But to focus on the benders would be a disservice to the other rock and roll lore embedded throughout the 290-page book, a streamlined look at both the Lemonheads’s history and Dando’s (sometimes destructive) drive – and where they eventually merged into one entity. It’s a zesty, entertaining read, and a particularly satisfying integration of Boston beat history into rock’s global canon; just imagine advice from The Modern Lovers leader Jonathan Richman presented just pages after a story about nearly burning down Keith Richards’s country estate (damn those faulty English fireplaces).
These are some of the most quintessential Boston scenes from Dando’s memoir, which arrives Tuesday.
T.T. The Bear’sPlace (today Sonia), 1986. The Lemonheads’s first club show placed them in front of approximately 300 people at the Rathskeller, but a “Nu Muzik” night at T.T. the Bear’s Place would put them on the same bill as another fledgling band: Pixies. The other Massachusetts alt-rock staple were also performing their second-ever club show. “They seemed fully formed and ready to take the world by storm even though they were using little tiny guitar amps set on chairs,” Dando recalls.
The Paradise Rock Club, 1988. Back when the Rock & Roll Rumble was still run by WBCN, The Lemonheads took part in the annual battle of the band-style competition, which Dando describes as “important, but also kind of cheesy.” “Doing well in the competition could help your career, but winning it all was seen as a curse,” Dando explains. The Lemonheads advanced to the finals in the 1988 edition of the competition, held at the Paradise Rock Club, but Heretix took home the Rumble crown that year. (The competition rumbles on to this day, although it’s today organized by DJ Anngelle Wood of Boston Emissions, and did not take place this year).
Fort Apache Studios, around 1990. “Lovey,” the band’s 1990 debut on Atlantic Records, took form at Boston’s renowned Fort Apache Studios: “the place to go,” Dando writes. “The sound was so good that a lot of bands kept going there even after they got signed because it was cheaper than going all the way to LA.”
Holed up in the Boston studio, Dando spent many hours working on “Lovey” alone, even re-recording bass and drum parts while bandmates (and college students) Jesse Peretz and David Ryan studied for final exams. He cites it as the place where he officially took the reins of the group.
“We’re making a record for a major label and you’re worried about homework?” Dando writes. “From that point on I was Lemonheads and the Lemonheads was me. For better or for worse.”
Brainerd Road, Allston, early 1990s. Juliana Hatfield, another linchpin of Boston’s alt-rock legacy, is a recurring figure in Dando’s memoir. He explains his time in her band, Blake Babies, as well as their flirtation with a relationship (that ultimately never panned out). But one of the book’s more tender sections is when Dando moves in with Hatfield in Allston, after a fraught period in Australia opening for Fugazi.
While feeling the weight of “the Big D” – depression – at home, Dando writes, Hatfield encouraged him to see a psychiatrist, who in turn suggested that he take a break from alcohol and drugs. “This clean period became the genesis of ‘It’s a Shame About Ray,’” Dando writes, referring to the band’s 1992 album. Later in the book, Dando reveals that their 1993 tune “It’s About Time” is a tribute to Hatfield, whom he describes as “one of my oldest friends, who just happens to be one of the best songwriters I know.”
Honorable mention: The Boston beat Awards, The Sinclair, 2015. Also known as the time Dando showed up too late to be interviewed for his induction into the ceremony’s hall of fame, subsequently “pissed off a bunch of people,” but performed at the festivities anyway. “Of course, I lost the [Hall of Fame] award almost immediately after they gave it to me,” he writes. “I have no idea where it is.”
GIG GUIDE
Maná – one of the most successful Latin American bands of all time, and the first Spanish language band to ever earn a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination – rep Mexican pop-rock at TD Garden on Friday. It’s an otherwise quiet week at the arena, although adjacent nightclub Big Night Live hosts one the week’s hottest hip-hop shows: bold New York emcee Benny The Butcher on Wednesday.
Torrid Boston alt-rock band Pile headline The Sinclair on Saturday, wrapping a North American tour supporting their August album “Sunshine and Balance Beams.” The band’s ninth album arrived in August, and marks their first release for Chicago label Sooper Records.
Vastly different approaches to hip-hop bookend the week at Roadrunner: deadpan Swedish singer-rapper Bladee headlines the club on Friday, while suave New York emcee Joey Bada$$ rolls up on Thursday with equally suave support from Ab-Soul and Rapsody. Duos run the venue in between: Texas folk-rock group The Oh Hellos, who are about to release a 10-year anniversary edition of their sophomore album “Dear Wormwood,” stop by Saturday, while English electronic outfit Disclosure deliver a double dose of slinky house on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dembow, a Dominican twist on reggaeton, touches down at MGM beat Hall at Fenway on Sunday with a visit from rapper El Alfa. Rock takes the reins for the rest of the week, featuring My Morning Jacket’s country-dusted psychedelia on Monday and Modest Mouse’s acidic alternative on Wednesday.
Across the street at the House of Blues, punk-turned-gothic-rock band AFI visit on Friday with their ominously-titled new LP “Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…” Rapper Rico Nasty flexes bars from her recent project “LETHAL,” a spiky layering of trap and emo, at the venue on Tuesday, and indie-folk singer Gigi Perez mellows out the week on Wednesday with cuts from her own new offering, her debut LP “At the Beach, in Every Life.”
today SPINNING
Weakened Friends, “Feels Like Hell.” The pride of the “other” Portland are back, and we’ve never needed frontperson Sonia Sturino’s yelping vocals more. On their third album, Maine band Weakened Friends claw through a bleak present with another collection of alt-rock rippers, ranging from wounded cuts like “Lightspeed” and “Nosebleed” to a caustic cover of Natalie Imbruglia’s anthem “Torn.”
Jay Som, “Belong.” On her first LP in roughly six years, Los Angeles creator Jay Som (given name: Melina Duterte) corrals all of modern rock’s obsessions. Downtrodden guitar riffs (“Want It All”), translucent dream-rock (“Cards On The Table”), and pop-punk punch (“Float,” a collab with Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Adkins) collide – complement each other – on Duterte’s long-awaited album “Belong.”
BONUS TRACK
Levitate’s Flannel Jam – an offshoot of the South Shore brand’s eponymous summer beat festival – returns over the long weekend. This year’s Flannel Jam keeps the festivities rooted in Massachusetts, starting on Saturday and Sunday at the brand’s Marshfield venue, Levitate Backyard, before moving to Cisco Brewers’s Nantucket location on Monday. Lineups vary by day, although the Wood Brothers and Rayland Baxter will perform at all three shows.
Victoria Wasylak can be reached at victoria.wasylak@globe.com. Follow her on Bluesky at VickiWasylak.bsky.social.
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