Legendary grunge pop wastrels The Lemonheads are set to release an album of cover versions later this year.
Led by Evan Dando, The Lemonheads’ mixture of alt rock noise and blissful 60s inspired songcraft became an unlikely chart success in the mid 90s. The album ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ stands as perhaps the groups finest moment, a stunning slice of slacker rock from the glory years of fuzz pedals and check shirts.
That album was followed by the global hit single ‘Mrs Robinson’. A raucous run through of the Simon & Garfunkel classic, the track remains the band’s calling card even if they hardly ever play it live.
Even Dando remains the band’s main creative force, and indeed their only constant member. The forthcoming album is titled ‘Varshons’ and was allegedly inspired by Butthole Surfers musician Gibby Hayes.
“Making a good mix is an art, and Gibby has it down,” Dando said in a statement. “I thought it would be fun to share these songs with other people like he shared them with me. So I picked the ‘greatest hits’ from his mixes and covered them, along with a few other songs I always wanted to play.”
The album is packed with guest appearances. Hollywood actress Liv Tyler adds guest vocals to a cover of the Leonard Cohen classic ‘Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’. Amongst the artists whose songs appear on the album are Linda Perry, country troubadour Townes Van Zandt and outrageous punk icon GG Allin.
The Lemonheads’ new album ‘Varshons’ is due to be released on June 23rd in the United States. Full tracklisting is as follows:
‘I Just Can’t Take It Anymore’ (Gram Parsons)
‘Fragile’ (Wire)
‘Layin’ Up With Linda’ (G.G. Allin)
‘Waiting Around To Die’ (Townes Van Zandt)
‘Green Fuz’ (Randy Alvey & Green Fuz)
‘Yesterlove’ (Sam Gopal)
‘Dirty Robot’ feat. Kate Moss (Arling & Cameron)
‘Dandelion Seeds’ (July)
‘Mexico’ (Fuckemos)
‘Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ feat. Liv Tyler (Leonard Cohen)
‘Beautiful’ (Linda Perry)