Ben Deily's Lemonheads/Pods

I was a huge Lemonheads fan, well, until they started to sorta suck in the early/mid 90s. The first 3 Taang! LPs were awesome, from their "razor sharp" punk beginnings to their more held back indie rock days of 1989's Lick. Though I enjoy some of their later stuff (It's A Shame About Ray, in particular) the first 3 with the Ben Deily/Evan Dando combo are still records I listen to today.

Back in 1987, Taang! put out a cassette compilation/sampler called A Fist Full o' Hits. A great comp, with stuff by Mission of Burma, Outlets, Oysters, Jerry's Kids, DYS, Ganggreen, and, uhh, Kilslug? Plus, two new Boston area bands, Bullet LaVolta and Lemonheads. I remember making dubs of the Lemonheads' track, "Second Chance," for my friends and raging about them. So when Hate Your Friends finally came out later that year, I had a new favorite record.



Lemonheads
Uhhh
Hate Your Friends LP (buy)
Taang! 1987

Moody and dark, Creator didn't really click for me when I first got it. The Lemonheads were in their post-Hüsker Dü phase, slower songs with...acoustic guitars! (Though this song has a nice beat.) Not a LP for a DRI loving guy like me.
Nowadays, Creator is my favorite Lemonheads LP.



Lemonheads
Two Weeks In Another Town
Creator LP (buy)
Taang! 1988

All of these songs are Ben's: I've always liked his songs/voice over Evan's. So it was sort of sad when Ben left the band and Evan became an indie rock idol/crack addict. Ben Deily went on to form the Pods who put out a 7" and a CD, both of which included this bitter, rocking song about the two's breakup.



Pods
Name In Vain
Where I'm Calling From CD
self released 1994

Endnotes
1. Ben Deily has a page (literally).
2. Thanks for the links! Pop Is Pablum, the mp3 blogs aggregator (which, mysteriously, seems to be down) and the Web Nymph aggregator.