LOS ANGELES (Capitol Records) - The
Dandy Warhols will release their fifth album,
Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, on
September 13th.
Named (at least partially) after the band's infamous Portland studio headquarters,
Odditorium or Warlords of Mars finds the band venturing beyond the synthesized pop of 2003's
Welcome to the Monkey House into expansive new musical terrain, while frequently revisiting the stripped-down sound of their earlier years.
The album was produced by frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor with longtime band collaborator Gregg Williams and mixed by Tchad
Blake (Elvis Costello, Latin Playboys, the Bad Plus) and Taylor-Taylor.
Opening with a tongue-in-cheek introduction from A&E host Bill Kurtis, the album is full of the band's trademark heady mix of seamless rock hooks and sonic experimentalism, spanning turned-on drone rock, country blues, electronic pop and deep psychedelia - all spun through the Dandies' kaleidoscopic musical palette.
"Love is the New Feel Awful" is a psyched-out mini-symphony of squalling guitars, whispered harmonies, tribal drums and intercepted satellite transmissions. "The New Country" is, yes, a countrified stomper with dreamy layered vocals and a deep-space hootenanny full of banjos, harmonicas, picking and - quite likely - grinning. "Down Like Disco" sets off in a Crazy Horse-worthy gale of unbridled electric guitars and peaks with a sun-soaked chorus and a twisted trail of feedback.
Lead single "Smoke It" is classic Dandies all the way - part classic Brit rave-up, part
Velvet Underground comedown, part blacklight psych, part workmanlike country/western, and all their own. The song's video features the band performing the song in the Odditorium for 40 visibly impressed dogs.
The
Dandy Warhols will herald the album's release with their only live performance of the summer at Lollapalooza, to be held in Chicago's Grant Park on July 23rd and 24th. A full-scale North American fall tour will be announced shortly, along with an acoustic "Suitcase Tour" in which the band will play using everything they can fit into a single suitcase (besides acoustic guitars).
The
Dandy Warhols can be also be seen as co-stars of Ondi Timoner's hit documentary film
Dig!, winner of the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The film, narrated by Taylor-Taylor, chronicles the uniquely dysfunctional relationship between the Dandies and their unpredictable friends the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
