New Record?

[Metalheart]

I love the choices for Varshons 2 much more than the first covers album. The first track Can't Forget is so soothing.Evans voice sounds better than ever here to me. He really is one of the greatest singers of our time. Beautiful guitar work here as well. So happy for this release.Cant wait to here his version of Take it Easy!

[Irrelevant Elephant]

Sweet track and sounds like quality production too. I haven't hear Evan play guitar in that style really before either. Very good. I am a bit worried that the girlfriend may ruin the record if she is all over it but her vocal works well here. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the LP.

[rwcass]

I've always enjoyed Dando's live covers of "Abandoned." I look forward to hearing his rendition of "Things," from Paul Westerberg's first solo album.

01 Can’t Forget (Yo La Tengo)
02 Settled Down Like Rain (The Jayhawks)
03 Old Man Blank (The Bevis Frond)
04 Things (Paul Westerberg)
05 Speed of the Sound of Loneliness (John Prine)
06 Abandoned (Lucinda Williams)
07 Now and Then (Natural Child)
08 Magnet (NRBQ)
09 Round Here (Florida Georgia Line)
10 TAQN (The Eyes)
11 Unfamiliar (The GiveGoods)
12 Straight to You (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
13 Take It Easy (The Eagles)

[TinnitusWaves]

Sweet track and sounds like quality production too. I haven't hear Evan play guitar in that style really before either. Very good. I am a bit worried that the girlfriend may ruin the record if she is all over it but her vocal works well here. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the LP.

It's myself and Chris Brokaw playing the electric guitars on " Can't Forget".

As the producer of the record I tried really hard to try and serve the songs and " The Lemonheads" . Marciana is there on most of the tracks, but only in a way that I felt enhances the songs. Same for everyone else who played on it.

We recorded a lot of stuff in short bursts and I had a lot of time to mine through it all and put together the record you are gonna hear soon. We cut a lot of basic tracks that didn't really go anywhere. The song list for this record was about 150 deep......We had a run at about 30 songs.......The record is the distilled best of that, plus a couple of B-Sides I think.

I know there's a lot of chatter about it being a covers record but.... That's just how it goes sometimes.....I have heard some original songs though and we have plans to explore that next year.

[mekons63]

Good to hear some first-hand insight about the recording of Varshons ll. There’s definitely an art to making a covers album that elevates or re-casts the originals. Offhand, Evan/The Lemonheads and Mark Lanegan’s collections come to mind as very successful and realized examples of this. I’ve no doubt that Evan has pulled it off again.

That this is definitely on schedule for release (and word that there are originals in the pipeline totally made my day when it was announced. And if there’s some tour dates to support it next year (and I can find a way to get to a few) I’ll be ecstatic.

[rwcass]

As the producer of the record I tried really hard to try and serve the songs and " The Lemonheads".

You're Matthew Cullen? The video and film director, as implied by Fire Records (https://www.firerecords.com/product/the-lemonheads-varshons-2/), or the producer-engineer-musician mentioned here: https://www.discogs.com/artist/252929-Matthew-Cullen?

Just curious.

[TinnitusWaves]

That's my name, which I also share with said film and video director........but I'm not him and he's not me !! That was a mistake on the initial Fire press release. I'm the later one.

[rwcass]

Thanks for the clarification, Matthew! Now I don't have to awkwardly ask about what happpened with "your" film adaptation of Martin Amis's London Fields.

[badbum61]

I'm the later one.

Can I just say how much I dig "Situations"?

[TinnitusWaves]

I'm the later one.

Can I just say how much I dig "Situations"?

Situations???

[lemonhead1961]

Moving on... which idiot said "No news is good news"?

[lemonhead1961]

There's this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Varshons-2-Lemonheads/dp/B07JQQZY19/ref=sr_1_3

Don't know how much that actually means though.

[lekkas98]

So bandcamp release date says January 8, 2019 but the album is still a pre-order. Can't say I'm surprised by the f*ck up but anyone know when/if this thing will be out??

[mekons63]

I’m pretty sure it’s Bandcamp’s f’up. Every other listing says February 8.

[lemonhead1961]

I'm actually a tiny bit disappointed with the way Can't Forget sounds - something of the magic is missing from the YT video I first saw him singing this on. I probably just need to listen to it as many times I have that first recording.

[rwcass]

I’m pretty sure it’s Bandcamp’s f’up. Every other listing says February 8.

Yeah, it's a typo. Albums are released worldwide on Fridays now, and February 8 is a Friday this year. January 8 was a Tuesday, the day of the week on which albums were released, at least in the U.S., from April 1989 to June 2015.

[mekons63]

Nice little chat with his local paper.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2019/01/31/cover-tunes-aside-lemonheads-evan-dando-remains-true-original/Ptt5uOJKQwA9IkEtJRLMLI/story.html

[rwcass]

Here's a review:

https://louderthanwar.com/the-lemonheads-varshons-ii-album-review/

"... Varshons II’s predecessor suffered from sprawl –- forays into grubby Eurodance and swampy narcotic rock rubbed awkwardly against songs more suited to the Dando drawl. On round two, the selection is sensible, each song a formidable framework for Dando to augment his shrugging baritone and light-fingered strumming. The only real surprises come in how he tackles the songs –- the erstwhile extreme polish of Round Here, by country music duo Florida Georgia Line, is stripped to its bare minimum, enabling Dando to sing otherwise laughable lines ('hammer and nail, stacking those bales', 'Jessie’s getting ready / gassing up the Chevy') and make them sound like coffee-stained confessions."

And the Lemonheads will be touring the U.S. and Canada in May with Tommy Stinson, which is good news:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-lemonheads-share-unfamiliar-from-new-lp-touring-with-tommy-stinson/

[Zoobirdsky]

My bundle arrived today - got the cd and a lovely green LP. Sounds really great! Can’t believe I’m listening to a brand new Lemonheads record... just...Awesome.

[rwcass]

As the producer of the record I tried really hard to try and serve the songs and " The Lemonheads" . Marciana is there on most of the tracks, but only in a way that I felt enhances the songs. Same for everyone else who played on it.

I really enjoyed my first listen yesterday on Spotify. The sequencing of tracks works well, especially the stretch from "Abandoned" to "Unfamiliar." Evan's voice is reassuringly strong, and Marciana's accompaniment is so good it almost makes me forget what Juliana Hatfield's backing vocals sounded like 25 years ago.

[lemonhead1961]

TBH I'm disappointed with the whole thing - the guitar sounds like a college kid with his first Zoom 505 effects pedal and the beautiful complex rich textures, tones and breathiness in Evan's voice just don't seem to be there. But.. I don't care - he's still awesome.

[Metalheart]

I really like it. The guitar sounds killer on Abandoned in particular to me. Evans voice sounds hauntingly beautiful on that track captuirng the lyrics perfect.The other standout songs for me are Things, Speed of The Sound of Loneliness and I love his version of Take it Easy.... Marcianas background vocals sound really good there. I prefer these songs more than the first Varshons. Looking forward to the next solo or Lemonheads release....Jamming to this one daily!

[Zoobirdsky]

There are two slightly different versions of Things, I think. So far I mainly listened to the LP at home, but I had the cd in the car yesterday and the guitar sounded different on that track. Did anybody else notice?
My favs so far are Settled down like rain, Abandoned and I’m loving the varshon of Straight To you more and more. I agree Take it Easy is ace.

Ah but I’m very fond of the first Varshons so I can’t say this one is better. They’re both very diverse but Varshons 2 seems a little safer maybe. Less moody. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

[lemonhead1961]

33s into Settled Down there is a sharp metallic clang that sound exactly like 2 chrome vanadium double ended ring spanners being banged together - (sorry - can't be more specific than that) - it happens only once - what the hell is that? Goes right through your head listening to it loud on headphones. Or is it some mp3 processing artefact?

[Metalheart]

Straight to you is another favorite the more I listen.Evan sounds a bit like Morrissey on that track at certain points and I mean this in the best way. Beautiful song!