The Cult of Dum Dum: My Review of Dum Dum Girl's "Too True"

Dum Dum Girls

I love this kind of stuff.  Phil Spector-influenced, '60s-tinged jangle-pop spruced with swirling psychedelia.  Females singers donning beehives, gloves up to the elbow, and dark eyeliner, their voices chiming to the swirling, fetching melody.  Even though it was before my time, I loved that music from the '60s - The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las...  And in the '80s, I liked stuff that was influenced by that era - The Primitives, The Stone Roses, The Jesus & Mary Chain...  The music that Spector produced in the '60s has an admitted influence on the shoegaze music of today.  It has permeated many of the reviews I have done lately like The Head & the Heart, Lucius, Sleigh Bells, and others.  And Dum Dum Girls seem to be the leader of the pack, so to speak.

Coming out of Los Angeles about six years ago, formed by Dee Dee Penny, armed with the same producer of such '60s acts as The Angels and The Strangeloves, as well as Richard Hell, Blondie, and The Raveonettes, Dum Dum Girls belted out three albums and a handful of EPs.  They once had Frankie Rose as a member, whom I have reviewed.

Yes, this is music lost in the past, but you had better pay attention to it.  Because it is relevant and hip.  This is the music that is happening, not the shit currently on the radio.

"Too True" is their third effort, released on the iconic Subpop Records, and what an effort.  It will screw itself into your veins and twist through your frame until you are moving - dancing, tapping your finger, doesn't matter.  Moving is obligatory.  The music has has a smoky, seedy vibe like songs played from the back of a dirty, beer-stained club.  Like something from a Twin Peaks episode.  The sounds are infectious.  These are songs that will stay with you.

My favorite track is the opening track, "Cult of Love", which has found its way onto all of my mix CDs as of late.  Other notables are "Rimbaud Eyes", "Too Good To Be True", "In the Wake of You", "Lost Boys & Girls Club", "Little Minx", and "Trouble Is My Name".

This record is definitely groovy.  Check it out.