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 BRENT DE BOER, the exquisitely coiffured drummer for THE DANDY WARHOLS, talks to ANTHONY WALSH about drugs and nougat.
For the better part of ten years fans have bitterly taken sides over which of Portland’s new wave stoner, country drone rockers, The Dandy Warhols, has the best haircut. Could it be frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s immaculate and soulful fringe, the textured shoulder length spunk of keyboardist Zia McCabe or the endearingly raggedy just-out-of-bed look sported by guitarist Peter Holmström? Then, out of nowhere, dark horse contender and drummer Brent De Boer tells me, “Actually, that’s got to be me.” Brent has “this big old fro”, which, when (infrequently) washed, can be combed so “it sort of looks like Gene Wilder.” Pete, Zia and Court can, “pull theirs back into a ponytail but that’s about it”, Brent tells me. “I have options. None of the others have options. That’s power and that’s hair power.”
With that important issue out of the way we move onto the release of The Dandy Warhols’ sixth studio album which was recently announced by a dense, impenetrable tome titled, ‘Special Investigative Bulletin 2137.’ The bulletin describes front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor as the ‘acceptable face of augmented humanity’, and when I ask Brent De Boer what it all means, the loquacious-about-haircuts drummer pauses, thinks, and finally says, “The new album is called Earth To The Dandy Warhols.”
With its purpose doomed to remain a mystery, the new album is nevertheless full of tunes that solidify and extend The Dandy Warhols’ everything-and-more approach to making music about not doing much. Track Welcome To The Third World recalls the disco sell-out period of classic rock. “I didn’t know what was going on with it until Court put a scratch vocal down and I realized that, ‘oh, this is what is going on: that seventies party cocaine nights sort of feel.’” Yacht-rocking Love Song features both Mike Campbell from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, who apparently has “a bit of a telephone relationship” with Courtney, where “they sit and talk a lot about rock.” The grandest ditty has to be the 15-minute closing track, Musee D’Nougat, which is probably best left explained by Brent: “Court went to the Museum of Nougat where they have nougat sculptures and the history of it and all that, and he thought they needed a song about nougat for the lobby of the museum, and he decided write them one. Then we had a friend, Daniel, who is French, read about the history of nougat over the song.”
Brent also confirms The Dandy Warhols are working on a greatest hits compilation, that they launched Beat The World Records mainly because iTunes required they have a label and that he thinks their 2003 album Welcome To The Monkey House was ahead of its time. On the idea of drugs, Brent tells me that even “major tripper freak deaky users” would say they aren’t good for you and “the most destructive drug you can take is alcohol and after that it’s all about white stuff that mankind doctored up.” Then he adds, “I think smoking a jay here or there isn’t going to kill anyone.”
Finally, what is the secret to keeping a band together for over a decade?
“Open minded communication and a lot of good common sense as far as being considerate to each other and encouraging and keeping an open flow of creativity going at all times.”
Bravo. Here’s to the next decade.
EARTH TO THE DANDY WARHOLS is out now through Etch n Sketch.
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