Rockmaker by the Dandy Warhols–Album Review
Rockmaker by the Dandy Warhols–Album Review
I’ll admit this. I haven’t listened to the Dandies in almost two decades. I bought tickets to the movie Dig! in 2004 to see a documentary about them but became enamored with (an unknown to me) Brian Jonestown Massacre instead. I’m here to tell you about what I’ve been missing!
The Dandy Warhols’ latest release, Rockmaker, is a lovingly crafted slice of Alt-Rock pie. Surprisingly, the same band members have stayed together since 1998 and they still capture the same energy from their early 2000s youth. They seem to have come full circle to their Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia heyday, an interesting concept since their only true consistency was cycling back and forth between genres as suited them. Starting their career as a Sixties garage throwback with a shoegaze tinge, the second album was more power pop with psych elements (at the insistence of their new major label, Capitol Records). By their Nick Rhodes-produced fourth offering—Welcome to the Monkey House—a pronounced synth-pop element started taking over. And so on… ever-mutating, then returning to their roots.
Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s voice has thickened over the years, but his songwriting is still electrifying. Rockmaker is another eclectic album of “we do what we do.” To the band, if you’re a fan, that’s great. If not, then don’t worry about it. Fiercely independent, their rejection of major label influence evinced by their 2008 split with Capitol led them to an existential inability to reach the commercial heights of their earlier albums. Without the muscle of a major, they have survived off these earlier successes. More recently, their albums have been released on Dine Alone Records which also features …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Cult, and Tokyo Police Club on their eclectic roster of artists.
“The Doomsday Bells” kicks off the album with a silly “Ring Dong, Ringy ding dong” acapella chorus, but then locks into low-key grungy guitars, chimey sparse synth, and a seemingly out-of-character drum machine. A tune not entirely off-brand from their quirky psychedelicized Alt-Rock, but my ears, which are tuned to their earlier Come Down era’s output, were not ready for this new breed of Dandy.
The second single off the album “Danzig With Myself” features the familiar high-pitched vocals of Black Francis (from the Pixies). Big drums, grungy guitars, and occasional backward cymbals with little weebly noises make this four-chord track ooze out of the speakers like an oil spill. Courtney’s vocals, like many recent Dandy Warhol songs, are low-toned spoken word. This one is reminiscent of their mid-Aught output.
The Eighties revival of “The Summer of Hate” is a change of pace on the album. The music has a B-52s/Oingo Boingo party vibe to my ears. While Taylor-Taylor has stated that he wanted the song to be “our homage to the sounds of the Damned, the MC5, and probably a bit of the Stooges…,” I’m just not getting that from the track. Musical interpretation aside, it’s a fun song and epically danceable.
Trav Grassman
“I’d Like to Help You With Your Problem” features Slash on guitar and is a slowly pulsating chunk of good old-fashioned Portland grungy goodness. Three-quarters of the way through the track, there’s an electronic breakdown that offsets the relentless grinding of the song, rescuing it from the tedium of a constant rhythm and considerable guitar noodling.
“The Cross” has a classic Industrial vibe to it. Loud and solid snare drum hits with snaky, buzzing guitars scream out Ministry’s The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste-era tonality in the verses. That’s a good thing, but the surprising juxtaposition of major key choruses puts this one into fresher territory and brightens the track.
Man, something about the whole of this album seems like the songwriters Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Peter Holmström put their influences in a hat, picked two favorite bands for each song, and started writing. The horns and chimes mixed with dirty guitars give the “Root of All Evil” a sort of odd ska metal vibe. That description might make one think Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but that’s not quite it. A funky White Zombie? The choruses have more of a modern Madness vibe, albeit much more simplistic.
Andrew Link
“Alcohol And Cocainemarijuananicotine” and “Real People” flash on Weird Revolution era Butthole Surfers. “Real People” features metal guitars with spoken word lyrics. “Alcohol…” has weirdly high-pitched harmonized choruses framed by thick and juicy synth sounds, but also with spoken word lyrics à la Gibby Haynes. Effected vocals abound in almost all the tracks on this album which is again reminiscent of the Butts, but not unusual for Courtney’s songs.
The band has been embracing electronic music lately, but much less of that is on Rockmaker (hence the name?). Their last full album—2020’s Tafelmuzik Means More When You’re Alone—was over 3 ½ hours long and had more kinship with early Tangerine Dream than Portland Alt-Rock. Rockmaker is a triumphant return to grungy guitars and, well, rocking the fuck out. If that doesn’t bring you back to the Dandy fold along with me, I don’t know what will.
C. Elliott
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