The Lemonheads

The Lemonheads trace one of alternative music’s more improbable arcs, shifting from post-Hüsker Dü hardcore punk origins to become unlikely objects of adolescent affection. What began as a punk-pop trio of Boston-area teenagers gradually turned into Evan Dando’s personal outlet. Possessing striking features and an inviting, melodic voice, Dando emerged as a teen idol once Nirvana opened commercial doors for alternative acts in the early ’90s. His concise, hook-driven compositions offered immediate appeal while concealing lyrics of a more subversive bent, an ear for unconventional covers, and a longstanding allegiance to country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons. After refining his signature fusion of pop, punk, and country-rock across several indie releases in the late ’80s, Dando guided the Lemonheads to Atlantic Records in 1990. Two years later, It’s a Shame About Ray transformed the group into media darlings, with Dando’s image gracing magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Amid the ’90s alternative surge, the Lemonheads reached the summit of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart with “Into Your Arms,” yet personal excesses prevented sustained success. Following the 1996 release of Car Button Cloth, Dando and the band withdrew for roughly ten years before resurfacing in 2006 with a self-titled LP. Output grew infrequent in the 2010s and afterward, though Dando maintained a schedule of solo performances and periodic band reunions.

Born to a Boston lawyer father and a mother who worked as a fashion model, Evan Dando (vocals, guitar, drums) launched the Lemonheads in 1986 alongside high-school peers Ben Deily (vocals, guitar, drums) and Jesse Peretz (bass). The trio first operated under the name the Whelps, yet by the time they issued their debut EP, Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners, they had adopted the Lemonheads moniker. Cut the day after graduation, the EP appeared on their own Huh-Bag imprint and attracted Boston indie Taang!, which signed them later that year. By early 1987, Doug Trachten had joined as permanent drummer, freeing Dando and Deily to divide guitar and vocal responsibilities. The 1987 hardcore album Hate Your Friends, positioned stylistically between Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, marked their first full-length. Trachten departed afterward, prompting the recruitment of Blake Babies drummer John Strohm for 1988’s Creator.

Lick, issued in 1989, broadened their following through a vigorous power-pop reading of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka.” After Lick, Deily exited to form the Pods and later Varsity Drag. Dando spent a short spell with the Blake Babies before assembling a fresh Lemonheads lineup anchored by drummer David Ryan. The band joined Atlantic in 1990 and delivered Lovey, their most polished, tuneful, and wide-ranging set to that point. Dando’s attention drifted the next year, resulting in the solo EP Favorite Spanish Dishes. In 1992 he tracked It’s a Shame About Ray, enlisting Blake Baby Juliana Hatfield for bass and backing vocals.

It’s a Shame About Ray ultimately became the Lemonheads’ breakthrough, though commercial traction arrived only after a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” was appended months after the initial pressing. Momentum built through the close of 1992, positioning Dando as the next alternative figurehead. By the arrival of 1993’s Come on Feel the Lemonheads, Dando had attained minor-celebrity status, surfacing in gossip columns and socializing with Gen-X peers such as actor Johnny Depp and Hole’s Courtney Love. His profile even inspired an anti-Dando fanzine, I Hate Evan Dando. Recorded with new bassist Nic Dalton, Come on Feel was promoted as the album that would elevate the band to superstardom, yet Dando’s off-stage behavior garnered more attention than the music itself, even as “Into Your Arms” approached the pop charts. During promotional interviews he acknowledged heavy drug use, recounting an episode in which he smoked sufficient crack to impair his voice for weeks. Addiction intensified through 1994, leaving him visibly impaired during Oasis’s British tour that autumn. Early 1995 brought a solo U.S. trek alongside Epic Soundtracks, followed by a Glastonbury Festival appearance that drew boos after he arrived hours late.

Dando achieved sobriety for the balance of 1995, although he had not fully abandoned alcohol when he cut Car Button Cloth with a revised Lemonheads configuration that included former Dinosaur Jr. drummer Murph, guitarist John Strohm, and bassist Bill Gibson. The album received uneven notices upon its autumn 1996 release, produced no hit single, and received no supporting tour. Late the following year the band and Atlantic parted company, though the label retained rights to a 1998 greatest-hits collection.

After the split, Dando maintained a low profile until a 2001 solo tour and the understated 2003 solo album Baby I’m Bored. Three years later he reconvened the Lemonheads, releasing a self-titled record in 2006 that, while not groundbreaking, served as a credible continuation of It’s a Shame About Ray and Car Button Cloth. Prompted by years of mixtapes from friend and Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes, the Lemonheads issued the covers collection Varshons in 2009.

The group toured in support of Varshons between 2010 and 2012, frequently performing It’s a Shame About Ray in full. Speculation about a new, more punk-oriented album surfaced in 2012, fueled largely by Ryan Adams’s claims of drumming on the sessions, yet no such record appeared. Instead the Lemonheads entered a period of dormancy, playing sporadic shows before issuing another covers album, Varshons 2, in early 2019.

A 30th-anniversary deluxe edition of It’s a Shame About Ray emerged in 2022, augmented by demos, outtakes, acoustic recordings, and other bonus material. The following year Come on Feel the Lemonheads received comparable treatment, adding more than an album’s worth of alternate takes and contemporaneous covers.