Audio By Carbonatix
On Dressy Bessy’s new album Holler and Stomp, the group finally has its sound to where the band always claimed it was. While they’ve been marketing themselves since they formed almost 10 years ago as punk with an edge of adorable, or adorable with an edge of punk (depending on the mood), many of their albums up ’til now have been more along the lines of adorable with an edge of more adorable. Lead singer and guitarist Tammy Ealom’s voice has just enough pout to make us imagine they couldn’t quite help being adorable. But this time, they manage to get enough grit into the instrumentals to make Ealom’s vocals only hint at sticky sweetness. Granted, Holler and Stomp isn’t all good news. Were it not for Ealom, even the new album wouldn’t be terribly special — guitar riffs lean toward “been there, heard that.” Tracks like “Simple Girlz” are catchy but not exactly groundbreaking. But then, with a group as heavy on image as Dressy Bessy is, the music isn’t entirely the point, so having a female lead vocalist is enough to keep them on the right side of fresh.
