The Dandy Warhols
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia (2000)

review by: Brandon Copple
Date: 3/21/02

The Dandy Warhols' lead singer calls himself Courtney Taylor-Taylor. Maybe that's his real name. Or maybe he's just a dick. Anyway, the guy writes great rock melodies and fills them with wise-ass lyrics and hipster 20-something cynicism that's as pretentious and entertaining as his redundant last name.

Like any good writer, he's got a sharp sense of humor, and the music is all slouching Pacific-Northwest slacker-rock, just sloppy enough to be cool. "13 Tales" opens with a three-song medly, "Godless," "Mohammed" and "Nietzsche." Sounds like Taylor-squared's got some kind of post-Christian trilogy thing going. Whatever. Great way to open an album, stringing three throbbing tunes together the way you'd open a live show. Come to find out, the whole thing is stitched together like that, the gaps between songs filled with feedback, bird calls, train whistles. If this sounds like just a lot of jerking around in the studio (I'd swear I hear a horse whinny in the background on "Country Leaver"), well, could be. I don't think these guys take themselves too seriously.

Which may be why you won't find anything groundbreaking here (two Taylors don't make a Westerberg). In fact the music is plenty derivative – T-T should send royalties to the Rolling Stones for the intro to "Bohemian Like You"– but it's not offensive. The tunes are catchy enough, the lyrics artful enough, that I can live with a knockoff riff or two. And even a double last name.