Fire Records has issued a limited white vinyl edition of the 1996 album, complete with a download of previously scarce tracks, as the record that closed the band’s Atlantic era continues to attract a dedicated following.
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Thirty years after its original release, The Lemonheads’ Car Button Cloth has returned in a limited white vinyl edition from Fire Records, paired with a download of rarities and unreleased cuts that shed new light on Evan Dando’s most solitary Atlantic-era album.
Released on 15 October 1996, Car Button Cloth was the seventh Lemonheads studio album and the final one under the band’s contract with Atlantic. By then the group had effectively become Dando plus drummer Patrick Murphy, with producer Bryce Goggin and a rotating cast of session players filling out the rest. Bill Gibson, who contributed bass and backing vocals on several tracks, joined Dando and Murphy for the subsequent tour.
The record never matched the commercial heights of It’s a Shame About Ray or Come On Feel the Lemonheads. It peaked at number 28 in the UK, 36 in Australia, 54 in Sweden and 130 on the US Billboard 200. Contemporary reviews were mixed. Yet over the intervening decades it has steadily built a minor cult reputation among listeners drawn to its restless mix of jangle-pop, country-rock textures and quieter, more fragile moments.
Two singles, “It’s All True” and “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You” (co-written with Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines), were issued in Europe. A third, “The Outdoor Type” (written by Tom Morgan of Australian band Smudge), followed in 1997. Morgan also co-wrote “Tenderfoot” with Adam Young. The album’s longer pieces, notably “Losing Your Mind” and the closing “Secular Rockulidge,” gave Dando space for the kind of extended, emotionally exposed performances that have aged particularly well.
One track that never made the final sequence remains a point of fascination. “Purple Parallelogram,” co-written by Dando and Noel Gallagher of Oasis, appeared on promotional copies between “Something’s Missing” and “Knoxville Girl.” It was removed at Gallagher’s request before the commercial release. The episode has lingered in Lemonheads lore as a brief, aborted cross-Atlantic collaboration that never reached the public.
Dando handled the bulk of the instrumentation himself: guitars, lead vocals, percussion, piano, bass and Moog synthesizer, plus drums on “Tenderfoot.” Murphy played drums on the remaining tracks. Guest contributions included Rich Gilbert on pedal steel, Royston Langdon on piano and bass, and others. Goggin produced, engineered and mixed, also adding organ, vocals and Moog.
After Car Button Cloth the Lemonheads went quiet as a studio concern for a decade. Dando released the live album and EP Live at the Brattle Theatre / Glee Club in Australia in 2001, followed by his first official solo album, Baby I’m Bored, in 2003. The band returned with a self-titled album in 2006. The intervening years only sharpened the sense that Car Button Cloth marked the end of one chapter.
The new limited white vinyl edition, released by Fire Records on 18 September 2026, reproduces the original 13-track sequence and adds a download of rarities. Those include single and remix versions of “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You” and “The Outdoor Type,” covers and outtakes such as “Pin Yr Heart,” “Balancing Act,” “Galveston,” the previously unreleased “Arise” (later reworked as “Rancho Santa Fe” on Baby I’m Bored), “Keep On Loving You,” an acoustic “Losing Your Mind,” and further alternate takes. An earlier deluxe clothbound double-LP edition in 2025 had already expanded the package with a full second disc of similar material.
The Australian connection remains notable. Morgan’s songs sit comfortably alongside Dando’s own writing and the traditional “Knoxville Girl.” The album’s modest but solid ARIA peak of 36, and the subsequent Australian-only live releases, underline the long-standing affinity between Dando and Australian audiences.
Car Button Cloth now stands as both a document of a transitional moment and a record that has quietly outlasted its initial reception. The limited anniversary pressing gives newer listeners a physical entry point and long-time fans a chance to revisit the extras that circulated only in fragments. The original album’s 30th anniversary falls on 15 October 2026, just days after the white vinyl’s arrival.
Whether the reissue prompts a fresh wave of live performances of the material remains to be seen. For now it simply returns one of The Lemonheads’ most idiosyncratic Atlantic albums to the shelves, complete with the rarities that fill in the picture of where Dando’s head was at the time.
Original Album Tracklist
1. It’s All True (2:15)
2. If I Could Talk I’d Tell You (2:50)
3. Break Me (3:34)
4. Hospital (2:54)
5. The Outdoor Type (2:36) – Written by Tom Morgan of Smudge
6. Losing Your Mind (5:36)
7. Something’s Missing (2:46)
8. Knoxville Girl (3:53) – Traditional bluegrass standard cover
9. 6IX (2:39)
10. C’mon Daddy (3:31) – Co-written by Epic Soundtracks
11. One More Time (2:38)
12. Tenderfoot (2:01) – Written by Adam Young / Tom Morgan
13. Secular Rockulidge (5:30)
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