Chester French
When D.A. and Max met up at Harvard University their freshman year, it wasn’t long before they were holed up in their dorms pulling four day benders crafting poppy tunes. Their demo landed itself in the midst of an intense bidding war and Chester French was signed soon thereafter by Pharrell Williams. With more hype garnered than Vampire Weekend mounted prior to their debut album (and that’s saying something), the boys’ freshman effort dropped earlier this year. Catch D.A. rocking his dapper bow-tie in their She Loves Everybody music video.
Images via Improper Bostonian, MTV and Spin
left a comment on 12/11/2009 at 9:14 AM:
did you check jeremiah’s photos of chester french? he shot them for steve madden. and DA also sang me a song for me (yes, very embarassing to be at the stage while someone sings your a song… awkward!) at one of their performances =)
left a comment on 12/9/2009 at 9:44 PM:
Did you see these guys get on styl’d on mtv? Loving your recent street photographs, the style is great. I’m obsessed with riding boots but I don’t own any. =) Thats the curse & blessing of fashion…it keeps changing…I would be broke if I bought everything I would like to express myself. =)
left a comment on 12/9/2009 at 11:21 AM:
L.A.S.—True, Vampire Weekend is the only band to ever appear on the cover of Spin without a full length album in stores. They did receive more traditional press than Chester French (before AND after the release of debut albums); however, the hype built up around Chester French was quite substantial within the music community. Pharrell Williams and Kanye were engaged in a bidding war for the boys’ record deal (VW can hardly claim that), they hailed from Harvard (arguably more prestigious than Columbia), and were all over the blogosphere leaking songs faster than you could download them. In fact, they released an entire collaborative album for free prior to their debut release.
For what it’s worth, I did buy their album the day it dropped. Vampire Weekend has matched or exceeded the buzz that preceded their initial effort. That remains to be seen from Chester French since they are employing an intense Internet/social media networking grassroots approach.
left a comment on 12/9/2009 at 9:25 AM:
Mr. Castleberry,
This whole more hype than VW thing I disagree with. Vampire Weekend is the only band ever to appear on the cover of Spin without a full length in stores and the hipster buzz/flurry courtesy of Pitchfork (and the other usual suspects) pre-release was bonkers. Chester French are both dapper and great, but as far as hype is concerned, they got a week of promos on MTV at best. Not to mention no one bought their record (a shame).
F.E. Castleberry left a comment on 12/11/2009 at 10:02 AM:
Mel—I haven’t seen your hubby’s shots yet…where are they? Nick shot them for Improper Bostonian last year too, fun little connection. They sang you a song? Haha—which one???