It's a Shame About Ray

This week's edition of Retro Friday features the band The Lemonheads, and the song "It's a Shame About Ray."

The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band founded in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member.

Since its formation in 1986, recording and touring lineups of the band have included co-founders Deily and Peretz, John Strohm (Blake Babies), Doug Trachten, Corey Loog Brennan, Byron Hoag, Ben Daughtry, Juliana Hatfield (Blake Babies), Nic Dalton (Godstar, Sneeze, The Plunderers), Dave Ryan, Patrick "Murph" Murphy (Dinosaur Jr), Bill Gibson (Eastern Dark), Mark 'Budola' Newman, Kenny Lyon, Vess Ruhtenberg, Devon Ashley, Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson (Descendents) and P. David Hazel among others.

After their initial release, which was heavily punk-influenced, they toured as an independent/"college rock" band in the late '80s.  The Lemonheads' popularity grew on a much larger scale in 1992 with the major label release of the album It's a Shame about Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers (Bruce Robb, Dee, and Joe). This was followed by a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", which eventually became one of the band's most successful singles. The Lemonheads were active until 1997 before going on a hiatus, and then reformed with a new lineup in 2005 and released The Lemonheads the following year. The band released its latest album, Varshons, in June 2009.

My two favorite songs by the band The Lemonheads are both off the It's a Shame About Ray album. The first being the song with the same name as the album, "It's a Shame About Ray." The band that we were "band-aids" for in college, played this song quite a bit. They were the ones who turned us on to The Lemonheads in the first place, in the fall of 1992. My second favorite song off this album is the cover of "Mrs. Robinson." It is a fantastic, edgy version of the original Simon and Garfunkel classic!

And here they are, for your listening pleasure!

It's a Shame About Ray ...



Mrs. Robinson



Cheers!