Come on Down
The Drum Media Magazine
by - Mark Neilsen
September 22, 1998

Courtney Taylor from The Dandy Warhols is looking forward to come to Australia. What has be heard about our fine land such that he wants to visit? ‘I saw Dogs In Space,’ he says as if that’s all the reason he needs. ‘It certainly made me think Australia was cool. It’s cool because it’s wild like America’s wild. It seems like the best of America and the U.K.’ Just imagine what an interesting time he would have had if he got his view of Australia from Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert!

The Dandys (let’s follow the great Australian tradition of shortening band names, shall we?) are coming out here to primarily perform at Livid, but thankfully are coming a bit closer to The Drum Media constituency and playing in Sydney. Having never seen them in concert before, what is the Dandy’s live show experience like? ‘It’s just music. It should be big and beautiful and not really about anything but the music,’ Taylor adds.

‘I’d like to have it be people who just like the music. It moves them, it touches them, they show up, lights go down, It’s dark, there’s maybe some cool swirling imagery being projected on us and that’s it. We have this reputation for people getting naked but that was the old days when we played smaller shows and people were more comfortable,’ Taylor laughs.

Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth was the song that launched the Dandys into not only our consciousness, but also into that of many other countries, particularly around Europe according to Taylor. But don’t go expecting world domination from the band. ‘No, no. Too much work,’ Taylor laments. ‘You have to tour all the time. I like being at home and hanging out with my friends, you know, stuff like that. If we could make a hell of a comfortable living like just [out of] America, Western Europe and Australia, I’d be stoked. That’s all I need.’

But Taylor’s kind of in the wrong line of work if he just wants to hang around at home, what with all the touring and everything else that comes with being in a band. ‘You’re exactly right. But I just love music. Rock n’ roll to be more specific,’ Taylor says. ‘I can’t believe rock n’ roll music. It’s amazing. The Beatles, everybody. The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd.’ You’ve got to admit Taylor’s list is a pretty strong argument that rock n’ roll music is amazing.

You’re sure to know Junkie even if you’re not a fan of the Dandy’s. ‘It’s pretty heavy duty. It’s like everybody knows it. You go, ‘The Dandy Warhols’ and people go, oh, ‘Heroin is so passé,’ Taylor admits. It hasn’t translated into major success for the band though. ‘We’re more like a cult band that America. Like all the hippers, space rock, Brit Pop people come out to see us. We didn’t sell like a gold or platinum album, but we have a lot of people come out to see us when we play live. I guess it’s probably all college kids or starving artists that are coming to see us and they didn’t buy the album, they just taped it off their friends [laughs].’

Junkie also had the undesired side effect of misrepresenting the Dandy’s sound as all pop in the same vein as said track (a trap I freely admit I fell into). ‘Of course,’ Taylor says when asked whether there was a misconception of their sound. ‘I hate that.’

What do you say to people who think everything you do sounds like Junkie?

‘It’s not your fault. It’s our labels fault, looking for the quick sell, you know, the quick fix.’

Looking to release the most radio friendly track.
‘Yeah, that’s what they do and I think they’d be much wiser to go for the long haul and just basically release, well I think Good Morning and Minnesoter would have done as well as anything else. Then you can release Junkie.’

Then they know you’re more that stylke and you can occasionally write the odd pop song [a la Junkie].
‘Exactly. We make albums. Job one for me is to make an entire album. You put it on at the beginning and let it rip and it’s really good. Those are the bands I like: Those are the records I listen to. I don’t like to switch CD’s around. I don’t listen to music unless it’s an album where you hit play at the beginning and it’s fuckin’ beautiful. But we’re not marketed as an album-oriented band and that’s troubling.’

What exactly is their style? I think one Englehearrt, M. puts it best when he calls the band ‘the killer glamoid pop rock n’ roller’. Their bio describes them as ‘melodies and psychedelia’, something that Taylor says they ‘pretty much’ are. Just listening to the swirling first track Be In on their album The Dandy Warhols Come Down will quickly dispel the myth that they are a one Junkie band as it were. The closest approximation I can think of is our own Drop City, with a bit of The Church throw in for good measure.

When The Dandys first started out, living in Portland, Oregon, in the Northwest of the USA, they were caught up in the legacy of Seattle. ‘Yeah that’s how bands like Everclear got signed,’ Taylor says giving his take on the buzz around the Northwest. ‘Like Art going ‘Okay, I’m going to move to the Northwest and get a record deal’. So he did, moved up from Hollywood. That’s why Portland doesn’t like Everclear. He’s ostracized by the scene. He doesn’t get to enjoy, you know, the feeling we get to enjoy just going out to bars and having people who are fans or friends or both really glad to see us.’

It seems Portland didn’t quite have enough to have a scene of its own. ‘That was kind of like Portland’s too artsy to ever have a Seattle scene though. I mean it’s just a fucking art weirdo city, you know, that just couldn’t produce a commercially successful band. We’re the closest thing. We’re borderline commercial and we came full on from the art/noise pop scene and at first people did not like us getting signed and being successful. They were not into that.’

It’s at this moment the telephone company person (it was one in America, not your lovely Telstra person) cuts in to say there’s only a minute left. I had no further pressing questions for Taylor and asked whether there was anything earth-shatteringly important he wanted to say. ‘We don’t do as many drugs as everybody says we do and everybody in the band, except for myself, has had a girlfriend or boyfriend for like two or three years,’ he offers much to my surprise. ‘We’re more concerned about the music and enjoying life and eating good food and having good friends. But you know, getting fucked up and having rad sex with a bunch of friends isn’t all bad though. Don’t think I’m saying that.’