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To say that Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls are related wouldn’t be entirely off-base. Aside from the obvious commonality of having “Girls” in both their names and having all female members, they also have one shared member as well. That would be Frankie Rose, who played drums for Vivian Girls on their first record before leaving the band to join Crystal Stilts. She then left Crystal Stilts to form her own band Frankie Rose and the Outs, while about the same time joining up with Dum Dum Girls as well. Another common trait shared by Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls is their overall sound, which basically amounts to noisy lo-fi girl group pop. It takes the catchy, sweet and harmonized girl pop songs of the 50s and 60s and updates them with heavy guitars, distortion and cheap recording aesthetics.

Now it should be noted that lo-fi has pretty much become passe by this point in time, spearheded by bands like Vivian Girls and Wavves in late 2008 and much of 2009, and the hype has moved itself over to the electronica genre to form the now-popular “glo-fi” genre of music. What does this mean for Dum Dum Girls, who released their debut album “I Will Be” via Sub Pop last week? For most, I suspect the resounding cry will be “too little, too late” and people will ignore the record. If you like good music, I’d advise against rushing to judgment like that. The simple fact is that this album is a pop delight, lo-fi or not lo-fi, and the songs will stick in your head for longer than you might otherwise think.

One of the things that really got people attracted to Dum Dum Girls in the first place was the self-titled EP that was released last year. At that time, the band was made up of just Kristin Gundred (aka Dee Dee), recording these scuzzy pop songs in her bedroom with non-professional equipment. After that EP and the subsequent buzz got her signed to Sub Pop, Dee Dee recruited three new members, including the aforementioned Frankie Rose, and brought on famed producer Richard Gottehrer (he’s responsible for producing a number of great Go-Go’s and Blondie albums). The end product is a cleaner, fuller effort than the EP, moving farther (but not entirely) away from lo-fi and into genuine rock band territory. So yes, you can still label this a lo-fi album, but with clearer, more up-front vocals and crisper guitars and drums, it doesn’t always feel like one. Add in some ridiculously catchy melodies and you’ve got a record that’s both smart and fun. A couple ballads also give this record some additional range and heart, and the closing cover of Sonny and Cher’s “Baby Don’t Go” might be the best of the slower bunch. All in all, these 11 tracks breeze by in just under 30 minutes, and given that’s just about when you tire of it, you could say it’s perfectly paced.

Whether you consider yourself a fan of lo-fi chick rock or not, I like to think that Dum Dum Girls have at least a little something you can enjoy. If so many of these songs weren’t bogged down in guitar noise, there are some real potential radio hits amid the bunch. But I suppose the strength of the songs and songwriting is what attracted labels to Dum Dum Girls in the first place. “I Will Be” is in stores now, and if you like what you hear in the sample tracks below, there’s more where that came from on the full album. Pick it up if you know what’s good for you.

Dum Dum Girls- Jail La La

Bonus, Non-Album Track: Dum Dum Girls- D.A.L.

Buy “I Will Be” from Amazon

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to welcome you to the brand spanking new Faronheit! For those of you stumbling across this website for the very first time, I’m pleased to say hello, and hope you’ll stick around and become a regular reader. For the rest of you, having read my rambling entries for the past few years, let’s play a little bit of catch up.

Previously on Faronheit…
We’ve been through thick and thin since this Faronheit music blog officially started in July of 2006. We were nearing our fourth anniversary and building towards a celebration, when tragedy struck one week ago in the form of a standard boilerplate letter from Blogger, informing me that my Blogspot address had been shut down and all my content removed after a “series of complaints” against my site. Well, there are a number of facts and emails sitting in my inbox currently that would argue against that fact, given that many of the supposed “complaints” lodged against me were for mp3s I had previously been given clearance to post. It’s all part of the continuing series of disconnection between U.S. record labels and the European ones. Where one hand giveth, the other equally takes away.

Now I’ve been told that should I want my old Blogspot address back, and my content restored in full, I need to file a counter-claim affirming that I did in fact have a legal right to post the content I did. That is something I’m currently working on, but for the time being and foreseeable future, we’re going fully independent. Breaking away from Blogger, what with its free and extremely easy-to-use platform hasn’t been easy, and losing 3+ years worth of content doesn’t have me smiling either. I’m hoping to regain access to all those old (1,000+) entries and archive them here, but that might take a bit of time.

In the meantime, let’s try to focus on the positive. With this now full-fledged dot com status, Faronheit is now freer than ever to explore the vast expanse that is the Internet. What I’m trying to say is that with this new site, there’s more of an opportunity to try new things and see where those avenues lead. You’ll be getting more content than just 5 entries a week, some mp3s and occasionally smart wordplay. What exactly that other content will be…well, you’ll see, and hopefully it will enhance your musical horizons in one way or another. Aside from that, I hope you like the design of the new site. I spent last week, when I was blog-less, designing it and putting it together. Things aren’t at 100% functionality just yet, but we’re 95% there, and I’ll be tweaking things here and there in the next few weeks. If you pay close attention though, you may notice a couple little snarky new bits in places.

Finally, I want to thank you, the reader. Without you, this site wouldn’t exist, and I’d be just some guy who talked about tiny little bands with his friends, who would never understand a word he was saying in the first place. You’re all my virtual family whether you like it or not, and we’re united by a common love of music and the idea that the best stuff isn’t necessarily played on the radio. We will continue this journey together until who knows when, and I hope you’ll stick with me through all the good, bad and in-betweens. In return I promise to try and consistently deliver compelling and engaging content that challenges your ears and your perceptions. Thanks for showing up.

-Faronheit

P.S. – Official content begins just before midnight with the Lollapalooza 2010 full lineup announcement. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you might know that I’ve already revealed 95% of the bands. If not, prepare to be (hopefully) pleasantly surprised. 🙂