Print-friendly Version

Return to the full version

Fall club dates ahead for resurgent alt-rocker Evan Dando

Evan Dando , who in April issued his first studio album since The Lemonheads ' swan-song release seven years ago, will spend much of September and October on the North American club circuit.

"Baby I'm Bored," Dando's first solo release, has been hailed by many critics as a return to form for Dando, whose well-documented substance abuse problems helped to short-circuit any hopes of bigger success in the '90s.

In his interviews this year, Dando has said that he began to give up drugs in the late '90s, but it was the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center that forced him to truly reassess his life.

"I live two blocks south of the World Trade Center, I was on my roof and I saw the second plane come screaming over my head," Dando told the U.K.'s Observer newspaper in March. "Our building shook when the towers fell. We really thought we were going to die that day, a few different times. I thought, from now on, I've got my hands, my feet, the grass is green.'"

Los Angeles-based producer and composer Jon Brion--who has produced and collaborated with Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple, among others--produced, co-wrote and played on several of the songs on "Baby I'm Bored." However, Bryce Goggin, who produced the last Lemonheads album, "Car Button Cloth," produced the majority of the album's tracks.

Among Dando's other collaborators on "Baby I'm Bored" were Ben Lee, who contributed two songs to the album; Howe Gelb, John Convertino and Joey Burns from Giant Sand and Calexico; former Spacehog frontman Royston Langdon; former Codeine drummer/Come guitarist Chris Brokaw; and Come drummer Arthur Johnson. Dando's longtime Lemonheads songwriting partner Tom Morgan also made contributions.