LEMONHEADS: Classic or Dud?

I do Ray, it's a very very good album. Other than that, I don't think I've heard anything from them.

Classic, for sure. Light-hearted grungey power-pop excellence all the way. Should I bother investing in any of their other stuff while I'm at it?

"Hate Your Friends", "Creator", and "Lick" are amazing.

I do Ray

*falls out of chair giggling like a little schoolgirl*

No doubt this has been mentioned elsewhere on ILM (although I couldn't find it). The following is from an article in the Melbourne Times (May 12, 2004) on the Tote's 21st birthday celebrations:

For Richie Ramone, the celebration would be even more special ... if the Ask For Ray sign, which hung in the bar for more than a decade, could come home.

"The sign goes back as far as the days when Evan Dando lived here," Ramone says. "It was a big joke among the locals. Everyone was Ray.. The Lemonheads even did a song about it - It's a Shame About Ray."

Lovey has always been by far my least favourite album, too many dodgy rock tracks (The Door, Lil Seed, Ballarat.) Stove is a good song but sounds a lot better slowed down and acoustic, Half the Time is among Dando's best work and really stands out a mile on this album. A lot of people cite this as an 'inbetween' album and I think that's maybe why I dislike it.

Ray is classic, classic, classic. I also think Creator and Lick are really strong. Car Button Cloth was an initial disapointment but for me has held up surprisingly well.

A few months ago I caught Dando playing with Tim Rogers and had the unfortunate luck to see Evan up close at the bar. He looked extremely fucking haggard. They must take a lot of care with the photos these days.

The drugs don't seem to have affected his voice any though.

The series of shows with Rogers wasnt a good idea as he suffered by comparison.

Oh man, who is "james devon"? I'm gonna hunt him down and feed him to the sasquatches that I DJ outdoor raves for.

Missed your chance, his solo tour of the States last year had Juliana in those very capacities! (plus Murph from Dino Jr on drums. and possibly someone on second guitar, but I'm just guessing because he used a guitarist on the following Oz jaunt)

Tom and Andy Calvert played solo sets supporting Sam Shinazzi a few weeks ago, and got up to all play together at the end. On Missing You, Andy went into the crowd to try and offer Al the tambourine he was drumming on, to general amusement.

next month = this weekend for you, no?

whenever it's just dando alone, or dando and a band of two lessers, it's never as good.

"into your arms," which none of the above had a hand in writing but which the dando-plus-various-aussies lineup made their own, is just plain pure pop classic.

Great moment was during Evan's acoustic gig at the Corner in 2002, Tom Morgan and cohorts came on for the encore and ran through a few electric versions of early 'Heads stuff.

Yep, 7th, 8th and 9th for the Smudge gigs. May not make it to the one at the Espy though.

(x-post)

yup, that's an evan/eugene song and indeed it's a great one.

wombat, please tell smudge (and, while you're at it, sneeze) to come to the u.s. for crissakes. i've been trying to tell them myself but they don't listen.

(although they toured Europe and the UK in 2002, and supported themselves with Smudge and Godstar cover bands...)

I dare say if an American label were to put out a Smudge compilation and pay for airfares, they'd be happy to come. But otherwise, chances are subterraneanly low that there'd be the interest from audiences or promoters - they're only doing five dates on this October tour, ahead of a tenth-anniversary double-disc reissue of the first album, and they effectively split up five years ago (Evan supported, solo, at their farewell gig and came on to sing a few songs during the Smudge set. until he fell over during Divan and just lay on the floor for five minutes before crawling offstage) - and Adam and Alison have dayjobs blah blah blah.

though if the shows and Manilow re-release go well I reckon I won't be the only one urging Nic and Tom to consider the wisdom of a best-of! educate the kids and cash in on that early-90s nostalgia market that's going to rear up any day now just mark my words.

"into your arms," which none of the above had a hand in writing but which the dando-plus-various-aussies lineup made their own, is just plain pure pop classic.

Nic actually had a tiny hand in writing it: he went to work in the morning and told Robyn to come up with another couple of songs so they could finish off the album. he got home and she'd written Into Your Arms and Don't Slow Down from scratch - when covered, one became the Lemonheads' biggest hit and the other Ratcat's second-biggest. not bad for an afternoon's work.

Great moment was during Evan's acoustic gig at the Corner in 2002, Tom Morgan and cohorts came on for the encore and ran through a few electric versions of early 'Heads stuff.

That was a reunion of tribute band Lick! expect another in 2013 I guess

i was there! so were lots of other people! (though, granted, this was new york, which is not your average american town.) it made me a fan for life. and then they ... never ... came ... back.

The Half-a-Cow website mentions the possibility of new material in 2005..

The Rob Roy was packed out on Friday, the crowd significantly larger than when Sneeze and the Givegoods played there. They played a similar setlist to Thursday but augmented by a couple of Alison-sung numbers including Lighten Up Hank. The guy from the Smallgoods played guitar on a couple of tracks, then later Nic Dalton came on and they played Tea Toast & Turmoil. Tom's vocals were annoyingly inaudible throughout, he kept asking for them to be turned up but there was no perceivable difference. Great atmosphere compensated for the technical problems though. No new stuff but I guess they may have been curious to see how many people would show up given that they've been away (from Melbourne at least) for so long. If that was the case then they would have been mightily encouraged from the crowd reaction, all the old favourites were joyously received.

Couldn't make the St Kilda show on Saturday - hopefully they will be back before too long.

yes, going to both gigs, attempting to balance flogging CDs with bouncing up and down and grinning. presumably!

[Also got to hear some mixes from the in-progress Nic Dalton solo album (THAT'S NIC DALTON, FORMER BASSIST FOR THE LEMONHEADS, CLASSIC OR DUD?) in the carpark, and that could be pretty classic itself. No amplification, banjo & mandolin & string section on every song, all songs about heartbreak.]

Sydney rocked total balls, though. Modern Giant have written some new pop songs following the radio success (Triple J AND Radio National) of Keep On Movin', Sekiden played a blinder (and shifted almost three times as much merch as Smudge - though there they have the advantage of their entire career coming after Smudge's last release), and Smudge were blowing away the previous night's performance by soundcheck.

All the hits (INCLUDING POPULAR LEMONHEADS TUNES LIKE "DOWN ABOUT IT", DON'T YOU HATE IT WHEN AUSTRALIANS TAKE OVER A THREAD?), Scary Cassettes and Don't Wanna Be did get aired, halfway through Tom just gave up and started asking for requests. Leticia Nischang got up for guitar on I Was Born To Change The World. Nic had been on and off on Friday, but tonight came on about an hour in and just stayed onstage. He'd only learnt five songs, but I'm pretty sure he played a lot more than that. The set-closer was a cover of Whole Lotta Rosie with Alison singing (!), and the encore was Divan plus She Cracked by the Modern Lovers, with Mirko from Sekiden on extra vocals and handclaps.

Plus it was packed! And yes, shame about the Rob Roy - great venue, and so excellent that they had the accomodation for touring bands upstairs...

I like the sound of this ex-Lemonheads bass player Nic Dalton's solo album - the mandolin and banjo on the last Sneeze album rocked my world.

*all other songs are new, though some co-written with 1ucy 1eh/v\ann have been recorded, but not released, by her

classic classic classic classic. but then again, my band records for his label. but he is by far the sweetest guy i've ever met who's played for smudge, godstar, sneeze, the lemonheads and the hummingbirds. evan is a sweet guy, too, but he was never in the hummingbirds (i don't think!), so nic wins.

and that dreadful twee kids-drawing album cover ... AAAARGH! THE BILE! DESTROY!

dud, then.

Incidentally, Lemonheads = total classic, particularly up to and including LOVEY. I still like the stuff after that, but not as much.

Uh-uh. The first few albums are about as good as pop-punk can hope to get, and they've got a healthy double fistful of worthy tracks spread across their career in rock.

Neither.

http://myspace.com/thelemonheads

(No Backbone, the new single. With J Mascis on guitar and two Descendents on drums and bass.)

is there?

So many bands love him, I bet he is the dealer.

how do i shot rep 1 function

"28th August 2006
The forthcoming Lemonheads single Become The Enemy got its first UK radio play today, on BBC 6 Music."

( http://www.evandando.co.uk )

OBLIVION

damn 'rudderless' kicks copious amounts of ass. catchy, well crafted, and somehow moving all at the same time. makes me want to get my guitar out and write some similarly styled tunes.

it's like OK it's pretty but duh, why wouldn't it be

i used to like it but not really my cup o tea.

The new one is not the greatest thing, but it's got a few pretty terrific songs on it, and if you happen to be fond of Dando, there's just something pleasant and charming about hearing him back at it.

the new album from last year is half good. Kind of like the entire catalog.

NOT classic.

I brought him up over here a few months back:
The Lemonheads new album The Lemonheads

http://gulfport.craigslist.org/cto/1921015857.html

With the announcement of a new, grittier, Lemonheads album on the horizon, Fire Records will be reissuing the band's first three albums Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988) and Lick (1989), which showcase the band's early punk rock roots.

Fans are rejoicing over the news that Evan Dando will be reuniting with original co-songwriter Ben Deily for the new album, which will doubtless see a return to a rawer, more noisy sound and sees Ryan Adams on production duties. Dando and Deily were co-conspirators for the first three Lemonheads albums, which saw them in full punk rock mode and sounding like an entirely different band from the subsequent commercially successful major label releases. The three albums chart the course of the band from noise punk pranksters, to international pop stars as they evolved from Deily's Lemonheads to Dando's Lemonheads.

weird time to do this when he's also touring as a duo w/ Juliana

Curious about the result of all that.

i've caught myself blasting their entire discog this week. have always loved the weird "connection" dando makes in these painfully simple songs that's almost hard to describe. like a sad rumpled dog laying on the carpet asking for attention

what a charmer

Lovey is the work by which all the others should be measured. (All other Lemonheads albums, anyway)

― paul cox (paul cox), Thursday, October 3, 2002 6:19 PM (12 years ago)

This has to have been one of the earliest posts I ever made to ilm. (Still hold that same opinion btw.)

Lick above all else

here i am outside your house at 3am
tryna think you out of bed

he wonders why

the in-dig-oooo guy

Enjoying the new one. Think I like “Togetherness Is All I’m After” and “In the Margin” most right now

I whistle at your sill
echoes cross the street instead

also: Rat Velvet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujJeD21qFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMb0B9fQaq0

Performing at Lucinda's tonight

Sending out DMs of himself masturbating

https://tonyortega.substack.com/p/ugh-lemonheads-frontman-evan-dando?r=2uoi8u&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

jfc yuck

From the story underneath about Bijou Phillips:

(We’re also going to point out the link between our two stories today, because if we don’t certainly some of our readers will: Bijou claimed that she lost her virginity at 15 to Evan Dando when he was 27 or 28, for what it’s worth.)

Jeez, when he said he was cleaning himself up, this wasn’t what I had in mind. What a wreck of a human being.

Fucking gross

“Evan Dando has long struggled with mental health issues dating back to his childhood. He’s been admitted to a local hospital where he’s receiving comprehensive help from experienced doctors and mental health professionals.”

Ah yes, blame mental health, because he's the victim after all.

Do you put "sent vids of me jacking to strangers" on the intake form?

He was giving off the vibe of someone who should be admitted to hospital when I saw him play last year

"Our reader said that his wife was dealing with being sent unsolicited, unwanted videos from Evan Dando, the founder and frontman of 90s alternative-rock mainstays The Lemonheads, and those videos depict him masturbating. They were both grossed out by it, angry, and weren’t sure what to do about it."

So they had two choices:
a) Call the cops and give them the video
b) Send the video to some obscure blog

Very odd...

Ah right, the cops, who notoriously are helpful with sexual crimes

My girlfriend once got sent dick pics for hours one night. Called the cops who basically made it clear they didn't gaf or care about discovering who it was. Which it took me only one hour to solve using Google and Facebook.

So the choice was more like, hmm, do i share it w/ the cops who all giggle about it after i hang up, or share it with a blog and get the bad behavior exposed broadly so he actually stops doing it to people

Gee, which one would I choose

valuable new posters eight posts in 12.5 years tbf

Did notice that