Frankie Rose's surprising flirtation with musical theater

I have been enjoying Herein Wild, the third solo album from ex-Dum Dum Girl Frankie Rose, which, like last year's Interstellar leaves the punk edges pretty much behind and ventures into swirling, shoe-gazey atmospherics, more like Mazzy Star than L7. It's out September 24 on Fat Possum.



It's a sleek, polished kind of rock record, but still it kind of surprised me that Miss Frankie Rose grew up in musical theater geekdom. Says Billboard:

With stints with bands like the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, Rose possesses a predominantly punk/indie fanbase, though the roots of her stagecraft lie in a very different place – musical theatre. The singer/songwriter attended Los Angeles’ Orange County High School of the Arts, where she played the lead role in “Annie” no less than four times, and her classmates included “Glee’s” Matthew Morrison and actress Taryn Manning.

“I kind of got kicked out of the arts program I was in,” Rose remembers. “I just didn't like it. I thought it was corny. As I got older, I didn't want to do musical theater.” Soon after, she found that punk rock was what truly empowered her as a performer. “It all changed. I was like, ooh, I can play the drums! I can play guitar! If there had been a rock camp for girls, or a rock camp at all, I probably would have begged my mother to put me in.”

Strange world, isn't it?

Dum Dum Girls

I've been kind of on a Dum Dum Girls kick lately, starting, belatedly (it was under a big pile of stuff) with the spring-release EP He Gets Me High and moving just these week to the upcoming full-length Only in Dreams. I have not, in general, been very impressed with the current crop of girl-fronted garage poppers...except maybe for Sandwitches, which I like a lot. However, Dum Dum Girls has a couple of advantages over the hoard of Vivian Girls look-alikes in that singer Dee Dee has a great tender-tough voice, very much in the tradition of Chrissie Hynde, and she writes some really good, girl-group-flavored songs.

You can get the first single "Coming Down" direct from Sub Pop, but you have to enter your email somewhere and who wants to do that? Fortunately every online music magazine in the universe is mirroring the cut, so here it is courtesy of Gorilla Vs. Bear. It's slow and glorious and drenched, per the style of the day, in dreamy reverb...but killer, yeah?

"Coming Down"

Dum Dum GIrls...better late than never

Damn, I almost missed this Dum Dum Girls CD, since Sub Pop kicked me off the distro list...but it's awfully good, fuzzy and sweet and a little bit nasty, and kicks the hell out of that Vivian Girls crap.

Here's the free giveaway, which is called "Jail La La"

Have a nice weekend, all. I'm running a marathon up in Burlington VT this Sunday, and not at all sure I'm ready, so wish me luck.