• News

• All

Aug 17, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Kourosh Erfanian

Dean Wareham (of Luna, Galaxie 500, and Dean & Britta) has announced a new solo album, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A., and shared its first single, “The Past Is Our Plaything,” via a video for it. I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. is due out October 15 via Double Feature. Check out the Alexandra Cabral-directed “The Past Is Our Plaything” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

Wareham had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘The Past Is Our Plaything’ was recorded at a studio on Stinson Beach, just north of San Francisco, in November 2020. The song sorta grew out of observations by Julian Barnes in my favorite book last year—the Man In the Red Coat—about a collection of dandies, drug addicts, artists and writers in belle epoque France and England.”

Wareham’s last solo album was 2014’s Dean Wareham but since then he’s kept busy, including doing the soundtrack for Mistress America with his wife, Britta Phillips, and reuniting and touring with Luna.

“The hard thing is just to start,” Wareham says of the gap between solo albums. “When I sat down and did it, the songs came pretty quickly.”

Papercuts’ Jason Quever produced and played on the album, which also features Phillips on bass, vocals, and keys, and Roger Brogan on drums.

In terms of the album’s title, I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A., and what he would say if he actually met the mayor of Los Angeles, where Wareham and Phillips have been based since 2013, Wareham responds: “It’s gonna happen. But the answer is right there too—I have nothing to say.”

I Have Nothing to Say to the Mayor of L.A. Tracklist:

1 The Past Is Our Plaything
2 Cashing In
3 The Last Word
4 Robin & Richard
5 The Corridors of Power
6 As Much As It Was Worth
7 Under Skys
8 Red Hollywood
9 Duchess
10 Why Are We In Vietnam?

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.