The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band first formed in
1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's
only constant member. Since its formation, recording and
touring lineups of the band have included co-founders Deily and Peretz,
John Strohm, Doug Trachten, Corey Loog Brennan, Byron Hoagland, Ben Daughtrey,
Juliana Hatfield, Nic Dalton, Dave Ryan, Patrick "Murph" Murphy, Josh Lattanzi,
Bill Gibson, Mark 'Budola' Newman, Kenny Lyon, Vess Ruhtenberg, Devon Ashley,
Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, P. David Hazel and various others.
After their initial punk-influenced releases and tours as an
independent/"college rock" band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads' popularity
with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It's a Shame about
Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers. 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 hiatus, but reformed with a new lineup
in 2005 and released The Lemonheads the following year. The band released its
latest album, Varshons, in June 2009. History
= Early years = Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz
formed the Lemonheads as teenagers at the Commonwealth School in Boston. The
band was originally called the Whelps, until inspiration came from a brand of
candy, which Dando noted was "sweet on the inside and sour on the outside." The
band recorded and self-released the 7" EP Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners.
The band's first show was played on August 19, 1986.
After high school, Dando enrolled at Skidmore College but could not maintain
his grades and dropped out to pursue a musical career. Having signed to local
label Taang! Records, the Lemonheads released the albums Hate Your Friends,
Creator, and Lick with Deily and Dando sharing lead vocals and songwriting
duties. The band enjoyed a good deal of college radio airplay and were popular
in the burgeoning indie rock scene, up until Deily left the band in 1989. Dando
then recruited David Ryan on drums, signed to major label Atlantic Records,
and produced the album Lovey in August 1990. Straddling punk rock, country
music and heavy metal, Lovey was released a year before the commercial
explosion of grunge. = Breakthrough and height of fame =
Dando cut his losses and flew to Australia to write some songs with
friends Nic Dalton and Tom Morgan. These songs formed the basis for It's a Shame
about Ray, the Lemonheads' breakthrough album. A cover of "Mrs. Robinson" was
released as a single and got them the most exposure they had had so far. This
cover was also used in the film Wayne's World 2 and in Martin Scorsese's 2013
film The Wolf of Wall Street. When the Ray album was reissued, the track was
tacked on to the end. The band enjoyed some success on college radio, and
mainstream exposure. During 1992-1993, Dando's face graced many magazine
covers, and he was included in People's 50 Most Beautiful People list.
The band officially renamed themselves from "Lemonheads" to "The Lemonheads"
prior to the release of the Come on Feel the Lemonheads LP. A breakthrough single
still eluded the band as they released Come on Feel the Lemonheads in October
1993. The band continued to tour featuring various lineups including
bassist Mike County and guitarist Bill Peterson. This was a successful album
with tracks such as "Big Gay Heart" and "It's about time." The band enjoyed
modest mainstream success, this time with the single "Into Your Arms". Writer
Robyn St. Clare made the first recording of this song in 1990 as part of Love
Positions with Nic Dalton. Dando befriended Oasis and appeared at
the band's live shows. The cracks were beginning to show, and after one
particularly disjointed interview with Dando almost unable to speak, having
lost his voice after smoking crack cocaine, he admitted to having a drug
problem, In 1996, Dando re-formed The Lemonheads,
featuring John Strohm and Murph, as well as bassist Bill Gibson of the Australian
band The Eastern Dark, a long-time associate of previous bassist Nic
Dalton. This band produced another Lemonheads album, Car Button Cloth.
While featuring jangly guitar songs such as "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You," this
set also showed off the darker side of Dando's writing.
The band contributed to Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, a 1996 tribute album for
Schoolhouse Rock! creator Thomas G. Yohe, which contained remakes of many
popular "Schoolhouse Rock!" songs - The Lemonheads offered their take on "My
Hero Zero." Previously, the band had contributed to a Kiss tribute album,
recording Kiss' 1977 song "Plaster Caster" for Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss
Regrooved. The band toured successfully in 1997 and
played a final gig at the UK's Reading Festival. Following a cameo line in the
BBC's all-star cover version of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", Dando continued to
play live solo shows. = Hiatus =
Atlantic released The Best Of The Lemonheads in August 1998. Through 1998
and 2004 Evan Dando undertook some solo tours performing the band's songs but an
official reunion was never confirmed. During this time, Dando released a live
album Live at the Brattle Theatre in 2001, and a solo album in 2003, titled
Baby I'm Bored. He also co-wrote the song "The Last High" with Courtney
Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols for the album Welcome to the Monkey House by
The Dandy Warhols. = Return =
After a nine-year recording absence, it was announced in the summer of 2005 that
the band had reformed with a recording lineup bolstered by Bill Stevenson and
Karl Alvarez, members of Descendents. Recently, the live lineup has
fluctuated, with Stevenson and George Berz both sitting in on drums during
2005, while Josh Lattanzi—chiefly known for his work with Ben Kweller—has
frequently taken on bass duties for live shows.
On September 14 and 15, 2005, Dando, Stevenson and Lattanzi performed two
shows at Shepherds Bush Empire in London as part of the ATP Don't Look Back
series, where they played It's a Shame About Ray in its entirety.
In April 2006, The Lemonheads were signed to Vagrant Records. The album,
simply titled The Lemonheads, was released on September 26, 2006 in the
United States and one day earlier in the UK; the album featured special guests
Garth Hudson and J Mascis on select tracks. To promote the album Dando
toured the UK, Europe and US in late 2006 with a band consisting of Vess
Ruhtenberg and Devon Ashley of The Pieces. In the US, they toured with
Vietnam and Hymns as support. The same line-up toured again in 2007 and 2008.
The recording line-up of Dando, Alvarez and Stevenson played live for the first
time together on a 20-date US tour in late 2007.
While The Lemonheads reformed, co-founder Deily received a degree from
Harvard University. He currently works as an Associate Creative Director in the
advertising industry. His power pop/punk band, Varsity Drag, completed a 25-city
European tour during January and February 2007, performing their own
material alongside several Deily compositions from the first four
Lemonheads releases. Varsity Drag continues to perform periodically in the
Boston Area. A deluxe reissue of Lemonheads' 1992
album It's a Shame About Ray was released in March 2008 and April 2008 on
Rhino Records, which features demos, B-sides and a DVD issue of the
previously VHS-only Two Weeks In Australia, featuring footage from the
band's Australian tour in the wake of their breakthrough album's release. To
promote the reissue, the line-up of Dando, Ruhtenberg and Ashley performed
the album in full at a number gigs between March and May 2008. Later in
2008 the band toured again in Europe with Vess Ruhtenberg and P. David Hazel
of Beta Male. On April 23, 2008, at the inaugural NME
US Awards ceremony at the El Rey in Los Angeles, Dando received the classic
album award for It's A Shame About Ray, and also performed "My Drug Buddy" and
the album's title track acoustically. According to reports, soon after
receiving the award, Dando deposited it into a garbage can, telling a minder "I
don't want this". On June 23, 2009, The Lemonheads
released Varshons - a collection of eleven covers, including tracks by Gram
Parsons, Wire, GG Allin, and Christina Aguilera. The album also featured
actress Liv Tyler performing a duet on Leonard Cohen's "Hey That's No Way To
Say Goodbye". Despite several websites reporting a release date of September
13, 2008, the album was not released on this date. Later, in a blog post on the
band's MySpace page, Dando hinted at a March 2009 release. On March 27, 2009,
it was announced that Varshons would be released on June 23 on The End Records.
In an August 2007 interview, drummer Bill Stevenson stated that he was going
to produce the Lemonhead's ninth album of original material. As of August 2010,
however, announcements of a new album have not yet been released.
In September 2010 the Lemonheads announced an Australian tour playing all
thirteen songs from the 1992 album It's a Shame about Ray, plus a selection of
songs from other albums. On February 7, 2012, The Lemonheads will
release Hotel Sessions on Hall of Records/Breath of Saltwater – an
intimate recording documenting a Sunday night that Evan Dando spent recording
new songs with just an acoustic guitar in a hotel room in Bondi Beach,
Australia. The 14 songs include some that never made it to an official
Lemonheads album, but Dando says, “the "Into Your Arms" I did here is better
than the one on the album.” As of March 2012, The Lemonheads are
wrapping up a 9 week U.S. tour playing all thirteen songs from the 1992 album
It's a Shame about Ray, plus a selection of songs from other albums. Lead singer
Evan Dando recruited drummer Chuck Treece and former Taking Back Sunday
lead guitarist Fred Mascherino to play bass.
April 23, 2012, The Lemonheads played a gig at Waterfront, Norwich, UK.
August 21, 2012, in was announced that Juliana Hatfield would rejoin The
Lemonheads for a late year tour supporting The Psychedelic Furs.
On September 17, 2012 Ryan Adams tweeted that he would be playing drums on a new
'punker sounding' Lemonheads album as well as producing it. He also announced
that Evan Dando would be joined on the record by Juliana Hatfield and, for the
first time since 1989's Lick, co-founder and original co-songwriter Ben Deily.
Discography Studio albums
Hate Your Friends Creator
Lick Lovey
It's a Shame About Ray Come on Feel the Lemonheads
Car Button Cloth The Lemonheads
Varshons References
External links The Lemonheads official site
Ben Deily official site