New Release: Pin Ups by The Dandy Warhols

In 1973, David Bowie released an album featuring his take on songs that shaped and inspired him as an artist. It was called Pinups, and included tributes to The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, The Who, and more. His reimagined recordings were approached in his own unique style of proto-punk and glam rock, not literal translations like most cover songs.

Fast-forward 53 years and you’ll be happy to know that The Dandy Warhols have followed in Bowie’s footsteps. Their version is called Pin Ups, and like the Ziggy Stardust version, presents a collection of covers paying tribute to those who led them into music in the first place.

The Warhols have been important players in the alternative music scene for over 30 years, amassing a respectable fan base and making some solid rock ‘n’ roll, to boot. You may be familiar with the band from their Top 10 hit “Bohemian Like You” from 2000, a Stonesesque rocker that still sounds fresh. That was just their second album. Since then, the band has paid homage to those artists who inspired them. The band has called Pin Ups “A covers album made up of half-finished demos, outtakes, B-sides, and foreign territory bonus tracks.”

They penned a sonic love letter to their idols with a dandy collection of seventeen superhuman versions of songs from the 1960s through the 1980s. Never in the history of earth has such a diverse collection of tunes existed on one album, with covers from America, Gang of Four, The Cure, Marilyn Manson, and The Grateful Dead to name but a few. These versions come out of left field, not unlike the band’s persona, creating new classics and owning every single song as if they had birthed them.

Call it fuzz and swagger: the Warhols’ style reimagines this set as the members have likely heard these originals hundreds – if not thousands – of times, recording versions in their heads preparing for just such an album. The band has always been indefinable, not unlike the chameleonic Bowie. Critics and fans alike have tried to compartmentalize them but the band continues to evade such labels. Are they garage rock? Power pop? Psych-shoegaze? Or just good ol’ American rock ‘n’ roll? All of the above, I would argue.

Lead singer, guitarist, and chief lyricist Courtney Taylor-Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmström were high school buddies. Both attended college but never lost the hunger to form a band, which they did in the early ’90s. It was Holmström who became the impetus for a covers album. “These are some of our favorite songs, or songs by our favorite bands, or just songs we admired.”

The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” opens the album with a grungy, mid-tempo shine. Along with main vocal duties by Taylor-Taylor, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Zia McCabe adds vocals to this gem. McCabe also heads up the official first single, “Kiss Off,” the Violent Femmes classic. In the interest of time (and space) discussing each song will be nearly impossible, but so deserved. I would like to mention highlights – which still may not succumb to the whole brevity thing.

The band’s take on the Cure’s “Primary” is a fantastic experience. The bar bands down the street may do a reasonable job covering others but to completely decipher a piece of work and reconstruct said song through a personal lens is a more challenging task. The vocals are mesmerizing and the caffeinated drumming of Brent DeBoer is a double-shot of oxygen straight into your brain. The Cramps “Goo Goo Muck” is transformed into a late ’50s SoCal surf rock standard. Quite listenable, quite enjoyable.

Taking on America’s “Sister Golden Hair,” the quartet offers a more honest representation, harmonies and all. The splendid magic of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” is so apparent, followed quickly by Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People,” becoming a real neck-twister of genres. The New York Dolls’ “Jetboy” is a revelation, as is the cover of The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary,” an ambitious, low-fi dream.

There is so much more to love about this album – and too much to talk about. My advice? Listen to it. I’ve included it below, along with a playlist of the originals.

This tracklist simply cannot be overstated:
1. Cherry Bomb – The Runaways
2. What We All Want – Gang Of Four
3. Primary – The Cure
4. Kiss Off – Violent Femmes
5. Goo Goo Muck – The Cramps
6. Rain – The Cult
7. Straight To Hell – The Clash
8. Sister Golden Hair – America
9. Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan
10. Ripple – The Grateful Dead
11. You Ain’t Going Nowhere – The Byrds
12. Blackbird – The Beatles
13. The Beautiful People – Marilyn Manson
14. Love Song – The Damned
15. Jetboy – New York Dolls
16. She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
17. Inside The Outside – Love And Rockets