The Lemonheads
The Lemonheads' evolution from post-Hnsker Dn hardcore punk rockers to teenage heartthrobs is one of the strangest sagas in alternative music. Initially, the group was a punk-pop trio formed by three teenage Boston suburbanites, but over the years, the band became a vehicle for Evan Dando. Blessed with good looks and a warm, sweet voice, Dando became a teen idol in the early '90s, when Nirvana's success made alternative bands commercially viable. While his simple, catchy songs were instantly accessible, they tended to hide the more subversive nature of his ly...[more]
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If Lovey captured Evan Dando as he found his signature blend of punk-pop, jangle pop, and folk-rock, It's a Shame About Ray is where he perfected that style. Breezing by in under half an hour, the album is a simple collection of sunny melodies and hooks, delivered with typical nonchalance by Dando. None of the songs are about anything major, nor do they have astonishingly original melodies, but that's part of their charm -- they're immediately accessible and thoroughly catchy. Dando' [ read more ]
CD $8.51
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VINYL FORMAT. On yellow vinyl! Download card included. Varshons, the new album from The Lemonheads, feels like a cool mix tape slipped to you by a music-obsessed friend. Produced by Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) and featuring guest appearances by Liv Tyler and Kate Moss, the collection is filled with strange bedfellows, from G.G. Allin and Townes Van Zandt to Wire and Leonard Cohen. Filled with obscure nuggets, the tracks on Varshons cut a wide swath, jumping from early British [ read more ]
LP $15.99
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VINYL FORMAT. Limited edition single from The Lemonheads on marbled black and white vinyl. "Luka" b/w "Strange" and "Mad."
7" $5.46
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Varshons, the new album from The Lemonheads, feels like a cool mix tape slipped to you by a music-obsessed friend. Produced by Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) and featuring guest appearances by Liv Tyler and Kate Moss, the collection is filled with strange bedfellows, from G.G. Allin and Townes Van Zandt to Wire and Leonard Cohen. Filled with obscure nuggets, the tracks on Varshons cut a wide swath, jumping from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica and like all good mix [ read more ]
CD $13.99
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VINYL FORMAT. Insound Staff Pick - 2009! After numerous lineup changes and independent releases Boston's Lemonheads signed to Atlantic Records for 1990's Lovey. It was with that record that Evan Dando began to move from Replacements style punk-pop into more gentle and jangly territory, and it's here, on It's A Shame About Ray, that he perfects his vision and launches the Lemonheads into international stardom. It's A Shame About Ray, is one of the hookiest and catchy records of th [ read more ]
LP $17.99
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"It really sounds like The Lemonheads. Maybe a little better." Evan Dando is getting a bit conspiratorial about the latest incarnation of the legendary pop/punk outfit he formed a full two decades ago, now about to unleash their eighth album on an unsuspecting and defenseless world. And how does this new release?the first for The Lemonheads on Vagrant Records?compare to, say, Dando's much-acclaimed solo work of the past few years? "Louder, faster, more like Buzzcocks pop-punk?and way less introspective."
CD $17.99
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Insound Staff Pick - 2009! Rhino gives you even more to love about The Lemonheads' 1992 modern rock masterpiece with It's a Shame About Ray (Collector's Edition), a deluxe two-disc CD+DVD reissue. In addition to the original album, this expanded edition features previously unreleased tracks and forty-five minutes of video content. When It's a Shame About Ray was released in 1992, lead singer Evan Dando's tart, literate alt-pop came together in a way that made it the Boston-based band's [ read more ]
2xCD+DVD $24.98
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VINYL FORMAT. Although it's fairly incoherent, bouncing back and forth between punk-pop and folky pop, Lick is a thoroughly engaging record. The tensions between Evan Dando and Ben Deily are fairly evident throughout the album, especially since Dando's songs, with their immediate hooks and melodies, outshine his bandmate's, but that unevenness makes the record endearingly messy. Also, the mess makes the group's best songs, including an inspired electric cover of Suzanne Vega's "Luka," shine all the m [ read more ]
LP $9.99
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Although it's fairly incoherent, bouncing back and forth between punk-pop and folky pop, Lick is a thoroughly engaging record. The tensions between Evan Dando and Ben Deily are fairly evident throughout the album, especially since Dando's songs, with their immediate hooks and melodies, outshine his bandmate's, but that unevenness makes the record endearingly messy. Also, the mess makes the group's best songs, including an inspired electric cover of Suzanne Vega's "Luka," shine all the more brightly. [ read more ]
CD $13.99
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Demonstrating an increased sense of pop, not only in their songwriting but also in their relatively measured performances, the Lemonheads turn in a winning second album with Creator. Although they still spend a little too much time mucking around with sub-hardcore noise, Evan Dando's gentler pop numbers are quite appealing, even when he treads a little too closely to dippy-hippie clichTs, and they certainly point the way to the engaging punk-pop of Lick. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Al [ read more ]
CD $4.73
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Come On Feel the Lemonheads should have been the album that propelled the trio and Evan Dando to stardom, but instead of delivering a concise pop record in the vein of It's a Shame About Ray, they made a messy album that never quite found its focus. That's not to say that Come On Feel is without merit, because that's hardly the case. In many ways, it's the most interesting record that the Lemonheads have released, because it finds Dando confused about everything, particularly love, both [ read more ]
CD $14.23