Evan Griffith Dando
(born March 4, 1967) is an American musician, most famous for fronting the alternative rock band The Lemonheads. He is the only original member left in the current Lemonheads line-up, having served as lead singer since the band's original formation in 1986. He has been married to English fashion model Elizabeth Moses since 2000.
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EVAN DANDO TICKETS
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Biography
Early life and education
Evan Dando was born in
Boston,
Massachusetts, the son of a fashion model and a real estate attorney. During his youth, Dando had gravitated towards such influential '80s punk outfits as
Hüsker Dü and
the Replacements. For high school, he attended the
Commonwealth School, in Boston. Dando enrolled at
Skidmore College, but he could not maintain his grades and dropped out to pursue a career as a musician.
The Lemonheads
Along with school friend
Ben Deily, he formed
The Lemonheads at the
Commonwealth School in
Boston circa 1986. At this stage they played punk rock, and were briefly known as the Whelps, until a name change in 1987 led to the birth of the Lemonheads, after a candy which Dando noted was sweet on the outside, and sour on the inside, possibly a metaphor for the band's sound. Their first recording as a group was titled
Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners.
After being signed by local label
Taang! The Lemonheads released the albums
Hate Your Friends
,
Creator,
and
Lick
with Deily and Dando sharing lead vocals and songwriting duties until about 1989, when Dando left the band.
However, the lure of a European tour and moderate success of single "Luka" brought Dando back on tour with the Lemonheads, where night after night he continually played the guitar riff of "
Sweet Child o' Mine" during Deily's songs. The relationship had broken down, and Deily left.
Dando then recruited David Ryan on drums, was signed to major label Atlantic/Warner, and produced the album
Lovey
in 1990. Straddling punk, rock, country, and metal, the album sold roughly 30,000 copies. Dando cut his losses and flew to Australia to write some songs with friends Nic Dalton and Tom Morgan.
These songs formed the basis for
It's a Shame About Ray
, the Lemonheads' breakthrough album. However, a cover of "
Mrs. Robinson" (recorded to promote the video release of
The Graduate
) was released to the annoyance of the band and brought them the most exposure they'd had so far. When the "Ray" album was reissued, the track was tagged on to the end. The band enjoyed quite a bit of success on college radio, and major mainstream exposure.
During 1992-1993, Dando's face appeared on many magazine covers.
People magazine voted him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People." He also garnered attention in 1993 for admitting to smoking crack cocaine.
[1]
Still, a huge breakthrough single still eluded the band as they released
Come on Feel the Lemonheads
in late 1993. This was a successful album which included the tracks "Style" and "The Jello Fund." Once again, the band enjoyed mainstream success, this time with the single "Into Your Arms."
The Lemonheads then toured throughout 1994; Dando famously befriended
Oasis and appeared at the band's live shows. He also spent time hanging out with
Courtney Love.
Dando makes a quick cameo appearance at the end of the 1994 film Reality Bites.
Dando continued to appear in the pages of the music press with
Juliana Hatfield.
In 1996, Dando assembled a new band, still called the Lemonheads, featuring old friends
John Strohm and Murph (ex-
Dinosaur Jr). This band produced another Lemonheads album,
Car Button Cloth.
While featuring jangly guitar songs such as "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You," this set also showed off the darker side of Dando's writing: "Break Me" and "Losing Your Mind."
The band toured successfully in 1997 and played a final gig at the
Reading Festival, after which Dando promptly disappeared from view--due in no small part to his addiction to
crack cocaine. Atlantic released the
The Best Of The Lemonheads
in 1998.
Solo career
Dando recorded a duet with
Juliana Hatfield for the 1999 album,
Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons
. The two sang
Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding".
Dando started making public appearances again in late 2000 (having done "monitors for
Enya"), singing with the
Blake Babies and playing some acoustic shows. A full acoustic world tour kicked off in earnest in early 2001, with Dando garnering some rave reviews and renewed interest in his back catalogue. He played with
Ben Lee and
Ben Kweller, with several strong new songs, and seemed to regain a measure of confidence.
These shows led the way to Dando's first solo release,
Live at the Brattle Theatre,
which was released in Australia in 2001. In addition to a number of live songs from a Boston concert, the release also included a second disc with several covers of country songs.
Dando sings back-up on Mary Lorson's/Saint's Low's 2002 release
Tricks for Dawn
on the song "Long Way Down."
In March 2003, Dando finally released his first proper solo album,
Baby I'm Bored,
to critical acclaim and a top 40 placing on the UK albums chart. Described by many as a return to form, it allowed Dando to continue to tour, except this time with a full band.
As well as guesting with the reformed
MC5, writing songs with
The Dandy Warhols, collaborating with soundtrack composer
Craig Armstrong, and having two recorded for him by fans through his fan site, Dando played several live dates, including a full performance of the
It's A Shame About Ray
album as part of
All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back festival.
Lemonheads return
In 2005, Dando put together a new lineup for the Lemonheads, consisting of
Karl Alvarez and
Bill Stevenson (both most known for their work with
pop-punk pioneers, the
Descendents) and signed to
Vagrant Records. A new self-titled Lemonheads album, produced and engineered by Stevenson, was released September 25 in the UK and September 26, 2006 in the United States. Since then, Dando (along with a new touring lineup featuring Vess Ruhtenberg and Devon Ashley of the Pieces) have toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America with bands such as Vietnam and Hymns.
Despite the lack of an album to support, Dando, along with a new lineup featuring Vess Ruhtenberg and P. David Hazel of Beta Male, began a tumultuous tour of Europe in August 2008.
An album of cover versions,
Varshons
, originally rumoured to be released September 16, 2008, was released in the United States on June 23, 2009. The band is currently on tour supporting the album; the current lineup consists of Dando, Ruhtenberg, Mark Cutsinger, and Xan Aird.
Discography
Albums
- Live at the Brattle Theatre
(2001)
- Baby I'm Bored
(2003) (UK #30)
Singles
- "Stop My Head" (UK #38)
- "It Looks Like You" (UK #68)
Trivia
- Ben Lee's song "I Wish I Was Him" is a tribute to Dando, who has often covered the song when performing live.
- Mentioned in Kimya Dawson's song "The Beer."
- Swedish indie rock band Hell on Wheels mentions Evan Dando, as well as Mike Watt in the song "One Sperm Across your Heart"
- Briefly mentioned a couple of times throughout Bret Easton Ellis novel Glamorama
.
References
- Dando Comes Clean: Is alt-rock pinup a Lemonhead or crackhead?, Rolling Stone