The Dandy Warhols
Come Down (Capitol)
by Lex Marburger
After the incredible The Dandys Rule, OK? put out last year, I was wondering what The Dandy Warhols would do next. More of the same. Their attitude of cyclical trance rock, copped from the Velvets and their ilk (‘natch) hasn’t slowed down. Maybe ‘slowed down’ isn’t the right phrase. It is slow in a lot of places, like the early morning rub-your-eyes of “Orange.” But the thing that sets The Dandys apart from the rest of the stoned-and-droned crowd is their sense of humor. With songs like “Cool as Kim Deal” and lyrics like “Though I’ve only known you for a bit, already I can’t sleep at night and I feel like shit,” sung in a nasal cynical monotone, The Dandys seem to mock their own style; in doing so, they breathe fresh air into a scene that’s been weighed down by it’s own importance. Using their debut as a template, The Dandy Warhols Come Down follows a similar structure, even paying another “tribute” to a past rocker like they did with “Lou Weed.” It’s called “Minnasoter,” and although there’s no overt references made, it’s a perfect Neil Young song, complete with the mourning guitar and launching into “I can rock her, like a doctor, if I found a way to get her off hers” in an incredible recreation of Grunge’s Don Corleone. They even throw in a breakdown complete with jew’s harp (that twangy thing cowboys play). The Dandy’s sense of humor is subtle, and that’s the best kind there is. “I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passé” is the key line in “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth,” and it’s not delivered with a whine like Nerf Herder, a posture like The Bloodhound Gang, or a fake intensity like Nada Surf. It’s just sung, like he was singing “Every day should be a holiday” or something (actually, that’s the next track, which is pretty much what it sounds like). They don’t try to be funny, they don’t set out to make you laugh, and therefore, they’re merely amusing. And that’s great.
How many times can you listen to a comedy record before losing interest? Even our illustrious publisher, what with his penchant for `Weird Al’ Yankovic, only pulls out those records maybe once every two months, and that’s only only when we’ve had too much to drink. We play one or two tracks, and then take it off. But The Dandys, being merely amusing, tickle the brain instead of the funny bone. The music is just as important, even more important, than lyrics like “I’d rather be cool than be smart” or trying to impersonate Iggy Pop on “Good Morning” (incidentally, this is why I prefer the aforementioned BHG’s first album over their second. On Use Your Fingers, the raps are funny, but the beats behind them are excellent, whereas on One Fierce Beer Coaster, the music is simply tepid alterna rock and lame hip hop. But I egress). It comes down to this; can they write a good tune? Yes, the Dandys can, by either avoiding or exploiting clichés, laying feedback over two chord rockers, or by using the Peter Frampton voice box guitar in the final number, “The Creep Out.” That’s why they’ll stay on the top shelf of my CD rack, rather than in the pile of albums in the trash can I’ve monikered “Archives.”
