Arriviste Press's Welcome To The Monkey House review

Arriviste Press
Welcome To The Monkey House
by R.A. Miller
September, 2003

The Dandy Warhols have always been a riddle inside an enigma wrapped up in a paradox. Radio-friendly Warhols tunes feature sing-along hooks and show up everywhere from soundtracks to TV ads.

Funny thing is, most of the band's material trends toward brooding indie-rock fare (definitely not radio friendly), and the lyrics behind those catchy pop songs? Well, listen closely cuz you're probably reiterating Courtney Taylor-Taylor's sarcastic assaults on anything and everything hipster chic as you belt it out into your shower head.

Case in point: the band's first hit single "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth"or any line from Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia's "Bohemian Like You."

Now take a look at the band. Size 'em up. The four members combined weigh in around 500 pounds fully pierced out. Their publicity photo subtly features a nuclear reactor as a centerpiece while three of the four (guitarist Loew, drummer DeBoer, and Taylor-Taylor) don skin-tight retro concert shirts supporting The Clash, Bob Dylan, and The Pretenders. Could you airlift any one of them to New York's Bowery District or San Fran's South of Market or Boston's Central Square and watch them blend with the fauna? Let's just say you'd be pretty safe from an EPA inquiry…

So the Dandy's are a bunch of hypocrites then… Well, not exactly. They're simply smart enough to know how to laugh at themselves and anyone else in the hipster genus that starts taking themselves to seriously. Philosophically this band more resembles the Pixies or Imperial Teen than say a wanna-be-indie Third Eye Blind. And that's definitely not a bad thing. The question is, can the Dandys be too smart for their own good?

The new album is Welcome to the Monkey House, and with it the band ventures further into the realm of big production and synthesized power pop - probably an unavoidable direction considering they enlisted help from Tony Visconti (David Bowie) and Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) for the knob-twisting duties. The only unpleasant surprise may be the arrangement: Where Come Down and Thirteen Tales blend to provide mural of sound, Monkey House is more stilted - each song more independent.

Despite the rough arrangement, Monkey House provides Dandy fans new and old enough high points to warrant accolades. "We Used to Be Friends," "Plan A, Scientist," and "The Last High" will fuel radio play lists for a while, and "Insincere" and "Burned" keep the wandering tonal drippings alive.