Dum Dum Girls

Dum Dum Girls are an indie pop band from California currently signed to Sub Pop Records. Their name is a homage to The Vaselines album ‘Dum Dum’ and the Iggy Pop song “Dum Dum Boys”. The group also cites The Ronettes, The Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Patti Smith, Spacemen 3, and Mazzy Star amongst their major influences.

The members of the band each have the words “Dum Dum” tattooed on a finger. Front woman Dee Dee has been likened to a “goth rock Susana Hoffs (lead singer of The Bangles)” and the band as the answer to “What if the Bangles and the Cure had mated in 1982?” by Spinner’s Kenneth Partridge.

Along with the bolstering stage name, Dee Dee has utilised that time-honoured tactic of stage dress-up as a way of creating/inducing a more confident onstage presence, and credits a host of strong, boldly-attired female legends such as Siouxsie Sioux and Marianne Faithfull as inspirational music/fashion idols” “Patti Smith, Grace Slick, Siouxsie Sioux, Mary Weiss, Ronnie Spector, Hope Sandoval, Nico, Madonna. Courtney Love was a big deal to me when I was 12,” she remembers.

via Wikipedia

Wrong Feels Right

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Dum Dum Girls on iTunes:

Lights

“It’s easy to misconstrue a young girl singer as a total puppet. I am the opposite of that. This is what I do. I am LIGHTS.”

LIGHTS is a Canadian singer-songwriter who creates what she dubs “intergalactic-electro” music. Valerie Poxleitner, who would go on to legally change her name, was born in Ontario to missionary parents. Because international travel was a big part of her childhood, LIGHTS looked for something she could always rely on. Writing her first song at age eleven, an experience that she describes as having “kicked off the biggest thing of my life, she found that consistency in music.

She began her career 2006 as a writer for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where she composed music for the television series Instant Star. Early 2008 she released a self-titled EP for which she was honored with the 2009 Juno Award for New Artist of the Year. Four songs from the EP were featured in Old Navy commercials. 2009 saw LIGHTS receiving more rewards (Indie Awards in the Favorite Solo Artist and Favorite Single categories) and releasing her debut album The Listening.

LIGHTS has toured with Keane, Owl City and Stars of Track and Field. She was part of the Warped Tour and the Lilith Fair Tour in the summers of 2009 and 2010, respectively. LIGHTS is in the song & music video for the song Every Day by Ten Second Epic. The latter was nominated for Best Independent Music Video at the 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards. She was also featured as a singer on three tracks included on The Februarys’ second EP, All The Time in the World, on the song “You Got The Girl” by The Tremulance and on the soundtrack for the 2008 Canadian film One Week. LIGHTS appears as a guest vocalist on the album A Shipwreck in the Sand by the band Silverstein as well as on the upcoming Bring Me The Horizon album.

LIGHTS was named one of Shred News’s ’10 Artists to Watch in 2010′.  Her latest release is the LIGHTS. Acoustic EP which came out this summer.

via I Am Lights

Savior

Perfect

Lights on iTunes:

Janelle Monae

Janelle Monae’s creativity knows no bounds. Her debut studio album The ArchAndroid (Suite II and III) is a 70-minute concept album where her alter-ego, Cindi Mayweather becomes a “messiah-esque figure to the android community of Metropolis”. She’s co-written seventeen out of the eighteen songs and they jump unabashedly from pop to jazz to punk. The video for her single Tightrope shows her shimmying in a tuxedo and bow tie doing the tightrope dance and she just looks effortlessly cool. Her album has received critical acclaim but it seems like there are lots of people who have no idea who she is despite the fact that, to me, everything about her screams superstar. Intelligent and imaginative, there’s a Janelle Monae song for everyone to love.

Tightrope

Many Moons

Janelle Monae on iTunes:

The Prids

The Prids are a band from Portland, Oregon. The quartet’s music can be categorized as a blend of noise pop and post-punk, influenced by Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, The Smiths, Unrest, My Bloody Valentine and Wire. Founded in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1995 by David Frederickson and Mistina Keith, they continued to develop in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln they befriended Harry Dingman III, guitarist of 1980s cult legendary post-punk band For Against. But the Prids has seen its share of tumult over the years. Its founding members, David Frederickson and Mistina Keith, married one another, then got divorced but continued their musical collaboration à la Fleetwood Mac. In 2008, everyone in the group was injured in a highway wreck that cost them their van and equipment (although the financial blow was cushioned by donations which streamed in from fans across the globe). The Prids’ have even survived the hazards of geography, keeping things together in transitions from their original base in Missouri through stints in Nebraska en route to Oregon.

The band relocated to Portland in November 1999. The Prids follow a strong DIY ethic similar to that of Fugazi, including the home recording of several of their records. Booking their own tours, running their own label collective This-a-Way Records, which includes other Portland bands Lookbook, Soft Tags and We Miss The Earth. The “label” collective is described by founder Mistina La Fave as “Musicians coming together to support one another. No contacts, just sharing our knowledge and resources to help one another get our music out there.”

via NME and One-Track-Mind

Mistina Keith

I’ll Wait
I’ll Wait – Prids

In The Fall
In The Fall

The Prids on iTunes:

Esperanza Spalding

Hailed as a prodigy on the acoustic double bass within months of first touching the instrument as a 15-year-old, Esperanza Spalding has emerged as a fine jazz bassist, but has also distinguished herself playing blues, funk, hip-hop, pop fusion, and Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles as well. Born in Portland, OR in 1984, Spalding was not well served by the public school system and soon dropped out of classes to be home schooled. Returning to the public school system at 15, she encountered her first acoustic bass (she had already been playing violin for several years) and immediately took to the instrument. Dropping out of school again, Spalding enrolled in classes at Portland State University as a 16-year-old, and earned her B.A. in just three years and was immediately hired as an instructor in the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the spring of 2005. After touring and playing with a whole host of artists, including Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Michel Camilo, Charlie Haden, Regina Carter, Pat Metheny, Dave Samuels, and a host of others, in addition to heading her own jazz trio, Spalding recorded and released Junjo on the Barcelona-based AYVA imprint in 2006, following it with the simply named Esperanza on Heads Up Records in 2008.

via Star Pulse

I Know You Know

She Got To You

Esperanza Spalding on iTunes

The Runaways Movie

Yesterday, I went to see the movie The Runaways. I am simultaneously a huge fan of Dakota Fanning and Joan Jett herself while not such a huge fan of Kristen Stewart, and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. And I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie itself is interesting. It’s not exactly plot driven, but rather a documentation of The Runaways – their success, their sex-drugs-rock and roll lifestyle and predominately both of these factors mixed with their very young ages (lead singer Currie was 15 and Jett was 17). Dakota Fanning, as always, gave a fantastic performance and I have to admit, despite my previous statements against Kristen Stewart’s acting and her inability to be a good role model, she was very good in this movie.

But what I was really left wondering as I walked out of the theatre was, “Why is this band – the first all-girl rock band, a band that headlined for greats like The Ramones and Cheap Trick and allied themselves with Blondie and The Sex Pisotls – why are they almost completely forgotten?” When talking with my parents about the film (after all, they are about the same age as the Runaways) they couldn’t recall the Runaways at all, and they were both pretty musically aware. “Of course I remember Joan Jett and the Blackhearts,” my Dad said, “But I don’t think I’d ever even heard of Cherie Currie or heard a Runaways song.”

The Runaways Band

The film points to drugs as a main reason for the self-destruction of Currie, and overall the band, which of course is legitimate, but I wonder why the issue of sex wasn’t raised more predominately. The film was pretty heavy on sexuality, which makes sense considering the Runaways peaked in the midst of the sexual revolution; in fact, it was refreshing to watch a film that not only portrayed lesbians and lesbian relationships as positive, but normal and not something done for the satisfaction of men. But at the same time, we’re forced to watch Dakota Fanning, 15 at the time of filming (and the same age as Currie when she actually did all these things), strut around in lingerie, strung out on drugs, and having sex with much older men. I interpreted this representation of sex in the film as a factor of the band’s downfall – these young girls growing up way too fast and being largely unable to handle it. But at the same time I have to believe their image of sex, what they were selling to other people, had to be as self-destructive as their actual sex lives.

While it is pointed to in the movie very briefly, it seems to me that this all girl rock band, which, to directly quote the movie was not about “women’s lib but women’s libido” could be the reason that nobody knows who this band, that seriously rocked is not remembered the same way their friends The Ramones are. Their band was not about liberation or proving to the world that girls can really play, even if that was Joan Jett’s original intention in forming the band; it was about selling their image of hot girls pretending to be like guys. They sold themselves as an imitation – a fantasy – rather than as a talented rock band. Joan Jett does recognize this in the movie – she yells at Currie for an overly sexualized photo shoot the rest of the band didn’t approve, saying that now this is all they would be remembered for. After the Runaways Jett started her own band, wrote her own music and started her own record label after being rejected by 23 mainstream labels (and then going on to sell 10 million records). She was talented, determined, a badass and presented herself as a musician not an image. Maybe that is why she is remembered.

See for yourself…

The Runaways in Japan (Libido)

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (Liberation)

Plasticines

The Plastiscines, a garage rock revival group composed entirely of French females, formed in 2004 around teenage friends Katty Besnard (guitar/vocals), Marine Neuilly (guitar), Louise Basilien (bass guitar), and Zazie Tavitian (drums). Taking their name from a line in the Beatles’ classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (“plasticine porters with looking glass ties”), the girls began carving out a swaggering, guitar-heavy sound while citing the Kinks, the White Stripes, the Strokes, Blondie, and the Libertines as influences. The Plastiscines were signed to EMI/Virgin France in 2006, and their major-label debut, LP1, arrived the following summer. For their next album, About Love, the group decamped to Los Angeles to work with producer Butch Walker. The resulting record was released in 2009 and, several months later, received a promotional boost when the band was heavily featured in an episode of Gossip Girl.

via StarPulse

B.I.T.C.H

Barcelona

Plasticines on iTunes

Little Boots

Victoria Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electronic musician. She sings, plays synthesizers, the Yamaha tenori-on and the stylophone. She was the former lead singer/synth player in Dead Disco.

Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancashire and now lives in London. She attended Rossall School, Blackpool Sixth Form College and then the University of Leeds, gaining a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on “The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum”.

At the age of 18, Hesketh participated in television talent show Pop Idol, being eliminated after three rounds. She went on to form a Jazz trio, toured Europe with a big band, and later formed the dance-pop band Dead Disco, gradually shifting away from the band and their style, she bagan to write songs of her own and left Dead Disco in August 2007. Her solo stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend after watching Caligula (the Latin name Caligula translates as “little boots”).

Little Boots appeared on Later… with Jools Holland in November 2008. She has collaborated with electropop band Hot Chip. In December 2008 she was completing her début album with producer Greg Kurstin.

The track Stuck On Repeat was produced by Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and was released on limited 12” white-label vinyl in March 2008. The track gained popularity via attention from many popular music blogs.

She released her second single Meddle on 18th August 2008 on the 50 bones label. It was available as a limited-edition 7” and was produced by both Joe Goddard and Greg Kurstin.

In January 2009, she won the BBC Sound of 2009 previously won by the likes of Keane, Mikaand Adele. (BBC link)

Her début album “Hands” was released in June 2009, with the lead single “New in Town” charting at #13. “Hands” peaked at #5 on the UK charts.

Little Boots performed at numerous festivals in summer 2009 to support the début album.

via last.fm

Remedy

New In Town

Little Boots on iTunes:

Grinding...truly a subdued picture.

I had been at college for three days, and my friends and I were anticipating the First Chance Dance, an annual tradition meant to facilitate fun and friendship during the notoriously uncomfortable orientation process.  My dorm’s resident advisor encouraged us to go, advising that it provides “a great opportunity for sexual exploration.”  Some of my newly minted classmates obviously saw it that way; the First Chance Dance would be better described as “a room full of sweaty teenagers in varying states of sobriety engaging in fully-clothed sex on the dance floor.”  Not an exaggeration.

First of all, the “grinding” phenomenon demands a discussion.  Let’s be honest: grinding is basically simulated sex on the dance floor.  I try to be sex-positive and am generally comfortable with open expressions of sexuality.  But isn’t dry sex in a public setting, and with someone who you’ve known for less than a week, just kind of awkward?  For me, yes.  Maybe for some it’s not, but this questions leads to the broader idea of consent and its applications. 

Consent doesn’t only belong in the bedroom; consent should follow ambiguity wherever it may lead, which, in this setting, is the dance floor.  “But,” my friends object, “isn’t it super awkward to be dancing and then to suddenly be like, ‘Hey want to grind?’”  Yes, that is awkward, but wouldn’t it be easy to ask, “Is this ok?” as you move closer?  Or even to pay attention to your dance partner?  ?I recently witnessed a girl engrossed in gyrating against a fellow freshman’s groin, as he TEXTED.  I’m not implying that he wasn’t appreciative or consenting.  However, this situation clearly lacks mutual interest and communication. 

I love to dance, meet new people, and sing along to blasting music.  But when the lyrics are “Shush girl, just shut your lips…  do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips” (shudder), it’s hard to dance to the beat while completely ignoring the words and the underlying message of objectification and misogyny that they promote.  As much as I want to dance to 3OH!3 or Lady Gaga (and I do dance, despite my unease with her word choice about disco sticks), I often feel like a hypocrite at dances where I should just be enjoying myself.  I feel like a strange superhero: young feminist by day, self-objectifying dance-floor maven by night.

the good old days?

I’m wary of criticizing youth dance and music trends, because there exists a long tradition of censorship of American youth popular culture.  I’m not one of those anti-rock n’ roll fanatics à la “Footloose” who claims that the new dance styles are the devil incarnate and that our country is going to hell in a hand basket as a result of promiscuous dance floor antics.  In fact, my first week at college has indicated the opposite: overall, my classmates are a smart, articulate, generous, interesting, genuine, diverse, and empathetic group.  But imagine a dance with music that doesn’t objectify women, or music whose beat could be conducive to dancing that consists more than just simulated sex—dancing that would be more inclusive, more inviting, more energetic, and more fun. 

Ok, so maybe the DJ was just bad.  After all, his turntable did have a sign that advertised “Phat beats, skinny bitches.”  But, as many people my age would surely corroborate, the grinding trend is indicative of our overly sexualized culture that extends far beyond my college campus.

I’m looking forward to the Feminist Prom, sponsored by my school’s feminist organization.  I just wish that my friends and I, both male and female, didn’t need a special event to dance to music that doesn’t reduce us to vehicles for sex and nothing more.