It’s only two more days before The Lemonheads come to Manila, and most of you 90s kids who are watching the December 4 show are probably already gushing about hearing lines like “I’m too much with myself, I wanna be someone else,” or “waiting for something to break, left my heart out to bake!”
Let us maintain this momentum, shall we? Here are 8 stories behind the band’s hits that the Manila audience will most likely hear this coming Thursday at Whitespace Makati. If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, perhaps this list could conjure up some excitement and change your mind! Written by Dando and his long-time collaborator Tom Morgan (from the Australian band Smudge), this song off “Come on Feel the Lemonheads” is, according to the Lemonheads founder, is “from the perspective on Juliana Hatfield” (who will be discussed further later).
This is from ” It’s a Shame About Ray,” one of the band’s most successful albums. Dando explained that this song is about the “penultimate and last” of his girlfriends. “The song’s about me and them. Its a little jumbled up but its honest,” he said.
Pinoy associatin: There’s a Filipino band called Hannah+Gabi, a side project of Mikey Amistoso, the frontman of independent band Cuidad, who is actually going to open for The Lemonheads on December 4!
This song, off the band’s 1992 album of the same name, is about Alison Galloway, ex-gilfriend of Dando’s friend and collaborator Nic Dalton, and the drummer of Smudge.
In one interview, Dando said that the album “was a niche in time when things weren’t so bad, it was historically a mellow time.” He added, “we had the good songs; people just liked our music, it was great. It’s fun to play the songs as an album. It is a good album, it’s a coherent album, it doesn’t give me any negative feelings. It makes a lot of people happy.” Dando said that this entire album is all about Sydney, which bring us to the next item…
This title track of the “Ray” album, which was also co-written with Tom Morgan, came from a line off a Sydney newspaper story.
In an interview, Morgan told the story of how “Ray” came to be: “We used to stay up all night and walk around and talk, and just sort of make up funny lines that could be used in a song, or a weird song title. It was sort of more the drugs talking. We just went back to the house I was living in, in Sydney, and the guitar that I had only had five strings on it. And we went back and started playing around with words and Evan had this chord progression and we wrote Shame About Ray that morning.”
This song off the 1996 album “Car Button Cloth” is based on the David Fincher movie “Se7en,” which stars Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s the star of the track: Here comes Gwyneth’s head in a box / Gwyneth’s head in a box / Soupy Sales my friend / Here comes Gwyneth’s head.
One of the most beloved Lemonheads songs, this one is a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel classic, which was made made popular by the 1967 Mike Nichols film “The Graduate.”
In a 2009 interview, Dando said that they recorded the song for the movie’s 25th anniversary, to get kids to like it. “I never would have done that song. I hate that song. I hate Paul Simon,” he said. Art Garfunkel, however, reportedly gave it a positive review.
If the band plays this at the Manila show, we all should consider ourselves lucky. Dando has stopped playing this one many years ago.
Other covers done by the band include “$1000 Wedding,” originally by Gram Parsons, “Learning the Game” by Buddy Holly, and “Live Forever” by Oasis (Dando and Noel Gallagher used to collaborate).
This is arguably one of the best collaborations of Dando and the equally talented Juliana Hatfield (Blake Babies, Minor Alps, The Juliana Hatfield Three). The two lived together for a time, and have constantly collaborated. Theirs is a love story that is extremely rare and unique; a match made in 90s heaven! Fans cannot seem to get enough of it–when the two reunited for a couple of shows in the US east coast 2010, all shows sold out.
In a 2010 interview with New York Magazine, Hatfield said: “Have you ever seen that movie Leaving Las Vegas?” she asks. “Evan and I are kind of like Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage.” Dando nods, then asks, “Wait, are you a hooker?”
Like “Mrs Robinson,” this hit single off “Come on Feel The Lemonheads” is not a Lemonheads original. The song was written by Robyn St Clare, and performed by her band The Love Positions.
Watch the video. A dancing Evan Dando with a half ponytail is really all you ‘ll ever need to get through the wait.
The Lemonheads will play at Whitespace, Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati on December 4, 2014. Opening bands include Cuidad and Itchyworms. Show starts at 7pm.
Don’t have your tickets to the concert yet? You can get them at ticketworld.com.ph or through pinoytuner.com. Check out the Pinoytuner’s official Facebook event page for the complete list of Ticketworld branches.