| You’ve got to feel for Evan Dando. With the obvious exceptions of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, no other musician from the ’90s golden age of mainstream alt-rock is more deserving of an E! True Hollywood story than the tortured lead singer of The Lemonheads. Dando rose from obscurity in 1992 with The Lemonheads’ fifth album (the sublime It’s a Shame About Ray), reluctantly became a teen-idol (in 1993 he was named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the world), admitted to a taste for hard drugs, frequently made a public mess of himself and drifted into obscurity.
Sad, no? Well, the only thing the public likes more than a fall from grace is a comeback story. Ten years after the release of the last Lemonheads album, Car Button Cloth, Dando has returned. After removing himself from the public eye, Dando took a few years to pull himself together before gradually re-emerging onto the music scene. He began playing solo shows and released a live album in 2001. In 2003 he released the excellent solo album Baby I’m Bored, which featured some of the best folk-pop songs he’d written since 1993’s "Into Your Arms." The solo album was supported by a tour during which Dando looked healthy and lucid, peppering his set with old Lemonheads songs and cover tunes by heroes like country-rock godfather Gram Parsons. His 1995 stint fronting legendary Detroit band The MC5 wasn’t met with much critical praise, but it did offer proof that he was back and ready to rock out.
And what better way to rock out than by re-forming The Lemonheads? After playing a few special reunion shows, Dando got to writing some songs, presumably for another solo project. But the songs didn’t resemble the gentle sway of the tracks from Baby I’m Bored – they were feistier, with a punk-pop flavour that reminded Dando of The Lemonheads’ early work. Eventually he had enough songs to record a new self-titled Lemonheads album, which came out earlier this fall on Vagrant Records.
"I just wanted to do a more rock-type record," says Dando, who is sounding together and calm these days, though guarded and using very few words. "I just felt like I had another Lemonheads record. I was writing songs that just had a more Lemonheads feel. And then I found the perfect people to do it with, so that clinched the deal."
Even in their first run, the only consistent member of The Lemonheads has been Dando himself. In that respect, nothing has changed. Dando formed a new version of The Lemonheads with The Descendents’ rhythm section – Karl Alvarez on bass and Bill Stevenson on drums – but different lineups appear on some of the album’s songs and guest stars like Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis and The Band’s Garth Hudson also make appearances. Dando doesn’t offer much explanation as to why he calls the project "The Lemonheads" rather than using some new band name ("I just did it," is pretty much as eloquent as he’ll get on the subject), but he does say that he liked the idea of challenging people’s perception that The Lemonheads were over for good.
"I left it open-ended by calling the (1998) best of album The Atlantic Years," he says bluntly. "I always wanted to surprise people with another Lemonheads record and I finally got around to it."
The thing that is surprising about the new album is how good it is. Some critics have called it the best thing Dando’s done since It’s a Shame About Ray – and while that’s debatable, with the exception of the solo album it is definitely the most consistent. While Dando is once again fairly tight-lipped about the whole affair ("Sure, I like it," he deadpans, "but I’m kind of looking forward to making another one"), he does say that he doesn’t believe that he could have made an album like this immediately following Car Button Cloth, and despite his nonchalant interview style, he is clearly excited to be making quality music again.
"I was really burnt out and I needed some time to be away from the whole thing and to get excited again. So I don’t think I could have done anything at all (after the last Lemonheads album)," he says. "The most important thing is just playing live and making records. Nothing else means anything to me. It’s pretty clear now. Nuts and bolts." |
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