Fire Records
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Creator is the Lemonheads' second album. Still featuring the full original lineup, the album also includes John P. Strohm (of the Blake Babies, Antenna, and Velo-Deluxe) on drums.Visit product page →
From the oddly surreal album cover image (a snapshot of friend and high school classmate Ivan Kreilkamp, originator of the name "Lemonheads," clutching a box of Cheerios) to the themes of death, dreams, obsession, and mayhem that haunt the material, Creator is weird, ambitious, and markedly moodier than its predecessor - without having lost the band's irreverent sense of humour.
Also evident in this sophomore effort is a newfound attention to idiosyncratic detail-from the precisely timed inter-song pauses and sound clips, to the carefully-crafted song order of the album's original 13 tracks. Creator finds Ben Deily once again slipping in quotations from Emily Dickinson ("Burying Ground") and references to Matthew Arnold ("Come to the Window"), while Dando breaks new ground in songwriting complexity (the rich sonic tapestry of "Out") as well as arrangement, ushering in the band's first-ever acoustic recording (his cover of Charles Manson's "Your Home Is Where You're Happy").
At the same time, the band still fires off blistering punk rock ("Clang Bang Clang," "Die Right Now," "Take Her Down") and finds time to lovingly trash Kiss' 1977 classic "Plaster Caster."
Recorded in one coherent series of sessions-unlike its predecessor, Hate Your Friends, and its follow-up Lick - Creator is, for all its musical schizophrenia, arguably the most coherent of the Lemonheads' TAANG-era recordings.
BONUS TRACKS:
This Fire Records re-issue features bonus tracks including never-before-released live tracks from a 1988 radio session (featuring a never-before-heard configuration of the band, including guitarist Ben Deily on bass and vocals); also includes an original song ("Cease to Exist") never released on any album, and a performance by Juliana Hatfield.
1. Burying Ground2. Sunday3. Clang Bang Clang4. Out5. Your Home Is Where You're Happy6. Falling7. Die Right Now8. Two Weeks In Another Town9. Plaster Caster10. Come To The Window11. Take Her Down12. Postcard13. Live Without14. Sunday (1987, Live on WERS)15. Cease To Exist (1988, Live on WERS)16. Burying Ground (1988, Live on WERS)17. If Only You Were Dead (Early Mallo Cup) (1988, Live WERS)18. Out (1988, Live on WERS)19. N.I.B. (1988, Live on WERS)20. Clang Bang Clang (1988, Live on WERS)21. Take Her Down (1988, Live on WERS)22. Falling (1988, Live WERS)23. Instrumental (1988, Live on WERS)24. From Here to Burma (With Juliana Hatfield) (1988, Live on WERS) -
Fire Records have reissued the first three albums by the Lemonheads, Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988) and Lick (1989), featuring copious bonus tracks and many never-before released rarities and live recordings.Visit product page →
Together, these seminal albums showcase the band's early punk rock roots-and trace the Lemonheads' transformation towards becoming one of the most successful and influential bands in indie rock.
This Fire Records re-issue features bonus tracks including 12 never-before-released live tracks from a 1987 radio session, rare tracks from the early compilation Crawling From Within, and additional tracks not included on the original release of Hate Your Friends ("Buried Alive" and "Gotta Stop").
Tracklisting:
1. I Don't Wanna
2. 394
3. Nothing True
4. Second Chance
5. Sneakyville
6. Amazing Grace
7. Belt
8. Hate Your Friends
9. Don't Tell Yourself It's OK
10. Uhhh
11. Fed Up
12. Rat Velvet
13. Fucked Up
14. Mod Lang (From 'Crawling From Within' compilation)
15. Buried Alive
16. Gotta Stop
17. Sad Girl (From 'Crawling From Within' compilation)
18. Belt (1987, Live on WERS)
19. 394 (1987, Live on WERS)
20. Falling (1987, Live on WERS)
21. Don't Tell Yourself (1987, Live on WERS)
22. Uhhh (1987, Live on WERS)
23. Amazing Grace (1987, Live on WERS)
24. Rat Velvet (1987, Live on WERS)
25. Second Chance (1987, Live on WERS)
26. Sneakyville (1987, Live on WERS)
27. I Like To (1987, Live on WERS)
28. So I Fucked Up (1987, Live on WERS)
29. Sick Of You (1987, Live on WERS)
30. Hate Your Friends (1987, Live on WERS) -
Visit product page →Lick is the third full-length album and the last to feature founding member Ben Deily. It was also the group's last independent label-released album before signing to major label Atlantic.
An odd mixture of brand-new, and considerably older, sounds, 1989s Lick brings together the output of several distinct recording sources: six brand new songs recorded with Minneapolis-based band friend and producer Terry Katzman, and a collection of older, B-side and never-released material originally overseen by producer and engineer Tom Hamilton.
The difficulties of writing and creating a new full-length album every year (Hate Your Friends and Creator were released in 1987 and 1988, respectively) are clearly in evidence on Lick. While the newest material (Mallo Cup, A Circle of One, 7 Powers, Anyway) hints at promising new song writing directions for both Deily and Dando, there's an almost valedictory sense of the past in the inclusion of versions of Glad I Don't Know and I Am a Rabbit (from the bands' first-ever, self-released EP), and the now-classic track 'Ever', a previously-unreleased tune from the original 1986 'Hate Your Friends' sessions. At moments, Lick almost sounds like an elegy for itself or an elegy for a band that has reached the end of the beginning.
Also audible in the heterogeneous songs are the tensions of line-up changes and inchoate, growing frustrations. After various band break-ups or threatened break ups (such as Dando's brief departure to play bass for Boston band the Blake Babies), the Lemonheads convened to record new material for Lick now featured Dando on drums, Peretz on bass, Deily on guitar (and piano, according to the album credits) along with the addition of long-time band friend and former member of TAANG! Label mates Bullet LaVolta, Corey Loog Brennan on lead guitar. And yet the frenzied, quasi-ironic hammer-ons of Corey's axe provide some of Licks most entertaining moments like the unaccountably-translated-into-Italian paen to 70s detective Ironside, Cazzo Di Ferro. (The songs music was originally composed by Brennan for his Italian punk band, Superfetazione.)
After the albums completion, Deily opted out of the subsequent European tour, before leaving the band permanently. Jesse Peretz stayed on to record their Atlantic records debut Lovey, but left after the supporting tour in '91. Since then, Dando has been the Lemonheads' sole permanent member
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BONUS TRACKS:
This Fire Records re-issue features bonus tracks including several never-before-released live tracks from a 1987 radio session, live tracks and an interview from the 1989 European tour, and the 4 tracks of the Lemonheads self-released debut EP, Laughing all the way to the cleaners.
1. Mallo Cup2. Glad I Don't Know3. 7 Powers4. A Circle Of One5. Cazzo Di Ferro6. Anyway7. Luka8. Come Back D.A.9. I Am A Rabbit10. Sad Girl11. EverBonus Material12. Strange13. Mad14. Sad Girl (Live On WERS)15. Nothing True / Glad I Don't Know (Live On WERS)16. Luka (Live On VPRO 1989)17. Interview With The Lemonheads (Holland 1989)18. Mallo Cup (Live On VPRO 1989)19. Glad I Don't Know (Original EP Version)20. I Like To (Original EP Version)21. I Am A Rabbit (Original EP Version)22. So I Fucked Up (Original EP Version)
