Customer Reviews

I Will Be

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Based off hearing Kristin Gundred's last band, "Grand Ol' Party", it's obvious that this whole concept is a put-on of sorts. From the outfits, "too cool" stoic poses the live band has adapted and under achiever production. Just take a listen to the former project. How could someone go from trying to be a 90's Grace Slick, howling away like a chicken in what looked like a spring break cover band to fronting this lo-fi throwback? It definitely raises doubts on the validity of the group's real agenda but nonetheless, who cares. The songs are good and despite my conclusions, I do actually like the album a lot. Insincerity or not. These days, finding something pure on any label is an unlikely venture for an industry that's become increasingly more geared towards image and hype rather than craft.

The tracks are strong, the production is dead-on and the songs are short and to the point. The music could have easily taken a turn for the worst if the noise was cleaned up. The Julian Casablancas blown vocal effect surprisingly hasn't worn out it's welcome and sounds comfortable surrounding what would otherwise be a "too perfect" voice. With the exception of the jarring male vocals in "Blank Girl", these numbers are all fantastic. The highlights are "Jail La La", "Everybody's Out", the neo-psychedelic title track "I Will Be" and the beautiful cover of "Baby Don't Go" which closes the album. Lot's of promise here and it will be interesting to see where this band chooses to run with the formula they're riding.

The New York Times called "I Will Be" "teen music for grown-ups" and I agree with that assessment. Dum Dum Girls leader Dee Dee wrote and recorded an album that clocks in at 30 minutes and leaves you breathless. From the opening song "It Only Takes One Night" a reminder to a lover to remember her, to the Sonny and Cher cover that tugs at your heartstrings , I Will Be is like a ride down the Pacific Coast Highway on a motorcycle: fast, exhilarating and just a little bit dangerous.

Heavy on distortion and smart on lyrics, Dum Dum Girls channels the lost 90s alternative energy from Velocity Girl, Jale, The Breeders, Eve's Plum, and other lost greats.

Icy-cool pop with a jagged edge, this debut full-length from the Dum Dums ticks all the right boxes. Produced by Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Go's, and a girl-group archetect), the album also reminds me quite a bit of the short-lived Brit band the Primitives, who like the Dums manufactured a line of songs with a feminine lah-dee-dah attitude mixed with buzzing, clanging arrangements. My hat is off to LA native Dee Dee for her vivid, addictively sweet version of the West Coast blues. Cheers, dahling.

Best album this year (And uh, if she wants me to take her picture in my closet...)Anyway, everyone says it's lofi or something, it's just great-a bit grungy, rough around the edges in your face noisy dream poppy slushy great music that keeps drawing you back and it has the same affect on me that Romeo Void had so many years ago (You should dig them out, DD). (I even bought it off iTunes like I never do just because it had an extra track for the same money.)
I hope they come to St. Louis. (Or maybe they have already--I don't get out much...) I don't think there's a weak track--even the extra one. The whole album is short and sounds a bit like a soundtrack to a French Spaghetti Western set at Syracuse University in 1986(Syracuse University...You got nothing to say...) I love it!!

This is a great album. It combines the lo-fi punk approach with a distinct pop sensibility and a gorgeous girll group type vocalizing. While teh lo-fi recording is obviously done on prupose and would hurt many other recordings here it serves its purpose prefectly well by enhancing the underlying pop sensibility. The combined effect of 60's girl group hooks and noisy approach is actually what the Raveonettes tried without any success to attain on their recordings. The Dum Dum Girls actually succeed mainly because they have more talent, actually belong to a real scene where this kind of music does naturally occur and they are less poseurs than that other group. This group obviously has their hearts in the right places since they are on Sub Pop records as well.

I like Times New Viking and others of the lo-fi noisy bratty pop sound, and I was predisposed to like this. But it all just blended into one uncatchy song and it was hard even to listen all the way through. There's just not very much musical "talent" here. I wish there was more.

Aside from the shroud of smoke that infuses the production of this album, which I suppose can be as much of an addiction to some music listeners as weed itself, there is nothing positive about this album. The melodies barely exist, don't have any impact on the listener (this one anyway; I'm not sure what place a person has to come from to think more than 3-stars of this album). The lyrics are reminiscent of Best Coast (i.e.: CRAZY FOR YOU), but the music isn't as melodic or interesting as anything Best Coast did on that album. There's another band, Beach Fossils, which has a similar sound, and some of their songs are 3 or 4 times better than anything on here, and I'm not all that crazy about them either, that may just be me though; if music isn't tuned a certain way I tend to get sleepy or bored listening to it. I was awake listening to this, and could tell the band was trying to fit in with the lo-fi "beach music" thing, whatever they call that, but I could NOT make out any standout tracks or one standout album.