Portland, OR alt-rockers The Dandy Warhols have been letting their freak flag fly for 30 years now. Seriously! The band was formed in 1994 and have consistently been releasing one psychedelic rock album after another. To coincide with the band's thirteenth studio album Rockmaker, which drops today from Sunset Blvd. Records, they began a tour a few weeks earlier. The new album is very much a rocker and it's worth picking up. Prior to the album release, they put out the single "Danzig With Myself", one of the coolest song titles in recent memory!
In my review of the band's 2019 album Why You So Crazy, I wrote that it was "the band’s best album since 2000′s Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia." Happy to report the new album is the band leaning into their hard rock tendencies. When I saw the band at Royale in 2019 celebrating their 25th anniversary, they played a ton of hits and dropped balloons on the audience at the end. I wrote "This band really made me believe the dream of the 90s is still alive!" When the band returned to Royale on March 5, they didn't have the balloon theme, but they didn't miss a beat. There was a brief technical glitch, but like any professional, they kept it going. This show was super special in that they were doing some new material off the album before it was even released. They also did a ton of their standards like "We Used to be Friends", "Good Morning" (one of my favorites FYI), "Bohemian Like You" (a big soundtrack song), "The Last High" and "Not Your Bottle" (a song they hadn't done in 20 years) among others.
Through this blog I've had the chance to cover The Dandy Warhols quite a bit. In 2019, I interviewed leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor via email. In 2020 I interviewed keyboardist/bassist Zia McCabe via zoom. So the next step was my first Dandy Warhols in-person interview with guitarist Peter Holmström backstage before the Royale show. He was relaxed, cool and very generous with his time. In addition to his work with The Dandy Warhols, Peter also has the side project Peter International Airport and he has played in Rebel Drones, The Mutants, and Sun Atoms! Busy guy indeed, so I appreciate his meeting with me while he was in Boston.
Peter Holmström and me
Me: In 2020 the band released Tafelmuzik Means More When You're Alone, a 3.5 hour album! You're making a lot of musicians feel downright lazy in contrast.
PH: Honestly, that's just us being lazy because that's stuff that was recorded a while before that we had and we just felt like we needed to put something out. More for everybody else during that time.
Me: Now the band's new album Rockmaker, which drops on March 15, is a much leaner 41 minutes. Tell me about the new album?
PH: The concept was that all of the songs start with a riff essentially, which is not a new thing, but it's new for us. We mostly write songs starting with a chord change and a melody and the riffs come later. This time we decided to come up with some heavy guitar riffs and come up with some songs around that, which was a very fun exercise. I was not into it at first, the idea that it was going to be a metal record. I had no interest in that. But as soon as I figured out that it wasn't going to be metal, just heavier guitar, then I came up with plenty of riffs and we got a record made.
cover of the new album Rockmaker
Me: The Dandy Warhols have always had a lot of rock star friends, but this new album features appearances by Slash, Frank Black and Debbie Harry. What was it like working with these icons of music?
PH: Unfortunately we don't ever get to be in the studio together. But still, having Debbie Harry sing on a song I co-wrote, that's...I didn't know that was on my bucket list! That's an amazing thing that my teenage self would be freaking out over. I'm still freaking out over it. Truly amazing!
And Slash - whoever would've guessed? That's just crazy. And Frank Black is super fucking cool! Another never would've expected that. But, hey - great!
Me: It's funny you mention bucket list because my next question is: are there any musicians on your bucket list you'd like to work with?
PH: [pauses] Yeah, of course there's lots of people. With my side project [Peter International Airport] I try to work with all of those people, because they're more the people I want to work with. But with The Dandys' it's not necessarily the ones who make sense, it's more the curveball ones that we end up with. I mean Mark Knofler - that's odd. I mean, Daniel Ash is somebody I would've loved to have been a part of this record. He doesn't seem to play on other people's records.
Zia McCabe, Brent DeBoer, Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Holmström live at Royale Boston on 3/5/24
Me: In addition to The Dandy Warhols, you also have your side project Peter International Airport. Any chance they might be opening for The Dandy Warhols soon?
PH: No. I would do it, but Courtney doesn't seem to like that idea. He doesn't like any of our side projects opening up. And it would be exhausting.
Me: I do need to ask, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the documentary film Dig! about the friendship and rivalry between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I know the band has had a complicated history with both the documentary and director Ondi Timoner, but what's it like for you to know that this film has amassed a cult following, just had the 20th anniversary treatment at Sundance and has brought in new fans?
PH: I try not to think about it too much, because it's not an accurate documentary. She told a story - a very captivating story - using real footage (for the most part) and we gained from it but we also suffered from it. Right when that came out that was right around the time the press wanted to turn against us anyway and we got just terrible reviews of our record that had nothing to do with the record. It was all about their view of who we were from the movie. Like big ones, Rolling Stone and Spin. Just horrible reviews. And then Anton [Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre] got people showing up at shows and just yelling at him to get him to freak out for years. And finally it's come back around so it's about the music. So yeah, it's a weird one. Zia wanted to take part in the 20th anniversary screening at Sundance but none of the rest of us did.
The Dandy Warhols live at Royale Boston
Me: Favorite album of The Dandy Warhols?
PH: It's a bit of a cliche but it's probably always going to be Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia. Just because pre-Thirteen Tales there was an innocence that got changed as soon as we had an actual hit. Then everything changed after that, including the way we recorded because that's when digital recording kind of took over. It stopped being about writing songs, then learning them, then going into the studio. It became more about building songs in the studio. There's nothing wrong with that it's just different. Because of that, there's an innocence to the magic thing that happened that we'll never go back to.
The Dandy Warhols Return to Webster Hall Ahead of New Album’s Release
The Dandy Warhols – Webster Hall – March 9, 2024
The Dandy Warhols are one of those bands that inspires all manner of wordsmithery in attempted service of what best captures their rather hard-to-describe-but-unmistakable swagger. (I like appealingly louche.) These songs, especially the ones that made them famous as alt-rock scene-stealers starting in the mid ’90s, balance affected distance (you’re convinced you’re just not going to feel as cool as they are) and unspecific but embraceable aggression (this is often so groovy, head-nod-able, danceable, even). Their psychedelic pop and woozy rock leanings set a vibe, and it carries for as long as they choose to keep it coursing.
Set up at Webster Hall on Saturday evening, the Dandy Warhols delivered a 75-minute panorama, mixing tunes from throughout their thirtyish years as a going concern, including a few new cuts from their upcoming album, Rockmaker, out on Friday. Some tunes announced themselves with sardonic insistence: “We Used to Be Friends,” “Crack Cocaine Rager” and “Summer of Hate” all pulled you along with various flavors of midtempo chug, pogo or hammering psych. Others took a more subtle approach, such as the bouncy, seductive “Styggo,” the ethereal “I Love You” and “Arpeggio Adagio,” folkie, druggy and trudging. Many of their classics from the late ’90s and early aughts (“Bohemian Like You,” “Godless,” “Boys Better”) turned up as a run of punches and sugar rushes toward the end of the set.
Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor, drummer Brent DeBoer and guitarist Peter Holmström climb on top of this music and its gauzy sounds and deliver it nonchalantly, as if they don’t have to produce its cool, just direct it. And the ace in the hole, as ever — with the most entrancing vibe onstage — is Zia McCabe, all over her island of keyboards but never without something extra, whether a piece of percussion shaking from an unoccupied hand, a lead vocal here and there or dancing from her perch — yep, all swagger. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson
Photos courtesy of Dana Distortion | distortionpix.com
The Dandy Warhols - The Little Drummer Boy (1994)
Katherine Kennicott Davis / Harry Simeone / Henry Onorati
from:
"Little Drummer Boy"/ "Silent Night" (Single)
"It's finally Christmas" (CD)
(1994 Compilation)
"It's a Cool Cool Christmas" (CD)
(2000 Compilation)
Alternative | Neo-Psychedelia | Christmas
JukeHostUK
(left click = play)
(320kbps)
YouTube
The Dandy Warhols - The Little Drummer Boy
featuring Jefferey Wonderful
Personnel:
Courtney Taylor-Taylor: Vocals / Guitar
Peter Holmström: Guitar
Zia McCabe: Keyboards
Brent DeBoer: Drums
Recorded:
1990's
"It's Finally Christmas!" Released:
1994
Tim/Kerr Records
"It's a Cool Cool Christmas" Released:
on November 21, 2000
Jeepster Records
Single: Released:
on November 29, 2013
Beat the Worlds Records Records
The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe x Pacific Theatre x South Granville. (via Emily Cooper)
Playwright Ron Reed's well-loved minimalist interpretation of C.S. Lewis' 1950 magical portal fantasy tale of Narnia efficiently runs through its layered source material in an impressively stripped-down two-hander with only a pair of actors portraying all the roles in an alleyway theatre setup. There's no shortage of magic or whimsy as all the stage elements come together to transport us away into a mythical world of childlike wonderment reflecting its traditional biblical Christian ideals.
Cast: John Voth (as Peter) and Rebecca DeBoer (as Lucy).
Ashnikko in a monstertruck and a squad of develish beasts ride towards the sunset to battle the angelic overlord robots.
Credits:
director - raman djafari // @ramandjafari
executive producer - josef byrne
head of production- Alex halley
production company: blinkink @blink_ink
producer - jake river parker // @jakeriverparkerfilms
animation producer - molly turner // @molly___turner
production manager - rowan mackintosh king // @rowanmackintosh
production assistant - maddy williams // @melodramaddy
commissioner- sam seager // @seagez
creative director - vasso vu @vassovu
manager - george shepherd // @shepherdgeorge
day to day manager - hannah browne // @hannahbr0wne
cg character design - raman djafari
cg background design - raman djafari
cg lighting, camera & layout - raman djafari
cg character animation & rigging - dominic lutz // @domolutz
cg character animation & rigging - harry bhalerao // @harrybhal
cg character animation & rigging - barney abrahams // @_yenrab
cg character animation & rigging - nate die // @spish.tv
cg artist - sandrine gimenez // @sandrine_gimenez
cg artist - klaas harm deboer
cg artist - michael marczewski
additional lighting - balasz simon // @notbalasz
vfx lead - john malcolm moore // @johnmalcolmmoore
compositor - andrew khosravani // @andrew_khosravani
compositor - vladislav enshin
compositor - caroline terrago
1st ad - julia pavliuk // @ula__la
dop - hunter daly // @hunterdalydp
1st ac - rupert hornstein // @ruperthornstein1966
2nd ac - nicola braid
ac (prep day) - Joe mcdonald
cam operator - tanmoye khan // @tanmoyekhan_dop
dit - rosie taylor // @rosie_taylor_
gaffer - laurent arnaud // @sparkswars
spark - johnjoe besagni // @jayjaybuzz
spark - kieran brown // @k_brown_gaffer
desk op - hudson daly // @hudson_daly
led tech - pavel stici
vfx supervisor - john malcolm moore // @johnmalcolmmoore
production runner - leda contopanagos // @leda.echo
production runner - krishita desai // @krishitadesai
production runner - tom gonzalez // @mr_tamborine_man_
production runner - tom willows // @tomwillows_mash
art director - laura little // @laulit
art assistant - jaclyn pappalardo // @jaclynpappalardo
art assistant - chris dent
art assistant (prep day) - jack boston oswald // @jackbostonoswald
art assistant (prep day) - joshua douglas-warne
art assistant (prep day) - Alexander king
art assistant (prep day) - thabet kimili