Willamette Week's Thirteen Tales From Urbam Bohemia review
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Willamette Week
Thirteen Tales From Urbam Bohemia
by Jay Nebel
August 30, 2000
Welcome, devoted brethren, to another unleashing of Portland's "beautiful" band, the Dandy Warhols, recently releasing their third album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia. Nothing simple here, just another collection that will undoubtedly conjure up those familiar cowboy hats, tight clothes, and shows featuring gay hula-hoop dancers and movie screens playing Warhol-style images of large breasts. Yes, we are rock stars, the Dandys seem to say, and beautiful. Even if you hate them, you had to believe it when Courtney Taylor--now Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the loved/hated skinny central figure known for his wild stage antics (i.e., cockiness)--stopped the band mid-song during a recent Roseland show to yell at a young muscular punk fighting in front of the stage: "Girls like skinny pasty white guys," Courtney proclaimed. On Bohemia the Dandys rocket through cuts such as "Bohemian Like You," a Rolling Stones-like song with a gritty guitar riff and subtle background keyboards. This seems to be the difference in their new material--less muddy guitar and wall-of-keyboard sound, more room for Taylor's vocals. The new addition of steel guitar (for "Country Leaver") and trumpet (for "Godless") doesn't seem to hurt the Dandys' idea of style and grandeur, either. At least our beautiful band still lives and claims to be from here, which is more than I can say of Elliott Smith, who is now from LA. There is no denying this isn't Sleater-Kinney, either--this is big label, big sound, whether you hate it or not, and that honesty and we-don't-care attitude remains. For proof of that, look no further than Taylor's dismissive shout in closing the Roseland show: "No, I haven't heard your band 'cause you guys are pretty new."
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