Bowery Ballroom

showview

The Lemonheads

Second Dan

Sun 3/30

Tickets

21+

Doors 8pm

$25

The Lemonheads

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http://thelemonheads.net
“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.”

Talk about getting back to your roots. For the Vagrant offering, Dando convened two of his early influences—the unholy duo of drummer Bill Stevenson (DESCENDENTS, BLACK FLAG) and bassist Karl Alvarez (DESCENDENTS)—in a remote Rocky Mountain hideaway. And it was there, off and on over eighteen months, that they kicked out the first LEMONHEADS album in ten years. Said guitarist/singer/songwriter Dando of Stevenson and Alvarez, “I wanna make another loud record, and those are the guys to do it with.”

After putting those guys together, then it was just like flicking a switch. "We started out in JAM, BUZZCOCKS territory”, explains Dando, pointing to the green RAF parkas and skinny black ties hanging on the studio wall. “We've got some psyched-out country on there as well”, he observes, adjusting the improbably wide lapels on his vintage Nudie suit. “But all of it is squarely in THE LEMONHEADS tradition."

Dando and Stevenson co-produced the album, and Stevenson wrote or co-wrote three of its eleven songs; long-time Australian collaborator Tom Morgan added another two. And very much inna LEMONHEADS stylee, there’s cameos galore: from wunderkind bassist Josh Lattanzi (“Poughkeepsie”, “Rule of Three”, “In Passing”), certifiable rock giant Garth Hudson (THE BAND, who plays keyboards on “Black Gown” and “December”), and some real foot-on-monitor guitar work by DINOSAUR JR’s J. Mascis (“No Backbone”, “Steve’s Boy”).