The Lemonheads- "Strat's Rat" April 5, 1990

Evan Dando and the Lemonheads have been pretty much living in the past recently with the "covers" record, Varshons in 2009 and the more recent release of the Hotel Sessions, a lo-fi recording taken from a cassette recorded from a Walkman in his hotel room in Australia, circa 1993. The recording is basically Evan solo acoustic playing songs that would eventually appear on Come On Feel The Lemonheads. It's a rare glimpse into the artist working through songs without the full-band treatment, but these songs are more like demos than finished products. The sound quality is bootleg quality and so rough for an official release that it would have been more plausible to release this as a bonus disc on their next record or an extended special edition version of Come On Feel (which is probably in the works). The most recent Lemonhead's tour took them across North American and extended to the UK performing, It's A Shame About Ray in it's entirety. My prediction is he will play the Come on Feel album in it's entirety next tour.

Even before It's A Shame About Ray, the Lemonheads had a solid following, in fact a lot of early fans of the band didn't care for their more pop-rock sound of the 90's compared to a more grittier, punk rock sound. The band formed in 1986 (in Boston) with original members Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz (did you know Peretz directed Our Idiot Brother, The Ex and episodes of New Girl?) and the early albums, Hate Your Friends, Creator, Lick, featured both Dando and Deily as the frontmen. When Deily and Peretz left the band, so did the punk sound, as Dando reformed the band with a more melodic pop commercial sound. The show I'm posting is pre-It's A Shame About Ray, actually it was just before their major label debut album, Lovey was released. His attempt at a new song, Half The Time is priceless! This show is drunken and loose and is noteworthy for his interesting "tuning songs", it's a fun set with a lot of covers. I got this off Dime many years ago, it's a radio broadcast so the sound is good...and please play it loud!
Enjoy!

The Lemonheads
April 5, 1990
"Strat's Rat"/M.I.T. Student Center
Cambridge, MA
WMBR Broadcast > JVC Tape Deck > Goldwave

01. I Remember You (First Attempt) *
02. Homos @
03. Mallo Cup
04. Come Back BA
05. Nothing True
06. Tuning (Hickory Wind) #
07. Clang Bang Clang
08. Don't Tell Yourself
09. Tuning (Gloomy Sunday) $
10. Half the Time
11. Hate Your Friends
12. I Remember You (Second Attempt) *
13. I Don't Wanna
14. Out
15. Stove
16. Die Right Now
17. Strange +
18. Different Drum %
19. Luka &

* Skid Row Cover
@ Frogs Cover
# Byrds Cover
$ Billie Holiday Cover
+ Patsy Cline Cover
% Mike Nesmith/Linda Ronstadt Cover
& Suzanne Vega Cover

LEMONHEADS- 1990-04-05 Cambridge, MA FLAC. rar