Luna's breakup was as civil and dignified as they come. After seven studio albums, a handful of lineup shifts, and numerous tours, founder Dean Wareham and his band agreed to split following a farewell tour. That was a couple of years ago, and now we get full closure with a Best of Luna disc, as well as a DVD documenting the group's final trek. The unassuming title is fitting for a group that counted subtlety as one of its key charms.
Following in the wake of Wareham's previous band, Galaxie 500, Luna became the early 1990s archetype for spacey indie pop. Their music was full of cosmic guitar interplay between Wareham and Sean Eden, but the rhythm section-- at first ex-Feelies drummer Stanley Demeski and bassist Justin Harwood, later Lee Wall and Britta Phillips-- was always solid and down-to-earth. Wareham remained the deadpan, lovesick guy at the heart of it all, and his liners for this compilation offer de facto justification for every track, regardless of which deserved ones may have been left out (cough "Bobby Peru" cough).
Best of opens with "Moon Palace", the first of five tracks from Penthouse and Wareham's personal favorite Luna song. "You were stuck in a dream/ And you wanted to scream/ But it's nothing at all/ No, it's nothing at all," he sings as guitars move between stoned country and a 14-hour Technicolor dream. Penthouse's top billing in the tracklist is fortuitous-- it's their best album, and anyone who likes this comp should seek it out-- but what's remarkable is how well the rest of Luna's material stands up to it. Solid to their final days, "Astronaut"-- from the band's 2004 swan song Rendezvous-- is one of Luna's best songs, with a drumbeat about four times brisker than anything else here and one of Wareham's strongest vocal performances.
This comp doesn't offer fans anything new aside from Wareham's booklet anecdotes, but it's an ideal intro for newcomers. What longtime fans will want to check out, though, is the DVD. Tell Me Do You Miss Me, directed by Matthew Buzzell, is one of those rare tour documentaries that manages to put a band's history-- particularly its demise-- in deeply humane perspective. When you see Wareham spending time with his son in Central Park, you know why he was no longer interested in the touring life of a working band.
The DVD also features some great performances, including footage of the band's final show, at the Bowery Ballroom. Buzzell also captures moments of tedium and good humor, such as Eden and Wareham amending one another's stories. In the end, it comes off as an honest portrait of honest people trying to make a living playing music and barely cresting out of the red into the black.
Taken together, the disc and DVD offer a succinct portrait of Luna. The credits-- including two appearances on the comp by Tom Verlaine, one by Sterling Morrison-- are eye-popping, the music is great, and you're left with a clear picture of the group, something you don't always get with career wraps.
