Anti-gravity’s rainbow

The Dandy Warhols reach escape velocity

LET’S DO LAUNCH: The Dandy Warhols

By LORRAINE CARPENTER

Come November 5, no matter who wins the U.S. presidential election, our neighbours to the south will finally be rid of the “Rapture right.” It could be argued that those who actually believe the Rapture is coming, as Bush allegedly does, have given up on Earth, and that space colonization is their Plan B, hence the massive chunk of change poured into NASA’s Mars missions.

“I don’t know if they actually think like that, but it seems like that’s what’s going on,” says Dandy Warhols guitarist Pete Holmstrom. “They’re doing a good job of destroying Earth, so looking elsewhere for survival only makes sense.”

What fans of Portland, OR’s premiere sleaze pop band may not know, however, is that the Dandys have seen the final frontier. According to their latest bio, in conjunction with their new album, Earth to the Dandy Warhols, singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor was sponsored from birth by biotech firms, creating “the acceptable face of augmented humanity,” and his biocodes were “trimmed for upfront deployment and extreme-impact diplomacy.” As for Holmstrom, “point-of-impact corporate enforcement sources” say that his was “a profoundly non-cooperative stance,” and eyewitnesses reported that “you did not want to cross wires with that Holmstrom unit, man.”

“The whole bio thing, we’ve never taken it seriously,” says the rogue unit. But this little piece of work is particularly exciting for Holmstrom as it was written by British sci-fi author Richard K. Morgan, who he met at a book signing at Powell’s in Portland.

“He was talking about music and he said Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was his favourite band, so I had to join the conversation at that point. I handed him some of our CDs that I’d brought down and he goes, ‘No, wait, you guys are my second favourite band!’”

Despite this record’s sci-fi cover art, photos, videos and lyrical motifs, Taylor-Taylor has said that the album title is meant to be read as “Earth as perceived by the Dandy Warhols,” not a message to a band lost in space. Not that they wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to rocket to Mars or the moon, if someone else were to foot the bill, but Holmstrom bristles at the idea of shelling out for space tourism to the likes of Virgin tycoon Richard Branson.

Of course, the Dandys’ distaste for major labels is well known. Having battled with Capitol for years, the band finally took their future into their own hands and forged their own label, Beat the World. Earth to… is the first release, but there are other bands on the roster, ready to rock.

“We instantly found about five bands to take on and got way, way, way ahead of ourselves,” says Holmstrom, adding that the band’s current tour-mates the Upsidedown are next up—he urges fans to show up early this weekend to catch their set.

“It’s a lot more work than I thought. We are working with this company called World’s Fair that does all the distribution, promotion and manufacturing, so at least we don’t have to do that. But still, we assumed that you just make records and then they come out, but it’s like, ‘Huh?! What do you mean it’s gonna take three months before it can be manufactured? And then a few more months before it’s in stores?!’ God, it’s just one thing after another! But we’ll be better prepared next time.”

WITH DARKER MY LOVE AND THE
UPSIDEDOWN AT CLUB SODA
ON SATURDAY, SEPT. 14,
8 P.M., $28, ALL AGES