On the 22nd of February 2017 is the American Band The Dandy Warhols coming back to Prague’s Lucerna Music Bar. They travelled the world, released few great hits and to Prague they are bringing their new album Distortland.
Tickets for The Dandy Warhols concert are available from the 7th of October for 400 CZK (+fee) at GoOut.cz, Tickepro.cz, Ticketportal and musicbar.cz. At the cash desk of the LMB without fee. At the door: 500 CZK.
Three days after The Dandy Warhols finished recording their ninth album, Distortland, a 7000kg gush of water collapsed the roof of the Dandy’s studio, filling the place with rainwater. Had it happened a few days later, the Dandy’s would have been on tour and the two months of humidity which ensued would have wrecked every last piece of gear. Well, as any good comedian knows, timing is everything.
Distortland is an album about the lack of good luck, about the lack of serendipity after a much more subtle disaster set in, and the changes in Portland: “I noticed there is a lot of distortion on the tracks, and in weird places,” says Taylor-Taylor. “Distortion on the vocals, drums, keyboards, not just distorted guitars. Even the acoustic I found myself putting distortion on. Meanwhile, we’re living in Portland, Oregon, which has gone from .5 million to 2.5 million, and thats the weirdest thing. I just looked out my window and thought ‘Distortland’…. yep. The dirty little town that time forgot, one day became the cultural epicenter of earth.”
“Our whole thing is a disorganized byproduct of being alive,” says Taylor-Taylor. “So our music is organized disorganization.” The Dandy’s have always spectacularly blended the pristine with the unusual, the rhythmic with the unpredictable, the grit with the sheen. Since their inception in 1994, they’ve sailed through and past shifting musical climates by presenting thoughts un-mired by censorship and unfiltering their art.
“In the early years, we heard it all: ‘you’re never going to make it,’ ‘you’re too intellectual,'” says Taylor-Taylor. But the Dandy’s knew better, because “making it” was never the goal –making music to inspire, or to contemplate – was. And still is, even when the roof collapses and the very world they know changes beyond recognition. “yeah I guess we’re fine with whatever. Maybe it’s because we’re a real old school type of band. Like a gang.”
Distortland is the Dandy’s first record for Dine Alone, and their first studio LP since 2012’s This Machine.
