Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams

Only In Dreams drifts the mind to a time where the listener feels like they are relaxing on a beach somewhere without a care in the world (which is convenient for a land-locked soul like me.) Dum Dum Girls are a California based band and their musical quality is very representative of their home state. Their seemingly lazy and relaxed vocals coupled with equally relaxed guitar and drums make it the ultimate beach bum record. Now there are times when the tempo and vocals break from their relaxed state which is what I personally find to be the most interesting aspect about the Dum Dum Girls music because it breaks them from the stereotypical “surfer music.”

That being said the Dum Dum Girls are totally a surfer pop band. A listener can gather that from any of their songs on their 2011 album Only In Dreams. I think my main beef with Only In Dreams is that as much as I appreciate them sticking to a specific genre, I feel like a lot of the songs tend to sound way too much a like. As in a lot of the songs sound almost identical from each other. Of course, there are outliers to this. Take a listen to “Heartbeat,” “Just a Creep,” or “Caught in One” for a little variety on the album.

What saves the rating of this album is the way that the tracks are arranged and the tracks that seem to sound eerily a lot a like are broken up with a slightly different sounding song. Due to this the listener does not become extremely bored with Only In Dreams. Personally, I keep listening to the album for the non-mundane tracks like I listed above.

If anyone is located in the central United States I would suggest coming out to the Omaha, Nebraska musical festival, MAHA on August 11th that runs from noon to midnight, 12 straight hours of musical magic. Dum Dum Girls will be playing with the likes of Delta Sprirt, Icky Blossoms, Garbage, and Desaparecidos to just name a few of the bands that will rock the passing 12 hours. Check out their MAHA Music Festival website for the full line-up and to purchase your tickets on-line.