What's It Like to Be a Girl in a Band?

I was extremely excited to see the film adaptation of Cherie Currie's memoir, which chronicles her tumultuous years as lead singer in the thoroughly righteous, short-lived female rock band, The Runaways. Unfortunately, this film proved to be wildly entertaining (love you Michael Shannon and Kristen Stewart), but ultimately quite terrible (just ask me about the roller rink scene), and left me feeling kind of down on female rock groups, more generally. I have always loved rock music, and have never felt alienated from my fandom because of my gender. I'm a huge baseball fan, too, and I think this partially stems from the game's status as an uncorrupted bastion of pure American masculinity, (call me a misogynist, I don't care). I began to wonder, is rock and roll best as a male domain, too?

In the midst of my existential malaise, the Dum Dum Girls full-length album, "I Will Be," was released by venerable indie arbiters, Sub Pop Records, in March and was begging to challenge my admittedly retrograde assumptions. The Dum Dum Girls are composed of four formidable ladies who go by the achingly adorable names of Dee-Dee, Jules, Bambi, and Frankie Rose. The band creates incredibly taut, propulsive 2 and half minute numbers that are the perfect hybrid of "One Kiss Can Lead to Another" caliber girl group melodies and empowered acutely feminine angst.

What sets the Dum Dum Girls above contemporaneous feisty femme fetales like the Vivian Girls (their sophomore album is abominable) is their aid from the brilliant producer, Richard Gottehrer. Gottehrer has shaped the American music scene for the past 40 odd years and is responsible for writing such gems as "I Want Candy," "My Boyfriend's Back," and has produced the likes of Blondie and The Go-Gos. Gottehrer elevates these otherwise unremarkable tracks to a level of sonic transcendence, and gives the album a sheen of refinement, while allowing it to retain a proper level of ramshackle earnestness. "I Will Be" is infectious, memorable, and undeniable, and helped me to rediscover my love for the The Go-Gos, "Our Lips Are Sealed," video, (guitarist, Jane Wiedlin arguably stole this song from then boyfriend Terry Hall of The Specials, btw). So yes, there is a place for the ladies in the great game of rock and roll, but perhaps they just need a male mentor to transform their posturing into an enduring sound. The Dum Dum Girls are not coy about their fairly conventional desires for romance and male companionship (Dee Dee even has a heartfelt duet with her hubby on the record about the beauty of their union), and the predominance of these themes in their lyrics suggests that perhaps a sense of fulfillment does not necessarily come from within, but from a formidable partner.

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Jail La La

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