Luna has reformed and will play two New Zealand shows in September, Auckland’s Tuning Fork on September 19 and Wellington’s MOON, September 22. Luna is one of several musical projects featuring the talented Dean Wareham. New Zealand born, Wareham was raised in Australia and America, he didn’t play in the city of his birth until 2010’s Arts Festival.

Before Luna there was Galaxie 500, after Luna Wareham and that band’s bassist, Britta Phillips (the singing voice of Jem from Jem and The Holograms, trivia buffs!) formed the duo Dean & Britta, released albums and soundtracks, married, moved into some acting and brought their 13 Most Beautiful show to New Zealand, a set of imagined soundtracks for Andy Warhol’s screen test footage. The following year Dean and Britta returned with the show Dean Wareham Plays Galaxie 500 and most recently Wareham has released a fantastic mini-album and full solo album; both worthwhile records.

The next phase of his “looking back” is the reunion of Luna. This comes nearly 10 years to the day after the band’s last album was released and features the line-up of the band th at was in existence from 1999-2005, the second-phase of Luna: Wareham and Phillips with Sean Eden on guitar and Lee Wall on drums.

I’ve spoken to Wareham ahead of his two previous Wellington visits, to read back about the 13 Most Beautiful Show and career summary (including his must-read memoir) click here. And to read about his revisiting of the Galaxie catalogue click here.

The Luna reunion shows will be fantastic. Roll on September.