Damon & Naomi are an American
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
/
indie folk duo, formed in 1991 by
Damon Krukowski
Damon Krukowski (born September 6, 1963) is an American musician, poet and writer. He was a member of the dreampop band Galaxie 500 and the psychedelic rock band Magic Hour, and is half of the psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi. He is also a ...
and
Naomi Yang
Naomi Yang (born September 15, 1964) is an American musician, graphic designer, photographer and filmmaker. She was a member of the dreampop band Galaxie 500, psychedelic rock band Magic Hour and is half of the psychedelic folk duo Damon and N ...
, formerly of
Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500 was an American alternative rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums: ''Today'', '' On Fire'' and '' This Is Our Music''. The band was made up of guitarist/vocalist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon ...
.
History
After Galaxie 500 completed a tour of the US supporting
Cocteau Twins, guitarist and vocalist Dean Wareham quit the band, forcing the cancellation of an imminent Japanese tour. Damon & Naomi had recorded a few tracks before the split, and these were released under the name Pierre Etoile by
Rough Trade (UK) in July 1991.
The duo then spent time working on their book publishing company
Exact Change
Exact Change is an American independent book publishing company founded in 1989 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang who, outside of their publishing careers, were musicians associated with Galaxie 500 and Damon and Naomi. The company specialises in ...
, with no plans to return to recording, until producer
Mark Kramer
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fin ...
urged them back into the studio. The resulting album, ''More Sad Hits'' was released on Kramer's "Shimmy Disc" label in 1992.
Following the release of ''More Sad Hits'', Damon & Naomi were contacted by Kate Biggar and Wayne Rogers, whose band,
Crystalized Movements, had recently lost its rhythm section. The two couples teamed up to form the psychedelic rock band
Magic Hour, and released three albums between 1993 and 1996. At the same time, Damon & Naomi continued to record as a duo, releasing their second album, ''The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi'' on
Sub Pop, in 1995. The album was again produced by Kramer, however there was controversy as Kramer's production recreated the psychedelic leanings of the band's debut rather than the acoustic approach the band now preferred. Kramer initially refused to make changes, and although he eventually relented, he refused to return the original masters, claiming that they were destroyed. In 2013, that initial mix (including a heretofore unreleased track) was released as ''The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi, Bootleg Edition'' on the band's own 20/20/20 label for
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
.
After the release of their second album, Damon & Naomi decided that they were ready to return to live performance. In a 1998 interview, Krukowski said "We never thought we would perform because there's no rhythm section, and us being a former rhythm section, we thought there's nothing worse than a band without a rhythm section."
Their third album, ''Playback Singers'', was recorded in 1998, at their home studio (Kali Studios) in Cambridge, MA, and was their first album recorded without the assistance of Kramer. The album included the song "Awake in a Muddle", written by Masaki Batoh of the psychedelic rock band
Ghost, which marked the beginning of the ongoing relationship between the duo and the Japanese band. The album also included a cover of the
Tom Rapp (
Pearls Before Swine) song "Translucent Carriages", which the duo had performed with Rapp when he came out of retirement for the first
Terrastock
Terrastock is a music festival organised periodically by Phil McMullen, formerly editor of the ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' and since 2005 the publisher of the Terrascope Online website. The event typically features independent bands playing psyche ...
music festival, in 1997. Krukowski produced re-recordings of two Pearls Before Swine tracks that appeared on the compilation album ''Constructive Melancholy'' that was released in 1998. He also produced Rapp's 1999 album ''
A Journal of the Plague Year'', on which both Damon & Naomi appeared as musicians.
In 2000, they cemented the relationship with Ghost by releasing the collaborative album ''Damon & Naomi with Ghost'', recorded once again at the duo's Kali studios. The tour in support of the album featured Ghost guitarist
Michio Kurihara
(born 23 November 1961) is a Japanese guitarist who has played with Ai Aso, Cosmic Invention, Hazama, Ensemble Pearl, Overhang Party, Onna, Ghost, Damon & Naomi
Damon & Naomi are an American dream pop/indie folk duo, formed in 1991 by Damon ...
. In 2002, the ''Live in San Sebastian'' album was released, which had been recorded in May 2001 with Kurihara; the album was released with an additional DVD featuring a video tour diary by Yang. Ghost singer-guitarist Masaki Batoh's post-Ghost band The Silence would cover Damon & Naomi's "Little Red Record Company" on their second album ''Hark The Silence.''
During 2004, Damon had a book of poetry published (''The Memory Theater Burned'') and the duo also worked on pulling together a double DVD of Galaxie 500 videos that was released by
Plexifilm
Plexifilm was an independent DVD label and film production company co-founded by Gary Hustwit (formerly VP of Salon.com) and Sean Anderson (formerly Director of DVD Development of The Criterion Collection) in 2001. Plexifilm produced original film ...
. On
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...
2005, Damon & Naomi's fifth studio album, ''The Earth Is Blue'', was released on their own , 20, 20, 20 label, the duo having amicably terminated their relationship with Sub Pop. The album again featured Kurihara on guitar as well as the
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
brass section of Greg Kelley and Bhob Rainey of
Nmperign. The supporting tour featured all the guest musicians and one of the Japanese dates of the tour was videotaped and released as a limited-edition DVD at the end of 2005.
In 2006, Damon & Naomi set about recording their next album at Kali Studios, once again with Kurihara guesting. In 2007, they did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by
Vincent Moon
Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura, born 25 August 1979) is an independent filmmaker, photographer, and sound artist from Paris. He was the main director of the Blogotheque's Take Away Shows, a web-based project recording field work music vid ...
. The band's sixth studio album ''Within These Walls'' was released in September 2007, also on their own , 20, 20, 20 label.
Damon & Naomi released their seventh studio album ''False Beats and True Hearts'' on May 9, 2011, once again on their , 20, 20, 20 label and on Broken Horse (UK & Europe).
Discography
Albums
*''
More Sad Hits'' (1992) Shimmy Disc
*''The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi'' (1995) Sub Pop
*''Playback Singers'' (1998) Sub Pop/Rykodisc
*''With Ghost'' (2000)
*''Song to the Siren'' (2002)
*''The Earth Is Blue'' (2005)
*''Within These Walls'' (2007)
*''False Beats and True Hearts'' (2011)
*''The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi, Bootleg Edition'' (2013) 20/20/20
*''Fortune'' (2015)
*''A Sky Record'' (2021)
DVDs
* ''1001 Nights'' (2009) released by Factory 25
*''Shibua O-Nest, Tokyo Japan'' (2005) (exclusive website-only release)
References
External links
Official Damon & Naomi websiteExact Change web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Damon and Naomi
Musical groups from Boston
Drag City (record label) artists
Musical groups established in 1991
Shimmy Disc artists
1991 establishments in Massachusetts
Sonic Unyon artists
Rough Trade Records artists
Rykodisc artists
Sub Pop artists