Covering the same title David Bowie used after calling a halt to The Spiders From Mars (albeit Ronson and Bolder played on it), American act The Dandy Warhols has announced that 20th March will see the release of Pin Ups, where they take on songs written by a variety of musical acts who “helped shape their musical DNA”, ranging from acts as diverse as The Cure to Bob Dylan, The Beatles to The Cramps, with The Runaways and The Clash thrown in too. These are tracks found on old B-sides, tribute albums, as bonus tracks and on private hard drives, all collated for the first time.
“We’ve been talking for years now about getting as many of the covers we’ve done for specific territories together and releasing them for all to hear. It’s finally happening,” said Zia McCabe, who takes lead vocals on the first single released from it, their cover of Violent Femmes’ ‘Kiss Off’. “I’m especially excited that we’re releasing our cover of ‘Kiss Off’ for the first time,” she said. “I can’t believe this gem has just been sitting on a hard drive for years.” Meanwhile, Courtney Taylor-Taylor said: “For reminiscing, this record is one of my favourites.”
Available via Beat The World Records/Little Cloud Records, there are apparently three sides to Pin Ups. Now, the practicalities of that we’re a little unsure of, but it will be released on vinyl, CD and digital formats.
Side One features: ‘Cherry Bomb’ (The Runaways), ‘What We All Want’ (Gang Of Four), ‘Primary’ (The Cure), ‘Kiss Off’ (Violent Femmes), ‘Goo Goo Muck’ (The Cramps) and ‘Rain’ (The Cult). Side Two features ‘Straight To Hell’ (The Clash), ‘Sister Golden Hair’ (America), ‘Lay Lady Lay’ (Bob Dylan), ‘Ripple’ (The Grateful Dead), ‘Easy Chair’ (The Byrds) and ‘Blackbird’ (The Beatles). Side Three has ‘The Beautiful People’ (Marilyn Manson), ‘Love Song’ (The Damned), ‘Jet Boy’ (New York Dolls), ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ (The Cult) and ‘Inside The Outside’ (Love And Rockets).
“These are some of our favourite songs, or songs by our favourite bands, or just songs we admired,” said Peter G. Holmström. “Some were never released, some were tucked away on obscure projects, but they all meant something to us.” Aside from personal connections, several of the artists covered are peers and friends. “Nearly every band we cover on here are friends of ours or artists we have had a meaningful experience with,” said Taylor-Taylor. “Looking over all the songs again however, I am noticing that we never met the artists from the 60s. Weird.”
Back in the flow, in 2024 they released Rockmaker with guest appearances from Slash, Frank Black and Debbie Harry, followed by Rock ReMaker in 2025. On the live front, they performed with The Oregon Symphony twice, with Taylor-Taylor commenting: “Playing with the Symphony set the bar for how much emotional and psychological power can be achieved with live music. Nothing compares to us playing with the Symphony.”
