Send "Dum Dum Girls " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 I can’t help but digest the brand-new LP by noise pop sirens Dum Dum Girls in the light of my interview with Simon Reynolds back in June. In the midst of our discussion of the ideas behind his book Retromania (the rise of atemporality in the digital over-information age, the decline of futurist impulses in pop music, etc.), I asked him if rock was too spent as a creative force to produce anything truly innovative these days. Reynolds quite astutely pointed out that the current crop of ‘60s-by-way-of-the-‘80s-by-way-of-the-‘00s revivalist artists really don’t even rate innovation as a concern. They don’t care that these influences have already been wrung dry, or that they are offering little more than a third-generation photocopy of the original source material.Dum Dum Girls are among the most lauded of these time-lost twentysomethings harkening back to music made in the mid-’80s by fringe-sporting Brits and paisley-dabbed Americans who themselves adored Phil Spector-produced girl groups and trashy garage rock as immutable gospel (as exemplified by the Jesus and Mary Chain, arguably noise pop’s only truly visionary act). But is there anything to distinguish Dee Dee Penny’s leather-jacket-and-stockings brainchild from all the other fuzz-blasted, three-chord retro lovers milling about in today’s indie rock scene? Aside from Penny’s motor-revving vibrato, precious little, as the group’s new album Only in Dreams—the first featuring contributions from the complete live band—offers nothing you have never heard before, in combinations that were already well-worn two decades ago. What makes Dum Dum Girls satisfying in small doses is they can hit those base pop pleasure centers in the back of any nerdy record collector’s brain with its reverberating haze of guitar distortion, heart-thumping drumbeats, and Penny’s head-turning voice. However, the Girls have always been too defined by their influences and restricted by the same unambitious, dead-simple verse-chorus-bridge songs structures, turning any prolonged listen into a “So what?” situation upon its conclusion. The only new aesthetic development on Only in Dreams is a bigger, fuller studio production (first attempted on February’s He Gets Me High EP) that oddly makes the band’s tunes resemble glossy pop-rock hits of the ‘80s. In the context of this album’s sonic stamp, Penny’s full-bodied swagger and throaty “whoa-ohh oh-ohhs” uncannily resemble those of Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, and the harmony-drenched compositions on numerous occasions recall those ultimate wide-eyed Reagan-era ‘60s worshippers the Bangles, albeit without their ear-burrowing melodic charms....full text |
| Guardian |
| In the Shangri-Las' 1965 hit I Can Never Go Home Anymore, the song's fictional mother dies, and Mary Weiss unleashes a heart-piercing cry of "Mama!" A similar wail underscores the second album from Dum Dum Girls, a kind of latter-day Shangri-Las. Kristin Gundred wrote the lyrics following her mother's death, tracing every mood from shock to sorrow to impatience for the return of normality. On Bedroom Eyes and In My Head, Gundred no less throatily mourns the absence of her husband while she's on tour. With themes like these, the album could be maudlin, but that's not the Dum Dum style. Two droning numbers aside, this is wall-of-sound indiepop at its lemony brightest – and whereas their debut album, I Will Be, was scuffed by its home recording, every guitar riff, snappy rhythm and surging chorus here is polished to a gleam....full text |
| Subpop |
| On several levels, Dum Dum Girls’ second full-length Only in Dreams is a great leap forward for a gifted songwriter and an equally gifted band—it’s heavy, deeply personal stuff and surely unprecedented for this style of music. “The first record was basically the first songs I’d ever written,” says band-leader Dee Dee, “and I was thinking nostalgically about being a teenager. This record, it was pretty much impossible not to write about very recent, very real things.” Very real things indeed: Dee Dee wrote “Hold Your Hand” immediately after her mother (the pretty lady on the cover of both the Dum Dum Girls’ self-titled 2009 debut EP and their 2010 debut album I Will Be) was diagnosed with what turned out to be a fatal illness, and it’s one of several songs on Only in Dreams that unsparingly trace her mom’s passing. Other songs spell out the emotional toll of separation from one’s lover, something Dee Dee had to deal with while she and her husband (Brandon Welchez of the acclaimed noise-pop band Crocodiles) pursued their own tour schedules. Only in Dreams more than fulfills the promise of 2011’s acclaimed and fast-selling He Gets Me High EP. It retains Dum Dum Girls’ signature blend of the girl-gang eyeliner punk of the Shangri-Las, the trashy propulsion of the Cramps, and the moody atmospherics of Mazzy Star, but for the first time, all four Dum Dum Girls play and sing on the album. Now the harmonies have more depth, Jules plays her own distinctive guitar leads, and the Bambi (bass)/Sandy (drums) rhythm section powers the music like a vintage V-8 engine. Best of all, tons of time on the road—including two massively successful headlining tours—have molded Dum Dum Girls into a very formidable rock & roll band, giving the music an undeniable force. And now that power and glory is showcased by full-on studio production—while I Will Be was recorded at home and modestly spiffed up in a studio by legendary pop maestro Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Go’s), Only in Dreams was recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck Studios, and Gottehrer again produced, this time with Sune Rose Wagner from the Raveonettes. Only in Dreams represents a musical evolution for Dum Dum Girls and a personal one for Dee Dee, and that’s no coincidence. “I’m for real,” she says. “We all are. I’m really passionate about this, it’s all I know. And maybe we’ve just grown up a bit-or grown out a bit. There’s some weight to what we do, and a pure intent, and I think that comes across on this album.” If you pre-order Only in Dreams, you’ll receive a limited-edition seven-inch single featuring an edit of “Coming Down” b/w “Crystal Baby.” That’s not the only bit of good news—we pressed a whole bunch on black vinyl, but if you order through us, you get your seven-inch on white vinyl. -And more good news with the colored vinyl: if you pre-order through us, your copy of Only in Dreams will be on light pink vinyl!- (We are now out of pink vinyl.) Both of these things is a “while supplies last” sort of thing, so order now!...full text |
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