"The Last Lemonheads Album" - Lovey 30 Years On

The Lemonheads are my second favorite band, right behind The Descendents/ALL at number one. Like I said in my blog entry for their third album Lick here, this includes the whole package. Everything under the band's name from their Laughing All The Way To The Cleaners debut 7", to the two recent covers albums. 

But there are a couple of different "eras" of the band.

When Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz formed the band they chose their name because like the candy they were self-proclaimed "sweet on the inside and sour on the outside". Melodic hooks surrounded by punk noise. 

Soon they were on Boston's TAANG! Records and recording the album Hate Your Friends, Evan, and Ben switching off vocals. For their second album Creator, the band picked up Corey Loog Brennan from their labelmates Bullet Lavolta, and the classic Lemonheads lineup was in place. 

This is where the band really shined, winning me over when I first heard their sweet and sour cover of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” off their third album Lick on MTV's 120 Minutes.

In the summer of 1990, I would be able to pick up my first brand-new Lemonheads album. This time on a major label Atlantic Records.

Somewhere in between Lick and the upcoming album Deily left the band. Evan Dando would now be the sole singer of the band. He really took the opportunity and ran with it.  

When I picked up the album I was happy to see the duo of Paul Q Kolderie and Sean Slade at the production controls. They had just done an incredible job on Uncle Tupelo’s debut which was just a few weeks earlier. Plus, there was the Lemonheads' fellow Massachusetts band Dinosaur Jr's Bug album Kolderie and Slade recorded just a few years earlier.  

Pressing play on the CD player you could hear their influence almost right away on the first three tracks in “Ballarat”, with its wall of noise guitars with Blake Babie's Juliana Hatfield screaming along. and driving guitar fuzz of “Year of the Cat” and “Half the Time” at tracks 2 and 3.  

  

“Ride with Me” slows it down. It is good to hear a Lemonhead's slower songs like “Don’t Tell Yourself” off Hate Your Friends or “Out” off of Creator with a little more hefty production.

After some straight-ahead hard rock in “Litl’ Seed”, comes the perfect example of Kolderie/Slade production in the revved-up and fuzz-filled metaphor of the replacement of a kitchen appliance in “Stove”. For a rougher version of this song check out the soundtrack to the 1990 movie A Matter of Degrees which also features songs by fIREHOSE, Miracle Legion, Grant Hart’s post-Husker Du band Nova Mob, Alice Chilton, Yo La Tengo, the before mentioned Uncle Tupelo and more.  

A couple loud and fast numbers in “Come Downstairs” and “Left for Dead”(a redo of “Clang Bang Clang” off Creator), before the album's only acoustic number “Brass Buttons” (almost) closes out the album. The song is a cover of a Gram Parsons song off his 1974 Grievous Angel album which I would soon be searching out. 

The 5:30 minute heavy metal influenced “(The) Door” closes out the album.   

So why do I refer to Lovey as the “Last Lemonheads album”?  

In a way it was.  

After Lovey bassist, Jesse Peretz would exit the band leaving Evan Dando as the only original member. Peretz would go on to be pretty successful in photography and film, even directing the video for The Lemonheads' cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”  

Corey Loog Brennan also exited the band

The Lemonheads would not really be a band. Now they were an Evan Dando vehicle.  

It's A Shame About Ray line-up, Dave Ryan, Julianna Hatfield, Evan Dando

Don’t get me wrong, Evan put out some of his best stuff post-Lovey and I love all of it. But with the breakthrough, It’s a Shame About Ray, and the power/pop-influenced Come On Feel The Lemonheads the band had a revolving door of members. The before mentioned Juliana Hatfield plays bass on only It’s a Shame About Ray. 1996's Car Button Cloth has numerous different musicians on it. The Descendents Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez took up the drums and bass for the 2006 self-titled release but by the time I saw The Lemonheads on tour for that album, they were both long gone. 

I did get to see the Lovey line-up of The Lemonheads in 1990 at the old 9:30 Club while on tour for this album and they were awesome. 

From 1994 to 2009, I saw The Lemonheads dozens of times. They were great almost every time but each show was Evan and a whole new band. 

 Plus, the Robb Brother production on those two post-Lovey albums took the sour part, the noise, out of the equation, leaving us with just the sweet.

Again I love the whole picture of the band and listen to each album almost equally. But when I listen to those first four albums I am reminded of that sweet and sour sound that blew me away when I first heard the band that late Sunday night on 120 Minutes. 

Here is the official video of "Half the Time" off of Lovey, which honestly I am not sure I ever saw before.