record review: Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be

“We're a generation of men raised by women. I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.” – Tyler Durden

If Fight Club heralded the superiority of male company over the heteronormative status quo, creating a thwarted utopia of knuckles and sweat, Dum Dum Girls have presented the world with an equally magnanimous contestation to the battle of the sexes. I Will Be is dark, twisted and reeks of girl-power conniving, but there are moments when the drugs kick in and all that you’re left with is the soundtrack to a alternate-reality story of Jonah, a whale lost upon some shore, but content in its comatose inebriation (“Jail La La”). Like a toned down Siouxie and the Banshees, the LA band manages to carry fanciful beats over stifled yet powerful Pixies-inspired guitars on their debut LP. A modern-day hipster version of the Ramones, the girls' anthems are often playful and fun (the repetition of gun shot sounds rendered in whispers in "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout" will slowly but surely draw out grins).The record as a whole, though, epitomizes the rare high points of the oft-laughable subgenre of “angry grrrl music of the indie rock persuasion” (so fittingly labeled in 10 Things I Hate About You). But this anger is sublimated in the dreamy tones which fit in with their label-mates at Sub Pop Records—less screaming, more subtle deviousness. Dum Dum Girls know something you don’t, and no, you’re not allowed to join the club. You just have to content yourself with watching from the sidelines.

4.2/5

Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be [mp3]

Dum Dum Girls on MYSPACE