Listen Again: The Dandy Warhols

The Dandy Warhols were that band with an indie heart that got swept up into the cogs of the major label record industry. Formed in Portland, Oregon, with no greater aspirations than to play parties with their friends they caught the ears of executives at legendary Capitol Records and the push was on.

The indie release debut album had featured psychedelic, trippy dance music and their first major label effort was rejected by Capitol, as it supposedly didn’t contain any “hits.”

The band recorded a new batch of songs and Come Down was a minor commercial success. The suits were impressed and allowed Courtney Taylor-Taylor and his mates a little more leeway for the follow-up and Thirteen Tales was born. It’s a muscular, genre-hopping decidedly non-commercial outing that nevertheless gained great traction with the college crowd throughout America. 

Side one kicks off with the droning Godless, an acoustic/electric strummed piece with a simple trumpet melody to add colour. It is pleasant and catchy with whispered, gentle vocals from Taylor-Taylor. The bridge is the most interesting part, as everything is disassembled except the trumpet and the song restarts with a little more volume and intensity. It is a subtle, neat production trick. The lyrics are nothing to write home about merely calling out someone for being “godless” whatever that means.

The song doesn’t end so much as morph into track two, Mohammed with the droning continuing although this time with a Middle Eastern flavour as befits the title. Subtle percussion moves the long intro along until a lyrical electric guitar line courtesy of Pete Holmstrom leads us into a psychedelic journey. It is a peaceful, repetitive travelogue with barely any lyrics at all.

The dense sonic structure is again amplified by trumpet which suits the tone of the piece very well. The song doesn’t end so much as fall apart. Nietzsche then kicks in with a heavier guitar riff sounding like an outtake from Ozzy-era Sabbath with a bunch of hippies chanting in the background. The keyboards get a chance to make an intense contribution managing to sound as distorted as the two guitars. The group lyrics seem to be espousing the philosopher’s teachings but it’s hard to tell as they are drowned out by the remarkably catchy noise. The five minutes and forty seconds meander by in a gentle head-banging breeze.

It’s a rather interesting feat and one can see why people were so intrigued with the group. Things swerve quite quickly with Country Leaver, a tale Taylor-Taylor gives us framed as a slide guitar hoedown about meeting his girl in Amsterdam.

“I’m going to see you in a foreign land … I hope when I see you, you’re still liking who I am.”

It’s the first time the lyrics are really understandable on the record and they are self-deprecating and blasé. The acoustic and slide are a lot of fun. This leads into the album highlight, Solid, the anthemic masterpiece that starts with the line: “well I must have a door in the back of my head” and features a wordless chorus the makes your body move.

The guitars and keyboards bounce along with a “whistle” motif and the singer wanders happily around his hometown thinking, “blah de blah blah blah to your trip.”  It celebrates the joy of letting go, the joy of conquering stress, the joy of not letting things get to you. A great topic for a rock anthem. It’s over too soon and segues into, Horse Pills, which talks about the hedonistic lifestyle of Hollywood and the music industry.

The heavy distorted guitars are back. Lots of references to the battle to fight getting older through plastic surgery and the dangers of: he loves you for your money. Holmstrom succeeds with the guitar fills throughout.

Zia McCabe brings the song to a close with her distorted keyboards. Get Off is a jaunty chain gang piece if the chain gang were pounding the rocks double time. Harmony backing vocals and lots of: Hey, hey, hey, hey, frame all I want to do is get off.

The energy of a band in lockstep and the combination of the acoustic and electric instruments make this a success.

Sleep features electronic drums and gently picked guitars in a long meditative work as Taylor-Taylor can’t stop dreaming of “her” even if he sleeps for a month or sleeps forever. Gentle psychedelic guitars are back in the mix, non-intrusive but filling in the spaces of this sparse song. At almost six minutes it can lull one into a dream state especially when the male/female wordless tone singing takes over halfway through. Yes, it goes on too long but the theme and the execution are again exactly what the band meant to do.

Cool Scene is a coming of age rocker, the narrator really didn’t want to be in high school as he wasn’t part of the in-crowd. The guitars have a Kinks-60’s sound and the simple rhythm lives up to the retro vibe. The trumpet is back but is mixed farther back in the sound. The second half features a variety of old-school percussion sounds. It’s a coulda-been-a-hit track.

The next cut: Bohemian Like You was a massive commercial success showing up in movies and television. A Stone Roses-like riff and an indelible sound with Taylor-Taylor crowing: see what looking real cool will get you.

No, I haven’t heard your band but you guys are pretty new is a wonderful pick-up line as he invites the girl to the restaurant where he works and says he’ll have the kitchen cook something special. The constant I like you, I like you, I like you bounces along in the perfect commercial sweet spot.

Shakin’ keeps the energy going with McCabe getting to play some wonky synths while the guitars wail. You were getting older, I was getting wiser, won’t you back, back, back, back off. You can feel the sound hit the rafters of their rehearsal space, The Odditorium in this one. Big Indian is a piano based slower piece with the vocals sounding more fragile than in the confident rockers: my old man told me one time you never get wise, you only get older.

Age seems to be a ghost hanging over this young band as they celebrate partying and imminent success and this track hammers that home with the synths and piano both hitting those dark chords. It ramps up and hits the rafters again but the cry is: the future is frightening as we fade out. The album closes with The Gospel an old-time sounding blues work with the male/female wordless backing vocals and the dour coming for to carry you home Greek chorus echoing all Courtney’s thoughts. Gentle guitars and a shuffle drum pattern lurch us to bed. 

It’s been a party, but it’s been a party hosted by thoughtful, worried, musicians not sure of their place in this world or in the big bad music industry. The major label life would quickly disappear but the band still thrives today deep underground.

Charlotte County resident Stephen MacKnight works for Anglophone South & Working NB after a decade spent as a music teacher in the school system and twenty-five years in the music retail industry cycling through Sam the Record Man, Records on Wheels and CDPlus. There have been nominations from ECMA’s & Music NB as a band-member and songwriter. Passionate and opinionated about music Stephen loves when anyone wants to have a debate.