Available on limited colored wax

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City’s famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.

Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year. 

Officially available for the first time on LP, CD, cassette and digital. Out August 8th 2025 on Silver Current Records.

Recollections about CBGB by Galaxie 500:

"My first, and perhaps most indelible memory of CBGBs is from the summer of 1987. We had just formed Galaxie 500 that spring and we were all in New York for the summer. During the day I worked building architectural models, at night we rehearsed in a spare room at Dean’s parents' house. We hadn’t yet played a gig.

One hot night we went to see Yo La Tengo play at CBGBs. It was not a very crowded show, and I remember being excited how easy it was to stand right by the stage and see their hands so clearly. CBGBs was legendary — a place where “real” bands, bands that we loved, had played — but the intimacy and intensity of the show that night is burned in my memory. I think that evening it became less about the bands I could see at CBGBs than the idea of playing ourselves at CBGBs. It became something to aspire to…

Later, when we did finally play CBGBs, it did not seem like just another gig but an accomplishment. Not that it was so different from other venues: the graffiti'd bathrooms, the backstage that was just literally a space behind the stage. But playing there meant more to me cause it made us a real band.

In October 1990, we headlined CBGBs and had the chance to put together the bill. I remember we decided to invite other bands with women instrumentalists. Bands with women who weren’t the singer were not unheard of (Yo La Tengo's drummer Georgia Hubley was part of that show which left such an impression on me) but not nearly as common then as now. We chose Crystalized Movements (with Kate Biggar, Terri Morris), Antietam (with Tara Key) and Love Child (with Rebecca Odes)."
~ Naomi Yang 6.20.25

"I saw my first show at CBGB’s in 1979 while still in high school — Richard Hell & the Voidoids. At that time in New York City, a 16-year old could walk into a club and buy a beer, no one seemed to care. In the mid-80s the club seemed to have drifted into irrelevance, but by 1987 it again became a crucial New York venue, and maybe that coincides with Louise Parnassa Staley becoming the new booker. In addition to the big club, Hilly opened the Record Canteen right next door, which was both record shop and venue. This is where Galaxie 500 played first, on a bill with Unrest. And we were back there during a New Music Seminar, this time on a bill with guitarist Sandy Bull.

Graduating to CBGB’s proper was exciting, and we played there four times in a two-year span from 1988 to 1990. There was no proper backstage area, and going to the bathroom in the basement was a challenge, but it was inspiring to perform on that historic stage, the only club I’ve ever seen where the monitors were hung from the ceiling, which freed up stage space and meant you were even closer to the audience."
~ Dean Wareham 6.20.25

"In December 1988, our debut LP had only been out a few months, and everything we played in our live set was from that album. It was exciting for us to be on stage at CBGB – we were a ways from booking a room like that ourselves, but had been invited to play a benefit for a fanzine store in the East Village, See/Hear. Plus the headliner was Sonic Youth, a band we much admired. Our producer Kramer’s band, B.A.L.L., was also on the bill – so Kramer took charge of the desk and mixed our live sound, which we saved to a cassette direct from the board.

That tape was thrilling for us to have. I think it must have been the first time we got to hear ourselves live through a relatively large sound system, and with Kramer at the soundboard no less. Naomi made xerox artwork from the CBGB listing that had run in the Village Voice (with our band name misspelled!), and we duped it for friends. Years later, those dupes led to this tape circulating as a bootleg – muddier and/or tinnier, depending on the copy. Silver Current had the excellent idea that we could dig out the original and have it properly mastered for the first time.

To me, it preserves an early moment for us on stage: we sound new to the experience, a bit tentative, more than a little nervous, not yet familiar with monitors and sound systems. We speed up during every song. Still, I hear our connection to one another on stage very clearly – we’re listening, and at times really locking in. Nothing was automatic. It’s only a few steps from our writing process in rehearsal.

One strong memory I have of the show is from soundcheck. Kramer’s band B.A.L.L. was on stage without a drummer (they had two superb drummers, David Licht and Jay Spiegal, and neither had come to check). Kramer called out for Steve Shelley to sit in but he wasn’t there, either – so I got behind the kit. When I started to play, Kramer wheeled around in surprise: “I asked for Tony Williams, not Max Roach!” he yelled. I knew it was a diss, but I blushed with pride - Max Roach is my all-time drumming hero. I tried to hit harder, and Kramer started laughing…"
~Damon Krukowski 6.20.25