For an artist to craft something so evocative that when you hear it, read it, see it, you immediately know what their performance/piece/painting/picture represents is remarkable and a gift that they bring to us via their art.

Galaxie 500 were a band with a devoted following during the late 1980s/early 1990s within indie music’s insular community. This three-piece played what I’d call “slowcore” and had an obvious affinity for The Velvet Underground.

The band released three studio albums between 1987 and 1991 when they split apart: Dean Wareham off to Luna and Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang forming Damon & Naomi, focusing on dream pop splendor. Both post-Galaxie acts have remained active and viable since the three members went their separate ways.

Back of Galaxie 500’s “This Is Our Music” record jacket (Rough Trade, 1990)

When I’m home on Thursdays, I like to stream WFMU’s “This Is the Modern World With Trouble” program. Her station profile describe what she plays as “a viking ship appears on the horizon, a likeness of Loretta Lynn carved into its bow. Rare birds flock together to sing Francoise Hardy as soul hits. A sunset of blips and bleeps fills the air.”

One of the blips that Lynn/Trouble played this morning was Galaxie’s cover of “Listen, The Snow Is Falling,” which I didn’t know was a cover. The band included a solitary cover song on each of their studio outings, including George Harrison’s “Isn’t It A Pity” on their second disc, On Fire. Who were they covering on “Listen The Snow Is Falling”? None other than Yoko Ono.

When I was DJ’ing at WBOR, I was fond of playing this song, especially during this time of the year. I’m sure there were times when I was doing one of my six-hour student break marathons that I played the cut because snow was falling outside the studio windows. It’s an evocative piece as performed by this under-appreciated three-piece.

I’ve never been a huge Yoko fan, but I included the original if you care to compare the two. There’s no difficulty for me in choosing the version I prefer and in fact, love. The Galaxie 500 remake is splendid to listen to on a gray winter’s day when snow is falling from the sky. Perfectly evocative, too.

I love Lynn/Trouble’s program because she always manages to craft a mood that works for me, especially on Thursdays when I’m home. I especially love to be writing when she’s spinning her magic from Jersey City. Not only does she play great music, much of it new to me, she’ll talk about things she’s read, political issues she’s been paying attention to, and things happening in her neck of the woods. This week, she referenced and commented on this article from the New York Times that she read related to enrollments of international students at U.S. colleges and universities, falling. Reading the article, this jumped out at me, and she commented on it:

Nearly 1.1 million international students attended American colleges and universities in 2017. They generated $42.4 billion in export revenue, more than double the amount eight years ago, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Because far fewer Americans study abroad, the United States ran a $34.2 billion surplus in education in 2017.) Nafsa, a nonprofit group that supports international education, estimates that students from abroad created or sustained more than 455,000 jobs in the United States, almost nine times the number of American coal miners.

Good stuff!