Alternative music has morphed into a subculture of pop/rock in the last few years. But with the newest album from The Dandy Warhols, the music world gets to see what alternative music used to mean when popularity didn't matter.
Reporting from their new independent label, Beat the World Records, The Dandy Warhols redefine the word eclectic. Earth to The Dandy Warhols takes alternative music back to its roots, when The Talking Heads totally perplexed listeners and blew their minds along the way.
With the spacey instrumental lines, a deep, droning voice and a falsetto, frenetic voice over top of it all, The Dandy Warhols take us to outer space and away from the cookie-cutters. It is truly experimental, not just a terrible blend of poorly-placed samples.
The Legend of the Last of the Outlaw Truckers AKA The Ballad of Sheriff Shorty melds the laid-back bravado of The Hombres and a darker version of Johnny Cash's signature rugged sound. The gravelly vocals that continue through the next few songs channel a world-weary truck driver croaking out his struggles. To add to the effect, there is a little country blended in by way of the pedal steel. This is not just a song, but an atmosphere.
The entire album is this way. It is not a jumble of material, but a finely contoured map of the Warhols' world. It combines their influences and their own twisted elements together in a wondrous epiphany of sound, the way any good concept album does.
Songwriter Courtney Taylor-Taylor and the rest of the band have created a completely new take on the alien concept brought on by Ziggy Stardust. Welcome to the Third World goes along with the bewildering Ziggy style, with its flamboyance, sunny vocals and R&B riffs.
They take another wonderful turn with Love Song
a complete surprise with the licks of Jimmy Page + under a dobro and banjo.
Any album has at least one down point, and this time it is Beast of All Saints which is just plain boring compared to the cacophony surrounding it.
Earth to The Dandy Warhols is not nearly as symphonic or seamless as alternative counterparts Death Cab for Cutie's latest album, but it has all the innovative elements to make this album truly an original.
If you're new to The Dandy Warhols, the jam-packed layers of every song might be a little overwhelming, but it is worth submerging your consciousness in this music. It is the music of planet Mars and it makes this reviewer want a vacation home there.
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Susan Tebben
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New album takes listeners to another planet
