Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#96: The Dandy Warhols “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fASFdKBPnw
The Dandy Warhols were making fun of Portland hipsters in song long before Portlandia thought to do the same through sketch comedy. The band’s most complete statement in this regard was 2000’s “Bohemian Like You,” but the sniping began with 1997’s “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” and its David LaChapelle-directed video. (It’s funny that LaChapelle’s Wikipedia entry warns readers not to confuse him with comedian Dave Chappelle.) Circa this video, the only other information many music fans might have gathered about the Dandy Warhols is that keyboardist Zia McCabe occasionally played shows topless. Shit like that gets around fast. Lacking the psychic damage of peers the Brian Jonestown Massacre (see: Dig!), it’s no wonder the Dandy Warhols ended up with a major-label contract that, bizarrely, made them rogue outsiders in their native city.
