Our three-night residency at Café Oto in January was so much fun, and to close the show each night we were joined on stage by friends for a series of - for us - surprising “covers”! On March 6, we are releasing live recordings of these encores as a Bandcamp exclusive. Huge thanks to Laetitia, Mark, Richard, Jess, Alabaster, Gina, Marie, and Stewart, as well as the great staff at Café Oto and everyone who came to share those special evenings with us.
Read MoreHey friends! We are returning to the stage for a 3-day residency at Cafe Oto in London, with many friends and geniuses joining us - tickets are on sale now! Jan 3-5 2026, buy a pass or tickets for individual dates from Cafe Oto at: https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/damon-naomi-three-day-residency/
In other news, Damon has a new nonfiction book out now in North America from Yale University Press, called Why Sound Matters. The UK/EU pub date is Jan 6, so come celebrate with us at Cafe Oto!
Read MoreWe are going back to Japan! Very happy to announce that in November we will play shows in Tokyo with our dear friend and long-time collaborator Michio Kurihara. Advance tickets go on sale 10am Aug 10, Japan time - links and info on our shows page.
In other news, Galaxie 500 has prepared an exciting new archival release including 8 tracks we've never before shared. Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90 is out September 20 on Silver Current Records for physical media, and 20/20/20 for digital. Preorders are available now via Bandcamp, with two tracks already streaming for your late 80s listening pleasure!
Read MoreWe got to see Kath Bloom perform her songs for the first time last year when we both played the same festival in Chicago - standing at the side of the stage with Haley Fohr (Circuit des Yeux), the three of us never stopped grinning except when we might have been crying.
We are very happy to be playing three upcoming shows with Kath Bloom in Brooklyn NY, Kingston NY, and on her home turf of New Haven CT. Come out and see this very unique artist!
We're back from our first overseas shows since lockdown, and got the bug - yes COVID of course - but also the bug for more touring. So it's back on the road! Once again, we are joined on these bills by some wonderful artists/friends. Please come say hello - and please buy tickets in advance...
Meanwhile, for an evening at home, Naomi's film NEVER BE A PUNCHING BAG FOR NOBODY is streaming now on Amazon Prime - check it out! And please leave a review if you do, those things actually help others find it...
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Be-Punching-Bag-Nobody/dp/B0B7BFC7BM
We're going on tour! Not a long one, and not too far from home, but it's been a while and we are so looking forward to playing live again. We are also very happy to take this step with a friend of ours, Meg Baird (Meg's new album is beautiful). What's more, we are planning some collaborations together. Did you know both Meg and Damon love to play drums?? (And Naomi is talking about bringing her bass...)
These shows are all in nice small rooms, so please buy tickets in advance.
Used copies were hitting $125 and more online, so we figured it was about time to reissue the ultimate Galaxie 500 book, Temperature's Rising: An Oral and Visual History. This new edition will be available everywhere for $35 via D.A.P./Artbook starting Oct 4, and if you order now directly from 20/20/20 it's on sale for $30.
The book is a very funny, very truthful, and very nostalgic history of Galaxie 500, told directly by the three of us alongside a lot of the people we worked with at the time. Mike McGonigal, a journalist who knew many of the participants, interviewed everyone for the oral history. And Naomi contributed a visual archive of the band, together with her own commentary on those images.
It's printed in full color, with 214 illustrations. And because the story is told by many voices, it's more than even we knew about that band!
Read MoreHello, it's been a while!
Almost a year to the day since we released our latest album, A Sky Record, the vinyl has at long last arrived. And it's transparent blue! It hits your favorite independent record store today, or you can order it direct from us via Bandcamp or the 20-20-20 website.
If you are in the Boston area, you can also come find us and our vinyl at two upcoming shows - with Tanya Donelly at City Winery on Aug 6, and with Will Oldham at the Brattle Theater on Aug 20.
We are looking forward to returning to the stage, and to sharing our music with all of you near and far.
It meant a lot to us to share A Sky Record and A Sky Record Companion with you all this year. These are difficult, isolating times. What we can make with our friends and what we can share with one another seem more important than ever. Best wishes for 2022 - Damon & Naomi
Read MoreRelease day is here! Listen to A Sky Record by Damon & Naomi with Kurihara, available now from Bandcamp. Our 48-page full-color booklet with liner notes, photos and lyrics, A Sky Record Companion, is also shipping now (comes with a download of the album!). Naomi made a video for the song The Aftertime, co-directed with our friend Gary Graham. It stars Laura Kenner, wearing a series of wonderful clothes designed by Gary. Lighting by Susanne Sasic.
Read MoreToday we are releasing a second single, "Oceans in Between," from our forthcoming album A Sky Record by Damon & Naomi with Kurihara. The full album will be released August 6 via Bandcamp and August 13 everywhere else. To celebrate, we'll be playing a live show at Baby's All Right in Brooklyn on Thursday August 12 - tickets are available starting today.
Read MoreVery happy to announce our new album, A Sky Record, by Damon & Naomi with Kurihara. The first single, "Sailing By" is out now. The full album will be released August 6. Digital pre-orders are available exclusively via Bandcamp. We have also made a book to accompany this album: A Sky Record Companion, with essays by each of us and contributions by Jarvis Cocker, Soichiro Nakamura, Michio Kurihara, Susanne Sasic, Richard Youngs and Lindsay Zoladz. This illustrated, full-color, 48-page sewn booklet will ship on release in August. Pre-orders for the book from our Bandcamp page include a digital copy of the music.
Read MoreDear Friends,
We’re emerging from quarantine…!
First step is a duo performance via livestream on Wed June 23 at 6pm ET, hosted by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts.
This livestream performance features ALL NEW SONGS. (We’ve been keeping busy.)
Tickets are free - you can also choose to donate to the museum if you wish - but you have to register. More info here:
https://www.pem.org/events/pem-presents-damon-naomi-from-plummer-hall
Greetings, from our quarantine to yours. We are home in Cambridge MA, wearing masks, washing hands, taking care. We hope you are all doing as well as can be expected. These are hard times! (For so many reasons...)
Lockdown means we are hunkered down with our home studio, so recording continues on our next album, which we started with Michio Kurihara when we were in Japan before this all started. More on that as it develops.
Meanwhile, we have a limited edition Galaxie 500 release for Record Store Day - the first vinyl pressing of our live album, Copenhagen. To celebrate, 20 bands are covering Galaxie 500 songs and we will be posting their videos on the 20/20/20 website, one each weekday between Aug 3 and the LP's release Aug 29.
Stay safe, and BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Happy New Year! Our recent trip to Japan included some recording with Michio Kurihara, so we should have new sounds to share with you this coming year. Hoping to see more of you IRL this year, as well!
Read MoreWe’ll be in Japan this month! Delighted to announce a series of shows as a trio with Michio Kurihara, and with our friend Masaki Batoh playing an opening solo set. Please come join us at Osaka Conpass on Nov 6, Kyoto Urbanguild on Nov 7, and Tokyo Mandala-2 on Nov 14. Ticket links here.
We will also play a special festival show on Nov 10 in Tsuruga, the port town where Damon’s father landed by boat as a refugee from Poland in 1940. The festival will honor Tsuruga’s connection to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved many families including Damon’s by issuing transit visas to Jews fleeing the war in Europe.
Tragically, we need people like Sugihara-san in so many places today… please work to help refugees everywhere!
Read MoreA week of UK shows this month, including two in London - one in the West just for Damon’s book Ways of Hearing at Rough Trade in Notting Hill, and one in the East with combined book and music at the Walthamstow Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club. We’ll finish this run in Glasgow at a show with our friend Richard Youngs. Come say hi!
Read MoreWe’ll be in California this month, playing at Zebulon in LA on April 11, and The Lab in SF on April 17 - please come join us there! (Lovely illustration for poster by Janou-Eve LeGuerrier.)
And Damon has a new book out April 9 - Ways of Hearing. He will be doing events for that up and down the West Coast, and then the Northeast Corridor. Details on his bookish website, http://www.dadadrummer.com/
Read MoreHappy Valentine's Day! February 14 is also the anniversary of the first release on our own record label, back in 2005. To celebrate we've made a compilation from the four Damon & Naomi albums we've released on 20/20/20, from 2005-2015. It's called...IN THE 21st CENTURY (say it with Buck Rogers reverb). And it comes with liner notes by not one but TWO PELLYS (journalists - and twin sisters - Jenn Pelly & Liz Pelly).
You can download the album for free/pay-as-you-wish at our Bandcamp page. Or look for it on any streaming service, starting today.
In other news, the Boston indie record store chain Newbury Comics is releasing a limited, orange vinyl edition of Galaxie 500's ON FIRE. You can order it from their website now, or look for it in their shops starting February 15.
