Original Lemonheads Dando And Deily Reunite For Ryan Adams-Produced LP Featuring Juliana Hatfield, Blogger Dreams Realized

[PHOTO: Dando and Deily in 2010 by Joshua Pickering, used with permission]

Perhaps it's not a bombshell on the order of the Mittens video, but Ryan Adams' tweet last night announcing he is producing a new Lemonheads record featuring both Evan Dando AND Ben Deily, as well as Juliana Hatfield on bass, certainly shook the earth for music fans. We caught up with Mr. Deily this morning, who confirmed the news and told us he will fly to Los Angeles tomorrow to begin tracking songs to tape. Perhaps a recorded reunion of the O.G. lineup of Lemonheads was inevitable, following the long-awaited live reunion of Mr. Dando and Deily at the 2010 SXSW festival that we wrote about here. But Deily tells Clicky Clicky the recording plans with Adams -- who will also drum on the planned album -- only solidified after he received a call from Dando three weeks ago. "Of course, my piss-poor listening skills being what they are, I misunderstood initially and thought the date [to record] was November 20th... and was panicking anyway, [regarding] song development," Deily said. "Then, of course, when I realized (about a week ago) that I had ONE WEEK to buy a ticket, get time off and write as many half-decent songs as I could, then, well, I just relaxed. Because of course THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE."

Dando, Deily and Ms. Hatfield have already demoed an unknown number of songs, and folks luckier than us have heard them. Given the very compressed timetable for writing material before tape starts rolling tomorrow, it's certainly likely that the storied act will revert "back to the punker sounds," as Adams tweeted. As everyone over the age of 35 knows, Hatfield played on Lemonheads' commercial breakthrough It's A Shame About Ray, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. That record followed the band's excellent, but wrongly overlooked, major label debut Lovey by two years, which in turn arrived a year after Deily left Lemonheads in 1989 to commit to academics at Harvard. As Clicky Clicky readers know, Deily has been musically active in the interim with projects including Pods and his current vehicle Varsity Drag. Things have been relatively quiet in the Varsity Drag camp, however, since the release of the excellent long-player Night Owls in 2009 [review]. The most recent new music from Deily came in the form of a score to a 2011 production of Hamlet in Boston, some of which can be heard at Soundcloud here. A version of The Lemonheads featuring Dando and Hatfield has a tour booked next month supporting Psychedelic Furs, and full dates are posted below. We will certainly keep you abreast of the progress being made on the new album as we are able. For now, treat your ears to some classic tunes.





10.12 -- St. Louis, MO -- The Pageant
10.14 -- Minneapolis, MN -- First Avenue
10.17 -- Royal Oak, MI -- Royal Oak Music Theatre
10.19 -- Glenside, PA -- Keswick Theatre
10.20 -- Port Chester, NY -- Capitol Theater
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Best Buy Theater
10.22 -- Washington, -- @ Howard Theater
10.24 -- Asheville, NC -- Orange Peel
10.25 -- Atlanta, GA -- Variety Playhouse
10.27 -- St. Petersburg, FL -- State Theatre
10.28 -- Miami, FL -- Grand Central
10.29 -- Orlando, FL -- House of Blues

Today's Hotness: Tadoma, PODS, A Weather

>> Tadoma. You don't remember them. It's OK, it's been a couple years. The Philadelphia-based ambient electronic concern helmed by former Diagram principal Joe Patitucci resurfaced this week with the digital release of the first in a series of EPs. The new, evenly blissed-out collection is titled Field Notes, and after spending time with it we can report that our 2008 assessment of the band, "Boards Of Canada meets More-era Pink Floyd," still holds true. Tadoma's Field Notes is both generous -- at 10 tracks -- and expedient -- it clocks in at a little more than 25 minutes. The spooky, pastoral songs are constructed from e-bowed and acoustic guitars, vintage synths and Fender Rhodes electric piano, and -- unsurprisingly given the title of the EP -- field recordings. From the sleepy opening drone of "Recovery Operations" through the closer "Reconstruction" you will feel as if you are channel surfing through sedate, early '70s BBC sci-fi programming. It's decidedly wintry, overnight sound. Tadoma fetes the release of Field Notes Saturday night at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia, on a hot bill supporting Philly shoegaze standouts Arc In Round. Full show details are right here. A physical CD version of Field Notes will be available next week.

Tadoma -- "Red Raleigh" -- Field Notes
[right click and save as]
[buy Field Notes from Secret Station Records right here]

>> Regular readers are aware that we follow closely the carefree antics and horseplay of Cambridge, Mass.-based pop-punk enterprise Varsity Drag. The band, of course, is a vehicle primarily driven by former Lemonhead co-fronter Ben Deily. While we had sussed out in recent years that Mr. Deily had a band in the early '90s called PODS, that band's musical output has been largely a mystery to us beyond the comically titled It's A Bummer About Bourbie EP from 1992 (which we most likely turned up here). All of this changed earlier this month when the PODS discography -- and now, a number of rarities -- was uploaded to Bandcamp. All of the tracks can be freely streamed or downloaded for a nominal fee. Certain titles will jump out at Varsity Drag fans as being part of the band's current repertoire, which is interesting (such as "Blackout," "New Strings"). Anyway, if like us you've been wanting to fill that Deily-shaped hole in your mid-'90s music library, the Internet once again provides the answer. We're embedding a stream of the hot rocker "Name In Vain" below to tease you along. Dig it.



>> Oh, A Weather, how we've waited and waited for the follow-up to your best-of-the-decade debut Cove. Our patience has finally been rewarded with the delivery of the Portland, Ore.-based slow-core unit's forthcoming sophomore set Everyday Balloons. The record is fantastic, and we'll have substantial thoughts to relay about it in the coming weeks. But for now, get familiar with the pre-release promo track "Giant Stairs." Team Love releases Everyday Balloons March 2.

A Weather -- "Giant Stairs" -- Everyday Balloons
[right click and save as]
[pre-order Everyday Balloons from Team Love right here]

Review: Varsity Drag | Night Owls [MP3]

It neither sounds like it was recorded in a metal shipping container, nor does Night Owls completely hew to the straight pop-punk for which Varsity Drag fronter Ben Deily has long been known. But beyond the fully actualized production and more thoughtful compositions, fans of Mr. Deily's music will recognize a more subtle difference between the 2006 set For Crying Out Loud and his reconfigured Cambridge, Mass.-based trio's new collection. Simply put, For Crying Out Loud was an "if" record, but Night Owls is a "then" record. The former's biggest tune "Summertime" commences with the line "if you'd be mine, I'd find the time..." That record's opening anthem "Skinny Ties" is entirely predicated on supposition: "I'd give up all of my skinny ties, give up cheese omelets and curly fries..." Where Deily does not yearn on For Crying Out Loud ("the place just ain't the same without Billy Ruane..."), he cracks wise, sending up the last decade with "1999." Throughout Deily maintains a wish or a laugh's distance, stays to the left side of the comma.

Night Owls, by contrast, opens with the lyric "And so the years went crashing by..." and then examines various crashes one after another. And with that declaration Deily steps over the comma into the hindsight of unenumerated mornings after (or, more likely for a night owl, afternoons after) and confronts his emotions straight on. Calling Varsity Drag's new record introspective doesn't go far enough to describe some of the psychic scab-ripping herein. While Deily doesn't name names or proffer genesis stories, the meaning of lyrics including "I let you down to save myself... like an animal" is not cloudy. That said, it isn't all fear and (self-)loathing: the title track describes the phosphorescent glow of a new relationship with sentiments so positive they approach a giddy serenity. What does this difference between Deily's "if" and "then" worlds signify? Maturity? Personal peace? We'll leave that for individual listeners to ponder.

As we stated supra, the differences between the aforementioned sets are not limited to more intense lyrical themes. On Night Owls Mr. Deily -- now abetted by Lisa Marie Deily on bass guitar and Joshua Pickering detonating the cans -- reveals musical ambitions that fans were likely unaware that the punk statesman harbored. Old timers will recall Deily's affecting acoustic ballad "Postcard" from the latter days of Lemonheads Mach 1 (and featured on last summer's live release from Varsity Drag). On Night Owls Deily offers "Postscript," a Bacharach-esque and lush guy-piano-strings number. It is apparent that Mr. Deily has been thinking about making these songs nearly as long as he has been feeling them, and while he selected former Lemonheads producer Tom Hamilton to mind the faders and the knobs, Night Owls is a significant sonic step forward for Deily. The smart chord and key changes, keen production details and more orchestrated compositions make that plain. The vocals buried in the background of "Animal" are genius (particularly at the line "I know I failed my darling"), the layered acoustic and electric guitars of "Richard's Gone" deliver a completely satisfying, crystalline crunch, the aggressive attack of "In This World" (whose guitars recall Rush's "Fly By Night" in brief moments) entirely gratifying. Varsity Drag recently returned from two weeks in another country (namely the U.K.) and -- although there are no pending live dates currently listed at the band's MySpace dojo -- the trio is presumably now plotting the promotion of Night Owls to fans in the States.

Varsity Drag -- "Animal" -- Night Owls
[right click and save as]
[buy Night Owls from the band right here]

Varsity Drag: Internerds | Bandcamp | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Be Prepared: Varsity Drag | Night Owls | Date TBD
And Then This Happened: Varsity Drag | Middle East Rock Club | 8/7/09
Remarks: Varsity Drag, Grownup Noise, Winterpills
Review: Varsity Drag | Rock and Roll Is Such A Hassle: Live in Europe
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, March 2009
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

Exclusive: Varsity Drag Live Set, New Album Coming

Stellar news, inconvenienced but loyal rock fans: not only is Varsity Drag, the delightful indie-punk vehicle of Lemonheads co-founder Ben Deily, playing the Cantab Lounge basement in Cambridge, Mass. this Saturday night, but also we can report that the trio will release later this year a live record titled Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle. The set, recorded at The Weekender in Innsbruck, Austria in 2007, will be issued by the Cambridge, Mass.-based act's European label Boss Tunage through all the usual digital storefronts and in a limited CD run. We heard it is "surprisingly ass-kicking," and after sampling several preview tracks we can confirm that. That giant graphic above very well might be the art that goes with the record, and since we've gotten it exclusively, and since we know the vision of certain readers isn't what it used to be, we made it all big. Fans will recognize the title of the live album as the name attached to Varsity Drag's 2007 tour, a poster for which you can puzzle over here at BenDeily.com.

Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle, itself of unknown release date, precedes by an indeterminate length of time a planned sophomore set from Varsity Drag. The new set could be released by year's end if all goes as planned; Deily and his rotating crew of merry men and women released its first record For Crying Out Loud in 2005. An advance EP of certain new material -- probably a digital-only release -- will be issued sooner rather than later to incite sizzle for the new full-length. Said new recording will likely feature the drumming of Deily cohort Josh Pickering, who previously beat the skins manned the four-string thunderstick in Mr. Deily's '90s vehicle PODS and who manned the kit for the trio at the most recent Drag gig we took in, namely the Pat Leonard tribute late last year. We have an unconfirmed track list for Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle, which we paste below for your reference. Note that a couple of those tracks are hyperlinked -- these are MP3s, made available to us through the kindness of Deily himself. Which of course, makes rock & roll slightly less of a hassle. And that much more awesome. Varsity Drag appears at Cantab Lounge this Saturday with Mr. Sister, The Motion Sick Broken River Prophet and St. Helena.

1. Skinny Ties
2. Summertime [right click and save as]
3. Uhhh (Lemonheads)
4. Billy Ruane
5. Starfish
6. Miles Of Ocean
7. Burying Ground/2 Weeks In Another Town (Lemonheads)
8. Falling (Lemonheads)
9. Blackout [right click and save as]
10. 7 Powers (Lemonheads)
11. Ever (Lemonheads)
12. Postcard (Lemonheads)
13. Powerless
14. New Strings
15. Second Chance (Lemonheads)

[buy Varsity Drag, PODS and other Ben Deily-related recordings right here]

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006