Nearly a year ago, Fort Worth’s Pinkish Black were plucked from relative obscurity, when they had a track featured on Pitchfork, ahead of the eponymous record they released on Handmade Birds, the shadowy local label owned by R. Loren and associates. The group ended up touring nationally and making a new album for another label, Century Media, by year’s end. In yet another surprising turn of events in North Texas music, Vulgar Fashion has a track featured on Pitchfork today, and soon too will have a release on Handmade Birds. This should actually be less and less surprising at this point.
About the track, entitled “Krystal Tearz,” Pitchfork’s Brandon Stosuy had this to say:
Like the rest of the record, “Tearz” is a dark, sugary anthem that would make sense during the climactic sequence in some gothy 80s movie.
Vulgar Fashion’s self-titled, 10-inch vinyl record and compact disc will be available on March 19th. The duo, which consists of Andrew Michael and Julie Mckendrick, recorded the twenty-minute EP at Klearlight Studios in Mesquite. It was then mastered by Philadelphia-resident Colin Marston, he of Dysrhythmia fame, and an oft-consulted engineer on R. Loren’s many projects.
I’ve been listening to a mastered preview of the recording, and it reveals another dimension to the band not always evident at their wonderfully chaotic live shows. Some of this music sounds intimidatingly cool enough to rival anything on an Italians do it Better project. That’s not something you would necessarily expect from a group that maxes out their levels to the point of grotesque feedback, plays on the floor, and seems like an uptight sound-guy’s worst nightmare. If you don’t feel like waiting until the actual release date, Handmade Birds will be selling copies ahead of street at their 35 Denton vendor’s booth.
Image: Vulgar Fashion in live performance, 2013. Photo by Andi Harman.
