Obsessed with the weather?
Is there evidence to support Justin's claim that Dean has a weather obsession?
There’s an interview somewhere (that I haven’t tracked down yet) where Justin (Harwood, Luna’s first bassist) accuses Dean Wareham of being “obsessed with the weather” and accuses him of watching The Weather Channel.
Update - 11th December 2025
OK… I did track down the interview, it’s the one by Jen that I reprinted some of in Everything’s Swirling #3, although it wasn’t in the bit I used - you can see it in the Wayback Machine:
Dean: The most obvious thing is when you walk outside — what kind of day it is hits you, and that finds its way into your music.
Jon (NSD): Do you like sunny days, grey days...?
Justin: Dean is obsessed with the weather. He watches the Weather Channel every morning.
Dean: It’s just lazy songwriting. I don’t watch the Weather Channel every morning.
Justin: You do so.
Dean: I listen to it on the radio.
Justin: We used to ring him up and ask, “What sort of day is it going to be tomorrow?” “Well, it’s going to be overcast with a... “It’s really bizarre. And he’d be right. Every time. “It’s going to get cold in the afternoon, but then in the evening it’s going to warm up...”
Dean denies this… but, let’s look at the evidence?
Exhibit A - Dean’s choice of cover versions
Rain - The Beatles (covered by Galaxie 500).
Ride Into The Sun - The Velvet Underground (covered by Luna).
Everybody’s Talking - Fred Neil (covered by Luna).
I’m goin’ where the sun keeps shinin’
Thru the pourin’ rain,
Goin’ where the weather suits my clothes.—Everything’s Swirling (Fred Neil)
Hear The Wind Blow - Opal (covered by Dean & Britta).
Hear the wind blow
Blow through every tree
Inside every house
If you’re listening—Hear The Wind Blow (Roback / Smith)
Two different songs called Indian Summer - Beat Happening (covered by Luna) / The Doors (covered by Dean & Britta)
One Fine Summer Morning - Evie Sands (covered by Britta and Dean)
One fine summer morning
When the dawn is softly calling
To a day that’s showing promise
Of a lovely summer evening—One Fine Summer Morning (Gorgoni)
She Went Walking in The Rain - Cheval Sombre (covered by Dean Wareham)
Snow is Falling in Manhattan - Purple Mountains (covered by Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom)
Listen, The Snow is Falling - Yoko Ono (covered by Galaxie 500)
Exhibit B - Galaxie 500
Summertime - Galaxie 500 “The heat is just delicious”.
Snowstorm - Galaxie 500
Sorry - Galaxie 500 “Well I’m sorry about the weather […] we love the weather”.
I know that these lyrics weren’t written by Dean but the lyric is definitely that we love the weather so, I think he’s included!
Oblivious - Galaxie 500 “Rain coming down and I couldn’t see much”.
Exhibit C - Luna
Sideshow by the Seashore - Luna “an electrical storm has caught us in a trap”.
Speedbumps - Luna “It’s raining rain, it’s raining snow”.
Romantica - Luna “It’s cold in the autumn, It’s warm in the freezer”.
Motel Bambi - Luna “Where has all the sunshine gone?”.
Exhibit D - Dean & Britta
The Sun is Still Sunny - Dean & Britta “Your daddy is drinking a toast to the rain”.
Exhibit E - Dean Wareham
Love Is Not a Roof Against the Rain - Dean Wareham
The Cloud is Coming - Dean Wareham
So the evidence seems to suggest that Dean may indeed be “obsessed with the weather” - although the weather isn’t always nice to him. At the 1997 Benicassim Festival in Spain the weather turned against one of its biggest fans…
It was a warm and muggy afternoon, and it rained for a while, but then the rain abruptly stopped.
This was the proverbial calm before the storm, a storm that roared in off the Mediterranean. I was standing at the back of the stage, starting to take my guitar out of its case and get my pedals ready, when I noticed the extraordinary wind. I looked up at the huge metal scaffolding that held the lights above the stage, and the big canvas sign with all the sponsors’ names on it blowing in the wind. It didn’t look quite right to me. I thought of Curtis Mayfield, who was paralyzed in 1990 when a lighting rig fell on him at an outdoor gig in Brooklyn.
Then came the rain. It came in horizontally, and Urusei Yatsura’s drum kit started to move. Those brave/stupid Scottish kids kept playing their song even as the wind blew the drum kit clean off the stage. Ten seconds later I saw the entire scaffolding come crashing down, and the stage collapsed and everyone was running and screaming.
—Dean Wareham - Black Postcards
Here’s a clip of those “brave/stupid Scottish kids”