow By The Seashore” is testament to his peak, a shimmering waterfall both detached and bonded, but Best Of occasionally argues if you have one Luna album you have them all.
The DVD is a far more valuable document, as it could really be about any indie band. The quibbling, uncertainty, and day-in day-out tension between Wareham and guitarist Sean Eden is classic Spinal Tap without them knowing it at the time. Beginning with the band mulling a press release announcing their impending breakup, roles are defined right away with Wareham the reluctant colorguard, Eden the “whatever” dude, bassist Britta Phillips trying to remain uninvolved due to her affair with Wareham, and so-blank-he-might-was-well-not-be-there drummer Lee Wall.
DVD: 8
— Steve Forstneger
