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From The Desk Of The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmström: Richard Morgan

Without a doubt, the Dandy Warhols is a band, a meeting of the Velvet-y minds with Brent DeBoer, Peter Holmström, Zia McCabe and Courtney Taylor-Taylor calling the shots. But drummer-turned-guitarist/singer Taylor-Taylor is its handsome face and baritone voice who pushed the band from graceful poetic garage music (1995’s Dandys Rule OK) to guileless glam (2000’s Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia) to sleek-yet-twisted ’80s-ish new wave (2003’s Welcome To The Monkey House). While the rest of the 20th century found the band drifting through three additional like-minded albums, the outfit has grown leaner and meaner with the focused, guitar-centric This Machine (The End). Taylor-Taylor, a ruminative lyricist with a caustic lean, makes the most of this particular Machine moment. He allowed novelist Richard Morgan to write the Dandys’ press notes and found his own icy literary voice in graphic set-in-Germany novel One Model Nation. Taylor-Taylor and his bandmates are also guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Holmström: Possibly the best thing about Portland, Ore., is Powell’s Books. A full city block of a bookstore, new and used books together side by side on the shelf. They also host visiting authors. I have gone to hear William Gibson speak a number times and really enjoyed it. The only other author I’ve checked out was Richard Morgan. I’d found out about him from a little card underneath Gibson’s books that read, “If you like this, check out … ” Anyway, I arrived early and was eavesdropping on a conversation when I heard, “You know who I really like? Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.” So I joined the conversation. It turned out to be Richard, and his second favorite band was the Dandy Warhols. When it came time for the band to have a new bio written, we turned to Richard and received four short vignettes that have got to be the most entertaining thing to be included in a press kit ever.

Video after the jump.