Army Of Two

Album: It Goes Without Saying (2000)
Charted: 27
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Songfacts®:

  • London-based guitar-pop band Dum Dums were formed in 1997 by guitarist frontman Josh Doyle, bassist Steve Clarke and drummer Stuart "Baxter" Wilkinson. The band spent their early years gigging in small venues and writing songs. After signing to Wildstar Records in March 1999, they went on their first UK tour, supporting Nik Kershaw.

    Dum Dums' debut single, "Everything," produced by Steve Power (Feeder, Robbie Williams, Babybird, Blur) was released on February 28, 2000. It was the first of four consecutive singles to reach the top 30 of the singles chart.

    Their one and only album, It Goes Without Saying, again produced by Power, was released on September 18, 2000. Sonically influenced by other British bands such as the Police and the Jam, it spoke of dead end jobs, the pressures of finding your own way, and struck a chord in the hearts of anyone faced with having to decide what to do with their lives.

    With sold out tours in the UK and abroad, top 20 chart success in Japan and a major record deal with MCA in the USA, Dums Dums were one of the few British guitar bands to breakthrough in a year when radio was saturated with manufactured pop acts. However, while recording the follow up album in 2001, their UK label gave them a "write more 'pop' or get 'dropped'" ultimatum. Josh felt that the band had achieved what they had set out to do, and by mutual agreement the band decided to break up.
  • This was the fourth and last single released by the group on February 5, 2001. Josh told us that its accompanying video "has been imitated suspiciously by several bands, namely US (MCA) labelmates on MCA Blink 182 for 'Stay Together For The Kids' less than six months after 'Army Of Two' hit the charts."
  • The CD also contains a remix of It Goes Without Saying track "Until My Ship Comes In" - (The Grey Back mix). Josh told us, "there is additional guitar uncredited by Tears For Fears guitarist Neil Taylor who played on 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love' and it also featured a full string orchestration from the London Session Orchestra famous for the James Bond films." He added that Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers were in the studio during the making of It Goes Without Saying, and Steve Power produced it while working on a Kylie Minogue record in the studio next door."
    (See dumdums.com for further information).

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