At just under 29 minutes in length over eleven songs, the album ran through a homogenous sound, each a variation on the sonic theme. The songs hewed to the punk ethos with quick, pop-styled tunes. The LP was similar to those contributor acts, sticking to a noisy, feedback laden mix of guitar, electronics, and quick beats. Dee Dee also had help performing on the LP from her husband and from Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. In 1966 he co-founded Sire Records with Seymour Stein. Gottehrer’s career spanned back to the ‘60s, having co-written legendary hits like “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “I Want Candy” while working as a song writer in the Brill Building and as part of the FGG/Strangeloves team (with Bob Feldman and Jerry Goldstein), and as a producer through the ‘70s and ‘80s for the likes of Blondie, Richard Hell, Dr. It was released on Brooklyn based label, Captured Tracks, as a vinyl 12”.ĭum Dum Girls first LP was 2010’s I Will Be, written and entirely performed by Dee Dee, except for a cover of Sonny Bono’s, “Baby Don’t Go.” Renowned producer Richard Gottehrer took her home recordings and polished them up in the studio along with mixing by Alonzo Vargas. Before recording with the label, a second EP, also titled Dum Dum Girls, was first released in late 2009, It was also referred to as Yours Alone, based on the track of that name and likely to separate it from the first EP. Her artist name was a tribute to both The Vaselines LP, Dum Dum, and Iggy Pop’s song, “Dum Dum Boys.” The limited pressing of the EP and the single gained some attention and led to her signing with famed indie label, Sub Pop, in July 2009. It was accompanied by a single, “Longhair,” released via HoZac (Horizontal Action) Records. She began recording in her bedroom in Los Angeles in 2008, self-releasing an EP, Dum Dum Girls, on Zoo Music, the label she ran with her husband, Brendan Welchez of the band, Crocodiles. Though its name suggests a band, Dum Dum Girls has essentially been the solo effort of Kristin Welchez (nee Gundred), who has further layered the pseudonyms by performing under the name, Dee Dee, or even Dee Dee Penny after she adopted a publishing typo in NME magazine. One such artist that has prompted such checks on a regular basis has been Dum Dum Girls.
Therefore, songs constantly play in which I’m not aware of who they’re by, and as a result I frequently have to check on the performer when a song demands my attention by calling itself out from the rest of the playlist due to uniqueness or higher quality. Most of my casual listening at home and in the car are randomized playlists from my library, so I get a constant mix of the familiar and the new. Today, when I hear a song I like it is added to my streaming library and the artist may be acknowledged but not usually locked into the memory bank. When I made mixtapes for listening while on the go, they were assembled with care and purpose. In my youth I knew the names of every song, album, and artist in my collection as they were carefully considered before going to the store and laying out money, and then listened to studiously once at home. The number of artists issuing music these days is staggering and impossible to keep up with.
In today’s music world the selection of music and artists is voluminous and scattered.