The Killers' Brandon Flowers (file)
Photo: Getty Images

After last year's false start, Lollapalooza has stacked the deck for its return. Among the acts who will headline the now-sedentary two-day affair in Chicago on July 23 and 24 are Weezer, the Killers, the Pixies, a reunited Dinosaur Jr., Widespread Panic and Dashboard Confessional.

The show will take place at Hutchinson Field in Grant Park with around 30,000 fans expected each day. Also on board are former Chicagoan Liz Phair, the Dandy Warhols, Cake, the Arcade Fire, Billy Idol, Kaiser Chiefs, the reunited Digable Planets, Tegan and Sara, Kasabian, the Bravery, Louis XIV and the Walkmen.

Organizers are promising 60 bands on five stages. According to the festival's producers, 2,000 $35 tickets offered for presale recently sold in about 80 minutes, with regular tickets priced at $85 for a two-day pass. Ticket prices will eventually rise to between $100 and $115. Children under 10 will be admitted for free when accompanied by a paying adult, and some kid-friendly activities are promised on site. Through the festival's official Web site, producers are asking visual artists and inventors of "man-made machines" to submit works for use during the show. In addition the usual array of art, vendor booths and food, non-music diversions on tap include a runway fashion show.

Lollapalooza's organizers are also planning on shooting a movie of the event and have asked fans to submit stories and photos to a historical area on the Lolla Web site.

The rest of the lineup announced on Friday includes G. Love & Special Sauce, Blonde Redhead, the Black Keys, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Z-Trip, Los Amigos Invisibles, M83, VHS or Beta, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Soulive, Ambulance Ltd., Shout Out Louds, Blue Merle, the Warlocks, DeSol, World Leader Pretend, the Redwalls and the Changes.

The revival of Lollapalooza comes one year after the festival was canceled due to poor ticket sales for a bill that was to feature Morrissey, PJ Harvey, Modest Mouse, String Cheese Incident, the Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth (see "Lollapalooza Canceled; Organizers Cite Poor Ticket Sales"). Its resurrection comes at a time when two-day "destination" festivals such as Bonnaroo and Coachella have become increasingly popular.

• Weezer
• The Killers
• The Pixies
• Dashboard Confessional
• Dinosaur Jr.

Dandy Warhols' Brent DeBoer and Courtney Taylor (file)
Photo: Matthew Peyton/Getty Images

In "Dig!" last year's indierrific documentary on the egos of warring rock bands, Courtney Taylor sneered into the camera and boasted of his songwriting prowess, "I sneeze hits."

The feud between Taylor's Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre might be over (see " 'Dig!' Digs Deep Into A Bizarre Indie-Rock Rivalry"), but later this year, the Warhols frontman will have a chance to prove whether his handkerchiefs are worth keeping.

According to a post on the Dandy Warhols' Web site, the Portland, Oregon, band is putting the final mastering touches on its fifth record, Odditorium or Warlords of Mars.

The follow-up to 2002's new-wave-inspired Welcome to the Monkey House and named after their Andy Warhol Factory-inspired home studio, Odditorium will be out by summer if the band has its way. Fifteen tracks for the album were recorded, and a video was recently shot for "Smoke It," the song the group says will be its first single.

What will the record sound like, considering the band's penchant for left turns? Whatever isn't the moment's prevailing trend.

"We tend to do what no one else is doing but we think they should." Taylor said. "When we had Kid Rock and boy bands, we did a psychedelic rock record [13 Tales of Urban Bohemia]. [Our debut] Come Down came out after the death of shoegazer, because there was only grunge, and we thought, 'Somebody's gotta make a f---ing shoegazer record.' "

While Monkey House had the glossy production sheen of Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, an alternate take was also recorded. "Our last [record] had two versions," the perennially laconic Taylor said. "We had [what you could call the] 'Outkast version' — [which sounded like] a garage band covering Dr. Dre songs mixed by Outkast — and then we did the 'Sade version' with Nick Rhodes, which is the one the label wanted to put out."

Taylor said the group's upcoming record takes a back-to-basics approach that treads on one particular band's sound. "It's just a rip-off of the Dandy Warhols. It's just a total rip-off of their sounds. It's really shameless," he said with a smirk.

A few other projects are also in store for the band this year, including finishing up a live DVD from footage shot at a three-hour show in Australia.

Already immortalized on film, the Dandies' next movie appearance will be "9 Songs," a new movie by director Michael Winterbottom, the man behind one of their favorite features, "24 Hour Party People" (see "Kurt Loder Weighs In On '24 Hour Party People' ").

It's a story about a guy who has a relationship with this chick, and they have a bunch of sex," Taylor said. "Then he's stuck with a whole bunch of dudes in Antarctica. He goes from having the London super-hot chick to this dirty awesome life.

" '24 Hour Party People' is one the best movies ever made." Taylor added. "We watched it in the studio about nine times the first two weeks we got it. When we heard that he wanted to film us, it was like, 'You can film whatever you want.' "

The cinematic projects don't end there, either. Taylor, who directed his own anti-Bush documentary in October 2000 — "It's the End of the World as We Know It" — hopes to shoot his newest screenplay, "One Model Nation," in the fall.

Inspired by the WTO riots of 2001 in Seattle, Taylor hopes to convey his contempt for those who thought the destruction was some sort of hip, almost-fashionable political statement.

"It's the film I needed somebody to make for me when I was 19. The [anarchists] just destroy things, but they have the same big puffed-up, retarded egos, like me or Anton [Newcome of the Brian Jonestown Massacre]. Artists have retarded egos. These people dress real cool and think they're really hip. Why am I disgusted by that? Because they're gross and they're hateful."

• The Dandy Warhols

Courtney Taylor and Anton Newcombe in "Dig!"
Photo: Interloper Films

On the surface, "Dig!" is just a documentary about two indie bands from Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco — the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre — that have never come close to having a platinum album (or even a gold one, for that matter).

But the film, opening in select cities this Friday (October 1), is also a fascinating look at friendship, drug abuse, mad genius and general rock and roll depravity. Director Ondi Timoner captured lightning in a bottle when she decided to follow the Dandies and the BJM, two bands that started out as compatriots but, through a series of bizarre confrontations and jealousies, became enemies. 

In "Dig!," BJM frontman Anton Newcombe comes across as a drug-addled lunatic (which might explain why he hates the film so much), and Dandy Warhols singer Courtney Taylor is seen as pompous and vain (which might explain why he hasn't seen the whole thing, despite narrating it). But along with Timoner, they've agreed to discuss the seven years the film took to make, the rivalry between the two bands, drugs, insanity and shotgun shells.

Ondi Timoner: "I lived with the BJM, and I have footage of myself on the verge of tears because they were such vacuums of humanity. They would never take responsibility for the way they behaved to each other. They would just get more ornery as the drinks set in."

Anton Newcombe: "There was definitely a point she was trying to make with the editing of the film. I don't approve of her whole thing. I think it's sensationalistic and dumb. Like, 'Oh, yes, he's incredibly violent! He's terribly crazy!' It’s like an episode of 'The Jerry Springer Show.' "

Courtney Taylor: "I haven't seen [the film]. Anton hates it. He doesn't want to see videotape of him just being an awful person. I'm sure he doesn't want to know about that. He should not have seen the film either."

One of the focal points of "Dig!" is the feud that developed between the two bands. Depending on whom you ask, it was either an elaborate ploy, a creepy plan or a very real problem.

Newcombe: "I wanted to spark some sh-- up between our bands. So my friend and I sent the Dandies shotgun shells with their names written on them. And their management was like, 'We're going to have them arrested!' I thought it was funny. I didn't have a problem with them. I tried to manipulate the media and give them something to write about."

Taylor: "I guess we never felt much about it one way or the other. It never really existed for us. And then they got weird, and there's nothing you can say about that kind of behavior. You can't just say, 'Oh, just kidding!' or whatever. As soon as somebody gets weird, you just move yourself away from them."

Timoner: "The Dandies wouldn't let the BJM around them for many years. There was a restraining order. And Anton expressed real, honest anger and jealousy against the Dandy Warhols because he had this whole machination in his mind that they were going to have a musical revolution together. And as far as he was concerned, the Dandies betrayed those ideals, sold out. And he was pissed."

In 1997, the Dandies released their Capitol Records debut, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, while Anton and the BJM released a string of indie albums and hit the road. From there, the two bands would take wildly divergent paths, as the Dandies toured Europe while Anton became ensnared by drugs, starting with a drug bust down in Georgia.

Newcombe: "We had to go pick up a tour van I purchased, and Ondi said, 'You can drive my car, and I can interview you on the way.' There was a police checkpoint, and we got stopped. They asked me if they could search the car, and I said, 'No problem.' And they searched it and found Ondi's drug paraphernalia and her pot. None of it was mine. We didn't get busted for drugs; that was her."

Timoner: "There's an A&R woman we interviewed in the film, and she provided me and Anton with a joint. Anton was driving my car, and he said he had a bench warrant out for his arrest, and then he waived the rights to have my car searched without even asking me."

Taylor: "I remember seeing the footage of [the bust] and just howling."

Newcombe: "They wove it into the film with Courtney narrating and being like 'Huh, when we tour Europe and get busted for drugs, it's a fine the cost of three Dandy Warhol T-shirts. With them, it's the end of their tour.' It's bullsh--."

Timoner: "It's funny that Anton obsesses over that joint, because there're scenes in the movie where he's nodding off on heroin. We could've shown much more extreme examples of him in the depths of drugs."

Newcombe: "I don't feel ashamed about my drug use in the film. That's what I was doing. I was holed up in my house in Laurel Canyon shooting up. It was hurting the people I loved. Some people thought I was going to die."

Taylor: "Drugs have never really been a problem for anyone. In the life of this band, drugs have never been an issue. We just like food, wine, conversation, sex, music, film, drugs, clothes, you know? There's a lot of things in this world, you know what I mean?"

As the film ends, Newcombe looks like a lost cause, as does his relationship with Taylor. But time heals wounds. And you'd be surprised how things turned out.

Newcombe: "I feel grateful that I'm not high anymore. But I didn't quit dope because I was ashamed of doing dope. I quit it because of the effect it was having on my life. Courtney and I talk now and then. We had plans to take a road trip this summer. We were going to drive to Yosemite."

Taylor: "We go out and drink beers, and we talk about sh--. That's me and Anton. I wouldn't be as successful or influential as I have been if I didn't spend the last eight years trying to keep up with him. Trying to constantly impress him."

Timoner: "They get along a lot better now, I think, because of the film. Courtney really worships Anton to an extent. They really are each other's barometers of success and integrity, which is why this story is so compelling."

Visit MTV Movies for more from Hollywood, including news, interviews, trailers and more.

• The Dandy Warhols
• The Brian Jonestown Massacre

After initially selecting the raunchy celebration of public affection "In Public" for her next single, Kelis has changed her mind. Her follow-up to the suggestive "Milkshake" will now be "Trick Me," a song about scorned love set to a ska-like beat from producer Dallas Austin. She's scheduled to shoot the video for the song at the end of February. ...

Turk was arraigned on charges of first-degree attempted murder Friday (January 30) in a Memphis courthouse, where he will return February 18 to enter his plea in a preliminary hearing. The Hot Boys rapper's bail was also reduced from $1 million to $750,000. ... After Fred Durst lambasted a Spanish journalist on the Limp Bizkit Web site for asking about his "knack for pissing people off" and then dared the writer to be "front and center" at next month's concert in Spain, the scribe shot back in an open letter to the Bizkit bigwig. While defending his line of questioning, Jordi Meya asked that Durst "prove [him] wrong by having an adult conversation, instead of trying to kick [his] ass when [he] comes to Spain." ...

Ryan Adams will undergo surgery this week to repair his left wrist, which he broke during a January 22 show in Liverpool, England. His North American tour, which was to run from March 2 in Columbia, Missouri, to March 26 in Denver, has been canceled. ... Rapper Mos Def will play the role of Ford Prefect in the upcoming flick "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," based on the novel by Douglas Adams about a man who is saved from the destruction of planet Earth by his best friend, who turns out to be an alien. Mos, who also starred in "The Italian Job" and "Monster's Ball," will start shooting in April. ...

He may not be the hunkiest musician on the block, but Elvis Costello knows the secret to making the ladies swoon, which he promises to share in a forthcoming book. His idea for the how-to book (as in "How to play guitar, sing loudly and impress girls ... or boys," as he says in the proposal) is based on the presumption that people need to take a more punk approach to learning music: "While I am not promoting musical illiteracy, it is my own experience that the rapid mastery of a few chords gives almost instant satisfaction and encouragement to the beginner. ... This in turn may actually inspire a curiosity to learn more about music, to train the ear to understand harmony ... and all the while basking in the admiring and occasionally lustful gaze of members of the opposite sex." ... Coolio is bringing his braids to TV both here and abroad. After losing his shirt on Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," the rapper is set to get all alphabetic on comedienne Kathy Griffin and former "Cosby" kid Keshia Knight Pulliam on "Celebrity Spelling Bee," a three-part FOX series beginning February 13. He'll also participate in "Comeback — The Great Chance," a German TV show that pits artists past their prime against each other for a chance to record with an as-yet-unnamed superstar producer. ...

If you ever wanted to have the Offspring stage a concert in your living room, now you can — only problem is that the bandmembers are just three inches tall and may cause small children to choke. The Offspring collectible play set, which is already available in Japan, comes to these shores in a few months. Online orders are being taken at store.merch.com/offspring. ... Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen will return to the studio in March to begin work on the as-yet-untitled follow-up to Frederiksen's 2001 side-project album, Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. Armstrong produced, engineered and mixed that effort. Now on tour with Armstrong and the rest of Rancid, Frederiksen is slated to play with the Bastards at this summer's Vans Warped Tour. ...

Iggy Pop's hometown reunion show with his band the Stooges will be available on a DVD titled "Live in Detroit" on March 23. The proto-punk band's first Motor City show in nearly three decades took place August 25. ... Following in the footsteps of Prince, Metallica and most recently Jay-Z, the Dandy Warhols want to release a Black Album of their own. Comprised of never-before-released material they had recorded prior to releasing ... The Dandy Warhols Come Down in 1997, The Black Album will be combined with another LP of rarities, titled Come on Feel the Dandy Warhols. The band hopes to release the double-disc set in a few months exclusively on www.dandywarhols.com. ...

The Barenaked Ladies will launch a 32-date North American tour February 11 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The outing, which will feature Gavin DeGraw on the first half and Howie Day on the second, will wrap up April 1 in Calgary, Alberta. Before joining the Ladies, Day is touring with the Stereophonics beginning February 4 in Washington, D.C., and ending February 28 in San Francisco. ... Canadian chanteuse Sarah McLachlan will launch her first North American tour in five years on July 5 in Seattle. Dates run through September 10 in Vancouver, British Columbia. McLachlan will be touring behind her album Afterglow. On Monday, her new single, "Stupid," will ship to radio; a video for the song was directed by Sophie Muller. ...

Bad Religion are reissuing remixed and remastered versions of five of their early albums. The LPs, due April 6, will be accompanied by a DVD release of their 1990 home video, "Along the Way." ... For his next solo album, Grown Backwards, due March 15, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne hummed into a tape recorder and cut up the sounds to create some of the songs. Singer Rufus Wainwright appears on the operatic track "Au Fond Du Temple." ...

01.28.2004

The Foo Fighters have been added to the performance lineup for the 46th annual Grammy Awards, while Hilary Duff, Faith Hill, B.B. King, Brian McKnight, Carlos Santana and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are slated to present awards to the winners. Additionally, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion and Richard Marx will render a special performance in honor of R&B great Luther Vandross. The awards ceremony takes place February 8. 50 Cent, Christina Aguilera, Outkast and Justin Timberlake lead the crop of previously announced performers. ...

The lovefest between football players and rap stars continues down in Houston. On Thursday (January 29), P. Diddy will host the 10th annual EA Sports Madden Bowl, which pits celebrities against each other in a tournament-style, video-game football playoff. While players like Tony Gonzalez, Clinton Portis and Ahman Green make their virtual goal-line stands, such artists as Lil' Flip, Killer Mike and the X-ecutioners will be performing. ... Godfather of Soul James Brown was released from jail on his own recognizance Thursday, a day after he was arrested and charged with beating his wife. He's being accused of pushing his 33-year-old wife, Tomi Rae Brown, to the floor in their Beech Island, South Carolina, home. Brown's attorney said the charge won't affect the state pardon he received in May, which stemmed from a 1988 drug and assault conviction that cost him two and a half years behind bars, and another drug offense a decade later. ... Kid Rock is shooting a video for his next single, "Cold and Empty," next week in Los Angeles. The Malloys, whose credits include Blink-182's "First Date" and New Found Glory's "Head On Collision," will be directing. ...

Good Charlotte are expected hit the studio to begin work on their new album April 1 with producer Eric Valentine, the man behind the group's 2002 LP, The Young and the Hopeless. ... Ryan Adams claims that he may lose 20 percent of the movement in his wrist after breaking it during a show in Liverpool on January 22. In an interview with British music paper NME, Adams noted that he also injured his leg and smashed his face with the microphone when he fell from the stage. ... As unlikely as it may seem, a collaboration between the Darkness and Black Eyed Peas isn't beyond the realm of possibility. While both groups have been touring Australia and New Zealand on the Big Day Out Tour, which wraps up February 1, Darkness singer Justin Hawkins has been joining the hip-hop collective onstage for their song "Let's Get Retarded." BEP's Taboo, meanwhile, cited the heavy-handed British metalheads in an interview with Aussie outlet Undercover News as an act he'd like to work with for the Peas' fourth album, Monkey Business, due in November. ...

While gearing up for the Virgin College Tour this spring, Michelle Branch has chosen " 'Til I Get Over You" as the third single off Hotel Paper. The tune is expected to surface at radio in mid-February. ... Adding insult to injury, pop singer Daniel Bedingfield has been charged in New Zealand with careless use of a vehicle in the single-car accident that he suffered on January 2. The 24-year-old Bedingfield is still healing from neck injuries but will have to appear in court to answer the charge at a yet-to-be-determined date. ...

Folk legend Art Garfunkel might be fighting the drug-possession charge that stemmed from his bust on January 17, when a New York state trooper pulled his vehicle over for speeding and found marijuana in Garfunkel's jacket. His lawyer, who will not discuss the case, appeared in court on the singer's behalf Wednesday, but the case was adjourned until February 11. Garfunkel faces up to a $100 fine, barring any prior criminal convictions. ... After five years with Wilco, multi-instrumentalist Leroy Bach has left the band for undisclosed reasons, according to a post on Wilco's site. Bach had played on 1999's Summerteeth and 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. His departure comes while Wilco are putting the finishing touches on their fifth album. ...

Fat Joe has started recording a second Terror Squad album, which will be released later in the year. Meanwhile, his protégé Tony Sunshine has nearly completed his debut. ... Joe is also one of several guests on Tony Touch's latest album, The Piece Maker 2, due February 24. P. Diddy (with Black Rob and G. Dep on "Non-Stop"), Sean Paul, Method Man (with Raekwon, U-God and RZA on "Rock Steady"), N.O.R.E. and Slick Rick are among the other collaborators. ...

Norah Jones is featured on a new album from her former collective, Wax Poetic. Titled Nublu Sessions, the project is due February 10, the same day as Jones' own Feels Like Home. ... Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien and his girlfriend, Susan, are the proud parents of a new son, Salvador O'Brien. The couple returned from a hospital in England on January 26 with the nine-pound baby, their first. ...

Cypress Hill are shooting a video this week for "What's Your Number," the Clash-sampled first single off their forthcoming album, Till Death Do Us Part. Directed by Dean Karr (Queens of the Stone Age, Marilyn Manson), the clip takes place in a club where Cypress Hill are performing and stars S.T.U.N. drummer Bobby Alt. ... Although the Polyphonic Spree are just starting to catch fire with their 2-year-old debut, The Beginning Stages Of ..., the 24-piece symphonic ensemble has already recorded its follow-up, Together We're Heavy. The album is due this summer. ...

"Live on the Road With the Dropkick Murphys," the band's first DVD, gives fans a feel for what three months in a bus with the Boston punk band is like. Due March 9, the DVD features more than four hours of material, including all of the group's videos. And if there were any question about the DKM's Irish roots, the band will play five sold-out shows in its Boston hometown in the four days leading up to St. Patrick's Day. ... Sparta's yet-untitled second record, the follow-up to 2002's Wiretap Scars, is tentatively scheduled for release in early May. The disc was produced by Mike Major and is being mixed by Andy Wallace. ...

Tears for Fears have set an April 6 release date for their reunion album, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. The first single, "Closest Thing to Heaven," will hit radio outlets on February 9. ... Air will promote Talkie Walkie, released Tuesday, with a North American tour beginning April 2 in Austin, Texas, and ending May 3 in Oakland, California. On May 2 the duo will play the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. ...

Bob Dylan has booked 10 shows for March, and many more will be announced in the days ahead. The tour starts March 1 with the first of a three-night run in St. Louis. Dylan will also play three concerts in Detroit, starting March 15. The last scheduled date is March 19 in Toronto. ... Dashboard Confessional, Stevie Wonder, the Strokes, Jewel and Counting Crows will play benefit shows at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California, between February 5 and 7. Proceeds will go to the VH1 Save the Music organization. The concert series is being called Blues Jam Sessions, and all shows are already sold out. ...

While C-Murder waits to find out whether he'll get a new murder trial, a wrongful-death suit waits for him in the wings. A judge in the civil case has ruled that the convicted rapper will be required to give a deposition. Trey Mustain, a lawyer representing the parents of slain teen Steve Thomas, said that he anticipates C-Murder will assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer any questions, at which point he'll have to go back to the court to compel answers to questions not covered by the Fifth. A date for the deposition has not yet been set. ... Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Krayzie Bone is preparing to release his third solo album this spring. The as-yet-untitled effort is the follow-up to 2001's Thug on Da Line. ...

Tantric have pushed back the release of their second album, After We Go, from February 10 to February 24. Alongside the single "Hey Now," four other new songs can be streamed on the band's Web site, www.maverick.com/tantric/. ... "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" star Lindsay Lohan contributes four songs to the flick's soundtrack, among them a medley that combines her "Don't Move" with Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" and David Bowie's "Changes." Simple Plan's acoustic rendering of "Perfect" is also one of the highlights of the soundtrack, due February 17. The film, about a New York girl transplanted to suburban New Jersey, hits theaters February 20. ...

The cola wars have come to cyberspace. Days before Pepsi's TV ad announcing a promotion with iTunes is scheduled to premiere during the Super Bowl, Coke revealed that it, too, has struck a deal with a download site, MusicMatch. While the Pepsi ad features a number of teenagers snagged in the recording industry's web to catch illegal downloaders and offers contest winners free downloads on the Apple service, it's not yet known what the Coke-MusicMatch deal will entail, only that it's for the company's Sprite brand. ...

• Kelis
• Turk
• Limp Bizkit
• Mos Def
• Elvis Costello

Dandy Warhols
Photo: Capitol

Breakups can be tragic and severe. Sometimes the people involved part with such acrimony that nothing can persuade them to be cordial to each other, not even if their friends cast them in their new video.

"It's about a couple of friends of ours who broke up and have not spoken to each other since then," singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor said of the Dandy Warhols' new single, "We Used to Be Friends." "So I thought it was clever to put them in the video. And they still didn't ..."

"They were in separate rooms," bassist Zia McCabe interrupted.

"They ended up sitting near each other with their new boyfriend and girlfriend, and not really talking," Taylor-Taylor added.

Uncomfortable silences aside, the video for the single off the band's fourth album, Welcome to the Monkey House, went according to plan. Taylor-Taylor, who directed this clip as well as most Dandy videos, described the digitally enhanced end result as "a New Romantic video, a cross between Duran Duran's 'Planet Earth' and some modern glitchy technology."

It's no surprise that Taylor-Taylor used a Duran Duran clip as a point of reference, since two members of the '80s poster boys lent their talents to Welcome to the Monkey House, which dropped last week. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes produced much of the album, while singer Simon LeBon contributed backing vocals to a track.

"We had heard they were big fans," Taylor-Taylor said. "We were kind of wondering what to do with the record, because we were working with it for a year and a half almost. We just needed somebody to finish it with. So we thought it would be a good idea [to have Rhodes produce]. If nothing else, it would keep it from being electro-clash.

"So I called up Nick Rhodes, and he was like [in an effeminate falsetto], 'Oh, Courtney ... Courtney, I've been listening to some of your rough mixes ... You're clever ... clever ... more than I originally suspected. Good for youuuuu.' "

Rhodes helped Taylor-Taylor, McCabe, guitarist Peter Loew (formerly Holmstrom) and drummer Brent DeBoer tighten their sound by adding lots of keyboard parts, scaling back the guitars and retooling the drums (see "Duran Duran, Chic, Lemonheads Members Join Dandy Warhols' Monkey House"). As compared with their previous albums, which positioned the Dandys as the premier Velvet Underground-like psychedelic band of the mid-'90s alt-rock set, Welcome to the Monkey House finds them awash in synthetic revelry — more velvet, less underground.

"The approach to this record is different, because we wanted to see if we could take the Simon and Garfunkel melodies and lay them over Dr. Dre arrangements," Taylor-Taylor said. "So the way to reduce the size of the songs is to take out the guitars. They're the biggest instrument on the palette; they occupy so much space. Then put in smaller sounds to do the job that the guitars do, but take up less space. Eventually some guitars made it back into the mix, but they were shorter riffs and had skinnier sounds."

Besides being fans of the double Ds, another reason the Dandy Warhols enlisted Rhodes' work was to bring back a lush decadence that has been sorely missing from the music scene for some time.

"Duran Duran are definitely champagne and caviar," Taylor-Taylor said. "Their first record, [1981's Duran Duran], is perfect. It's really sexy and dreamy and beautiful. There's not a lot of that stuff going on."

Dandy Warhols tour dates, according to Epic Records:

• 8/28 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
• 8/30 - Seattle, WA @ Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center (Bumbershoot Festival)
• 9/2 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
• 9/4 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
• 9/6 - Chicago, IL @ Metro/Smart Bar
• 9/8 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
• 9/9 - Montreal, QC @ Le Spectrum
• 9/10 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
• 9/12 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 9/13 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero
• 9/14 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
• 9/15 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
• 9/17 - Atlanta, GA @ Cotton Club
• 9/19 - Houston, TX @ Engine Room
• 9/20 - Austin, TX @ Zilker Park
• 9/21 - Dallas, TX @ Gypsy Tea Room
• 9/24 - Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre

• The Dandy Warhols

The Dandy Warhols
Photo: Ray Gordon

So, what have the Dandy Warhols been up to in the three years since Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia came out? Why, more monkey business, of course.

The Portland, Oregon, band's long-in-the-works new album, Welcome to the Monkey House, will come out in May in Europe and July in the U.S., the band's publicist said. The album was named after a book of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and will feature several veteran musicians.

Dandy Warhols' vocalist and guitarist Courtney Taylor co-produced the disc with Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes, who also plays on the album. The pairing might seem strange to indie hipsters, but the collaboration was long in the works. Taylor and guitarist Peter Holmstrom were big fans of Duran Duran's first record growing up, and Rhodes and Duran Duran singer Simon LeBon both ranked Dandy's Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia in their top 10 albums of 2000, according to the Dandy Warhols' publicist.

The Dandys and Rhodes first met last March at London's NME Awards and two months later they began working together. Veteran English producer Tony Visconti, who has worked with David Bowie, T. Rex and many others, produced two songs on the album.

The first single will be "Used to Be Friends." Other tracks include "The Last High," which was co-written with ex-Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, and "The Scientist," which features Nile Rodgers, member of the '70s disco outfit Chic and onetime producer for Duran Duran.

Welcome to the Monkey House was written on and off last year between tours of Australia, Japan and Europe. The band recorded in its Portland home studio and did additional work in the U.K. Final mixes were finished last September.

The group's Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia sold 110,000 copies, according to SoundScan, thanks largely to the single "Bohemian Like You," which was also featured in the soundtracks to "Clockstoppers," "Summer Catch" and "Six Feet Under."

• The Dandy Warhols
• Duran Duran
• Chic
• The Lemonheads

PJ Harvey
Photo: Jason Campbell for MTV.com

PJ Harvey, Gorillaz and Nikka Costa are among the 10 finalists for the newly minted Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music.

The artists and their albums — Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, Gorillaz and Everybody Got Their Something, respectively — were selected by a panel of "Listmakers" that includes Beck, Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl and Mos Def, as well as music journalists and producers.

The Shortlist's shortlist was announced Wednesday at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills, California, during a broadcast of Listmaker Nic Harcourt's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" radio program on 89.9 KCRW-FM, according to an award spokesperson. It was followed by a panel discussion that featured Listmakers Macy Gray and ?uestlove of the Roots.

Other artists competing for the honor and a $10,000 cash prize are Air (10,000 Hz Legend), Bilal (1st Born Second), Dandy Warhols (Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia), Jay Dee (Welcome To Detroit), Ryan Adams (Heartbreaker), Sigur Rós (Ágætis Byrjun) and Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek (Reflection Eternal).

The winner will be awarded at a concert and party in Los Angeles later this fall.

The Shortlist Prize was created to honor creative and adventurous albums regardless of genre, much like the U.K.'s Mercury Music Prize, which this year went to PJ Harvey (see "PJ Harvey Wins U.K.'s Mercury Music Prize At Worst Possible Time").

Only albums released in the U.S. after July 2000 that have not sold more than 500,000 copies at the time of their nomination were eligible, keeping with the founders' intent to focus on emerging artists rather than established superstars. In July and August, 15 Listmakers selected up to five LPs each for a "longlist" of 49 prospective albums, which was then narrowed down in September (see ).

Shortlist sponsor Virgin Megastore, in addition to providing the cash prize, will make a significant contribution in the winner's name to victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The finalists were originally to be announced September 14 in New York as part of the New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend Lecture Series, but the event was postponed and relocated following the attacks.

For feature interviews with Gorillaz, Bilal, Nikka Costa and the Dandy Warhols, check out "Gorillaz: In The Cage," "Bilal: Behind The Shades," "Nikka Costa: 7 Questions With Nikka Costa" and

• PJ Harvey
• Gorillaz
• Nikka Costa
• Air
• Beck

The Dandy Warhols will wrap up the first leg of their fall tour following an October 17 gig in Minneapolis, and the band has already mapped out plans for a second round of North American dates beginning in November.

Before launching the second tour leg on November 4 in Sacramento, California, the Dandy Warhols will travel to Australia for a two-week run of dates, including multiple night stands in Sydney and Australia.

In recent shows, the Portland, Oregon-based band has been rolling out several covers, including a full-band reading of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time," along with a solo rendition of Kristin Hersh's "Your Ghost" performed by Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

Shortly after completing their newest album, "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia," the cover bug bit the Warhols in a big way, and the band decided to record a psychedelic interpretation of "Hells Bells," the classic lead track from AC/DC's 1980 LP, "Back In Black."

Taylor-Taylor told MTV News that the group originally intended to sell its AC/DC cover before opting to use the track as a B-side for the import version of its "Bohemian Like You" single.

"We needed some extra money," Taylor-Taylor admitted, "and we wanted to try and sell it to a horror movie for a soundtrack. I also just wanted to do it really bad. I've been listening to 'Back In Black' a lot this year, and 'Hells Bells' is not how I remembered it as a kid.

"It is not nearly as creepy and warm, and [it doesn't have that] scary sexuality," he continued. "It just isn't. So I just wanted to make a version that is as monstery, overwhelmingly creepy and powerful, and as scary-rock as I remember it being when I was a kid. So that's what we did." [RealAudio]

Even though the band wasn't able to find a cinematic home for its AC/DC cover, the Warhols recently cut an update of a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song, "Ohio," for inclusion on the soundtrack to the political documentary "Last Party" (see "Third Eye Blind, Rage On Tap For 'Last Party' Soundtrack").

Dates for the second leg of the Dandy Warhols' fall North American tour:

• 11/4 - Sacramento, CA @ Bojangles
• 11/5 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
• 11/7 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
• 11/8 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey
• 11/9 - San Diego, CA @ Canes Bar & Grill
• 11/11 - Salt Lake City, UT @ DV8
• 11/12 - Denver, CO @ TBA
• 11/14 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
• 11/15 - Austin, TX @ TBA
• 11/16 - Houston, TX @ Numbers
• 11/17 - New Orleans, LA @ The Howlin' Wolf
• 11/18 - Atlanta, GA @ Cotton Club
• 11/19 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
• 11/21 - Columbus, OH @ Newport Hall
• 11/22 - St. Louis, MO @ The Galaxy
• 11/24 - Madison, WI @ TBA
• 11/25 - Milwaukee, WI @ Rave Bar
• 11/27 - Winnepeg, MN @ TBA
• 11/29 - Saskatoon, SK @ TBA
• 12/1 - Calgary, AB @ TBA
• 12/2 - Edmonton, AB @ TBA
• 12/4 - Vancouver, BC @ TBA
• 12/5 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox

• AC/DC
• The Dandy Warhols

College rock faves the Dandy Warhols have announced dates for the first leg of a planned fall North American tour in support of their newest album, "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia," starting on September 29 in Nashville, Tennessee.

San Francisco's Creeper Lagoon will open for the Warhols on the upcoming shows, which are currently scheduled through an October 16 performance in Chicago. The Dandy Warhols will then head to the land down under for a few Australian gigs in late October before returning to the States to resume their tour in November.

Creeper Lagoon will use the shows to tout its upcoming six-song EP, "Watering Ghost Garden," due out via SpinArt Records on October 3. The release marks the first new material since Creeper's critically acclaimed debut, "I Become Small And Go," in 1998, and the band plans to issue its second album on DreamWorks Records in March.

The Dandy Warhols have just recorded a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's classic protest song, "Ohio," for inclusion on the soundtrack to "Last Party 2000," a political documentary from Donovan Leitch set to air on TV on November 6 (see "Third Eye Blind, Rage On Tap For 'Last Party' Soundtrack").

A rough mix of the "Ohio" cover will be included on an upcoming promotional EP, "Tales From Slabtown, Vol. 2," due to be serviced to college stations in the next few weeks. The "Tales From Slabtown" disc will also feature the Dandy Warhols' version of AC/DC's "Hells Bells," as well as a remix of their current single, "Bohemian Like You."

Dates for the initial leg of the Dandy Warhols' fall North American tour:

• 9/29- Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
• 9/30 - Raleigh, NC @ The Brewery
• 10/1 - Baltimore, MD @ Fletcher's
• 10/2 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 10/3 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
• 10/4 - Philadelphia, PA @ TBA
• 10/5 - Albany, NY @ TBA
• 10/6 - Providence, RI @ Met Cafe
• 10/7 - Boston, MA @ Axis
• 10/9 - Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
• 10/10- Ottawa, ON @ Zaphods 2
• 10/11 - Toronto, ON @ TBA
• 10/12 - Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
• 10/13 - Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
• 10/14 - Dayton, OH @ TBA
• 10/16 - Chicago, IL @ Metro

• Creeper Lagoon
• The Dandy Warhols

As their new "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia" album continues to enthrall college radio, the Dandy Warhols have unveiled their next video.

"Bohemian Like You" is the second clip to be released in the States from the new Warhols record, and frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor (who also directed the video) and keyboardist Zia McCabe recently talked with MTV News about the clip's hedonistic mix of karaoke and '70s-style filmmaking.

"It's just the story of the song with our friends as the actors," Taylor-Taylor began.

"And they're great," McCabe interjected.

"They are great," Taylor-Taylor agreed.