The new Lemonheads songs are good
Plus new crushed and Hotline TNT, Olivia Rodrigo x Robert Smith, Oasis is soundchecking, and the most beautiful headphones I have ever seen.
I know it’s rude to be shocked when an artist in the later era of their career (far past the Imperial Phase) puts out music that is good, but if there’s one thing that four years of extensively researching bands and their trajectories for Bandsplain has given me (besides brain damage) it is the certainty that nothing gold can stay. We don’t have to get into why it is that by and large, guitar rock music is the artistic medium that seems to benefit most from youth and naiveté, but it’s real Ponyboy hours for most of our favorite artists, some of whom seem to work overtime to erase what could have been an absolutely gorgeous legacy (I’m not pointing any fingers, Shmilly Porgan).
This is actually totally fine and even often awesome, because while I think we all tend to find later career releases less enjoyable to listen to (of course there are EXCEPTIONS go to tell them to a wall babe because I already know), these songs are often at the very least interesting, especially if the artists are ballsy enough to deal with uncool mid-life shit like divorce, aging, regret, the creeping prospect of shuffling off this mortal coil, etc. Like how the unexpectedly excellent new Pulp album More is full of reflections on what might have been and what might never be (Hurry because my sex is running out of time) and big, hard-earned ideas about the meaning of life (Without love, you're just jerking off inside someone else) while remaining extremely Pulp (horny and chatty).
Anyway I don’t think that’s exactly what my guy Evan Dando is doing with the new Lemonheads songs that have come out this year in advance of their first original full length album in 19 years (it’s called Love Chant and it comes out in October). Overt (or overwrought) profundity has never been Dando’s bag - he’s always found his way to the sublime more earnestly, more honestly, if not perhaps accidentally (on The Lemonheads episode of Bandsplain, Producer Dylan and I coined this “No Ambition Just Vibes” and then I had to talk about it in therapy for a month). And while these new songs (“Deep End”, and to a slightly lesser extent, “In The Margin”) aren’t musing deeply (can you muse deeply? let’s say yes) about mortality, they are just plain good. They’re catchy and warm and familiar to anyone who sat glued to 120 Minutes as a teen. This is probably because “Deep End” is co-written by the god Tom Morgan, who also has credits on “Bit Part” and the title track off Ray, and was also in the criminally underrated band Smudge (listen to “Divan”), and also features backing vocals from Juliana Hatfield (also criminally underrated as an artist tbh) plus some guitar solo work from J Mascis. It’s riffy and swingy and buoyant and belies the low key self aware subject matter (it seems to deal with the question of his well document struggles with addiction?):
So you're showing all the symptoms
Coughing up a ghost
Are you going into treatment?
Better double down the dose
All that to say - it does in fact slap and I’ve probably listened to it 987 times since it was released (I’m just walking around the house singing “Canary in a coma” to myself like a lunatic). It’s one of those magic tricks Dando at his best can pull, writing songs that feel like you’ve known them forever and that you are medically incapable of not putting on repeat for days.
“In The Margin” is also a great reminder that when Dando snaps on lyrics he really kind of snaps (If periphery is what you give/I'll leave you in the margin goes crazy I fear).
The new album features contributions from Blake Babies’ John Strohm (himself a former Lemonhead) and Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green. I’ve actually heard it and it’s way better than it has any business being (the John Strohm cowrite is my favorite) and now that Dando’s long awaited memoir Rumors of My Demise finally has a pub date (out October 7th via Gallery Books, if someone there is reading this please send me a galley!) I hope there a nice little autumn Lemonheads renaissance.
I’m also listening to/watching/wanting/reading/gossing about:
crushed, the duo made up of Weekend’s Shaun Durkan and Temple of Angels’ Bre Morell, put out a new song called “Starburn” and it is predictably fantastic. When they are deservedly huge and you can’t get a ticket to the show don’t say I didn’t tell you so (repeatedly, pretty annoyingly, for the last two years). There’s a great music video as well. We really need to bring back the importance and elevation of music videos. We used to be a proper society etc…
Blondshell did a really cool cover of Addison Rae’s (imo best song to date) “Diet Pepsi” live at Sirius XMU. I have a deep and abiding obsession with covers; will probably do a longer post about this soon.
Predictably I love the new Hotline TNT album Raspberry Moon. I love when music can manipulate time. For example, this song will have you reliving the past 10-20 years of your life, yet somehow has a snappy 35 minute run time.
I’m also enjoying the new Greet Death album Die In Love so far. Sometimes it feels like almost everything is going a little country, including shoegaze, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (at least not in this case).
Speaking of, the new Kurt Vile/Luke Roberts song is quite good. Very sticky-summery. In this house we love Kurt Vile.
Olivia Rodrigo brought out Robert Smith for a cover of “Friday I’m In Love” at Glastonbury over the weekend. She was also spotted on her boyfriend’s shoulders getting her whole life to Pulp’s “Common People” performance. Between this and The Breeders opening for her on tour and her music sounding like Veruca Salt (positive), we must absolutely tip our hats to her Gen X parents.
BOSE partnered with Wales Bonner to make the most beautiful headphones I have ever seen. Seems like they’re custom for tennis stars Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton.
Oasis soundchecked in Cardiff. Sounds good! I think!
Chris Black says this song by Smerz is the song of the summer. Where I live the song of the summer has been “Hey Jealousy” by the Gin Blossoms since 1993 but I’ll admit this song is very good also.
The artist formerly known as Producer Dylan, aka Dylan Tupper Rupert, has a new podcast called Music Person. It’s on the Talkhouse network and the first episode is an interview with Karly Hartzman of Wednesday.
Speaking of, I am late but obviously as a person with two ears and a heart, I have been listening to and loving the Wednesday single “Elderberry Wine”.
On the plane back from Paris I watched the 2024 Nora Fingscheidt movie The Outrun (it’s very good) and it reminded me that I interviewed Saoirse Ronan in 2011 when she was 17 and she told me her favorite band was Warpaint. She was cool then and she’s cool now!!!
Tonight at 6pm PST/9pm EST I will be chatting with Niko Stratis about her new book The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman. It’s free with RSVP.
Fun fact my friend Polly is on the cover of It’s a Shame About Ray
NAJV!!!1