Let’s hop into UI’s archives and see what ancient creaking box of treats lies in wait for our greedy pawing pleasure. That’s right boys and girls, it’s time to Flashion Backward and fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. Today, we’re gonna check out The Two Man Gentlemen Band–a name that non-ironically summarizes in a proverbial nutshell what these boys are all about.
Clearly dedicated to superannuated notions of the quality of custom-made, well, everything, even the package containing their album is an artisanal wonder, with a crosshatched Gorey-esque cartoon cover, no plastic whatsoever and funky old-fart details that make my heart go pitter-pat. Their music–trippy, ribald, crazed, romantic, maudlin, old-timey vaudevillian swing all topped off with kazoos, strings, bass and a banjo–is as tailor-made as the paper pocket in which it is so prettily packaged.
The Gentlemen’s idiosyncrasy is all-pervasive: They dress like upper-middle-class gentlemen circa 1937, allegedly remove their hats in the presence of ladies and pepper their language with foreign terms like “sir” and “ma’am.”
The wackiness continues, below, as The Gentlemen musically rip themselves a new one and doff their hats to all of their fellow old-style-new-music players who are like, totally awesome in comparison to their tepid playing powers. Something critics, incidentally, violently disagree with.
TOPICS: Flashion Backward, Kathleen Willcox