Girls w/ Dum Dum Girls

Girls singer Christopher Owens sings in his band’s single “Lust for Life” that “I’m just crazy, I’m totally mad.” When you grow up in the Children of God cult, live a nomadic lifestyle with a mother forced into prostitution, then flee into gutter homelessness, you can’t be blamed for sometimes feeling a little crazy, and Owens does indeed sometimes sound a little unstable when he sings. Fueled by a lot of drugs and reverence for the expressive rock ’n’ roll of Buddy Holly and Elvis Costello, Girls was formed after Owens joined the San Francisco music scene with collaborator Chet White. Girls is joined on this bill by another California group with a reverence for early rock ’n’ roll, and one that features actual girls at that. After a tide of early buzz, this spring Dum Dum Girls released their Sub Pop debut, I Will Be, a charming collection of disarming garage-pop that pays homage to girl-group pop of all eras and the psychedelic underground rock of the ’80s.