Deep Album Cuts Vol. 221: The Lemonheads
Lemonheads are a band I never gave much thought to back in the '90s when they were at the height of their success, but they've really grown on me in recent years. Last year I actually released a song that namechecked Evan Dando.
The Lemonheads deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Hate Your Friends
The Lemonheads deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Hate Your Friends
2. Fucked Up
3. Out
4. Plaster Caster
5. Falling
6. Mallo Cup
7. 7 Powers
8. Half The Time
9. Come Downstairs
10. Year Of The Cat
11. Rockin Stroll
12. Bit Part
13. Rudderless
14. Alison's Starting To Happen
15. The Turnpike Down
16. Hannah & Gabi
17. I'll Do It Anyway
18. Style
19. Rick James Style
20. Down About It
21. Paid To Smile
22. Dawn Can't Decide
23. Break Me
24. Hospital
25. 6IX
26. One More
27. No Backbone
28. Black Gown
29. Pittsburgh
30. Fragile
31. Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
Tracks 1 and 2 from Hate Your Friends (1987)
Tracks 1 and 2 from Hate Your Friends (1987)
Tracks 3, 4 and 5 from Creator (1988)
Tracks 6 and 7 from Lick (1989)
Tracks 8, 9 and 10 from Lovey (1990)
Tracks 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 from It's A Shame About Ray (1992)
Tracks 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 from Come On Feel The Lemonheads (1993)
Tracks 23, 24, 25 and 26 from Car Button Cloth (1996)
Tracks 27, 28 and 29 from The Lemonheads (2006)
Track 30 from Varshons (2009)
Track 31 from Varshons 2 (2019)
Evan Dando is pretty much synonymous with The Lemonheads in terms of their public profile, and he's been the only consistent member of the band through their whole 35-year history. But the original trio in the early years was Dando, guitarist/singer Ben Deily, and bassist Jesse Peretz formed in high school and recorded their first album as teenagers. Dando initially played drums and split writing and lead vocal duties with Deily, who had some excellent songs in his own right, I particularly like "Falling."
Deily left after their 3rd album, and Jesse Peretz, who left after the 4th album, has had a pretty great career as a director. In the '90s he directed big videos for Foo Fighters and Nada Surf and others (including a few Lemonheads videos after he was no longer in the group), and then episodes of TV shows like "Girls" and "The Office," and feature films including Our Idiot Brother. I once worked on a PSA directed by Jesse Peretz, and I really wanted to bug him for a few minutes and talk about the Lemonheads but it was a busy day so I never did.
It's A Shame About Ray, is definitely the best Lemonheads album, their only full album with Juliana Hatfield on bass (although she sang backup a bit on the next record). I think "Rudderless" is a strong candidate for the band's best song. The first 5 albums all simply said 'Lemonheads,' and they only added the 'The' to the name from the 6th album onward, which makes me think they basically changed the band name just for a silly reference to "Cum On Feel The Noize." Come On Feel The Lemonheads is kind of a weird record -- the first 30 minutes are the brightest and shiniest stuff they ever made, but then the last 25 minutes feel like you're just listening to a bunch of the band goof off in the studio -- lots of sloppy takes and silly lyrics and talking and instrumental noodling and "Rick James Style," a slowed down version of "Style" from the album's first half with Rick James singing backup. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the later albums are, though -- Car Button Cloth has a great sound, with Bryce Goggin producing and Murph from Dinosaur Jr. on drums, and The Lemonheads has some really catchy songs and some killer J Mascis guitar leads on "No Backbone" and "Black Gown."
It kind of bums me out that the only Lemonheads song I've heard on the radio since the '90s is their "Mrs. Robinson" cover, I'd really rather it be some other track. But then, several of the band's best known songs were covers, including "Luka" and "Into Your Arms," to the point that Kurt Cobain derisively called them "a fucking alternative cover band" in Michael Azerrad's Come As You Are. For better or worse, though, Lemonheads did have an eclectic repertoire of covers peppered across their early albums, from "Amazing Grace" to Charles Manson to the musical Hair to Gram Parsons to the Kiss deep cut "Plaster Caster." And the only 2 Lemonheads albums released since 2006 were covers albums which included the Wire and John Prine covers I ended this playlist with.
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on Thursday, February 04, 2021 at 11:18 AM.
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