Pitchfork

Left in the wake of the Wishkah, a lot of now-defunct indie-rock pioneers are releasing live albums to support their old school heroin habits. But that's not the case with Galaxie 500's Copenhagen. One of most terrific bands on the planet left their mark on the barren ground that was the music scene of the late 1980s. Years later, they're hailed as the definitive slowcore band. And that they are; they only practically invented the genre.

Copenhagen archives the last stop of their final tour on December 1st, 1990, and is just now available on CD. These kids wind their way through nine tracks including some of their most memorable songs and a few of their trademark covers (Yoko Ono's "Listen, the Snow is Falling", The Velvets' "Here She Comes Now", and Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste"). At once beautiful and sad, Copenhagen documents the live performance of a band whose music has stood the test of time for ten years and will probably continue to do so for another hundred.