{"id":38162,"date":"2004-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/rendezvous\/"},"modified":"2004-11-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-11-12T00:00:00","slug":"rendezvous","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/rendezvous\/","title":{"rendered":"Rendezvous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fed up with having to answer the obvious “Why is your band
\nquitting” questions posed by journalists, Dean Wareham, founding
\nmember of Luna, posted the following reasons on their web site at
\nwww.fuzzywuzzy.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1. Rock and Roll is killing my life. 2. The Universe is
\nExpanding. 3. There are too many bands out there, travelling(sp)
\naround, singing their songs etc. 4. Too much time spent in
\n15-passenger vans. According to 20\/20, these things flip over. 5.
\nToo many hands to shake, that means germs. 6. Too many dinners at
\nWendy’s. 7. People are dying in Iraq. 8. This is what bands do
\n(with a few exceptions, like R.E.M. and Metallica, and the Rolling
\nStones). Those bands, however, are multibillion dollar
\ncorporations. You don’t break that up unless the government forces
\nyou to. 9. Hotel Electravision. 10. Time to Quit.<\/p>\n

Be it in Galaxy 500 or with Luna, Wareham’s sardonic sense of
\nhumor has been a signature in his work. That sense of humor is
\nevident on
\nRendezvous<\/i>, Luna’s final release. Along with quirky, witty
\none-liners,
\nRendezvous<\/i> contains the stoney, oftentimes jammy guitar
\nriffs by Wareham and Sean Eden that make Luna a perfect 2 a.m.
\nafter hours soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The first thing that needs to be said about
\nRendezvous<\/i> is that it’s a great improvement from
\nRomantica<\/i>, which was inexplicably lauded by critics while
\ntheir 1999 album
\nThe Days Of Our Nights<\/i> received lukewarm reviews. Those
\ngreat, extended grooves that oftentimes drew comparisons to The
\nVelvet Underground are once again evident in tracks like “Malibu
\nLove Nest” and “Star Spangled Man.”<\/p>\n

Though
\nRendevous<\/i> is the band’s final album, the overall chemistry
\nof the band doesn’t show any signs of animosity. Nor does the album
\nshow any signs of urgency. It doesn’t have the “greatness” feel
\nthat oozed from
\nPenthouse<\/i>. The tunes take a few listens to sink in. If you
\nwere to listen to the album at face value, you would take it as
\nanother good Luna album and you would most likely wonder how far
\nthe band would be willing to move from their formula on their next
\nalbum, if they were going to move at all.<\/p>\n

If there is a sense of fatigue in
\nRendezvous<\/i>, it most likely comes in the lyrical department.
\nThe title and lyrics to tunes like “Motel Bambi” and “Cindy Tastes
\nof Barbecue” seem to overreach in the irony department. And
\n“Astronaut,” a song already featured in their excellent
\nClose Cover Before Striking<\/i> EP once again resurfaces on
\nRendezvous<\/i>. Still, other bands have included songs that were
\nfeatured on EPs and soundtracks on their full-length album. And
\n“Astronaut” does fit in to the overall “feel” of
\nRendezvous<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Luna will be embarking on a lengthy farewell tour in late 2004
\nand they’ll tour through 2005. After that, it’s anyone’s guess
\nwhere the members will end up. Most likely Wareham and bassist
\nBritta Phillips will collaborate on another album to follow up
\ntheir
\nL’Avventura<\/i> album. Like Soundgarden and Luscious Jackson,
\nthe members of Luna mercifully realized they could go as far as
\nthey could with their sound. As a result,
\nRendevous<\/i> will remain a rarity in music; a final swan song
\nof an album that retains much of the greatness that made the band
\nso beloved in the indie world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6961],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38162","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-luna","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38162"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}