A Lost Classic: Evan Dando - Baby I'm Bored (2003)

There are very few singers-songwriters that I can listen to at any time of the day and not get a little tired of. Even the greats- like Bob Dylan, Neil Young - all have small quirks that sound like nails on a chalkboard when played at the wrong moment. Evan Dando hasn't had nearly as much influence or success as either of these guys, some would even characterize his band - The Lemonheads as a lost 90's one-hit-wonder group. Still there's something to be said for being able to write a short, often funny, catchy tune and deliver it with the laid back ease of Evan Dando.

I've seen Evan in concert many times. Each time he rarely spoke to the crowd except for saying "Good night" at the end of the show. He never seemed wasted or like he didn't want to be there though. All of the shows were 30-40 songs long and featured wide ranging covers from Whitney Houston to Gram Parsons to The Misfits. Each song was always sung as if it was his own- never forced, always relaxed, yet always moving. Evan has always seemed to follow the beat of his own drum. Whether taking his time to write and release a new Lemonheads record, or deciding not to show up at record store autograph signings, he has never seemed to treat music as a job. Still when you meet Evan in person or listen to his latest release, it feels like reuniting with an old friend.

Although Dando mentioned in interviews that most of the albums by the Lemonheads in the 90's were basically "solo" albums, to this day Baby I'm Bored (title refers to the sticker on the back of many cars - Baby on Board) remains pretty far out there compared with the Lemonheads oevre.

The hazy, sometimes druggy vibe of the album feels like a dream, somewhere in between falling asleep and waking up. At times there is a dizzying sense of being lost and drifting along. Still, this short and sweet album features just enough quirkiness in the production to keep the album from ever coming close to feeling as though it's dragging along.

As of 2013, it remains the only official solo album released by him. When it came out in 2003, it was his first studio release since The Lemonheads Car Button Cloth, seven years earlier. During that time, which some had called his "lost weekend", he traveled around the world, developed addictions to heroin and alcohol but kicked the habits, and met his wife - a model named Elizabeth Moses. His nomadic lifestyle during these 7 years seemed to have a large effect on the finished product. Pulled together from 22 songs that were recorded in three very different studios, with different producers, and different musicians in each one, gives Baby I'm Bored a fairly eclectic feel, musically. However the songs themselves and Evan's vocals tend to ground it and make it all sound very cohesive.

"I'll tell you what the deal is," he finally says. "This record was just the cumulative process of gathering enough tunes. I threw away way more songs than I've ever thrown away before. We have tons of B-sides and odds and sods and whatever. Because I really wanted to get to the point where I had twelve collections of noises that I could really stand behind 100 percent. I don't think of them as songs. They're just collections of sounds. I waited and waited and waited. I was spending my own money, going into studios, and waiting until I had twelve songs that I really liked and that all fit together as an album....." - Evan Dando (from interview by Matt Ashare/No Depression)

He mentioned that his two major catalysts for finishing this album (which started in 1999), were witnessing the 9/11 Twin Towers attack from his apartment down the street in New York City; and the encouragement from friends Ben Kweller and Ben Lee who pushed him to carry on and finish the project. Besides encouraging Evan, Ben Lee also played a monumental role in the creation of the album, writing two of the record's best songs (and within a week of each other) - the beautiful "All My Life" (featuring the mantra-like chorus: "All my life I thought I needed/ all the things I didn't need at all") and "Hard Drive" (an acoustic song about the constant wheel of life and the feeling of spinning out of control).

In 2000, Dando began writing and recording songs for Baby I'm Bored, with producer Jon Brion in his Los Angeles studio. Brion who was another major contributor to the album, and best known for his soundtrack work, produced many of the songs, and played a mish-mash of instruments from drums to marxophone. Together they co-wrote almost half of the songs, which gave the finished product a smart, almost Beatle-esque pop finish.  The best of which, a catchy song called "It Looks Like You" has a sunny California country rock vibe, with great harmonies, and some excellent production in the bright layering of acoustic guitars. Why Do You Do This to Yourself"(which could be autobiographical), is a deceptively spare acoustic country song, where Dando seems to channel one of his heroes - Gram Parsons. While, "Stop My Head" and "Repeat" are two slightly experimental tracks you'd likely never hear on a Lemonheads album.

If there were any songs that seemed to be more in line with The Lemonheads circa 1993, it would be those recorded during sessions in Brooklyn, New York. Featuring bassist - Royston Langdon, from the Bowie-loving glam rock group - Spacehog; and guitarist - Chris Brokaw, from the underrated Boston alternative band - Come; Dando is backed by an inventive group of hard rocking musicians. Both Langdon and Brokaw provide some well textured noisy guitar parts on "My Idea"(a co-write between Brokaw and Tom Morgan) and "Rancho Santa Fe" (a song influenced by Heaven's Gate). "Waking Up" is a weird experimental pop tune and another highlight, which Dando wrote with Langdon, and features some out of this world vocal layering.

The last set of sessions for Baby I'm Bored which took place in Tucson; offered a nice contrast with less production, and a more live, rough around the edges sound. Although only spawning two songs ("Hard Drive" and "In the Grass All Wine Colored"), the backing band, which featured members of Giant Sand and Calexico, provided the perfect backdrop for Dando's vocals with their eerie desert sound.

Although the album wasn't a huge seller, there remains to be very few that sound anything quite like Baby I'm Bored. Timeless and effortless sounding, yet to this day it still holds plenty of surprises for listeners, and remains a staple of my collection. There's no doubt that Evan Dando deserved a break after almost twenty years of playing in the Lemonheads. During the seven year wait between albums, Dando took time to live as a human being again - traveling, kicking drugs, and meeting his future wife; the album proves that once in a while good things take time.

Evan went on to put out two more new Lemonheads releases in 2006 and 2009, and one archival release in 2012.