Death of Fashion

Death of Fashion ‘These Days’ (Canarsie). By all accounts this lot are wowing the New York cognoscenti with their neck hair rising spiky punk pop. Formed little over two years ago, quartet Death of Fashion have all the rugged grind happy chord play that suggests they could very well be the next crucial darlings of the underground. The debut 7” / CD EP (the former featuring two cuts the latter housing 5) ‘These days’ is just what the groove doctor ordered, an eye watering shot of skinny tie wearing wiry new wave that soars with tearfully euphoric abandon while cut to the bone with a devastating cool of the kind you’d always secretly wished the Psychedelic Furs would excel to in their prime, all at once electric and ethereal this is a blinding tour de force of catchy as hell life affirming pop. Death of Fashion it seems are pretty adept at plugging in to the whole CBGB’s legacy with Television and Iggy bruising the mix and being muddied with the early 80’s UK post punk vibe of Orange Juice / Josef K yet jarred by elements of the Weather Prophets as though fronted by Micro Disney / Fatima Mansions main man Cathal Coughlin (whatever happened to him?). DoF’s sound is dislocated, smooth, brutalised, groovy and strutting, there’s a matter of fact casualness about them just check out the lazy yeah well maybe attitude of ‘Oboe and Me’ which could easily have Franz Ferdinand choking with admiration while the overtly infectious twisting foot tapping grind of ‘Don’t act this way’ may well leave most needing imminent hip replacement surgery. Best of the bunch though the absolute killer like ‘It’s all ours’ with its updated take on Eddy Cochran’s ‘Summertime Blues’ as though put through the blender by the Ramones aided and abetted by Richard Hell is an awesome mash of speaker shaking potency while the closing ‘Brother Vibration’ is a seven minute free for all of wired jamming, post punk fixated angular rhythms, spiked skank that at its finale sounds not unlike a ravaged and bloody nosed Sparks doing an amped up ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’. Absolutely essential hi-fi accessory for all the wannabe clued up crew. Deputy single of the missive. www.deathoffashion.com - Loosing Today (UK) May 2005

Death Of Fashion “Lovely & Guilt Free” EP (Canarsie Records)

Probably the most English and the most self assured bit of kit to come out of New York since Quinten Crisp took a wrong turn on the way to somewhere sleazy n cool. Difference being that Death Of Fashion are… a crackingly cracked rock n brainy-bop band and slightly less likely to run off with your brother, but keep an eye on your sister.
See, thing is, Death Of Fashion have a spine of shiny fucking steel, “Don't Act This Way” being an assured and measured stamp around a blocked chord that breaks out to put you in mind of a Nick Cave at The Black Dog on a Friday. They are also very, very and consistently aggressive, everything, even slower n lower keyed moments are only the barely checked pauses between lunges for throats, jointly and severally as lawyers say, or yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ha! If you’re listening to us. Which would would be a huge mistake, you should be listening to….. oh, you’re quick, but don’t you worry darling; www.deathoffashion.com - Unpeeled (UK) May 2005

NYC musicians Death of Fashion are one of the buzz bands of the moment in the Big Apple. With help of Smith’s NYC-roving man-of-the-hour Todd Diciurcio, the Fashions were introduced to Smith shades and reportedly fell in lust with the newest Street Series product. Frontman Jesse Davis was gifted with a pair of the Limited Edition Cliftons recently at a show and rocked them during their entire set.

Influenced by the likes of Joy Division, Velvet Underground and the Strokes, Death of Fashion is poised to storm the New York scene. Be ready.

- Smith Optics (US)

On a scene that’s progressively being dominated by (read "glutted with") bands acknowledged to be influenced by at best mediocre, though successful (read "commercial") sources, DOF have managed to set themselves apart. Though they’ve been compared to the Velvet Underground and other 60s underground groups as well as Joy Division and The Libertines, and we've likened their jangly rhythms to The Strokes, they just don’t sound like anyone else.

Taking a side-step away from familiar pop territory doesn’t make them a particularly easy first listen. So, like a smokey and obscure yet fine wine, their sound may be kind of an acquired taste. Live, when it starts out the music is minimalist to the point of being sparse, and within a song they'll appear to be stumbling to find its elusive central thread. And when frontman Jesse Davis goes to the keyboard it first sounds like he’s simply tinkering with random notes, searching for a riff. Jacob Bills often seems to be doing the same with his guitar. Sounds pretty loose, no? Ah, but like that obscure wine there’s a payoff.

We learned the term “less is more” back in art class, right? DOF serve as a prime example of how it works. The dots do get connected – eventually. There is indeed a riff hiding in there, but you probably won’t know it until it comes back later in a song to smack you up side of the skull. At the risk of getting too heady here, it all isn’t that different from how classical music will toy with you (early Mozart comes to mind) before delivering the goods. But that artful aesthetic doesn’t mean you can’t shake your butt to this band. Au contraire. As dedicated followers of DOF know (and the number seems to be expanding significantly with each new show ) Davis is a compelling vocalist. The off-hand yet at the same time intimate lyrics play like dramatic, personal conversations. And backed up by drummer Daniel Boivin, bassist Darryl Specht and Bills’ staccato guitar rhythms, DOF are a rock band and an exciting one. One look at those crazed dancers who are always up front of the stage will tell you that. But DOF may make you wait just a bit before getting you off. And well, isn’t that the beauty of all acquired tastes?



- NEON NYC (US)

Artist: Death of Fashion
Album: "Death of Fashion EP"
Rating: Three and a half stars out of five
Label: Canarsie Records

For a band that seems to want to break away from the commercialism of mainstream culture, at least judging from their name, Death of Fashion has a keen sense of what popular music sounds like today.

The album's opening number, "These Days," rings with the same organ atmospherics and rigid guitar rhythms that catapulted The Killers to the top of the pops. The lead singer, Jesse Davis, seems to possess that same pretentious and dry delivery of The Walkman's Walter Martin. The hypnotic combinations of drums and jagged guitar on "Don't Act This Way" are reminiscent of Austin's own Spoon in the way they casually blend up-tempo rock with danceable grooves. Through the last two songs, "It's All Ours" and "Brother Vibrations," one gets the impression that this band holds itself in high regard and that their audience should immediately respect and applaud them.

This trendy sound created by Death of Fashion however, is not as inspired by the coincidental and popular sounds of the current rock scene, but by a mutual respect for their original influences like the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones and Joy Division. Either way you look at it, Death of Fashion's debut LP should have fans eagerly awaiting a full-length release. - The Daily Texan (US) June 2005

There's lots of hype surrounding Death of Fashion so we decided to catch up with them at the Delancey last week. They have the fashionable stylings of the Talking Heads and the Velvet Underground, along with their more recent progeny like the Killers, the Walkmen, the Strokes — ah hell, just read the bio on Death of Fashion's website. If there were a graduate school for those who yearn to scrutinize, probe, and in all other ways analyze what it means to commingle with that famed and beloved NYC sound, Death of Fashion would have an impressive thesis, complete with David Foster Wallace style footnotes and thirty-page bibliography, Arial 10. These Indiana boys ain't in Indiana no more. They've even scored a sold-out show at Pianos that they called "neo-legendary." We're no sure what that means.

Death of Fashion is Jesse Davis (lead vocal, keys), Jacob Bills (guitar, vocal), Daryl Specht (bass) and Daniel Boivin (drums). Check out some samples of their EP, "Lovely and Guilt Free," (Canarsie Records) at deathoffashion.com.

--Monte Holman

- Free Williamsburg (July 2005)

Word is these moved-here-in-2003 Hoosiers (so: Indy indie rockers, maybe?) count among their influences Joy Division, the Strokes, Brian Eno, Stone Roses (barf), and Lou Reed, but who cares about that crap when one side (forget which) of their 45 swipes its hook from either Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" or Elton Motello's "Jet Boy Jet Girl." They can't go wrong!

-Eddy - The Village Voice (June 2005)

These Days / Oboe And Me (Go) / Don't Act This Way / It's All Ours / Brother Vibrations

CANARSIE RECORDS
CR-0003
Recorded at Station Sound Studio Produced by Oshin Baroyan and Jason Marcus

Most easily described as a more synth heavy version of The Strokes, Death Of Fashion are another of those New York bands who do snarling garage rock that drips with a dark effortless cool that you can't fake. THESE DAYS rocks out in a gothic drenched vibrancy thats equal parts The Ramones, The Strokes, The Psychedelic Furs and Joy Division - it's something to do with those icy vocals, that shimmering synth line, that pulsating low slung bass rumble, it's all to do with chilling pop menace and total commitment.
Probably as close to The Strokes as you can get without having to take out a restraining order, OBOE AND ME (GO) apes their sound from the simple drum beats to the lazy drawl to the syncopated guitar work, but at least they manage to pull it off better than The Strokes did on their last album.
DON'T ACT THIS WAY takes things in braver new directions though - the stark opening guitar riff suggesting a band more than capable of doing things on their own terms with a style and grace all their own and a gradual build up that proves they can also do tension. Similarly, the epic sounding BROTHER VIBRATIONS manages to pull of the same trick in a glorious collision between Television, The Stone Roses and PIL - a hypnotic groove that builds to an almost psychedelic version of punk-funk by the climax.
While not exactly redesigning the blueprint The Strokes laid down a few years ago, Death Of Fashion at least do things with an effortless cool and dark menace that sets them apart. Still, with enough hints and promises laid out over these five songs to suggest that Death Of Fashion could well go from good to amazing in the very near future you should watch this space very closely indeed.

- UK Music Search (July 2005)

Death of Fashion is one of those New York bands that sound like a New York band…gritty, dangerous, guitar drenched music with detached, and literate lyrics, both in style and substance. There’s only one problem with this premise…they aren’t really New Yorkers. The band was formed in Indiana , and honed their craft playing in Hoosier bars, before heading to The Big Apple in late summer 2003, to seek fame and fortune.

With a nice combination of Velvet Underground guitar [the Lou Reed parts] and Joy Division detachment [Ian Cutis style vocals], but with more upbeat, and even, dare I say, danceable melodies and rhythms [like New Order], the band has created a palette of fun and listenable songs.

This EP begins with ‘These Days’, a radio-friendly song that evokes visions of leather-clad punks dancing in back alleys and dive bars, to the infectious strains of the 80’s synth- keyboard sound and Jesse Davis’ angst- ridden, Nick Cave style vocals. I can certainly understand why the band chose to release this song as a single. It’s a great one.

‘Oboe and Me [Go]’s jungle-like rhythms, courtesy of drummer Dan iel Boivin and bassist Darryl Specht, only add to Davis’ relationship gone bad, take me as I am, song. Jacob Bills furious rhythmic guitar pulsates throughout the ebb and flow of the song.

‘Don’t Act This Way’, the EP’s third cut starts off with a very measured, metronomic beat, as Davis’ croons about “Putting on My Disguise…For You”, just before the song kicks into high gear, featuring a tasteful guitar solo by Bills. The rhythm section and guitar work in this song are top notch, augmenting the rapid fire delivery of Davis vocals.

“It’s All Ours” is another Death Of Fashion song that ought to be played on the radio, over and over again. With its stop and start verses, this Gene Vincent like rocker reminds me a bit of The Move’s version of ‘Something Else’, and trust me, that’s a good thing.

Starting off with the squawk and skronk [is that a word?] of feedbacking guitar and a steady backbeat, ‘Brother Vibrations’ is another instant classic, reminiscent of Ziggy-era Bowie and NYC favorites Interpol. This song is probably my favorite on this EP, Davis singing how he won’t look back because his “mind’s a little hazy”. The song features a nice musical interlude featuring the instrument musician members of the band, nothing overblown, just very tasteful, particularly Jacob Bills guitar.

Although it’s easy to focus on the guitar and vocals of this band, and deservedly so, enough can’t be said about the tight, understated, but extremely proficient rhythm section. This is a band on the way up.

Way, way up!




- Northeast In-Tune (July 2005)