Baltimore City Papers Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia review
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Baltimore City Paper
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
by Shelly Ridenour
August 23 - August 29, 2000
Unfortunate title notwithstanding, the Dandy Warhols' new disc are not, in fact, a note-for-note tribute to Rent. Good lord, of course not--though there is plenty of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll to go around. It is the most exciting record I've heard in, what, weeks, at least, and the foxiest little thing I've heard in a long time.
Longtime Dandy darlings, don't despair: While the first three songs find these Portland, Ore.-based hustlers blowing one last valentine to their American-pie-served-on-a-Brit-pop-platter past, it is not so much a kiss-off as a fond farewell. Hello, Velvets; yeah, Iggy, they're nodding at you. The '60s merge into the '70s all over again on "Country Leaver," a loping cowboy wink that recalls John Phillips' California country-hippie chic. Likewise, "Cool Scene" slithers with a low-slung, '60s-fashionista, drug-bliss groove.
Wanna shake your ass off? The fang-bearing social seether "Horse Pills" (trading lines that rival Sisqo-- "In your itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny-riding-up-your-butt bikini"--with catty commentary on the sugar-mama lifestyle) and the strutting "Shakin'" (there's that Iggy tribute) will do the trick. Same goes for "Bohemian Like You," an exuberant, insistent single waiting to happen. Zia McCabe's swivel-ly keyboard playing sets a scene as giddy as "The Dandy Warhols' TV Theme Song" (from the band's 1995 debut, Dandys Rule OK). But, as frontman Courtney Taylor turns on his trademark mocking charm, this little bruiser keeps tongue loosely in cheek for a sweet sting: "Who's that guy just hanging at your pad/ He's looking pretty bummed, yeah you broke up--that's your bad/ I guess it's fair if he always pays the rent and he doesn't get bent about sleeping on the couch when I'm there."
The closer, "The Gospel," a shimmering, '50s-style love-song swoon `n' sway, finds Taylor in a Chris Isaak mood. But it's the Dandys--are they being ironic, or just lovely? Either way, I'm hooked.
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