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OK, color me a Left Coast idiot girlchild who learned about the band from jerk-off photoshoots of Evan Dando in 1990s girl mags, but I had no idea The Lemonheads made some decent punk in the late 80s. I'm gonna chalk this up to their hometown being Seattle's evil twin, Boston. Anyway, I associate the band with bland, ok-but-not-really-good pop rock that focuses too much on the singer's voice and crams the music - which would actually be pretty good, if it were allowed to frolic a little closer to center stage - solidly in the back. Hearing their older stuff blew my mind! I especially liked "Falling."
It's also interesting to reflect on how much more control there was of information in the 1990s. The band started with their breakout commercial album as far as pop media was concerned. I distinctly remember those girly rags calling Dando a California "native," and all of them did their best to make him sound single/available for our fantasy star-banging needs.
It was a lot harder to find new bands, too, living on a small Alaskan island without magic search machines on the plastic teat. I remember hearing "Trigger Hippie" by Morcheeba on the radio once while on vacation and holy wow, that was one epic long search trying to figure out how to pronounce THAT half-heard band name well enough to actually find the album! It took me most of the summer and a lot of weird looks from record store reps.
I think the last time I remember having an Epic Music Search pre-internets(TM), I was looking for Ashley MacIsaac after "Sleepy Maggie" started frequenting local radio stations. The song, if you've ever heard it, is sung in lilting Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond. Imagine my surprise when I finally found an album in a neglected corner of a record store in Victoria BC with this GINGER DUDE with a GIGANTIC BEARD. Hi Ashley, I did NOT see that coming. ROFL
I kind of miss that out-of-touch shit.
OK, maybe not.
It's also interesting to reflect on how much more control there was of information in the 1990s. The band started with their breakout commercial album as far as pop media was concerned. I distinctly remember those girly rags calling Dando a California "native," and all of them did their best to make him sound single/available for our fantasy star-banging needs.
It was a lot harder to find new bands, too, living on a small Alaskan island without magic search machines on the plastic teat. I remember hearing "Trigger Hippie" by Morcheeba on the radio once while on vacation and holy wow, that was one epic long search trying to figure out how to pronounce THAT half-heard band name well enough to actually find the album! It took me most of the summer and a lot of weird looks from record store reps.
I think the last time I remember having an Epic Music Search pre-internets(TM), I was looking for Ashley MacIsaac after "Sleepy Maggie" started frequenting local radio stations. The song, if you've ever heard it, is sung in lilting Gaelic by Mary Jane Lamond. Imagine my surprise when I finally found an album in a neglected corner of a record store in Victoria BC with this GINGER DUDE with a GIGANTIC BEARD. Hi Ashley, I did NOT see that coming. ROFL
I kind of miss that out-of-touch shit.
OK, maybe not.
