Evan Dando, the Nineties grunge heartthrob of The Lemonheads, does not seem to have looked at his life as a tragedy; as a farce, perhaps, because he has never been shy about admitting to his most outlandish disasters – but never a tragedy. For any rock fan, however, it’s hard not to see Dando’s career as one of disappointments.
In the 28 years since Car Button Cloth, the band’s last album for Atlantic, Dando has released just two albums of original music – one solo outing, Baby I’m Bored, in 2003, and the self-titled Lemonheads in 2006. There have been a couple of covers records, but anyone after Dando’s sublime songwriting is out of luck. The reason for this scarcity is simple: making music was an obstacle to his chosen lifestyle, which might well be summed up as taking as many drugs as possible.
