{"id":2304,"date":"2015-06-16T11:49:36","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2011-07-02T11:04:05","modified_gmt":"2011-07-02T11:04:05","slug":"dum-dum-girls-%e2%80%93-new-album-only-in-dreams-due-26-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/dum-dum-girls-%e2%80%93-new-album-only-in-dreams-due-26-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Dum Dum Girls \u2013 New album, ‘Only In Dreams’ due 26 September"},"content":{"rendered":"

EYEPLUG favourites, the Dum Dum Girls release their second album, Only In Dreams<\/em> is set for release by Sub Pop Records on 26 September. The band will also be embarking on touring throughout the US and Europe in October and November culminating in a headline show at London\u2019s ULU on 17 November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Write about what you know\u2019, that’s what they say. However, that’s a lot easier said than done when what you know is very, very difficult to bear. That was the challenge Dum Dum Girls’ leader Dee Dee faced when writing the songs for the band’s moving second album. \u2018The first record was basically the first songs I’d ever written,\u2019 she explains, \u2018and I was thinking nostalgically about being a teenager.\u00a0 This record, it was pretty much impossible not to write about very recent, very real things.\u2019<\/p>\n

Very real things indeed: Dee Dee wrote \u2018Hold Your Hand\u2019 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\u00a0I Will Be<\/em>) was diagnosed with what turned out to be a fatal illness, and it’s one of several songs on\u00a0Only in Dreams<\/em>\u00a0that unsparingly trace her mum’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. \u2018Just about all the songs reflect the fact that I’d been on the road for about a year, pretty much separate from everything real in my life except the band,\u2019 says Dee Dee. \u2018A lot of it is about distance and detachment.\u2019<\/p>\n

Only in Dreams<\/em> represents a great leap forward for a gifted songwriter and an equally gifted band \u2013 heavy, deeply personal stuff and surely unprecedented for this style of music, and that’s what gives the album both its uniqueness and its gut-punch emotional impact. The album also 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, whilst Bambi\u2019s (bass) and Sandy\u2019s (drums) rhythm section powers the music like a vintage V-8 engine. Best of all, tons of time on the road\u2014\u00a0including two massively successful headlining tours\u2014have molded Dum Dum Girls into a very formidable rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band, giving the music an undeniable force.<\/p>\n

And now that power and glory is showcased by a full-on studio production \u2013whereas I Will Be<\/em> was recorded at home and modestly spiffed up in a studio by legendary pop maestro Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Go’s), Only in Dreams<\/em> was recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck Studios \u2013 \u2018almost a museum in terms of the old amps and guitars he’s amassed,\u2019 says Dee Dee admiringly.\u00a0Gottehrer again produced, this time with Sune Rose Wagner from the Raveonettes.<\/p>\n

Only in Dreams<\/em> more than fulfills the promise of 2011’s He Gets Me High EP, with impassioned, front-and-centre vocals from Dee Dee that sometimes recall one of her heroines, Chrissie Hynde; big singalong choruses draped with almost choral harmonies; a chugging wash of guitars drenched in reverb, tremelo and fuzz; and mighty, booming bass and drums. \u2018I’ve always wanted to be in a loud rock & roll band and still maintain some feminine sound,\u2019 Dee Dee says. \u2018So even though this album is much poppier and a lot more polished, it’s still tough.\u2019 \u2018Heartbeat\u2019 hooks with its Buddy Holly-esque guitar line, while \u2018In My Head\u2019 uncorks one of the album’s greatest choruses, and brace yourself for the incredibly poignant closer \u2018Hold Your Hand.\u2019<\/p>\n

Listen to the slowdive ballad \u2018Coming Down,\u2019 which Dee Dee wrote not long after her mum passed away. \u2018That song came out of being in and out of awareness of the depth of the situation,\u2019 she says. \u2018Sometimes when I write, I don’t really analyze what I’m saying but the more I hear that song, the deeper it feels. I don’t know if I’m addressing life or God or what, but it’s our big, epic song on every scale.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dee Dee wrote \u2018Bedroom Eyes\u2019 after returning from a European tour, jet-lagged and lonely. \u2018I was home alone,\u2019 she says.\u00a0\u2019Insomnia was taking its toll; I felt absolutely crazy. I looked up poetry on the subject and found a Dante Gabriel Rosetti poem and the song was born from that. I’d finally convinced my dad to give me one of his prescription sleeping pills and it kicked in while I was writing the song and I started hallucinating.\u2019<\/p>\n

Only in Dreams<\/em> represents a musical evolution for Dum Dum Girls and a personal one for Dee Dee, and that’s no coincidence. \u2018I’m for real,\u2019 she says. \u2018We all are. I’m really passionate about this – it’s all I know. And maybe we’ve just grown up a bit\u2014or 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tracklisting:<\/strong><\/p>\n

01) Always Looking<\/p>\n

02) Bedroom Eyes<\/p>\n

03) Just a Creep<\/p>\n

04) In My Head<\/p>\n

05) Heartbeat<\/p>\n

06) Caught in One<\/p>\n

07) Coming Down<\/p>\n

08) Wasted Away<\/p>\n

09) Teardrops on My Pillow<\/p>\n

10) Hold Your Hand<\/p>\n

Tour Dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

13-Nov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Manchester \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0FAC251<\/p>\n

14-Nov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Newcastle \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Cluny<\/p>\n

15-Nov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Leeds \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Brudenell\u00a0<\/p>\n

16-Nov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wrexham \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Central Station<\/p>\n

17-Nov\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 London \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 ULU<\/p>\n

Dum Dum Girls MySpace<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EYEPLUG favourites, the Dum Dum Girls release their second album, Only In Dreams is set for release by Sub Pop Records on 26 September. The band will also be embarking on touring throughout the US and Europe in October and November culminating in a headline show at London\u2019s ULU on 17 November.\u00a0 \u2018Write about what …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,249],"tags":[404,1190,405,406],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-newsplug","tag-dum-dum-girls","tag-newsplug","tag-only-in-dreams","tag-sub-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}