Wedding Dress
Made up of various members of Maps & Atlases, Suns, Joan of Arc and Gypsy Blood, Wedding Dress are about as Chicago as it gets. Dreamt up as side-project / outlet for Maps & Atlases guitar player Erin Elders, songs were written between tours and slowly released during his "math-pop" band's fleeting downtime.
Wedding Dress is a distinctly other affair, it is more layered, plaintive and measured than anything in Elders' previous catalog; songs are textured narratives, instrumentation is retrained and in many ways the project stands as a perfect counter-point to the sometimes spastic Maps.
That's not to say its a dull affair, the songs themselves are beautiful in their sparseness, the palate is selectively lush and the rotating set of players, both recorded and live, patiently flesh out Elders' haunting vocals and evocative lyrics.
As Elders' primary project comes out of a busy record cycle — including over 9 months of touring and support dates with Broken Bells, Frightened Rabbit, Circa Survive and Death Cab For Cutie — he is shifting gears to Wedding Dress. The band itself has been increasingly firming up and now features Mike Russell & Matt Lemke (Suns), Bobby Burg (Love of Everything/Joan of Arc) and Christian Dawson (Gypsyblood).
Together as a newly charged up Wedding Dress, they will release a 7 inch single and video on Arlington based label Lovitt Records (joining Chicago roster mates Pinebender and Redgrave) in March, and a full length in the Fall. The band is playing a stint of area shows in the coming months.
