Saturday, 8:45-10 pm, What's Next Stage
If you've followed the upward trajectory of the Dandy Warhols' career from the very beginning, then you know it's hard to separate their music from their pro-drug philosophy. Case in point: I can't hear "Minnesoter" without wishing I could get my hands on some opium, a drug the song has absolutely nothing to do with. But while they've always advocated getting high, the band's underground hit "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" rebuked the stupidity of getting hooked on that stuff. "I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passé." Ouch.
Music snobs regard bandleader Courtney Taylor with disdain because the Dandy Warhols sound like other bands, and because Taylor is fond of tooting his own horn. What the snobs fail to realize, however, is that Taylor is a glib, smirky guy and his lyrics are often wry parodies hidden within great pop songs. And Taylor has never, ever failed to own up to his rampant borrowing. Years ago, prior to the release of the group's breakout third album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, I interviewed Taylor, then wrote: "Today on the phone, he's telling me how he ripped off Neil Young's 'Cinnamon Girl,' the Stones' 'Brown Sugar,' and George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' on the [new record].
"Taylor has never made any bones about the fact that much of the material on both Dandys Rule OK? and The Dandy Warhols Come Down is in the direct 'style' of other well-known songs. Big-hype single 'Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth' lifts ELO's 'Don't Bring Me Down'; 'Every Day Should Be a Holiday' rips the guitar riff right out from under ZZ Top's 'Legs.' On 'Good Morning' Taylor sings, quite bald-faced, in the vocal style of latter-day Iggy Pop. According to Taylor, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is quite simply The Last Classic Rock Album. 'Like Buffalo Springfield or Donovan,' he says."
Now, of the long-awaited Welcome to the Monkey House, Taylor recently told me, "I used 'Ashes to Ashes' twice, and I'm still trying to write ELO's 'Don't Bring Me Down.'" He also co-produced the album with Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, wrote songs with David Bowie and Evan Dando, and has Simon Le Bon singing backup, with Nile Rodgers playing guitar. What can you say to that? The guy's got a gift for befriending his idols.
Though it's only just been released domestically, the album has charted in the Northwest Top 20 consistently as an import since its UK release in May. And I'll tell you right now, the single currently playing on the radio, "We Used to Be Friends," sucks in that record-label-wants-a-hit sort of way. The rest of Welcome to the Monkey House is an '80s-influenced blast, especially "I Am a Scientist" (a song about living in a pharmaceutically altered state, all the time), and the perfectly blasé "I Am Over It," which begins with a synth beat and the sound of a gurgling bong as Taylor humdrums, "I find out too late that I am over it."
"You Were the Last High" gives new weight to the word "lush"--the vocals are smooth and cool, the harmonies are soaring, and the MTV-circa-'83 synth plays out the perfect bridge. The guitars are turned way down on Welcome to the Monkey House because Taylor wanted to create a new kind of pop. When they do rush to the front, like on "Heavenly," their unexpected fullness sounds amazingly vital.
The piano intro to Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" is ripped off and repeated throughout "I Am Sound," and the song contains a droll, self-deprecating admission of guilt: "But where are all the songs for me to sing along/that I am hoping someone writes one for me/and sings me something sweetly/for I promise to sing along/and then we'll both know nothing's wrong/singing 'la la la la.'" It's a damn cute song, and elsewhere in the album, I'm sure Marc Bolan smiles in his grave as Love and Rockets' "So Alive" provides the shape of "Hit Rock Bottom." On the whole, Welcome to the Monkey House is sexy and lazy, perfectly suited for the consumption of blue-colored pharmaceuticals.
