Dead Famous People new single 'Looking At Girls' 
Released 24th October 2019

During their brief time together, New Zealand-to-UK transplants Dead Famous People released only nine songs spread over two 12” EPs. These sold next to nothing, the band split, disappeared from music.  Today, they’ve been largely forgotten.

It doesn’t seem like much of a story.

Yet front person Dons Savage is an unparalled talent, a savant of the perfect melody and lyrics which both touch and bite, a throwbook to the Carole King's and Gerry Goffin's of Brill Building pop, an instinctive penseuse besting the originators of the Riot Grrrl movement by responding to their conversations of rage and sexuality and finding a place in the world some years before the initial sparks of that particular revolution had even begun.

Dead Famous People originated in Auckland, New Zealand after Dons (then Donna) left an earlier combo upon finding she had no room in which to introduce her own songs. Gathering a few compatriots, Dead Famous People began playing out and were soon invited to make an EP for Flying Nun, label then in the early stages of subtle world takeover. Despite sharing a similarly breezy approach to pop arrangement (the light touches of organ, the wistful lyrical sensibility, the composition of each song a discrete story), they never entirely fitted in with their label mates (another all-female NZ group described Dead Famous People as “scary as hell and always looking for a fight”), the band decided to make the move to London to seek fame and fortune.

There they garnered favourable reviews and found themselves signed to Billy Bragg’s Utility label, by Bragg’s partner Peter Jenner, at one time or another the manager for Pink Floyd, Ian Dury and The Clash.

John Peel called the band “An important, exciting contribution to the often pallid world of contemporary pop” and granted them a session, Sounds described a song wherein “Donna Savage’s lovely, husky tones relate the tale of the girl who beats up boys in alleys and steals their leather jackets, while the band ride a pop merry-go-round reminiscent of their chums The Chills.”  David Cavanaugh wrote that “Dead Famous People are alive and unjustly obscure”, while other reviews mentioned Morrissey (“Donna . . . matches Morrissey for wit and exceeds him for melodic charm”), Pete Shelley (“A pop peer of The Buzzcock’s lead songwriter”), Elvis Presley (“Donna’s tougher than The King, without the sneer, but with the benefit of actually writing her own songs”) and other musical icons.

Despite this, homesick and unable to find a proper deal, the band fell apart. They recorded a series of final demos, posthumously released with faulty mastering.  Dons sang backup vocals on The Chills’ “Heavenly Pop Hit”, and eventually caught the attention of a pair of guys from Croydon starting a new act, Saint Etienne. Dons’ silky vocal delivery and knack for the perfect disaffected melody - not to mention her incongruous appearance – worked well with the pair’s lovingly deviant approach to pop music. Soon they asked her to become their vocalist. 

But soon after singing on the original version of their cover of the Field Mice’s “Kiss And Make Up” and a version of Gil Scott-Heron’s “Winter In America”, Dons received news that her mother was ill.  She returned to New Zealand and ended her musical activities for over twenty years . . . until Fire Records managed to locate her in Auckland, just a few months after Dons had begun writing again.

Looking At Girls is the first single release from Dead Famous People’s first real album, Harry.  Recorded at home and remixed by noted LA producer Dave Trumfio (Handsome Family, Billy Bragg & Wilco, American Music Club, Built To Spill, The Jesus and Mary Chain) in LA, Looking At Girls is a pure pop ode to life’s simple joys.

Dead Famous People - Looking At Girls

Black Void

Pomona

From the new 10" EP - Crying Everyone Else's Tears

Out February 28th 2020 on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten (Germany)
KUS 024 / Limited pressing of 250

Vinyl orders / inquiries: kus-mail@gmx.de 
https://www.facebook.com/kus2015/

Digital + vinyl via Bandcamp (US)
March 6th, 2020
https://lakeruth.bandcamp.com/

Lyrics by Renee Tamraz
Arranged and performed by Lake Ruth
Mixed by and mastered by Shane Chaney at Echo Basement
Additional production assistance by SAVAK
Artwork by Anthony Nine
ⓒ 2020 Brice, Chen, Schulz, Tamraz
ⓟ 2020 Lake Ruth

Sad Song

A paean to our pals and a preview of our second LP — out later this year, we promise.

Recorded by Lewis Pesacov (Fool's Gold, Foreign Born, Peel'd)
Add'l production by Jed Smith (The Jeanines, My Teenage Stride)
Mastered by Mikey Young

Michael Is My Girlfriend

Release date: 15th May 2020

So I guess you heard the news?
Woke up to the cry of a battle drum,
No one knew where the riders had come from, nobody in hell stood a chance,
And then came the raining of arrows, in one fell swoop I can call myself a widow,
There is a debt that must be paid,

Sundown, your home was ransacked,
Shot down by the devils riding horseback,
Sundown the banners turn the same shade of black,


So I guess you heard the news?
On the sunrise we rode into the valley below,
A fine line between plain and alley, you know how it goes, the pendulum of war,
And they tell you murder’s never easy but you should’ve seen the ease in which we did it,
How can you deny a man’s revenge?

Sundown, your home was ransacked,
Shot down by the devils riding horseback,
Sundown the banners turn the same shade of black,

Pendulum

Nah... - Finger On The Map

'The House That We Built' taken from the forthcoming album 'SECONDS'.

The Death of Pop are Angus James and Oliver James

Produced by The Death of Pop
Drums: Thom James
Artwork by George Baggaley
credits
released June 3, 2020

The House That We Built

The Luxembourg Signal - 2.22

Reverie Neverending

SHADOWS IN THE SUNSHINE

therestalk.bandcamp.com

Recorded by Beau Sorenson & There's Talk
Mixed by Beau Sorenson
Mastered by Matthew Pereira
Artwork by Stephanie Kuse

Sad Song

Lake Ruth

Recent comments

Cameron Potvin-Chion

Related tracks