The Dandy Warhols:Odditorium or Warlords of Mars

By Derek Wright

A documentary film immortalizes its subjects as they appear in the movie.

Wilco will forever be in flux with a singer enduring chronic migraines, The Beatles will in no way get a perfect final-album and Spinal Tap will never find the stage.

And after last year’s film “DIG!” chronicled The Dandy Warhols, Courtney Taylor-Taylor will always be a liar.

Not like a politician everybody knows not to trust, but instead, a liar who is wrong yet believes himself entirely.

The Dandy’s front man’s declaration that his band – which is as addicted to the idea of drug and sex addiction as to the vices themselves – could be “the most well-adjusted band in America” is the second most absurd statement in the film. His ultimate falsity was classifying the band’s 2000 masterstroke “Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia” as a “psychedelic rock album.”

Not only was it not true, it reeked of a man über-concerned with his waning hipster status.

The band’s fifth LP builds on the Andre Agassi-like sentiment that image is everything, as the quartet comes across like victims of their own trendiness. Having been ahead of the curve for so long, the Dandy Warhols sound stifled by a fear of stagnation.

Thus the background noises are not mere accents, as the album focuses too heavily on extras during its nine-minute, 12-minute and two seven-minute tracks.

Though “Down With Disco” and “Everyone Is Totally Insane” are songs reminiscent of the band’s familiar chiming-guitar grooves, the 62 gimmick-filled minutes feature too many proverbial – and literal – bells and whistles.

And that is the truth, no matter what Taylor says.