The Dandy Warhols guitarist Peter Holmström said fans can look forward to a revolving set list on its forthcoming tour that visits 191 Toole on Saturday, Oct. 7.
“We’re taking this opportunity to have more of a psychedelic rock set than our usual set,” he said.
“We’ll be mixing up the set list quite a bit — just for something different. If the set feels perfect, we will do it the next night. If there’s an issue, we’ll move things around. When it’s continually changing, that means we’re not very happy with things.”
Among the material will be new songs, including “The Summer of Hate,” which eschews The Dandy Warhols’ alt-rock trademark sound for a heavier vibe.
“Musically, ‘The Summer of Hate’ became our homage to the sounds of The Damned, The MC5 and probably a bit of the Stooges in there as well,” said singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor in a statement.
“The record was the manifestation of our desire to hear a record of heavy raw punk and metal guitar riffs handled in a way that we felt was cooler than the standard knuckle draggin’ man-rock that still tends to dominate a lot of popular culture in America.”
The song will be found on The Dandy Warhols’ forthcoming record, “Rockmaker.” Holmström said he and Taylor-Taylor put the proverbial pen to paper before the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the global health emergency hit, the duo met once a week to write. They knew the music was taking a new direction, and that was initially challenging.
“Every record’s like that to a certain degree,” Holmström said. “We have a core idea of what we’re trying to do. Sometimes, we successfully achieve that. There are always some boundaries that we’re trying to work within. If a song needs to go outside of those boundaries, we follow it. There’s no need to sacrifice a good song.”
The tracks began with a “rock or metal-type riff,” subconsciously mixing it up for The Dandy Warhols, Holmström said.
“It was really super fun to write that way, instead of coming up with chords or a melody and building a song around that,” he said. “We found a cool riff and turned that into a song.”
Holmström said it was challenging until “that first really good riff happened.” When he understood the direction, he penned six songs within a few months.
Then came the wait to release it, or as Holmström called it, “the emotional rollercoaster of being a creative artist/business or whatever it’s called.” The album was mixed a year ago, so it’s been finished for a while.
The Dandy Warhols are approaching 30 years in music. Holmström looks back on it fondly.
“‘Thirteen Tales (from Urban Bohemia)’ is always the standout,” he said about the 2000 album that spawned the hit “Bohemian Like You.”
“Not just because it was the most successful record, but it was the last record that we made pre-digital recording. It’s the one where we truly got together as a band, learned the songs, went into the studio and spent the time developing them as a group.
“After that, everything was in Pro Tools. We didn’t all have to be in the room at the same time. Now, we barely ever are for the recording process. That’s the way most bands work these days. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just a completely different time, and it has a lot of nostalgic feelings.”
The Black Angels & The Dandy Warhols w/Dalistar
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7
WHERE: 191 Toole, 191 E. Toole, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $39.50
INFO: 191toole.com