All posts tagged portland

  • October 12, 2010

    The Vine interview: The Dandy Warhols, October 2010

    An interview for The Vine with The Dandy Warhols – all four of them – conducted in tandem with my girlfriend Rachael in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon.

    Why? We won a competition to do so.

    The Dandy WarholsInterview – The Dandy Warhols

    Despite their early ambitions to re-energise the shoegaze genre (which will make more sense after reading the below interview), The Dandy Warhols emerged from Portland, Oregon in the mid-1990s to become best-known for brandishing a unique take on alternative rock that favoured lengthy psychedelic compositions and instantly accessible pop tunes in equal measure. After hitting their stride commercially with …Dandy Warhols Come Down in 1997 and Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia in the early 2000s, the band were dropped by their label Capitol Records in 2005. Ties between band and label had been strained for some time, as evidenced in the infamous 2004 documentary DiG!, which chronicled the band’s career in parallel to The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

    Rather than despair, the band made the most of their freedom by establishing their own label, Beat The World, which they now use to promote their friends’ bands, in addition to their own material. 2008’s Earth To The Dandy Warhols was their debut LP as an independent band, and they’ve recently released a greatest hits compilation entitled The Capitol Years: 1997-2005.

    Ahead of their Australian tour as part of the Parklife Festival, my girlfriend Rachael and I met with The Dandy Warhols in Portland on September 9 2010, after winning a competition organised by Virgin Mobile, Pedestrian.TV and Parklife Festival promoters Fuzzy. After watching them record a rare acoustic set for the local community radio station OPB – wherein they covered songs by Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, as well as a couple of their own – we decamped to their studio space, The Odditorium, for an extended interview during which the four members come and go.

    To read the full interview – around 50 minutes’ worth – visit The Vine.

    Footage of our trip to the US is embedded below; read more about it here.

    No Comments / Music Journalism, Published Writing /

  • September 15, 2010

    Video: Interviewing The Dandy Warhols in Portland, Oregon

    The Dandy WarholsLast week, my girlfriend Rachael and I won a trip to the United States.

    The competition asked, in 25 words or less, which Parklife 2010 headline act we’d would like to interview and why. We both chose The Dandy Warhols.

    Why? Two reasons. We both dig their music… and the competition terms mentioned that the interview would take place in Portland, Oregon.

    Pretty sure that The Dandy Warhols are the only Parklife act who live in Portland, Oregon…

    We brainstormed for around 20 minutes. I entered: “The Dandy Warhols, because it’s been ten years since the release of their career-, genre-, and generation-defining album, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia.”

    Rachael went with an entry that name-checked a bunch of song and album titles: “I’ll step inside the monkey house of Portland’s true bohemians, The Dandy Warhols, for an illuminating interview that illustrates why everyday should be a holiday.”

    Rachael won.

    So a few days later, we flew Qantas to LAX for six nights.

    Below is a short video montage of the day spent in Portland with The Dandy Warhols. We interviewed them for around an hour at their studio, The Odditorium, and watched them perform a rare acoustic set for local radio station OPB, wherein they covered songs by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

    It was badass.

    Thanks to Fuzzy, Virgin Members Lounge, Pedestrian.TV,  The Dandy Warhols, and Pedestrian’s video producer, Matt Dempsey.

    Click here for the full interview transcript.

    3 Comments / Music Journalism /