Mojo magazine recently came up with a list of fifty best punk songs ever and “Second Chance” by The Lemonheads from their first album Hate Your Friends was among them. What’s interesting about that song is that it wasn’t written by Evan Dando, but Ben Deily. I always thought that on first three Lemonheads albums it was Ben who wrote more intelligent and more comprehensive songs compared to Dando’s work. Lemonheads saw their big international breakthrough with a cover of Susanne Vega’s song “Luka.” This single and MTV video came out in between their second album Creator and third album Lick. Deily was on Lick and again his songs were my favorite on that record: “7 Powers” and “Anyway.” But a strange thing happened, all text from that time that I remember were centered around Evan Dando’s persona, and all I knew about Ben was that it’s a different voice than Dando and his name was on the record sleeve.
I am not sure what happened, but Ben left the band after Lick. Apparently, Dando and him didn’t have a fight, but the outcome was horrible for Ben. Dando continued with Lemonheads, having their heyday with “It’s A Shame About Ray” and keeping reissuing old records without paying a cent to Ben. I tracked down Ben at one point on Internet where it was said that he put together another band called The Pods up in Boston. But that was all I found about them. I never saw their records on sale, not even on Internet. No news about them on or on Deily, no Internet sites. It seemed like Deily disappeared.
But, surprise, just yesterday my friend, also a Ben Deily aficionado, sent me a link to a relatively new Ben Deily site: www.bendeily.com. It was great to see Ben alive and kicking. He has a new band Varsity Drag and according to the tunes he posted to the site, band is really good and Ben’s songwriting didn’t suffer through all these years. Ben is trying to keep up the atmosphere on the site with many jokes, and most of the time they work, so browsing the site is great fun. He posted up some rare photos, including those from Lemonheads’ early days. He also mentions that he had met up with Dando a year ago when they both set down with their guitars and played some of their old stuff. Both of them remembered all chords. Wish I was a fly on the wall.
The Lemonheads – Second Chance
The Lemonheads – Anyway
Varsity Drag – Skinny Ties
Thanks for the piece on Ben. I was a huge Lemonheads fan, “Ever” and “Anyway” are by far my favorites, amazing in their simplicity and honesty. His voice is so unique — raw and impassioned — a great contrast to Evan’s style. I just downloaded all the early Lemonheads stuff on eMusic (my tapes are a tad worn out), though I do feel bad, because I believe Ben sees no money from Taang Record. “Postcard” is playing while I write this, damn, that was exceptionally good music. Hope to hear more from him soon.
If J, Murph and Lou can get Dinosaur Jr back together… anything is possible!
i *was* a fly (in fact the only fly, save for evan’s tape recorder) on the wall the night he and evan played last year. as a lemonheads fan long before i ever played music with ben, it was a little mind-blowing to be privy to the only lemonheads reunion. hearing them harmonize on songs like anyway and second chance was one of the cooler moments i’ve ever had…
wow, lucky you! There was news on Pitchfork that Dando will continue Lemonheads with Stevenson and Alvarez of Descendents. No word on Ben Deily in that article. Do you know any details, JP? I think Deily is most likely out of the game for the reunion, but it could be that he maintains his low visibility in the band and Pitchfork simply forgot to mention him… What’s your take?
Um JP, you know you were nowhere near there, but you ARE a fly.
Didn’t you cut out early to go make out with your girlfriend.
You are still a fly though. Nice try.
hey leni – why all the hate? no matter – i was there that night, sitting on the steps of that little house off of the bigger house in the hills of silverlake. hearing 7 powers and anyway and mallo cup and second chance and… also, lucky me, i got to hear them do their thing *and* make out with my girlfriend. giggity giggity goo.
cool. But does anybody have any idea why Ben is not in the new Lemonheads line up?
stanislav – i’m not sure why he isn’t in that line up. i think the lemonheads thing was a very special time in his life and, given all the very choppy water under that particular bridge, i’m not sure if he wants to (or even could) go back there. as a fan of the band, i think it’d be great to see it, but they both seem to be doing fairly well – the new lemonheads thing sounds amazing and i believe ben is getting ready to do some touring with varsity drag. ben has also be hugely successful in his post-lemonheads career, being a cleo award-winning advertising writer.