The Dandy Warhols
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The Dandy Warhols are an alternative rock band formed in Portland, Oregon by Courtney Taylor-Taylor (formerly just Courtney Taylor) (vocals, guitar), Zia McCabe (keyboard), Peter Loew (formerly known as Peter Holmstrom/Holmström before his marriage to Michelle Loew in 2002), and Eric Hedford (drums). When Hedford left in 1998, Taylor-Taylor's cousin Brent De Boer replaced him as drummer. The band's name is a play on the name of pop artist Andy Warhol.
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History
The Portland, Oregon Warhols are strongly influenced by The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones as well as including implicit musical references to Jethro Tull and My Bloody Valentine in some songs. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor describes the band beginning as a group of friends who "needed music to drink to." The band performed live shows in bars throughout Portland and released their first album, "Dandy's Rule OK?" in 1995. This album was largely ignored but is cited as influential in Capitol Records' decision to sign the band. Many Dandy Warhols fans claim that this album contains some of the band's best material, tending to single out the energetic "Lou Weed," the melodically complex "Dick" (possibly the closest to shoegaze the Dandy Warhols have gotten), and the 16-minute jam session "It's a Fast-Driving Rave Up With the Dandy Warhols 16 Minutes."
The band first achieved success in Europe after the release of their second record ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down in 1997; the lead single "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth" proved popular in many countries across the continent.
Following the release of Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia in 2000, the band gained a firm fan base in the college radio scene before garnering critical acclaim and mainstream recognition. The song "Bohemian Like You" became a hit in the UK and was used in a Vodafone advertising campaign in 2001. The advertisement money was used to buy a quarter city block in Portland, Oregon (the band's hometown) for use as film and music studios, as well as being a clubhouse for the band to throw parties.
Welcome to the Monkey House, released in 2003, was co-produced by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. The album takes its title from Kurt Vonnegut's collection of short stories of the same name. The recording features an eighties synth-rock sound that alienated some devotees of the band's earlier harder-edged guitar sound. It also won critical plaudits for its polish, panache, and the band's capacity to reinvent itself.
Though stateside commercial success still eludes the band, they have a large cult following. This was underlined in an interview lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor [gave to Westword.com].
Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, partially named after and recorded in the band's Portland studio, The Odditorium, was released on September 13, 2005. "Smoke It" was the first track released for radio play. The album, although having been described as a return to form for the band, moving away from the synth-heavy sound of Welcome to the Monkey House and back toward the largely guitar-oriented, diverse arrangements of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, received poor reviews. Like the single "Smoke It," the album could not crack the top 40 on the UK Charts. In light of this, the follow up single version of "All The Money Or the Simple Life Honey" was radically remixed with more guitars and new drums; the song still failed to chart highly.
Along with Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols were the subjects of the 2004 documentary Dig! This film captured the love/hate relationship between both bands, highlighting the interaction of BJM frontman Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor. It was recorded over the course of seven years by Ondi Timoner.
Discography
Albums
- 1995 Dandy's Rule OK?
- 1997 ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down #16 UK
- *"Boys Better" from this album was included on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack and in a Gap ad; and "Every Day Should Be A Holiday" on the There's Something About Mary soundtrack.
- *"I Love You" from this album was featured in a 2006 Pontiac Solstice commercial.
- 2000 Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia #182 US; #32 UK **"Godless" and "Nietzsche" from this album were used in the movie Anti-Trust.
- *The hit "Bohemian Like You" was featured on Monday Night Football, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Little Nicky, Six Feet Under, and Igby Goes Down as well as a Chevrolet commercial in the US. In the UK it was used extensively by Vodafone for a television campaign, and on football programmes Match of the Day and 606, It was used in Australia for advertisements for a number of organisations including Holden and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was also featured in the racing video game 24 Heur du mans. The song was "mashed-up" with Mousse T's Horny in 2006 under the title Horny As A Dandy.
- *"Solid" was used as the theme song to the short-lived TV show Undeclared.
- *"Sleep" was used in the movie Crazy/Beautiful and in the TV-Series Queer as folk.
- 2003 Welcome To The Monkey House #118 US; #20 UK
- *"We Used to be Friends" from this album is used as the theme song for Veronica Mars and is featured on Music from The O.C. Vol. 1 as well as the Fox series Wonderfalls. It was also used as the theme song for the Australian reality TV show, My Restaurant Rules, and is one of the tracks on FIFA 2004.
- *9 Songs movie has live performance of "The Last High" as one of its episodes.
- 2004 The Black Album
- 2004 Come On Feel The Dandy Warhols
- 2005 Odditorium or Warlords of Mars #89 US; #67 UK
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |
| UK Singles Chart | US Modern Rock | |||
| 1995 | "Ride" | - | - | Dandy's Rule OK? |
| 1998 | "Every Day Should Be A Holiday" | #29 | - | ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down |
| 1998 | "Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth" | #13 | #31 | ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down |
| 1998 | "Boys Better" | #36 | - | ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down |
| 2000 | "Get Off" | #38 | - | Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia |
| 2000 | "Bohemian Like You" | #42 | #28 | Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia |
| 2001 | "Godless" | #66 | - | Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia |
| 2001 | "Bohemian Like You" | #5 | - | Re-release of single |
| 2002 | "Get Off" | #34 | - | Re-release of single |
| 2003 | "We Used To Be Friends" | #18 | - | Welcome To The Monkey House |
| 2003 | "You Were The Last High" | #34 | - | Welcome To The Monkey House |
| 2005 | "Smoke It" | #59 | - | Odditorium or Warlords of Mars |
| 2005 | "All The Money or the Simple Life Honey" | #83 | - | Odditorium or Warlords of Mars |
| 2006 | "Horny As A Dandy" | to be released | - | Mash-up recording (vs Mousse T) |
External links
- [Official site]
- [The Dandy Warhols at the SoundtrackINFO project]
- [Slabtown - Fansite]
- [allmusic.com Guide]
- ["The Lovely Lovelies", PopMatters interview (9/2005)]
- [Dandy Warhols Lyrics]
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