By Erin Goss
SDUN Reporter
It was a sad day for San Diegans when rumors began to leak despite refutations that the local punk band Grand Ole Party, fronted by Gundred, was no more. Yet as the San Diego music scene mourned, Gundred began a solo project that was comprised mostly of messing around with music in her own home, and like many bands’ beginnings, Dum Dum Girls was born unintentionally.
“It was just me finally writing and recording songs exactly how I wanted,” Gundred said. “After putting out a few 7-inches and EPs, and then signing with Sub Pop, it was time to make Dum Dum Girls a real band. I recruited some of the best girls out there, and we’ve been touring since the record came out.”
While Dum Dum Girls’ sound is a far cry away from its predecessor, Grand Ole Party, the result is spectacular and unique nonetheless – what Dee Dee refers to as a “blissed-out buzz saw,” a description that could either bring to mind unmelodious bangings of a younger sibling learning to play an instrument or completely unrestrained aural nirvana. Thankfully, Dum Dum Girls is the latter.
When asked to elaborate on her description, Dee Dee responded point blank – “Basically, it’s about contrasting loud, fuzzed-out music with more heavily reverbed, multi-layered vocals.”
When put that way, it sounds simple enough.
The ideas behind the music, though, are a bit more complicated, as Gundred’s life thus far has been the inspiration. Having worked as everything from secretary to library assistant to vintage clothes clerk, the singer has a myriad of life experience from which to pull.
“I’ve had many jobs over the last eight or nine years of trying to make something out of music,” she said.
Dum Dum Girls’ songs touch on everything, including recreational substances. “Bhang, Bhang, I’m a Burnout” alludes to a slang term for marijuana. The track is everything one might guess – hazy and enveloping while Dee Dee croons in a misleadingly innocent voice, “In your head, are you dead? Bang bang!”
On the other hand, the cheeky titled “Catholicked” is, simply put, an energetic, guitar-heavy anthem about “growing up Catholic.” It is a song whose grittiness and off-the-cuff confessions such as “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine … mine are my own” can only lead us to believe that this was likely the catalyst for the explorations that later resulted in “Bhang, Bhang, I’m a Burnout.”
For Gundred, Dum Dum Girls’ first album, “I Will Be,” is clearly a reflection of her past. Even the CD cover, an old picture of Gundred’s mother taken when her mom was in college and caught off guard with an angelic doe-eyed expression, is evidence of the singer’s roots.
So while Grand Ole Party fans may be disappointed that Gundred’s new band is almost indistinguishable from its ancestor, Dum Dum Girls is neither better nor worse, just the next step on the singer’s journey.
For Gundred, her sights are set on the future. When asked what the former San Diegan, now living in Los Angeles, looks forward to most about coming back to play a show at The Casbah on July 2, she responded enthusiastically, “Watching planes from the roof.”
Cleary for Gundred, the sky is the limit.
For more information about Gundred’s band, go to wearedumdumgirls.com. The Casbah is at 2501 Kettner Blvd. at Laurel Street.
