Record Hype

Recent Harvard grads D. A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey believe in practicing safe music. Either that, or they packaged their demo CDs in condom wrappers as a marketing ploy for music execs. Probably the latter, considering.

Known as Chester French, the duo started out in 2003 recording pop-rock tracks in their dorm basement. A sound engineer for music producer Pharrell Williams received a disc of their music in the spring of 2007 and passed it along to his boss, who quickly signed them to his Star Trak label. That summer, when Chester French's first single—a retro pop tune called "She Loves Everybody"—was featured over the closing credits of an episode of HBO's Entourage, the band took off, touted by everyone: Perez Hilton, MTV, Spin, Rolling Stone.

And Chester French did that without ever actually putting out a record. Oh, they've talked about it. Their debut, Love the Future, was supposed to drop in October. Then this month. Now they say it'll be February. Still, the band remains topical, with that Entourage episode sparking another marketing opportunity: a relentless tour through North America and Britain. The media, which always loves a Harvard story, has also done its part. (See? Even we couldn't help ourselves.)