You know The Dandy Warhols as the fearless functional family in the rock documentary DIG!. They were at the other end of the spectrum, opposite the turbulent Brian Jonestown Massacre led by Anton Newcombe. Their hit song "Bohemian Like You" borrowed from The Stones, but evolved them into a hip-shaking junk culture bohemian group that got the crowd a devoted following, and later became the critic's darlings.
The Portland, Oregon four piece’s latest – Odditorium or Warlords of Mars – is another trip down the spiral staircase of psychedelic and new-wave. Once again they attempt to lay down the law, one step ahead of what’s cool in rock, as they magnificently did with 2003’s new-wave back-flip Welcome to the Monkey House. But where that release had Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran onboard as producer, this time the Dandy’s decided to keep it in the family, enlisting front-man Courtney Taylor –Taylor and longtime band collaborator Gregg Williams to stir up the creative vibrations. Unfortunately, recording in their own studio and having one of their own take over production duties wasn’t the wisest choice.
Odditorium is a slow moving affair that plows through sludges of sound, many disjointed and painful to listen to. Clearly they had too much free will in deciding what’s appropriate to release to the buying public.
The cleverly titled “Love Is The New Feel Awful” starts off with a nice handle before it proceeds into four minutes of revolving experiments. One thing is for certain, The Dandy Warhols don't pull off a good Sun Ra. Taylor’s voice is recorded in a hush-hush tone, and the bass becomes the band’s most valuable weapon, particularly on the groove notched “Easy.” When the horns arrive back in the bluesy-folk rocker “All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey,” the familiar Dandy’s theme returns, but didn’t they play this clever game before? Until a horn coda mimics Santana’s “No One To Depend On,” on “Holding Me Up,” is there something to almost nod your head to.
Gone is the band’s larger than life decorative sound and never mind the twelve-minute album closer, "A Loan Tonight." Odditorium is full of too many inside jokes, sloppy playing, out of harmony episodes and overall mishap for a band with so much talent. Here’s to hoping The Dandy Warhols live up to their potential next time around instead of releasing a bunch of glorified b-side tracks as an album.
