Former Dum Dum Girls frontwoman Kristin Welchez is trading in the garage rock girl-band and making her return as a solo artist with new wave synths and that unmistakeable voice. Her latest single debuted yesterday on I-D, and if it’s any indication of the rest of the album we should all have our wallets ready when X-Communicate comes out May 27th (long weekend to enjoy it all the better). You can also pre-order the limited blue Loser Edition on vinyl here.
Kristin Kontrol’s X-Communicate album releases 5/27/16
Just a couple of years ago, it would’ve seemed — well, maybe not unthinkable, but certainly a little unexpected for Merchandise and Dum Dum Girls to show up on a song together. But hey, here we are, and isn’t this a nice place to be? Last year’s magnificent After The End was both Merchandise’s big pop move and their best work yet, an album that took the dark new-romantic heart they’d only hinted at on previous releases and pumped it full of enough John Hughes soundtracks to make it beat, to turn them from Ally Sheedy at the beginning of The Breakfast Club to Ally Sheedy at the end of The Breakfast Club (except without all of the #problematic baggage that that entails). Dum Dum Girls don’t necessarily mine the same set of influences, but they rely on a similarly retro goth-pop glamor. And yes, now the two have combined forces on a new 7″ single, the a-side to which is “Red Sun,” a moody track that rests on a pulsing, sinister synth line and arid guitar. Dee Dee handles the verses, playing some sort of man-eating desert siren, while Carson Cox jumps in on the chorus.
4AD records groupMerchandiseand NYC’s Dum Dum Girls have combined their forces to great a subtle poppy masterpiece. The 7“ includes the new songs “Echo“ and “Red Sun“.
The latter is spiced up with synth driven beats and Merchandise signature reverbed guitars. This solid instrumental is the backbone for the continuously evolving obsessive duet between singer Dee Dee and Carson Cox. The red sun is glamorous and shimmery. Of course this romance is doomed to fail and to fade out into fatal silence. We are left alone with just the hazy memory of a lost love.
The record is out November 27th. Pre-order available @ Sub Pop Records
On a silvery stage, DeeDee Penny and her husband Brandon Welchez, of Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles and now Haunted Hearts, share a glam yoga/dance party with Alexis Blair Penney, Colin Self and Bailey Stiles – members of NYC-based drag collective Chez Deep. The trio shantay to the swirling psych-out of “Up Is Up (But So Is Down)”, as a reliably-kohled Penny pouts and Welchez preens in a fur coat straight out of Jonathan Rhys Meyers’Velvet Goldmine wardrobe. Their debut album, “Initiation”, came out May on their own label Zoo Music.
Haunted Hearts — Initiation This is a fantastic collaboration between Brandon Welchez from Crocodiles and his wife Kristin Gundred, who is better known as “Dee Dee” from Dum Dum Girls. It sound like what you would expect it to sound like. While both of their bands have been doing really well, they’ve lamented the fact that they never see each other. So they finally made a record together. This project has actually been brewing for a really long time, but the album finally came out in March viaZoo Records. This was a very late addition to my pile of 2014 albums. What do you get when you cross Dum Dum Girls with Crocodiles? It might sound like the start of some dodgy joke from a Christmas cracker but you actually get a bloody awesome band called Haunted Hearts.
If you asked us what our favourite combos were, we would have said pizza and beer or cocktails and more cocktails but we’ll have to add Haunted Hearts to that list You’d expect as much considering they’re husband and wife… so let’s all just take a minute to imagine how cool the music at their wedding would have been.
U.S. goth rockers, Dum Dum Girlshave been around since 2008, starting life as the bedroom recording project of front woman and songwriter Dee Dee Penny. The four-piece released its third studio album, “Too True”, in January on Sub Pop with songs inspired by 19th century French poetry and 80’s synth music. The album embraces a bigger, rockier sound with guitars to the fore and much set in mid tempo. Having given time for her vocal cords to heal from the effects of excessive touring, Penny is in fine voice here on “Lost Boys & Girls Club,” as well as looking luscious in latex in a curious H&M meets S&M post-Garden of Eden set.
DUM DUM GIRLS are an American rock band formed by Dee Dee Penny ( Kristen Welchez ) from Los Angeles but now based in and around New York the third album released earlier this year “TOO TRUE” and featured the single the “LOST BOYS and LOST GIRLS CLUB”
The Fat Angel Sings 