Dandy Warhols News and Rumors Archive - May 2003
May 31, 2003 - 2 MORE Weeks?!?
According to the Official Capitol homepage, the U.S. release date is now August 19th. No word on why this time, nor verification of this info.

Nate, he of the DW tat on his back, was the eagle-eyed spotter on Dandysrule2 who noticed this.

Small Update: It occured to me late last night, which was a friday, that this is the weekend that I'm trying to track down these answers, so don't expect any for a few days, being the weekend and all.
May 30, 2003 - You Were The Last High mini-details
Opal Music today sent out their newsletter update, and it had release dates for You Were The Last High's Uk release. Well, it is the same as for We Used To Be Friends - CD, 7" Vinyl and DVD, release date July 21st. So, the second single will be out in the U.K. before the album is out in the U.S.

Currently trying to track down info on track listings for the single.
May 29, 2003 - scratch and sniff merchandise
Found out something semi-interesting. Apparently some of the promotional material for Welcome To The Monkey House is scratch and sniff, meaning you scratch the logo and it smells like bananas. Currently I've heard of the Tour Shirt and Promo poster being like this.

Oh, and if I forgot to mention it, it was confirmed a week or so ago that, as expected, You Were The Last High will be the second single.
May 26, 2003 - track names
As I've expected for a while now, the track listings at Slabtown are wrong. The changes that were listed on the official site on April 1st (and that date isn't lost on me) didn't happen. I figured that since he left those new names up there for a few weeks, that it was not just an aprils fool joke. Anyway, I'll get around to adjusting all the pages on the site for the title non-changes, but will be in a few days, since there are a lot of pages to update and I just don't feel like it right now.

The worst part about it is that the name changes were good. There are some really shitty track names now, and the changes were for the better.
May 25, 2003 - Uk Charts;lyrics
In the weekly U.K. charts, Welcome To The Monkey House debuted at #20 while We Used To Be Friends continued it's freefall in the singles charts, dropping another 28 spots this week to come in at #72.

So far, We Used To Be Friends hasn't appeared in the top 40 singles list for any other European countries either.

Lyrics for all of Monkey House are posted on their respective pages. Call Me and Relax aren't.

May 24, 2003 - On Jules Holland this Friday
Or maybe its "Jools". I don't know and nothing is that clear on bbc.co.uk.

Next friday on BBC2 TV, The Dandy Warhols will be on "Later With Jools Holland". This show airs from 11:30pm to 12:30am.

Lyric update: I was checking the pages before I uploaded them and I realized that the correct lyrics aren't on this computer. Wil trasfer them by monday, if I can find them.
May 24, 2003 - photo/image index
OK, so it isn't the lyrics, but since all the pics from the new album are not as easily available since I archived the old news, I made a page that contains all the Monkey House era photos and images:
http://www.slabtown.net/photos/monkeyhouse/monkeyhouse_photos.html.
May 24, 2003 - Official site changed
Sean has been a busy beaver over at the Official site (www.dandywarhols.com), as the site had a full revamp go online yesterday. If the color yellow drives you to want to kill, stay away. Most of it is working, but some areas are not up yet. I went through it all fast and found the following changes of note:

Currently, the archives are completely gone.

In the "sights" section (videos), you can view the relatively rare (and never released) video for Horse Pills. It was filmed in Brents Cadillac and shows the gang doing drugs and cruising down the highway around Portland (For the really curious, they are going along I-26, up Sylvan Hill and down into Portland).

In the "Curiosities" section, they link to other sites (yet not Slabtown. Hehe), and have included a mini-game, where you control Courtney and have to beat the shit out of Philosophers. It is kinda neat, but nothing that will drag you back over and over. I like it though.

There is a place in the "community" section that lets you subscribe to the "official" mailing list. No idea what this is, since any "official" list has been dead for quite a while, when Sean basically drive it into the ground with the way it was ran. Don't, I repeat, DON'T confuse it with Dandysrule2.

Nothing hidden, as far as I've seen.

Thats about it.

I promise I will upload the lyrics to the album later today. I really just have to transfer them all over. They have been done for months. Well, maybe only 4 to 6 weeks.
May 22, 2003 - Dandys DJ'ing Saturday and other various items
Another generic subject line...

All of this is from Dandysrule2.

First off, in the category of short notice, Courtney and Peter will be DJ'ing at Casino Royale on Saturday (May 24th). This is held at Monarch Camden, and tickets are on sale now. More information at the Casino Royale homepage.

Reports from the live shows have been really positive so far, and I'll have more specifics for the concert pages in a bit. Highlights of the new stuff have been I Am Over It and Plan A... I also really liked You Come In Burned from the Bristol show. By the way, if you want to download live versions of tracks from the new album, I've made available two of the songs from the Bristol show:
We Used To Be Friends
You Come In Burned

As reported here a while back, the bonus track on the Japanese release of Monkey House is "Bohemian Like You". No word yet as to if it is a special version or not, and my copy hasn't arrived yet! More info, if relevant, when I get it.

Umm... guess thats it.
May 21, 2003 - Charts
OK, I promise that tonight at work I will archive most of the crap on this page!

The midweek album charts for the U.K. have Monkey House coming in at #15. As an idea of how this might translate, we Used To Be Friends was at #16 in the midweeks and ended up at #18 at the end of the week. So, expect it to be at #15 +/- a few positions either way.
May 19, 2003 - Post-Bristol;Charts
We Used To Be Friends dropped 26 spots this week, to #44 on the u.K. singles charts.

The following songs were played during the radio broadcast of the band performing in Bristol: Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth, Shakin', We Used To Be Friends (wasn't bad at all live), Hard On For Jesus, Solid, Cool As Kim Deal, Godless, You Come In Burned, Boys Better, Bohemian Like You. Less new material than I would have expected them to play, but that isn't unheard of on this tour so far.
May 19, 2003 - Bristol
Ooops. On May 11th, I said I would remind you that on May 19th, an hour of the Bristol gig is going to be played live on the radio/over the internet. Well, the day is here and I forgot to mention it before now. So, if you still want to hear it, tune in at 10pm local Bristol time (2pm west coast U.S. time) for an hour of the broadcast.

I'll be recording it if remember to wake up (since you know that 2pm is such a god-awful early hour to be awake!) and if any songs of note are played, I'll try to post them online. But, don't trust me to be able to do this (especially since it is on the BBC and I already got one email a while back from someone at BBC mentining that not putting BBC material up online is a good idea), and instead you should just listen yourself.

Tune in to BBC Radio 1 if you are a brit, or on the net at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/ to hear the 1 hour broadcast.

Speaking of concerts, sorry to everyone for not keeping the concerts up-to-date so far, in regards to creating pages for each show and taking dates off the "upcoming concerst" list. I should be fired.
May 18, 2003 - more new articles & reviews
8 more reviews added for Welcome To The Monkey House & We Used To Be Friends. Links on the Site Update page
May 17, 2003 - new articles & reviews;French broadcast;tour "reviews";Mojo
Go to the Site Update page for a new article and 6 album reviews.

Pierrot on DR2 mentioned the other day that the band will be playing on French radio on May 27th, at 9pm local time (8pm London, noon U.S. West Coast). It is broadcast at http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-inter01/direct/ . On that page, click on "Ecouter en direct". I had thought I posted this info before, but it appears not.

The reviews of the first shows the band did in Ireland have started to come in, and they are a mixed bag. A lot of vintage DW things, and little new material. I'll talk more about the shows later, and will update the "upcoming concert" page later as well.

Currently on my magazine want list: the bands appearance in the magazine Mojo. The NME interviews from a couple weeks back.

The BBC 6music performances are online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/presenters/chris_hawkins/
May 15, 2003 - fourms down
As the subject says, the forums seem to be down. Not sure why.
May 14, 2003 - full album online;Europe release of CD has slight variations
In a strange move by Capitol, considering how much the industry is not happy with hearing albums for free, the record label has made the whole album available to listen to. You can hear it at http://capitolrecords.com/dandywarhols/albumplayer. Thanks to Shelley for mentioning this to me.

A report by Blaim on DR2 says that the European release of the album has a few differences. The major one is that "it has an enhanced section that gicves you "exclusive access to THE ODDITORIUM - The Dandy Warhols' secret site where fans can see the band web casts, play games and download exclusive music and mayhem. Access is restricted to those who have the CD in their computer drives." FYI, the address for that will be www.theodditorium.com, and the bad does have the web address on the CD booklet. I just forgot to mention it.
May 14, 2003 - Reason no update in 3 days...
Just wanted to post a note saying that there will be an influx of info in the next few days. I was at a house-warming party for someone over the weekend, and it lasted a bit longer than expected.

So, if you have sent me something to post, I haven't forgotten about it and aren't ignoring it. Just distracted by the sweet nectar of life.
May 11, 2003 - First Week UK Chart
We Used To Be Friends entered the U.K. charts today at #18. Will have to watch to see if the upcoming shows help push that higher.
May 11, 2003 - Birmingham show guest;Bristol gig broadcast;Xfm X-posure
I really need to archive a few months of this page. It's disgustingly too long.

I got an email today from LucyLu saying that Nick Rhodes will be a guest at the Birmingham show on May 22nd. I haven't got any confirmation on this beyond that though, so file this under "rumor" for the time being. If it is true, would be a great bootleg to get. Hint, hint...

In the category of "the official site said this a while ago, but I forgot to mention it," the May 19th Bristol show will have an hour of it broadcast on BBC Radio 1. Will talk later about what time it will be on at.

Final reminder: On Tuesday (may 13th), Xfm radio will broadcast the new album in it's entirety on their X-Posure show. The X-Posure show starts at 11pm London time (3pm West Coast U.S. time), and will also reportedly include an "exclusive interivew" with the band.
May 10, 2003 - Jonathan Ross show a bust;More Eclectic
This might be my harshest commentary of a DW performance yet. Even worse than initial reaction to Meltdown.

The first live performance of "We Used To Be Friends," on the BBC's Jonathan Ross show was an absolute disaster. For as much talk as the band did about stripping everything down for the recording of this album, the performance has given the distinct impression that the song (and possibly the album?) is not something that can be duplicated live. Courtneys vocals are uninspired and lazy-sounding, with an annoying echo effect throughout it all (though I'm going to check to see if this was actually something that existed or a product of the recording), and even more shockingly, the only basically-solo guitar part does not come off as played that well at all, resembling the "controlled feedback" at the end of "T.V. Theme Song" being done by someone who doesn't know how to pull it off. And, lastly, in the clapping sections of the songs, there are pre-recorded "claps" added, though it really only sounds like 1 person clapping.

But, there are some positives that can be taken out of this. If they strip it down more, I think it could be a really well done acoustic song, at least with the vocal styling that Courtney uses in this recording. But, for an all-out live performance of this song, you have go to bigger and bring in the effects that are on the album, which is what makes it work. The REAL version of the song is so great because it has its verses nicely composed and played, but then really takes off hard during each chorus. Using the same intensity throughout the whole song is not the way to go with this, and in the end it fails because of this.

Hopefully for the time being, lets write this off as being "experimental" and just being unfamiliar with the material, and hope that the actual live gigs don't take this same route.

By the way, for those that want to hear this performance, it is available to members of the Dandysrule2 mailing list, so join up if you haven't yet.

Onto a couple other things that are unrelated to the above performance.

I was scanning the official messageboard and noticed an item listed on it that I hadn't known about. First off, if you go to the Sounds Eclectic homepage, in the past few weeks, they have played a couple more tracks from the new album. The full list of tracks that you can listen to now is: You Were The last High, Scientist, Over It, Plan A. Scroll down through the playlists to find each one.
May 9, 2003 - BBC 6music appearance
Courtney and Brent just finished an appearance on BBC radio. It was a mostly-routine appearance, with the boys playing The Rolling Stones "The Last Time" and "Good Morning" acoustically. They sounded the same as usual with the two tracks. Nothing remarkable was talked about either, with some talk about their side band, The Slimmer Twins (Who Courtney said might get a name change to The Dutchmasters). Much talk also focused on how Nick Rhodes and Tony Visconti both got involved with the project and more specifically what they were like to work with, and the show ended with Courtney talking very positively about his love for his girlfriend, and how it feels "like you imagined love would feel when you were 6 years old", which he continued on and on about, while the host tried to get the show to a commercial break. Relatively funny stuff. Also, Courtney wanted to play as the second song what was apparently a song by the band America, but Brent vetoed it.

I was going to put the songs up for download, but since they aren't anything remarkable, I'm not going to.
May 8, 2003 - reviews, lyrics, shows, dvd's
On May 6th, I mentioned that Peter Allison talked about how lyrics are included with the new CD. I was able to get a copy of this now, and yes it is true that the lyrics are included. They are on the cardboard piece that is in the back of the CD case, where when you take out the CD, the lyrics are visible under where the CD was. I will be going over them either later today or tomorrow to see how they are. I have not decided if I will post them or not, but the positive thing is that it will guarantee that the lyrics I post on May 19th are very accurate (though a quick glance already showed them to be 95% accurate already), though I have already noticed that the lyrics aren't 100% accurate for what is really on the CD.

Added two new reviews;One is Xfm's review of We Used To Be Friends. They also made it the single of the week, so as you can guess, it's a pretty positive review. Also posted Music Week's short review of Welcome To The Monkey House. Pete reported on Dandysrule2 also that Uncut gave the magazine 4 out of 5 stars. I'm trying to find that review now.

BBC will have the band on the Giddeon Coe show Friday on their midday show, which runs from 10am to 1pm London time (2am to 5am West Coast U.S. time). They are slotted to appear "Just after midday," which I would guess would be noon, but don't quote me on that. If you don't live anyplace that receives BBC, you can listen to it over the internet at http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/presenters/gideon_coe/. I'm going to try to record it, but not sure if I will make it over from work.

Speaking of radio, no word on if the band appeared on Xfm yesterday as scheduled.

Switching over to TV, the band appeared on the Johnathan Ross show tonight. No word on how it went. They are also scheduled to appear on MTV Europe on a show called "The Fridge," which is on at 5pm (9am West Coast U.S.). I know nothing of value about MTV Europe, so I don't know if you can see this on the net (and I really don't feel like checking to see).

The official site mentioned back on April 30th that Rock & Folk made Welcome To The Monkey House "Album Of The Month". I just never got around to mentioning it before.

Revisiting radio appearances, Luc reports on Dandysrule2 that the band will be playing a second show in Paris while in town, but this will be for the radio... "Black Session With Bernard Lenoir" is apparently the name of the radio show they will be on. This is reportedly scheduled for May 27th, so I should have more information before then.

And that segues into the topic of upcoming concerts. Note that the upcoming concerts page hasn't been updated for any of this yet:
The Belfast show on May 15th, as of right now, has been called off again. This might change, but that is the current situation.
A radio station in Ireland announced that a "second dublin show" has been added due to high demand. If you recall, originally they were scheduled to do two Dublin shows, but the second one was cancelled and the Belfast show was added in it's place. So, the situation with those two shows are pretty much up in the air. Thanks to David Harrington for sending in the info about the radio station talking about a second Dublin show.

I haven't typed up the articles I said I was going to, so they will be up sometime in the future.

Lastly, the 4 videos included with the Australian DVD are "Bohemian Like You," "Get Off," "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth" and "We Used To Be Friends". Pretty unimpressive.
May 8, 2003 - Preview of coming attractions
For the next two months, updates might be a bit less punctual than up to this point, as I just started a job yesterday (working 7pm to 7am) for the next couple months. But I still plan on staying on top of everything. Hopefully if I wake up early enough today, I will have a good sized update, including:

I got a copy of the lyrics that are included with Monkey House, so I'll talk about them.
Xfm made We Used To Be Friends the 'single of the week'
Rock & Folk has Monkey House as album of the month (official site reported this last month)
DW on TV (MTV, BBC)
show cancellations and additions
Posting the articles from Seventeen, Rocksound and FHM (maybe)
More reviews (Uncut, Music Week)

Oh, lets be realistic. I'm a lazy bastard and probably won't get around to all of it until the weekend. But I will try to update about the time-sensitive stuff (TV appearances in the next 24 hours and such).
May 6, 2003 - tour date changed confirmed; Mid-week chart = #16; booklet; no warm-up show in Portland; schedule update; Xfm
Geez, subject lines like the one for today are why I sometimes just say "various".

I got confirmation that the tour date has indeed changed, with the band playing only one show in Dublin on May 14th, and then will be playing May 15th in Belfast, Ireland at Mandella Hall, which is at Queens University. Ticket information is sketchy, as the only place I have seen ticket information at is Wonderland Promotions, but when you go to buy tickets, it says none are available. Might be sold out...

After the first day of sales, We Used To Be Friends is #16 on the charts. People more knowledgeable than I expect this to reflect close to where the single will appear on the end of week charts, but don't forget to buy your copies. Heck, I have bought 3 myself.

Peter Allison mentions on Dandysrule2 that the booklet contains lyrics for the full album. While I have no doubts this is the case, I haven't seen any copies of the CD booklet that included the lyrics. While this will be the third album that the band has released lyrics for in one medium or another, this is the first time for the band that a commercial album has contained the lyrics. Good. Will make my job a lot easier!

Blaim mentioned on Dandysrule2 that there won't be any warm-up show in Portland before the band heads off to tour Europe, with the first scheduled appearance so far being on the Johnathan Ross show on Friday (taped on Thursday, aired on Friday), and an appearance on "Later With Jools Holland" on May 20th. As a reminder, Courtney was also scheduled to be on Xfm radio on May 7th, but no word if that is still happening. I currently don't see it mentioned anymore on the homepage for the show.

Peter Allison left a cryptic message that hints that there are rumours of "something Dandy related happening at one London club in the next week or so"... he said more info later if he gets it, so when I hear, you'll hear.

While checking the Xfm homepage to see if the interview was still happening tomorrow, I noticed that on May 13th, the station will be playing Welcome To The Monkey House in full on a show called "X-Posure", which is on from 11pm to 1am.
May 5, 2003 - May 15th tour date in question
While looking around the web, I found a place that says that the Dandy Warhols are not playing in Dublin at the Olympia Theater, but are now playing at Mandella Hall. I've written a couple emails around, to find out what the deal is, and will have more info later.
May 5, 2003 - Australia again
Haggis McHaggis (one of my fave net names ever) mentioned on Dandysrule2 that the official EMI Australia homepage now lists Welcome To The Monkey House as coming out on June 2nd. This must have just changed within the past day because I was at the same website on May 3rd, and it said May 26th at that time. No indication what this means for the Limited Edition version that was to be released.
May 4, 2003 - Reminder
Just a reminder - All lyrics for Welcome To The Monkey House will be posted the day the album comes out. I already have them all done and prepared, for the most part, but I have to hold off posting them.
May 3, 2003 - Australian releases pushed back a week.
I was looking for some information to answer someones question, and when looking at pages, I noticed that the release date for everything in Australia has been pushed back a week. This means the single will be out May 12th and the full album (both reuglar and limited edition) will be out May 26th. (Note, some have said that the normal version hasn't been pushed back, and will still come out May 19th, but everything I have seen shows it being the 26th.)

Also, since I forgot to mention this before, for those who want to pre-order the limited edition version, one place I have seen it at is at http://www.chaosmusic.com/shop/Product.asp?productID=846828.
May 2, 2003 - Vinyl release date
From info I have seen, the U.K. release date for the vinyl version of Welcome To The Monkey House is set to be May 19th. No word on variations for the LP or anything like that.
May 2, 2003 - catch-up time
Nine new pieces have been uploaded; 3 each of album reviews, interviews and articles. Go to the Site Update page for links to them.

A couple interesting things came out of the articles, though I don't remember which is which. First, in a display of his feelings about George Bush, Courtney only says "It only takes one bullet"... A sentiment I agree with. Also, in a small validation of news posted on Slabtown months and months ago, Courtney reveals that they were trying to get Bowie to appear on the album, playing sax on a track, but it just didn't ever come together.

Two new shows have been added: June 15 in Vassa, Finland at the Provinsi Rock Festival, and June 18 in Athens, Greece.

The dispute between Anton and Courtney over I Am Sound/Free has been settled and is no longer an issue.

As I said in yesterdays mini-update, the reason that the album got pushed back is simply because Janes Addiction has their first new album in 12 years coming out that same day, and the label didn't want to have it not be noticed due to a larger album coming out. This does show quite a bit of faith in the record by Capitol, since they could have just as easily just said "fuck em" and released it, letting whatever happens happen. But, with this, it shows that they do want to be able to more exclusively market the new album, without anything overshadowing it from the same label. So, expect the album to now come out August 5th.

While trying to track down information about the limited edition release that Play.com advertised, I found out information about a limited edition Australian release. The release will have the regular CD (no word of extras on it), along with a DVD that will contain 4 videos on it. The videos weren't told to me, but it is a safe assumption that We Used To Be Friends will be one of them. Another one that would fit on it great would be the never released video for Horse Pills. Considering that Australia was the only country to have Horse Pills released as a single in, this does make sense... but at this time, nothing has been confirmed.

Still talking about Australia, the regular single for We Used To Be Friends will contain one extra track, in comparison to the U.K. release. The complete, 4 track listing for the Aussie single is We Used To Be Friends, Call Me (Blondie cover), Relax (Frankie Goes To Hollywood cover) and Bohemian Like You. It is assumed this will be a live version, but no word on where it was recorded. Personally I hope it's the appearance of the band on Interaktiv, sometimes called "boho-aktive" or something to that effect. You can download the track from the Dandysrule2 mailing list if you are a member of the group... also, I was the one who made the cleared up version that appears for download there. Just a little bit of trivia for you.

The DirectTV ad with Brent in it has been confirmed to not have been authorized. No concrete word on if there will be any fallout from it, or if the band/Brent will just let it slide. I did hear rumors that Brent is looking into it though.

Recently, I got copies of what the CD pamphlet might look like for the U.K. release of the album. I am not sure how much of it will change by the time it is actually released though, since it did contain some strange errors. More specifically, all the tracks that have had their titles change, they are now reverted back to what they originally appeared as. This means that on the CD, "A Scientist" is listed as "I Am A Scientist," "Over It" is listed as "I Am Over It," "Insincere" is listed as "Insincere Because I" and "WOnderful You" is listed as "The Dope (Wonderful You)". Other notable facts from the 12 page booklet:
As in the case with every other DW album released, there are pages of pictures. This time, there are 8 pages total.
David Bowie is credited as a co-writer for "I Am A Scientist," with the added note that the song uses a sample from the David Bowie track "Famous".
In this version of the booklet, no mention about Anton or BJM's comments about Free being like I Am Sound. Of course, this booklet had to have been printed long before the issue came up last week.
Actress Parker Posey played mandolin on I Am Sound. Well, I assume it's the actress. Or someone with the same name, at least.
And the thing that stands out most of all of this is that Peter Holmstrom isn't credited as playing the guitars. "Peter Loew" is.
May 1, 2003 - mini-update 3
OK, I promise this is my last bullshit update before I summarize everything that has happened in the past week. But, this is something that has caused a lot of controversy, so I wanted to mention it.

The reason for the 2 week delay in the release of Monkey House is because another band, Janes Addiction, has their first Capitol album coming out on July 22nd, and Capitol didn't want Monkey House to be overshadowed by the first Janes album in 12 years. So, looking at the big picture, the delay shows a fair amount of respect for the album from the guys at Capitol, since they want the album to have a chance to do as well as possible, by having no serious direct competition from their own label.

And yes, this is the reason for the delay, not just conjecture.