The Dandy Warhols
Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
Capitol
When lumped in with the scores of Alternative Nation no-hit-wonders and major label “who-were-they-then” MTV Buzz Bin flops (Super Deluxe, Ruth Ruth, Superdrag), the Dandy Warhols’ gloriously tongue-in-cheek underground smash “Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth,” already seems like an long-forgotten gem, quietly being tucked away for K-Tel’s eventual “I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Brit-Pop!” compilation. Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, the newest Dandy Warhols’ effort, does little to distance these American boys (and girl) with their obsessive allegiance to Rolling Stones rave-ups and Velvet Underground sprawl, but they take a logical (but very small) step away from the “love” and “rockets” of their occasionally overbearing mood-rock by introducing a few decidedly noisier and stripped-down agendas. On songs like “Horse Pills,” traditionally poppy structures collapse under bursts of guitar while “Country Leaver” has the stripped-down shimmer of Beggar’s Banquet-era Stones. Most curiously, “Sleep” takes an unexpected stylistic detour into Everlast territory, injecting reverberating acousti-funk with understated trance undertones that will likely leave a nation of indie kids shaking their heads, or maybe just shaking their asses.
Capitol Records, 1750 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028-5274
