You know the drill. Rock ‘n’ roll memoirs need three essential
elements: sex, drugs, and—space permitting—rock ‘n’ roll.
Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance is lacking all
three.
Sure, there’s some sex, but it’s often awkward and haunted by the
black cloud of guilty infidelity. Drugs are present, although it’s
mostly Ambien for the long plane rides; and if you have ever heard Dean
Wareham’s two bands—Galaxie 500 and Luna—you know they
barely rock. Yet despite all this—and in blatant defiance
of the rules set forth by The Dirt, Mötley Crüe’s rock
memoir to end all rock memoirs—Black Postcards is still an
enjoyable read.
This is primarily because Dean Wareham is one likeable fellow. (This
is probably not an opinion shared by his former wife, countless scorned
ex-bandmates, or the discarded, bankrupt record labels he has left in
his wake. But other than that, the guy is a real peach.) Wareham comes
across as a rock ‘n’ roll tourist, aimlessly killing time behind a mic
and guitar, documenting the whole experience like a visitor on the
outside looking in. The book consists of his obsessive, clinical tour
documentation, a writing ritual that he kept for his entire career in
music. (And I do mean obsessive—what did he eat for dinner
before the 1998 Luna show in Spain? He had the fish.) But for all that
detailing, he tends to devote less time to the larger picture,
especially his relationship with Luna bassist Britta Phillips, which
eventually dissolved his already unstable marriage.
The best moments of Black Postcards come not when Wareham is
describing the van-to-venue minutia of touring, but when he examines
the difficult relationships between band members (“I felt like a lonely
prisoner in my own band”), and how, after contracts are penned and
success—no matter how modest—comes calling, friendships
change forever. This was especially the case within the tight dynamic
of Galaxie 500, a doomed relationship perfectly summed up in this line:
“You may still be able to laugh together and have fun, but at the heart
of it all something has changed forever. Your friendship has been
poisoned.”