With their self-deprecating petticoat name and the arresting, harmonized choruses of their debut I Will Be, the Dum Dum Girls have made a statement that’s both obvious and well-earned: This is girl-group music. It’s an ambition that tips its hat at a long and great continuum, ranging from the Shangri-Las through the Go-Go’s to the [...]

Because I wrote about Title Tracks' versions of songs by The Flamin' Groovies and The Merseybeats earlier this week, and because Bob Dylan's truly atrocious new disc of Christmas standards leaked yesterday, I've been thinking a lot about covers.
Let's put aside the illustrious history of ill-advised tributes (read: the entire Me First and the Gimme Gimmes oeuvre). A good cover can [...]