Friday Morning Tunez…

…will be put on hold until I can devote more time to this blog.

Thank you.

Friday Morning Tunez: Ra Ra Riot

For this installment of Friday Morning Tunez, I’m choosing not one, but two songs by the Brooklyn-via-Syracuse University band Ra Ra Riot. I’ll be going to see them for the second time tomorrow night at The Cracker Factory, so might as well post their songs.

The first video is “Can You Tell”, from their first album The Rhumb Line. This video won Best Music Video at the 2009 Finger Lakes Film Festival (where my film, Strong Enough For A Man screened, thank you very much). This song got me through this past summer:

The second video is for their song “Boy”, which is featured on their 2010 album The Orchard. It’s a catchy song, and I dig Wes Miles wearing an Empire State Games shirt in the video. There are better songs on this album, IMO (“Foolish” and “Massachusetts” especially), but this a great song nonetheless.

Friday Morning Tunez: Love Song for the Dead Ché & Harmony Korine’s new movie

Today’s selection is “Love Song for the Dead Ché” performed by The United States of America, and appears on their one and only album, released in 1968. I feel weird posting two psychedelic era tunes two weeks in a row, but I’ve had this song stuck in my head all week. It’s a gorgeous, melancholy song.

Meanwhile, Harmony Korine has turned to crowdsourcing to fund his next project, God’s Joke. I gave the production some money, let’s hope he can produce something coherent.

Friday Morning Tunez: The Paisley Window Pane

This installment of “Friday Morning Tunez” features Wendy Flower singing “The Paisley Window Pane” with The High Llamas and Jane Weaver in the UK in 2007. Wendy originally recorded this song in 1969 as part of Wendy & Bonnie, a duo that featured her sister, Bonnie. Wendy & Bonnie recorded one album, Genesis, released in 1969. It’s great music, made all the more remarkable by the fact that Wendy and Bonnie were just 17 and 13, respectively.

Wendy & Bonnie’s label went under soon after the album came out, and their producer getting poisoned to death by morphine definitely didn’t help matters. Such a shame, because their music certainly fit in well with the zeitgeist of the time. Decades later, the band began to gather a following with groups like Stereolab and Broadcast (two favorites of yours truly) embracing their music. In 2003, The Super Furry Animals sampled their song “By The Sea” for their song “Hello Sunshine”.

So here for your listening enjoyment is “The Paisley Window Pane”:

Friday Morning Tunez: Electric Relaxation

Here is a feature I’m introducing: Friday Morning Tunez. So special, I spelled it with a “z”. The first song I’m choosing for this installment is A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation”, from their 1993 album Midnight Marauders. I’ve had this song stuck in my head for awhile now, and hopefully it’ll get stuck in your head, too!