(Capitol Records) The Dandy Warhols will release their fifth album,
Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, on September 13th.
Named (at least partially) after the band's infamous Portland studio
headquarters, Odditorium or Warlords of Mars finds the band venturing beyond
the synthesized pop of 2003's Welcome to the Monkey House into expansive new
musical terrain, while frequently revisiting the stripped-down sound of
their earlier years.
The album was produced by frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor with longtime band
collaborator Gregg Williams and mixed by Tchad Blake (Elvis Costello, Latin
Playboys, the Bad Plus) and Taylor-Taylor.
Opening with a tongue-in-cheek introduction from A&E host Bill Kurtis, the
album is full of the band's trademark heady mix of seamless rock hooks and
sonic experimentalism, spanning turned-on drone rock, country blues,
electronic pop and deep psychedelia -- all spun through the Dandies'
kaleidoscopic musical palette.
"Love is the New Feel Awful" is a psyched-out mini-symphony of squalling
guitars, whispered harmonies, tribal drums and intercepted satellite
transmissions. "The New Country" is, yes, a countrified stomper with dreamy
layered vocals and a deep-space hootenanny full of banjos, harmonicas,
picking and - quite likely - grinning. "Down Like Disco" sets off in a
Crazy Horse-worthy gale of unbridled electric guitars and peaks with a
sun-soaked chorus and a twisted trail of feedback.
Lead single "Smoke It" is classic Dandies all the way - part classic Brit
rave-up, part Velvet Underground comedown , part blacklight psych, part
workmanlike country/western, and all their own. The song's video features
the band performing the song in the Odditorium for 40 visibly impressed
dogs.
The Dandy Warhols will herald the album's release with their only live
performance of the summer at Lollapalooza, to be held in Chicago's Grant
Park on July 23rd and 24th. A full-scale North American fall tour will be
announced shortly, along with an acoustic "Suitcase Tour" in which the band
will play using everything they can fit into a single suitcase (besides
acoustic guitars).
The Dandy Warhols can be also be seen as co-stars of Ondi Timoner's hit
documentary film Dig!, winner of the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the
2004 Sundance Film Festival. The film, narrated by Taylor-Taylor,
chronicles the uniquely dysfunctional relationship between the Dandies and
their unpredictable friends the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
THE DANDY WARHOLS, ODDITORIUM OR WARLORDS OF MARS
1. Colder Than The Coldest Winter Was Cold
2. Love Is The New Feel Awful
3. Easy
4. All The Money or The Simple Life Honey
5. The New Country
6. Holding Me Up
7. Did You Make A Song With Otis
8. Everyone Is Totally Insane
9. Smoke It
10. Down Like Disco
11. There Is Only This Time
12. A Loan Tonight