Dum Dum Girls – In Session for Bernard Lenoir – The Black Sessions – April 25, 2011 – RFI International
Dum Dum Girls in session tonight from Paris. Recorded on April 25, 2011 for The Black Sessions at RFI International.
Dum Dum Girls were a garage pop band which formed in 2008 in L.A. The band last consisted of Dee-Dee (vocals, guitar), Jules (guitar, vocals), Malia (bass, vocals) and Sandy (drums, vocals).
Since they emerged at a time when C-86-inspired acts like Vivian Girls and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart were in vogue, it’s little wonder that California’s Dum Dum Girls — a group whose ’60s-inflected lo-fi pop brings to mind acts like Black Tambourine and Dolly Mixture — became something of a sensation on the indie circuit soon after the release of their first single. In 2008, lead singer Kristin Gundred (aka Dee Dee) began making solo recordings as Dum Dum Girls, deriving the name both from the Vaselines’ album Dum-Dum and from the Iggy Pop song “Dum Dum Boys.” Over the course of the next year, Dee Dee released a couple singles (a 7″ single on Hozac, a four-way split single on Art Fag), a 12″ EP (Yours Alone, released via Captured Tracks), and a compilation disc appearance (on Art Fag’s Blissed Out cassette comp). Thanks to the high level of buzz surrounding Dee Dee (and, of course, the quality of the records), Sub Pop signed Dum Dum Girls in 2009.
In 2011, the He Gets Me High EP was released. Recorded just before her mother’s death, the record was cut by Dee Dee without her band, and was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who had formerly worked with the Go-Go’s and Blondie, and with help from the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner. On the personnel front, Bambi left the band in late 2011, making way for Malia James. A full-length sophomore album, Only in Dreams, appeared later that year. The album featured Dee Dee’s bandmates for the first time and revolved around the pain of her mother’s death. In the autumn of 2012, End of Daze, an EP consisting of tracks recorded just after the Only in Dreams sessions, plus songs recorded a year later, was released. The band’s third full-length record, 2014’s Too True, was once again produced by Gottehrer and Wagner, but this time Dee Dee played and sang everything herself (with some help from Wagner).
X-CommunicateAfter she finished the touring cycle for the album, Dee Dee realized she was done being a Dum Dum Girl for the time being and started a new project. Aiming for a brighter, more synth pop and R&B-influenced sound, she adopted the name Kristin Kontrol and released her debut album, X-Communicate, for Sub Pop in May of 2016.
Here’s a reminder of what you may have missed – crank it up and enjoy it to pieces.
