Stream THE DANDY WARHOL's entire The Dandy Warhols Are Sound album on AMP3 RADIO by clicking on the "Play the Featured MP3" link.
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"There are no second acts in American lives…" opined the great F. Scott Fitzgerald. Apparently he never met The Dandy Warhols.
In 2003 Amplifier Magazine readers will recall the fervor surrounding the Dandy's highly anticipated fourth album Welcome To The Monkey House. Released on a big label (Capitol) with big expectations, and co-produced by a big rock star (Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran), something went terribly awry, in a big way.
According to legend, just before the album came out, the band wished to put out a version mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer Russell Elavedo - known for his stellar and soulful work on such signature releases including D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, The Roots' The Roots Come Alive, Common's Like Water For Chocolate, and Alicia Key's Songs in A Minor among others. Rhodes' mixes were "too clubby" for Courtney and the band. Their request received thumbs down from the Capitol brain-trust. Record company president Andy Slater retorted "who's gonna play this on the radio? It's not black...it's not white. What is it?"
Band lead Courtney Taylor-Taylor recalls his frenetic state of mind. "As a young man there is nothing worse than being basically disregarded and disrespected by old men who are years past being relevant - but they somehow have bumbled into having power over you."
Fortunately he did not exercise his other options. "I thought of walking in there with a gun - I thought of planting a bomb - I thought of pounding those fuckers in the face! I had to get up out of bed and go for late, dark walks around the block. It was, without a doubt, the worst time of my life." He continues…"it would have been fairly possible to have them disposed of…I'm very glad I didn't…although I did make one phone call to a friend who knows those kinds of people just to test the waters and gut check whether or not I really wanted to get that ball rolling. Apparently I didn't."
Fast forward to 2009 - The Dandy Warhols now run their own label (Beat The World Records) and can do as they damn well please. Hence the release of The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound : the version of Monkey House that should have come out back in the day. Disposing with the original high-tech production, the organic TDWAS is far more stripped down and emotional. "Brent (drummer Brent DeBoer) and I had obsessed on D'Angelo's Voodoo album. We started noticing this same mixer's name was on a lot of the stuff that was blowing our minds. We had to work with him" recalls Taylor-Taylor.
"One night we were in New York City passing by Electric Ladyland Studios in a cab. I had remembered that Voodoo was mixed there so I 411'd the place and asked about this dude. They gave me his manager's digits, so I immediately left him a message and got that thing in motion." Taylor-Taylor emphasizes that TDWAS has a "sneakier profile." He says "It seems very lo-fi and earthy, but the fact is, it's extremely precise." Fans will take note that six years later cuts such as "I Am Sound" and "Scientist" emerge as introspective and thought-provoking as opposed to the original amiable/humorous renditions. The cinematic slow build on "Plan A" is far different than the original version, which had virtually no change in dynamics.
Sadly Elavedo is out of the Warhol's orbit. "I don't know how he feels because we are not on speaking terms" laments Taylor-Taylor. "With how horribly our art was being fucked with, I was reluctant to include him in the mess of the next record. I think he took this wrong, and we haven't spoken since. He is one of the greatest mixers in history, I'd don't blame him."
For the record, Taylor-Taylor and the band have no plans to alter any other previous Dandy Warhols releases. "Of course not! They're perfectly what they are. What else could they possibly be? Just as both versions of this record are!"
The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound is out on Beat The World Records.
--Tom Semioli [August 10, 2009]
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