Varshons

Performer: The Lemonheads
Artist: Kate Moss; Liv Tyler
Producer: Gibby Haynes
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Although covers albums can be the last resort of an artist who has run out of ideas, the Lemonheads' Evan Dando has chosen an eclectic and obscure enough track list to sidestep that issue, and he imbues his renditions with a rootsy sound all his own. G.G. Allin's "Layin' Up with Linda" is transformed from a punk screed to an old-fashioned murder ballad, while Green Fuz's garage-rock classic "Green Fuz" is smoothed out, slowed down, and given a moody reading worthy of Jim Morrison. A fairly straight version of Townes Van Zandt's dark "Waiting Around To Die" is a highlight. Producer Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) keeps things simple, and lets Dando's deep and burnished voice, and the quality of the songlist, shine.

Spin (p.91) - "[T]he countrified take on GG Allin's 'Layin' Up with Linda' provides a moment of effective shock value..." Q (Magazine) (p.125) - "VARSHONS succeeds thanks to an inspired breadth of material..." Paste (magazine) (p.51) - "Dando's rich, thunderous baritone is the star here, falling somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Silver Jew David Berman." Record Collector (magazine) (p.92) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The joy of hearing Randy Alvey & The Green Fuz's 'Green Fuz,' strummed at the same tempo here as the original Pebbles nugget, is enormous..."

From their roots as a snotty Boston punk band in the mid-1980s to their status as media darlings in the early-'90s, the Lemonheads always revolved around frontman Evan Dando. With his movie-star looks and much-publicized love of drugs and booze, Dando courted attention and controversy while developing into a surprisingly good pop songwriter by the group's 1990 major-label debut, LOVEY. Dando truly hit his peak on the two following albums, IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY and COME ON FEEL THE LEMONHEADS, but, unfortunately, so did his drug habit, leading to a substance-soaked bender that began in 1996 and lasted a number of years.

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