Webcuts Music

On August 7, music fans will be having their own private deja-vu moment as the Dandy Warhols return from a time machine back to the year 2003 with a copy of an album they recorded then, but like “different, man”. The album is called Dandy Warhols Are Sound but it may as well be called Let’s Make You Buy The Album You Bought Before Again.

Around the time of the release of Welcome to the Monkey House, Courtney Taylor-Taylor (love this guy!) was bitching about how Capitol refused to let them put out the version they wanted to. High on the funny money they were making off the back of selling “Bohemian Like You” to Vodafone in the UK, Taylor-Taylor had grand visions for the next Dandy Warhols record, which landed somewhat short of the mark. Crafty guy that he was, he waited for the bad reviews to come in before throwing down against the big men. Various fans told him to put his money where his mouth was, and lo and behold came MP3′s of what was called Dandy Warhols Are Sound, but it was a kinda under-the-table-secret-handshake deal. You had to know someone who knew someone and you had to have a computer.

…Are Sound was only cosmetically different from the released version, at least from memory and my copy has long since been surrendered to the great hard disk graveyard in the sky. Welcome to the Monkey House was to be a change in direction for the band, enlisting Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes to come play with them in the studio, hoping to channel their out-dated muse, but …Monkey House was an electro groove record searching for a Studio 54 that no longer existed. It’s hard to believe that was in 2003. In 2009 things still don’t fare much better now as they did then. They’ve probably tinkered with it a little since the grubby little fanbase got a hold of it, but who knows, maybe …Monkey House was an unrecognized classic and will critically revive the career of these Portland stoners. Or maybe the world will collectively yawn and go back to tweeting on their iPhones.

Still, they at least got something right and resequenced the album, putting the monster dub beast, Clash “Straight to Hell” stealing, “Burned” in as the opening track. “The Last High” (a.k.a. “The Last Great Dandy Warhols Song”) flies unfettered, longer than the original and more Bowie than ever. Some of these songs still give me cold shivers at night though; “Plan A”, “Scientist” etc, no matter how much you pimp and pout and shout “damn The Man!”, sometimes The Man knows best. Anyway, Michael Jackson’s dead, Courtney. Where’s the cover of “Blackbird” you touted you would do on the original version of  ”Welcome to the Monkey House”, huh??

Tracklisting

01. Burned
02. Scientist
03. We Used To Be Friends
04. The Last High
05. Wonderful You
06. The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone
07. I Am Over It
08. Heavenly
09. Plan A
10. Rock Bottom
11. I Am Sound
12. Insincere Because I
13. Pete International Spaceport

Out on EMI Records (Australia), August 7.