Dandys

This year, its "Les Dandys" collection depicted portraits of animals dressed in period clothing, inspired by characters from famous novels, on bookcases with hidden shelves €600.

Design With a Je Ne Sais Quoi Helen Kirwan-Taylor 2011

The Dandys, who live in Shawnee, Okla., have sold about 5,000 Healthy Handles since launching their Web site, thehealthyhandle. com, two years ago.

Taking the Gross Out of the Grocery Cart 2008

For one, there's the Odditorium, the recording studio, performance venue and video sound stage the Dandys carved out of a warehouse that takes up a quarter of a city block in Portland.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

With so much new interest in the Dandys, I expected Odditorium to offer new fans something a little more accessible, say a repeat of the catchy 1980s new-wave textures and paisley-drenched sounds that occupied the band's previous album, 2003's Welcome to the Monkey House .

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

With three songs taking up half of the album's hour-long length, and down tempos that, like a junkie high on smack, seem to nod off and then awaken with a start, it's clear the Dandys aren't especially interested in producing chart breakers.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

That said, the Dandys' success proves that P2P isn't the only way a band can write its own rules in the post-Napster world of making music.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

Standing as a beacon of the band's independence, and built partly on the dime of the band's record label, the Odditorium was fashioned after Andy Warhol's Factory, the storied New York studio where artists including David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Lou Reed -- all important influences on the Dandys -- hung out and created art.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

The Dandys built the Odditorium when the band shot a video from Monkey House .

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

Even so, I've got to hand it to the members of the Dandys for charting a course and a sound uniquely their own.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005

But members of the Dandys, part of a new vanguard of independent musicians that includes Stereolab, Fatboy Slim and Badly Drawn Boy, have no compunction about letting their music show up in commercials plugging the likes of Nike, the Gap and Vodafone.

In The Dandy Warhols' Odditorium 2005