A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
A new (to me at least) Luna track
OK, so it's probably a bit arrogant but I really had an idea that this site (and therefore I) pretty much knew all there was to know about Luna and their published work (or at least from 1994/5 onwards) so when I came across a track I knew nothing about this morning I felt a bizarre mix of excitement and shame.
One of my Google alerts threw up this cool post on Candybar about Tell Me Do You Miss Me - at the bottom of which the poster, Frank, had linked to a mixwit introduction to Luna mix. I idly clicked the button and started listening and went on with my other business. Then on came "Westbound and Down" - it was definitely Dean singing but I had never heard, or heard of, this track.
A bit of poking around the Internet revealed that the track was recorded for the film Radio Free Steve (official site), the film had been (mostly) made in 1984 and released in 2000 (available on DVD from here). Westbound and Down is a cover of a Jerry Reed track from the "comedy" film Smokey & the Bandit (you can hear the original over here - youtube). The lyrics for Luna's version have been changed to suit its new use.
Sean explained in an email to me about how Westbound and Down came about
[It] was something i agreed to do for a friend in Austin Texas, who came to Luna shows and threw some good parties. His brother had made a low-budget movie called "Radio Free Steve", and they wanted a cover of this song with lyrics slightly changed for the last scene of the film. I was given $800 for the recording cost and Lee, Dean and I did it in an afternoon for about $400. The other $400 remaining was used to fund the video for "Superfreaky Memories" done by my friend Christian Moore. I play the bass and all guitars on the tune, Lee's on drums, and of course Dean is singing.</p>