On February 14, 1988, Galaxie 500 released their debut studio album “Today” featuring single "Tugboat" / "King of Spain".
Galaxie 500 didn't last long. They formed in Boston in 1986, released three albums between 1988 and 1990, got great notices in the press (especially the UK), and then dissolved. Following their breakup, after which lead singer and guitarist Dean Wareham went on to Luna and the rhythm section of Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang formed Magic Hour and Damon and Naomi.
Today might be the best song-by-song album of Galaxie 500's three. It's also the most varied, moving from the ghostly mid-tempo beauty of opener "Flowers", the dreamiest dream-pop song of them all, to the deeply affecting absurdity of "Tugboat", where the narrator wants to leave the world behind and "be your tugboat captain," to the pounding, mantra-like cover of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste", which actually rocks. Wareham's voice stays in a cracked upper register that can either be yearning or transcendent, and his guitar sustain seems to go on for days. Yang's bass playing, like that of Peter Hook, from whom she borrowed heavily, is the band's emotional center, and Krukowski's drums are as much about texture as they are about time-keeping. There were no virtuosos in this group, but everyone's part was essential. Rare is the band where three voices this distinctive come together to make a fourth, equally distinctive thing that transcends everything that went into it. And even more rare is the debut this assured and complete.
Indeed, Today was such a terrific first statement, the only way for Galaxie 500 to best it was to narrow their focus and concentrate on doing one thing perfectly.