LEMONHEADS ****

The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in 1983 by the singer/guitarist, Evan Dando, who has been the band's only constant member.

Since forming, recording, and touring lineups of the band have also included co-founders Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz, John Strohm (Blake Babies), Doug Trachten, Corey Loog Brennan, Byron Hoag, Ben Daughtry, Juliana Hatfield (Blake Babies), Nic Dalton (Godstar, Sneeze, The Plunderers), Dave Ryan, Patrick "Murph" Murphy (Dinosaur Jr), Bill Gibson (Eastern Dark), Mark 'Budola' Newman, Kenny Lyon, Vess Ruhtenberg, Devon Ashley, Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson (Descendents), P. David Hazel and various others.

The Lemonheads' popularity grew in 1992 with the album It's a Shame about Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers (Bruce Robb, Dee, and Joe), 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 and went on hiatus, but reformed with a new lineup in 2005 and released The Lemonheads in the following year. The band released its latest album, Varshons, in June 2009.

History

Early years (1986-1991)

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 18, 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 (1987), Creator (1988), and Lick (1989) 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 album was released a year before the commercial explosion of grunge.

Breakthrough and height of fame (1992-1997)

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" (recorded to promote the video release of The Graduate) 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. When the Ray album was reissued, the track was tagged 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 "Style" and "The Jello Fund." The band enjoyed modest mainstream success, this time with the single "Into Your Arms" (their highest charting UK hit to date). 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 (ex-Dinosaur Jr), 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 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 (1994).

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" (which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart), Dando continued to play live solo shows.

Hiatus (1998-2004)

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.

Comeback (2005-present)

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 The Descendents. Recently, the live lineup has fluctuated, with Stevenson and George Berz (Dinosaur Jr) 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 (bass) and Devon Ashley (drums) of The Pieces. In the US, they toured with Vietnam and Hymns (band) 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 (US) and April 2008 (UK) 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 (drums) 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.