Love Remains from How to Dress Well is a recent acquisition, a recommendation from a co-worker. That recommendation included a sentence that went something like this:
i hear the hipster kids just cant get over it.
I love to keep up with what the hipster kids are up to. I do. So I snatched it up for a first listen with a handful of recent KCRW library additions including: Grandchildren. Violens. Cloud Nothings. & The Russian Futurists (more to come on these guys), but How to Dress Well is sticking out for me presently.
Aside from loving to keep up with the hipster kids, I also love sharing this blog with friends that Ive never even met face to face! After Trains recent cover post, Frank hit me up about the R. Kelly cover by How to Dress Well, so I shared my recent album acquisition with him. It wasnt long before he asked me if I had just sent him GAYNGS and re-labeled it.
Admittedly, it DOES all sound like a bad recording of an R. Kelly inspiration w/ a Bon Iver slant, but that is precisely what I love about it. I have totally been digging the indie take on RnB throwback sounds of late.
In listening, Ive felt washed over with the realization that their instrumentation is all percussive. There is a noise-ish accompaniment to go along with the lead but all of the melody is carried out with vocals. Upon a first good listen, I felt so compelled to share this realization with Frank that I ripped off my headphones and ran into his studio to interrupt him, and he just asked me if I liked it????
I flounder around sometimes in the music discovery process, but my gut says yes and thats my favorite thing to rely on for the truth!!! Im in an atmosphere of How to Dress Well right now as I write, and I feel like Im traveling with wanderlust through the memory scape of some *artbag musicians dreamlike universe they showed up with their shitty equipment and ripped off of my nostalgic pre-pubescent memories of boy girl dances from middle school. I like it.
You dont have to take the whole album in its a lot to take and it depends on what you are here (at audiomuffin.com) for but if you have the time and inclination to wanna take an auditory expedition, climb on board for these two songs.
How to Dress Well Date of Birth
How to Dress Well Suicide Dream 2