Dandy Warhols

I love record label people, I absolutely love them. Here is this publicist calling and asking me if I want to interview the Dandy Warhols …except she forgot to send a CD, a press kit or a photo. Sure, I’ll interview them. I bought The Dandy Warhols’ Come Down and I was familiar with the band from Dandy’s Rule OK, the first release on one of my favorite labels, Tim/Kerr. I saw the band when they opened for Echobellly at DV8. The Dandy Warhols always tour with English bands. Music critics are constantly com­paring the Dandy Warhols to English bands. More on that later. I talked to Peter Holmstrom, the Dandy guitarist.

I was curious about the Velvet Underground relationship. Dandy’s Rule OK has a song titled “(Tony, This Song Is Called) Lou Weed.” This lyric is taken from the song “Ride” on that album, “You’re my ride / I’m out my win­dow / It’s all right / You’ve got Candy-O.”

I asked Peter about the early days. “About the time we started the band was about the time both Courtney (Taylor, singer/songwriter/guitar/keyboards) and I really started listen­ing to the Velvet Underground and I guess, kind of, appreciating it,” says Peter. “We’ve always been fans of bands that were influenced by the Velvet Underground, but had never paid that much attention. Some friends hooked us up with a best-of compilation and it was pretty great. I don’t know if it affected our songwriting a whole lot. Stereolab and The Verve probably had more effect. Those bands came through Portland right around the exact same time we started the band and had an amazing effect on us.”

To me the Dandy Warhols are reminiscent of some bands from the “paisley underground,” bands like Rain Parade, Salvation Army (later forced to change the name to The Three O’Clock), Dream Syndicate, Human Hands, Green On Red and even The dB’s. Most others compare them to British bands. Why? “I guess that’s the easiest label to give us, that we sound British,” says Peter.

The Dandy Warhols’ Come Down mixes lovely pop tunes. “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” is the best example, with total freaked-out psychedelic songs such as “I Love You” and “The Creep Out.” Peter says, “We like to mix it up, it keeps us inter­ested too.” But that wasn’t the question. Did Capitol encourage the band to record more commer­cial songs? “Oh, no. They would prefer it if we had three pop songs on the album, but they’re happy with one,” says Peter. 

In the Trouser Press Guide To ’90s Rock, Ira Robbins has this to say about the Dandy Warhols first album: “The umpty­-millionth band of tragically self­ conscious style-mongers to come sashaying down the noise-pop runway as if they had just bought the place hails from Portland, Oregon. The Dandy Warhols have a regrettable name and a modern time-capsule sound that neatly summarizes a good chunk of what’s stopped by Alternative Nation sporting an English accent since a week ago Thursday.” Damn, but there’s more. “…But cleverness is no substitute for real songwriting, and that’s where the fizz goes out here.”

How does Peter feel about the songwriting skills now and then? “I thought it was just as good in the beginning,” he says. “Probably because we had a little bit more time to work things out. Now we’ve been a bit more busy touring and stuff.” In reference to those first songs Robbins so scathingly dismissed, Peter said, “We had two years to pretty much sit in the basement. We’d play out every once in a while, but we were always trying new things. There wasn’t the pressure to always put on a… you know, we always wanted to put on a good show, but there weren’t as many people there and nobody really expected anything of you. So we’d try out new things all the time.” Now? “I think Courtney has improved his lyric writing,” says Peter. “A lot of people tend to just write us off as a pop band. A lot of the songs are just fun, but others are fairly serious.”

Speaking of songs, how about the inspiration for the big hit sin­gle, “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth?” “It’s actually an old girlfriend of Courtney’s who took the little downhill slide,” says Peter. “It was his cheeky, immature way of dealing with a really serious subject. It’s not necessarily an anti-drug song, it’s more of an anti-addiction song. A stupidity song.” How about “Cool As Kim Deal”? “That’s pretty much she’s the coolest rock girl,” says Peter.

Since the Dandy Warhols will be in Salt Lake City on November 10 at Liquid Joe’s, I asked Peter about the differences in the live and stu­dio versions of the Dandy Warhols. “We tend to approach the studio and playing live com­pletely differently. Just because there’s limits to what you can do on stage,” he says. “Courtney tends to sing a lot of the keyboard parts, the extra keyboard parts, just because we don’t have anyone else. We’re thinking of getting a fifth mem­ber, like a touring member at some point. Some people are dis­appointed at the lack of some of the keyboard lines, but oh well.”

The Dandy Warhols live is an experience in psychedelic music that totally rocks. When they opened for Echobelly all that time ago, I was more impressed by the Warhols than I was with Echobelly. Both CDs are highly recommended to not only the lovers of that British rock shit, but also to those who remember the “paisley underground” and any­one else who loves a bit of trippy music that has no relationship whatsoever to the music the new generation of hippie bands are passing off as tripping music. Take some acid for this one and you might just freak out. —Steven Hawk

Read more from the archives:
Interview: Son Volt
Guilty By Expression

If you enjoy digging through the archives, consider joining our community of donors!