Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
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Free Music Notes for Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Free Music Review: They Deserve Superstardom
Hit: 5 Stars
It's the 3rd in a trilogy of awesome and underrated, unheard of Dandy Warhols albums. This one ranks as the best rock and roll release of 2000. Just so people know, there's nothing to "get" about this record, it's a first time grabber both sonically and lyrically, and refreshingly, nothing is depressed or too deep to ponder. If anything, the lyrics are easy-going and borderline cocky in spots, but I guess that would sum up Courtney Taylor and the Dandy Warhols. It starts off with "Godless," one of the more interesting Warhol tunes ever written, complete with a prominent trumpet, which uniquely pops up in various songs throughout the entire album. A great musical segway occurs inbetween "Godless" and the awesome "Mohammed," perhaps the best tune of the album, though that's quite debatable. There's a kind of Egyptian vibe between the two songs that starts eerily and creeps in slowly, when suddenly a high-pitched guitar lick sneaks in and truly starts the song. Courtney Taylor's far-ranging vocals have never sounded better than on "Mohammed," as he performs the high notes exceptionally, almost to the tune of 70's Bee Gees. Like past Warhol songs, "Mohammed" has an atmospheric sound and an easy vibe to it that is irresistable.
Song for song, this may be the best this band has delivered yet, and that says a lot. They haven't varied their sound TOO much, yet their style has become poppier and more precise, less dragged out, drugged out and fuzzy. In the meantime, Taylor continues to maintain his sense of fun with lyrics that really don't matter. There's definitely a bounciness, even clownish sense of excitement on some of the songs, an eager-to-please and happy to be alive aura. On "Country Saver," Taylor does his best low-voiced country impersonation over a wonderful slide guitar that sparkles, played by outsider Troy Stewart. Then, we're treated to the 1-2-3 power pop punch of "Solid," "Horse Pills," and "Get Off," which simply seems unheard of today, 3-minute songs too good for radio music in the year 2000. "Sleep" slows things down and has a definite Smashing Pumpkins lullaby-like vibe to it, pleasant but a little lazy and long, too dreamy and polished for its own good.
Amazingly, the best moments on "13 Tales" come on the last five songs. "Cool Scene" is one of the snappiest on the record, as is the fantastic released song, "Bohemian Like You." "Shakin" has a fitting name, and Courtney Taylor sounds half Elvis, half Count Dracula. It's practically a rhythmic dance song. "Big Indian" is another hopelessly tuneful and pretty song, a little more serious than the rest; it would make a great single. "The Gospel" winds things down on a very slow and famous hymnal note, perhaps fitting for such an unabashedly pop record.
The Dandy Warhols don't dwell on overbearing electric guitars or loud excruciating, non-melodic noises. Instead, the band often relies on a close acoustic guitar, lulling voices, and a jumping drum kick that lends much stamina to their songs. If you've never discovered these guys (plus one girl), this is the album to do it. Help make these guys superstars and an addition to good rock and roll played on the radio.
Free Music Review: Finally, a rock album for pretentious people like us
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an album after the heart of a music critic. Firstly, you know how it is with critics when it comes to championing underdog unknown bands. We think that publishing our two cents worth will actually help convert a legion of new listeners (but of course, when the band does reach that kind of success, we will promptly denounce them for selling out).Secondly, The Dandy Warhols have declared that their album is "The last classic rock record." There is no such thing as `classic rock'. Like `Light & Easy' and `Adult Contemporary', it was coined by stupid radio DJs to categorise musical genres they cannot identify. Yet this generic term has somehow come to be endearingly associated with everything from Led Zeppelin to The Beatles to Rolling Stones, all of which are slyly appropriated on this album. And critics just love testing their skills at identifying musical influences: "Oh wow, listen to that latter-day-Velvet-Underground post-Jim-Morrison Lou Reed drawl! Isn't that just so cool?" Yeah, sure.
Thirdly, this is a musical tour into the lifestyle of the hip and not so rich, which, of course, describes most music critics. Starting off with an epic score of three perfectly melded songs, `Godless', `Mohammed' and `Nietzsche', this immediately seems like somebody's final year thesis in the form of a rock album. But it is actually better than that. With all that layers of guitar over the singer's voice, we could barely make out the lyrics enough for us to even accuse them of being pretentious.
On other songs, whether describing pill-popping mansion-squatting playboys or the desire to "sleep forever" and "forget everything", whether throwing powerful pop rock or just droning dreamily, the band showcases uncanny vocal harmonies, great unified playing (not unlike Radiohead in The Bends) and simply amazing song crafting. There is an eclectic range of rock styles here, but they are held together by a nifty chord progression that appears in different guises all over the album.
Well, the songs are not exactly about philosophy, but about people, especially those of us who actually think it is cool to sit around, sip lattes and talk about philosophy, while our jaded minds could be far away from any real enlightenment. Sometimes, the songs themselves are a wry lament against their inherited cynicism, like in the "hoo-hah!" song `Get Off': "All I wanna do is get off, Feeling for a minute like a real thing, baby."
Sometimes, it sounds like this band from Portland, Oregon, is even referring to themselves, as in the "whoo-hoo" song `Bohemian Like You': "I really love your hairdo, I am glad you like mine too, see what looking pretty cool will get ya. So what do you do? Oh yeah, I wait tables too, No, I haven't heard your band, cos you guys are pretty new." Yes, finally a song that says it's okay to be pretentious! Music critics, usually sad groupie-heads and wannabe Bohemians, are real suckers for this kinds of stuff. Erm, good music, that is.
Free Music Review: Ane awesome albulm - a must for a rock collector
Hit: 5 Stars
There are three kinds of Dandy Warhols songs: First, the longish atmospheric ones the band write so they can look sexy nodding their heads during concerts, get compared to groups like Spaceman 3 and Radiohead, and have nifty ways to open their records. As anybody who hears the first of these 13 tales-the awe-inspiring, neighbor-pestering, earth-shattering "Godless"-will attest, the atmospheric ones are definitely the coolest thing about the Dandy Warhols. Next are the pop songs meant to be played on the radio. Aesthetically, these are recorded so the band members won't have to work during the day, and also so their albums sound disparate and listener-friendly. You can tell a Dandys song is radio-ready when it stars a clever lyrical hook about hip young people, like 1997's hit "I never thought you'd be a junky because heroin is so passé"-or various lines from the new "Bohemian Like You," a send-up of alternative culture that arrives about seven years too late and sounds exactly what you'd think Oregon anglophiles doing Primal Scream doing Royal Trux doing the Rolling Stones would sound like. It's actually pretty good.
Then there are the pop songs that aren't necessarily meant to be played on the radio. These dominate Urban Bohemia, perhaps because radio stations are less likely to play edgy rock music now than they were when the band's last album (the one with the funny heroin song) came out a few years ago.
So there are three kinds of Dandy Warhols songs, which is precisely two kinds more than most bands have up their sleeves. And even if the gut urges me to laugh at the group-because English people like them more than American people, because they've been known to remove articles of clothing during encores, because they seem so proud of their vacuousness, because they strive to write novelty hits, because they titled one song "Nietzsche" and another "Cool Scene"-I really can't help falling for this record's swank puff paste. "Mohammed" and the aforementioned übermensch track drone with soft jungle percussion and bombastic Jesus and Mary Chain guitars, respectively. (It's left unsaid exactly how "Godless," "Mohammed," and "Nietzsche" relate to urban bohemia.) Transitions linking one song to the next are carefully thought out and beautiful, like when "Get Off" bounces to a close and slides into "Sleep," a-surprise, surprise-long, dreamy number where lead singer Courtney Taylor gets to moan about wanting to sleep forever and then go "ah ah ah ah" before a violin enters and the song slips into the snap and jive of "Cool Scene."
Snap and jive is what most fabulous, empty-headed pop music is full of. But Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is so proficiently executed that an attentive listener may wonder whether the Dandy Warhols are really so empty-headed after all.
Free Music Review: Come Up To The Lab and See What's On The Slab
Hit: 5 Stars
The Dandy Warhols have proved themselves as pop's most coolest and most creative band out there today! They've evolved like ape into man on target. There's not a missing body part on them to say otherwise. 13 Tales of Urban Bohemia aren't just songs that play one after another, they unfold beautifully into a rich and complex, multi-layered album that has something for everyone.1. GODLESS (7/10)- A wonderful opening with angelic trumpets accompanied by Taylor-Taylor's lyrics whistfully stating that someone's a "souless friend".
2. MOHAMMED (5/10)- My least favorite song on the album but it's still intersting and compelling enough to hold your attention while. . .
3. NIETZSCHE (6/10)- Haunting and brooding while Taylor-Taylor repeatedly moans "I want a God who stays dead, not plays dead. I, even I, can play dead." It's long but like Mohammed, it keeps you interested.
4. COUNTRY LEAVER (7/10)- Now comes the pop as The Warhols go country! It reminds me of Beck a little bit but the song is catchy with its hand claps.
5. SOLID (7/10)- The song is cool and "poppy". I can just picture Taylor-Taylor lounging on a Lazy Boy recliner smoking a cig and all these great lyrics just coming out of his mouth.
6. SOLID (8/10)- Hard and tough with a Taylor-Taylor talk rap and lyrics like ". . .butts getting bigger do ya think he'll notice maybe/that's alright, don't worry 'bout it baby. . ." and ". . .in your itsy bitsy teeny weenie riding up the butt bikini. . ." This where you know that these guys are cool as hell.
7. GET OFF (7/10)- A song about a universal subject with good stumming from guitars and a great string piece because "All I wanna do is get off"
8. SLEEP (6/10)- The song is good but it should have been the last song because it really puts you to sleep not because it's boring but because it so damn peaceful and heavenly. It's really a brisk of fresh air, a really long brisk.
9. COOL SCENE (10/10)- EXCELLENT! My favorite song of the 13 and hey, the trumpet is back! Very cool.
10. BOHEMIAN LIKE YOU (10/10)- If nothing on this album makes you happy this song will sure to put a grin on your face. The lyrics are witty and the song is catchy!
11. SHAKIN' (10/10)- Another flawless gem from the Warhols. It reminds me of Rocky Horror. It's a great feeling good use of guitars.
12. BIG INDIAN (9/10)- 13 remains enjoyable. This is a great mellow song to nod your head to.
13. THE GOSPEL (9/10)- The tales come to an end with The Gospel. It's one of those good old fashioned songs that prolongs in your ear.
The Dandy Warhols bring something new and special to the table. For me, The Warhols bring short films, little mysterious gems that play in my mind over and over but no matter what I do, I can't push stop or even eject. I am constantly pushing play and so should you. The Dandy Warhols Rule, OK!
Free Music Review: True "Bohemia" Rhaspody
Hit: 5 Stars
The might of this album begins with the very fact that I am bothering to write a review that might never be looked at, but my desire to promote and spread knowledge to as many people as I can about this group is that powerful."Thirteen Tales" continues in the same direction as "Come Down"- the trademark fade-in intro that builds up into a head- nodding anthem ("Godless") and melds seamlessly with the rest of the album, particularly "Mohammed" and "Nietzche". In a style that is a reminder of Spiritualized and Kruder and Dorfmeister, every song litertally flows into the next, and in doing so creates an album, not a CD, so you can never, ever put this on shuffle. It must be listened to the whole way through.
What is encouraging about this new album is that they have learned from the weaknessess of their past efforts. "...Rule OK?" was a great pop album; hook-laden and catchy, but with a real lack of cohesion and consistently quality songs. Their production quality grew on "Come Down", but they continued their habit of throwing in weak efforts that made the disc choppy and skippable.
This time, there is not a weak link in the Dandies' chain. "Country Leaver" is a hilarious foot-stomping neo-country tune- like Wilco on a chemical bender. The transition into "Solid" puts your heart into your ears and you can't help but smile at the sky. Others like "Get Off", the trance-inducing "Sleep" and the Kinks-like "Big Indian" are other examples of consistency that only make you wonder what more they can offer.
To be honest, I couldn't name the influences in every song- I never was a big Velvet fan, and I think comparisons to Spiritualized outside of their production sound are pretty weak in regards to their style, but ever since "TV Theme Song" (Rule OK) and "Be-In" (Come Down), I believe the Dandies are the most genuinely energetic, rocking, sincere, sef-centered, and ambitious rock band on the scene, and they sound as if they want anyone who wants to listen to come along for the ride.
"Well, I got a beautiful new Asian girlfriend/ Yeah, she comes over and sleeps for days in my bed"