There’s also a component to a band, that no matter your intentions, or in practice, people start defining you themselves and it can be pretty far off from where you’re actually coming from. I just wanted it to reflect the progression I felt that the record had from stuff I’d done in the past. I brought on my friend Tamaryn, who’s also a musician and artist, and she sort of served as creative director and sort of helped carve out what the visual side to the record would be. I think I’ve tried to polish the look as I’ve polished the sound to some degree, and with this record in particular, it was the first time that I’d had a lot of time between its inception and writing the songs and I wanted to utilize that time to intentionally develop an aesthetic. We probably started out wearing the same vintage dress and torn nylons every day, and that was probably more just for practical reasons. PENNY: It’s evolved because as people, we’ve evolved. GHORASHI: Would you say your aesthetic evolved since you’ve started or has it been pretty consistent throughout? It was basically as simple as, “Let’s sort of dress similarly.” But generally it’s black. I’m a fan of the performance tradition-your Rolling Stones, your Beatles, your Elvis-your strong visuals. I wanted there to be a cohesive aesthetic and something that was complementary to the sound so it’s probably the same for me as for anyone who formed a band and wanted it to look a certain way or just for it to look like something at all. I kept the aesthetic pretty minimal and pretty anonymous, and when I had the opportunity to sign with Sub Pop I knew I wanted to not waste that opportunity to actually have a band I could tour the record with and represent what I wanted to do in my head onstage versus in my apartment. HANNAH GHORASHI: How did you find other people that shared your aesthetic and form this band with them?ĭEE DEE PENNY: It wasn’t that hard when I started Dum Dum Girls, it was just a recording project. As Penny herself states, “I was a woman possessed, and my possession enabled me.”
Her muse calls upon poets like Rainer Maria Rilke, Anaïs Nin, Arthur Rimbaud (one track is titled “Rimbaud Eyes”), Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Sylvia Plath, who coexist with lyric influencers like Lou Reed and Patti Smith. Lyrics still venture into love, such as the serotonin-laden “In the Wake of You,” but Penny has left her pining Lolita days behind for a bigger world. Her love of the Everly Brothers’ harmonies manifests in embracing familial chords of frustration, alienation, and self-doubt so austere that they’re spectral. Their influence streamlines the album: songs like “Lost Boys and Girls Club,” below, and “Evil Blooms” surf over the listener in sadness-tinged synth-y waves that are inherently catchy, driven from the energy in Penny’s deep, full-bodied voice. Feelgood), and Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes. But their third studio album, also their third on Sub Pop Records, properly realizes a cult persona for lead singer and songwriter Dee Dee Penny, and one which rises like a phoenix to mingle with those of Debbie Harry and Siouxsie Sioux.Īccordingly, Too True is produced by songwriting maven Richard Gottehrer of “I Want Candy” fame (also Blondie, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and Dr. Pre- Too True, the Dum Dum Girls quartet were an unexpected novelty among a sea of reliably above-average lo-fi bands: their base of New Wave rock winked gothic in some lights (the band usually coordinates in all-black ensembles) and bubblegum pop in others (song titles include “Yours Alone,” “Bedroom Eyes,” and “Catholicked”).
0 kommentar(er)
