My Favorite: C or D?

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Ace 80s-influenced popstars (correct answer: yes) or mopey goths appropriating the Smiths? Hmm?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 10 January 2003 05:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I tried starting this thread a long time ago and it whimpered a little then went away. I will help nurture this one!

When My Favorite are on I think they're terrific: even beneath some of the more unnecessary 80s-quoting they've done, they're pretty consistently doing great things musically. And when they're most convincing -- when you're distracted from thinking about time and anarchronism and all -- their stuff is absolutely glorious. So I've been happy to see with these last EPs that they seem to have gotten a lot of the obvious references out of their system and are working into territory that's more their own: the Joan of Arc Awaiting Trial one is one of my favorite things in a long while. I was really surprised to learn that they're quite good live, too.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 10 January 2003 06:10 (twenty-three years ago)

The trend seems quite a good one too: I think each EP is better than the last. The lead track on The Kids Are All Wrong, "Burning Hearts", is IMO their best song yet..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 10 January 2003 06:13 (twenty-three years ago)

i thought the first ep was the best. the only dud about them is how seriously they take themselves, the singer most especially finds himself quite precious.

― keith (keithmcl), Friday, 10 January 2003 14:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not sure how true that is! And when it is true, I think it's a good thing: they're one of those pastiche-type bands where they have a very keen intellectual understanding of the stuff they're pastiching and how, exactly, it's meant to work, and I think part of that understanding is the knowledge that he has to sound like he absolutely means it. (Not to mention which I think he does mean it.) My impression from seeing them wasn't that he thought so terribly much of himself, just that he needs the material to sound that confident.

I was listening to Joan of Arc again last night. It occurs to me that their level of pastiche, if you ignore the lyrics, isn't really any more derivative than, say, Interpol's -- in their best moments it's that same all-is-nothing influence-handling where it fits in neatly with 10 different things and consequently doesn't really sound like any of them. Lyrically it's another matter, but even that has its purposes for me: the source material he draws from was really pretty stagy and Romantic, which just means that when he pulls out the most well-worn mopey images (all those detectives!) they seem sort of iconic, and in some ways more effective than when they were in common circulation.

And mostly I like them because their songs are terrific: "Badge," "17 Berlin" ... these are as effective and well-constructed, to my ears, as just about anything off of Louder than Bombs (or The Head on the Door or Low-Life or Black Celebration or Mirror Moves).

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 10 January 2003 16:21 (twenty-three years ago)

M. Grace: "There comes a time when you have to question why you're staying in, why you're not happy, what you're a martyr for, and what British band is to blame."

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 10 January 2003 16:24 (twenty-three years ago)

(Oops: or Dare or Dazzle Ships, obviously. Bumping this back into New Answers is my attempt at "nurturing.")

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 10 January 2003 19:57 (twenty-three years ago)

i like a song or two i've heard on darla comps... but live they were a disappointment and kind of embarrassing. of course, this was 2 years ago. ?

― msp, Friday, 10 January 2003 22:54 (twenty-three years ago)

i think their intelligence causes them to overbake their ideas, i thought the album was disappointing after absolutely adoring all of the singles up to that point. I suppose that is the 'indie' thing to say but i think the polish of the album wore away some of my patience with his overly dramatic moments. I'd prefer that he sang all of the songs too, the girl's voice is a bit irritating to my ears. at least when he is singing his goofy words(read an article where he says he spends an inordinate amount of time on lyrics and this is why they are sometimes slow to record) he puts some heart into it, she's just a flawless mirror.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 11 January 2003 02:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I heard their early singles first and they left no real impression on me initially, but the album I loved immediately. I don't think their songs lend themselves to rough edges. I really prefer the girl's singing, too.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 11 January 2003 10:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic! Love at Absolute Zero is one of my favourite albums. But, I haven't managed to get anything else by them except Joan of Arc as an MP3 which is also really good.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 11 January 2003 20:04 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.lostdetective.com/comm/comm20.html

Aw. I loved this band so so much!

― Hanna (Hanna), Thursday, 15 September 2005 11:05 (twenty years ago)

yeah i read that this morning, so sad. but i'm sure whatever he does next will be excellent

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Thursday, 15 September 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

I thought My Favorite were a terrific band and I could never figure out why the indie kids here in London weren't massively into them. I still have to pick up the compilation of the 3 EPs -when looking for it this past February I had to argue with a record store owner in Grand Rapids that a band called 'My Favorite' actually existed. I saw them live about 4 times in the past 8 years and thought they were great each time.

― marianna (mariannapm), Thursday, 15 September 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

that is some truly sad news. they were one of my favorite bands ever. I just hope andrea continues with music too.

marianna, all the indie kids in london are too busy listening to all those boring shambolic rock bands. eww.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Thursday, 15 September 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

i love these guys. hopefully dude's next album won't come with a shitty remix disc tho.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 15 September 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Pretentious Long Island teenagers dreaming of being pretentious Manchester teenagers reading cinema magazines and dreaming of turning themselves into aesthetes turned popstars and pulling it off. Classic.

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Friday, 26 January 2007 04:29 (nineteen years ago)

(although I just realized that they also remind me of the Go-Betweens a little, but I'm not sure of any connection)

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Friday, 26 January 2007 04:31 (nineteen years ago)

Also remind me of Hal Hartley in their longing looks across the Atlantic and then across the Channel for artistic role models and using the title "Monster," more or less.

― The Redd And The Blecch (Ken L), Friday, 26 January 2007 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

for some reason they make me think of buffy

― jimbo (electricsound), Friday, 26 January 2007 05:16 (nineteen years ago)

oh i am wearing their t-shirt right now

― jimbo (electricsound), Friday, 26 January 2007 05:17 (nineteen years ago)

Long Island will never do any better.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 26 January 2007 06:27 (nineteen years ago)

I believe I booked their final public gig. I didn't know that would be the case at the time.

Unquestionably classic.

― mikef (mfleming), Saturday, 27 January 2007 04:06 (nineteen years ago)

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