Dum Dum Girls – “Coming Down” Video Version 2 (Stereogum Premiere)
Dum Dum Girls released their newest LP, Too True, last year, but just now they’re sharing a video for a track off of their 2011 sophomore album Only In Dreams. The slow-burning Mazzy Star-esque ballad “Coming Down” already has a video, but today, a month after the song was featured in a third-season episode of Orange Is The New Black, we’re premiering an alternate video, which was actually made first but then shelved at the last minute. The song is good either way!
The video they ended up going with by future Dum Dum Girls bassist Malia James is a single black-and-white shot of frontwoman Dee Dee Penny singing while people come up and cut bits of her clothing off. The original video by director Sam Macon is fairly similar — a moody black-and-white clip of Dee Dee wandering around Chinatown and singing into the camera — but she wasn’t comfortable stepping so far out of the shadows. In a press release, she explains, “I couldn’t handle starring in such a straight forward, HD role — it was just too much me. I felt exposed and that made me uncomfortable.” The renewed interest in the song post-Orange Is The New Black inspired her to reconsider, so now, along with the digital reissue of the limited edition “Coming Down” 7″, we get to see the footage that’s been locked up for four years. Watch it below.
The “Coming Down” b/w “Girls Intuition” single is out today on Sub Pop. Get it from the Sub Pop Mega Mart or iTunes.