My Favorite Tour, Play Benefit for TV Personalities
Craig Kilborn honored, but needs no encouragement

Used in a musical context, the word "nostalgia" often has two separate meanings. First, there's the surface-level definition: The implication of a bygone stylistic influence in an artist's recordings. Though the use of this term can often imply lack of identity, taking some cues from an influential era does not by any means dictate banality; the empty hall synthesizers and iced-over guitars preferred by New York's My Favorite provide the band with a practiced and temperate flourish of 80s atmosphere in which to practice their somber harmonics. On account of their well-executed post-punk instrumentation and ambience, the sweetly melancholic pop group can easily be considered compositionally nostalgic in the best way. However, it is the second, more structurally intangible definition of nostalgia that seems to most apply to My Favorite.

The band's latest release on Double Agent records, 2003's The Happiest Days of Our Lives, is a wistful and cohesive compilation of short-player songs with an air ranging from passively rememorative to pensively yearning. Both lyrically and atmospherically, the record breathes with a bittersweet sigh of remembrance. Theirs is not merely a compositional fondness for that which has passed, but a jointly stylistic and emotional nostalgia; a definitive tone that is evocative of moments in our own chronology in addition to the milestones of music.

With that firmly in mind, My Favorite will be performing at a New York benefit concert for the frontman of the quietly seminal and overtly phenomenal pop band Television Personalities. To recount: Following a string of distinctive releases beginning in 1979, the official history of Television Personalities came to a harrowing climax in 1998, when frontman Dan Treacy-- a clinically diagnosed schizophrenic-- disappeared on a level well beyond the traditional visage of the public eye. Treacy was declared legally missing, and as previously reported, emerged only this past May, sending a communique to an old friend from a British prison boat.

In the missive, Treacy expressed his desire to return to the realm of music, record a new album, and rebuild his world from the ground up. However, released from the prison vessel on June 28th, he remains impoverished and unable to record new material on account of his financial shortcomings. To show their support for Treacy, and aid him in returning to his feet, My Favorite and all the other bands performing at the benefit will be donating the proceeds directly to Treacy. Current touring itinerary for My Favorite, including the benefit show:

07-30 New York, NY - Sin-E (Television Personalities benefit concert, w/Baskervilles, Insomniacs, Ira Robbins, and The Mad Scene)
08-12 Los Angeles, CA - Tangiers
08-13 Los Angeles, CA - Silverlake Lounge
08-14 Oakland, CA - Mile High
08-15 San Francisco, CA - Hotel Utah