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OREGON MUSIC / SEPTEMBER 2000 HUGE EC 13 TALES EPIC DUMP DR ODYSSEY COURTNEY TAYLOR photo Buko OREGON VENUE GUIDE DANDY WARHOLS The Raging Woodies at Key Largo. photo Buko Page 2 - TWO LOUIES, September 2000 December 1979 to 1999 One Long Journey Through The Portland Music Scene Part nine: By SP Clarke lushed from the success of their own duce their first album, Dandys Rule OK,which Tim/ tainment, so we chose the best label we could find efforts in connection with Everclear Kerr elected to release under their imprint in April to sign with, Capitol Records. They gave us loads F Tim/Kerr Records was eager to find a of 1995. of cash and it was a big party. We all have healthy second band with which to forge a partnership. Soon, Rolling Stone magazine was to name egos anyway, but at this point we thought we could Dharma Bum Jeremy Wilson’s band, Pilot, seemed them one of “Twelve Artists On The Edge,” pro- do no wrong. We had our picture in Rolling Stone. the likely vehicle for such a venture. In the Sum- claiming of the Dandys: “They’re exploding, plas- We toured the world and everyone wrote about us, mer of 1994 (the same time as Skiploader released tic and inevitable. Not long after that, Capitol saying we were the next big thing. Of course we Sprainy) Pilot released a three song EP on Tim/ Records signed the band to a contract in October fucked it up.” Kerr Records. of 1995. Capitol was apprised of the Dandys by The Dandy Warhols set about to squander not In December 1994, based on the strength of graphic artist Mike King, who had done the art- only their advance money, but their industry cred- that EP, Elektra Records (of the Warner/Elektra/ work for Everclear’s World Of Noise release on Tim/ ibility as well. “When it came time to do the big Asylum conglomerate known as WEA) signed the Kerr. King sent a copy of Dandys Rule to Capitol record,” Hedford continued, “it all fell apart. The band to a two-record contract. Humble to a fault, VP of A&R, Perry Watts-Russell, who ended up songs weren’t quite ready. The studio wasn’t quite Jeremy said of the signing: “When I was in the signing the band to a contract with the label. Thus right. Courtney and Peter [guitarist Holstrom] Dharma Bums I had no idea what was going on. I began the year-and-a-half-long roller coaster ride started fighting. And when Capitol heard the tracks, didn’t realize we were a popular band. My reality that became the recording and release of the they said, ‘there’s no songs!’ ‘Songs? Oh, we thought was living in a van for five years, in really bad health, Dandys first Capitol release. you wanted something new. We thought it couldn’t getting cavities in my teeth. I’m glad I had the Drummer Eric Hedford was quoted as de- get any worse, when our high profile accountant gumption and willpower to put another band to- scribing the adventure thusly: “So at the time of told us we were broke and that our personal sav- gether.” Dandys Rule OK’s release there was this big indus- ings had been used up to fund everything. The But, before Pilot were able even to release the try buzz about the Northwest and we got swept up press went crazy with speculation. Our new friends album they had recorded for Elektra, they were dropped from the label, in July 1995, falling victim “The Dandy Warhols first came onto the Portland to one of the periodic corporate shakeups at WEA headquarters. The new boss passed on the album scene late in 1994, making an immediate impact the band had recorded for the old boss. It’s a fa- miliar story. It happens all the time. Though Pilot with their sloppy, irreverent, happy combination continued on, to release another album on Tim/ of T. Rex and the Velvet Underground. Sort of an Kerr a year later, it was obvious the experience stole vital energy and direction from the band’s soul. American version of Oasis.” Undaunted, Tim/Kerr soon found another band to promote. The Dandy Warhols first came by it. The first single, ‘TV Theme Song,’ was added stopped calling. And we felt like dumb asses. It was onto the Portland scene late in 1994, making an on a lot of radio stations and even MTV. We were a wake up call. We moved all our gear back to immediate impact with their sloppy, irreverent, pleasantly surprised, especially when this was done Courtney and Pete’s crappy basement. Courtney happy combination of T. Rex and the Velvet Un- with Tim/Kerr’s one person promotion depart- wrote a bunch of songs and we went back to the derground. Sort of an American version of Oasis. ment. studio with Tony Lash to have another try.” It is, Fronted by Courtney Taylor, who had paid his “After that we had every major label A&R per- perhaps ironic that the Dandy’s ended up firing dues earlier in the decade, drumming with the son and their mom following us around. If you Hedford in March of 1998 before beginning the Beauty Stab, the Dandys attracted large crowds to know us, you know that we can be quite excessive, process of putting together their second Capitol Satyricon and La Luna as their primary strong- and big moochers. So naturally we rode this pony album (as yet unreleased). holds. With a hip, droll sound, a certain alterna- for everything it was worth: free meals, plane rides, When the appropriately titled The Dandy tive glamour, a few good songs and a couple of hotel rooms and much, much more. Eventually we Warhols Come Down was finally unveiled in the late other ideas, the band enlisted Tony Lash to pro- ran out of A&R people willing to fund our enter- Continued on page 4 TWO LOUIES, September 2000 - Page 3 Early Dandy Warhols with Meredith Brooks at Key Largo. photo Buko received albums on the Frontier Records label— could stem the tide. The band broke up shortly af- Dead Air in 1993 and Cop And Speeder in 1994. ter the album’s release. When Heatmiser signed with Virgin Records in the Coomes was undergoing changes in his own Spring of 1995, to be distributed through their sis- right. Motorgoat, the band he had founded with ter label Caroline, the future seemed clear and his wife, drummer Janet Weiss, fell apart when the Continued from page 3 bright. couple divorced. As if not to lose their musical bond Spring of 1997, it was met with immediate critical But Heatmiser were not the typical “newly- along with the marital, Coomes and Weiss formed zeal, but only moderate sales. Even the placement signed act.” For starters, Elliott Smith, one of the Quasi, yet another configuration for Coomes’ of “Every Day Should Be A Holiday” in the unex- primary songwriters, had already launched a suc- quirky Pop masterpieces. Quasi still perform to this pected hit film There’s Something About Mary failed cessful solo career. And, increasingly, demands were day— although Weiss’ time is now dominated by to generate the anticipated response. Some insid- being made on drummer Tony Lash’s time as well. her duties as drummer for Sleater-Kinney. ers called into question Capitol’s judgment in se- His growing prominence in Portland as a world- 1995 was a pivotal year for the Portland mu- lecting as the debut single the controversially en- titled anti-drug song “Not If You Were The Last “1995 was a pivotal year for the Portland music scene. Junkie On Earth.” Perhaps, in retrospect, the album’s sales failed Bands were being signed to major label contracts at to meet expectations because in 1997, another musical trend was gathering momentum: the an unprecedented rate. By the end of year, Thor Swing revival ushered in by the notoriously ob- Lindsay, the mastermind behind Tim/Kerr Records, scure “Cocktail Nation.” Perhaps, in wasting time, as well as money, in producing their stunning in- crowed, “I think I’ve counted twelve local bands augural effort for Capitol, the Dandy Warhols missed their narrow window of opportunity to signed to major label deals in the last two years.” become the true rock stars they always presumed themselves to be. But the story is getting ahead of class producer created an incremental upsurge in sic scene. Bands were being signed to major label itself. requests for his services. contracts at an unprecedented rate. By the end of Heatmiser, which had been a highly visible By the time of the release of Mic City Sons on year, Thor Lindsay, the mastermind behind Tim/ musical force in Portland and the surrounding vi- Virgin/Caroline, in the Fall of 1996, the band mem- Kerr Records, crowed, “I think I’ve counted twelve cinity since early in the decade, were no strangers bers were already seeming to head in their own local bands signed to major label deals in the last to distribution by a “major” independent label. By separate directions. Not even the addition of Sam two years.” His reckoning was not far off. It seemed, the end of 1994 they had already released two well- Coomes as replacement for bassist Brandt Peterson for a time anyway, in ‘94 and ‘95, that nearly every Page 4 - TWO LOUIES, September 2000 month some local band was being signed to a ma- become too big for its organizers to handle.