Fourth of July

“Fourth of July” arrived as a single on September 10, 1990. Thirty-six years ago today. Rough Trade Records. The B-side was a cover of “Here She Comes Now.” That choice was not incidental. Galaxie 500 had been living inside the Velvet Underground for years. They borrowed the quiet voltage, the repetition, the feeling of standing very still while everything around you moves. The cover announced exactly where they had been and where they were headed.

AllMusic wrote that Galaxie 500 were “arguably as influential on indie rock as the Velvet Underground was on the rock and punk that came after it.” They seeded what became shoegaze and slowcore. Beach House, Spiritualized, Yo La Tengo all drew from the same source. Three albums in three years while they were together. The band broke up in 1991. The records stayed. Passed along quietly, person to person, for years before the full weight of the influence became visible. The quiet ones always take longer to locate.

Dean Wareham, Naomi Yang, and Damon Krukowski met in high school in New York before all three ended up at Harvard. Galaxie 500 formed in Boston in 1987. They sent a demo to producer Kramer at Shimmy Disc, who agreed to record them. Today in 1988. On Fire in 1989. This Is Our Music in 1990, the title borrowed from Ornette Coleman. All three albums produced by Kramer at Noise New York. Rough Trade handled UK distribution. Three records, four years, a template still running through independent music decades later.