My Favorite
Catching up with My Favorite; photographed by Jenny Panic.
Big news from Death Party Records boss Michael Avishay as he has moved label operations from LA to NYC, relaunching the DIY imprint with the new 7″ from cult legends My Favorite, premiering their nu-school-romantic a-side, “Christine Zero”. Re-emerging since originally disbanding back in 2005, Michael Grace Jr.’s new lineup includes vocals from Jaime Allison Babic (known previously from Dansettas and Nouvellas, and work on Grace Jr.’s The Secret History group during My Favorite’s break), her husband and guitarist Joseph Babic, with saxophone and additional vocals from Stephanie Cupo release their 7″ b/w “Killed For Kicks” May 3 that continues a legacy that began in Long Island in the 1990s. The new recordings point to a new beginnings from the band that once upon a time gave us the John Peel christened single “Go Kid Go/Absolute Beginners” where the tales of wild & dangerous liaisons and lessons of love, loss, lust, & woe run imaginative arrangement gamuts that only the most skilled musicians can sequence & execute properly.
And like the already much lauded sophistication of “Kill For Kicks”, Michael Grace Jr.’s self-described death disco & purgatory pop of the addictive, alluring, & strangely alarming “Christine Zero” matches the powers of wills with revelations of powerless impotence (or ineffective). Boulevards of crashed-car rundown dreams are delivered in imagined Avalon era jacuzzi mansion parties where sordid details of fatalistic fronts & events are sung & hissed like the character of a jaded interloper crashing the bourgeoisie cocktail party. “Forever and ever until the crack of doom, I will see you in each shadow that’s crawling the room,” Grace Jr. delivers with a ghoulish bag of emotional unease calling out the name of the name of the song title’s subject of affection and anguish. Michael and Jamie duet back and forth through the song’s synth-rich arrangements that create the effect of two voices calling out into the void between two worlds. Don’t miss our following candid conversation with Michael Grace Jr.
Describe the resurrection of My Favorite. How does it feel now, versus say the feelings you all had as a group from years back…
I don’t even know where to begin trying to answer that. We started My Favorite when we were 19 and could barely play, and broke up over a decade later just as we were beginning to capture people’s attention on a broader scale. But those are tough years to be alive in general, just trying to figure out who you are and where you belong. Near the end it was just strange playing festivals in Sweden, and then returning to a small rented room in Queens on your own. Each success had an exponential aftershock in the form of anxiety and self-doubt for me. I formed the band in the suburbs as an art project for beautiful losers etherea, my friends and my imaginary friends. And the songs were suppose to be homing signals. Then we were playing shows with some of the big NYC bands of the early aughts, in front of A&R people, and if there was one thing I knew about myself at that time, it was that I wasn’t a rock & roll star. So it just got tough to manage my depression and isolation spiked with these really strange waltzes across the spotlight. I was the de facto leader of the group, but I really just wanted to live in a pillow fort on the floor. So I sort of lost it, and my relationship with certain members of the first empire of My Favorite never really recovered. Now it’s ten years later, and I have acquired a certain acuity, a toughness that comes from not only surviving depression, but from surviving New York City. And I have stories to tell, and new ideas as to how to tell them. And that’s what this second empire is all about. There’s a bit of light back in my eyes, and I feel like the magician again. I like to imagine Brian Ferry in 1981, sauntering into a cocktail party knowing he still had one more trick up his sleeve than everybody else.
The other aspect is, I now know that it won’t last forever. It’s important to be present, to surround yourself with collaborators that believe in you, that take pleasure from what we do. Things are just more vivid now, more urgent…and I think that makes the art better. You get older and people’s expectations of life and art get smaller…but I’m not sure our dreams do.
My Favorite’s Michael Grace Jr. & Jaime Allison Babic; photographed by Jenny Panic.
Tell us about the perspectives and sentiments that were involved in creating tunes like “Christine Zero” and “Killed For Kicks”.
Hmmmm… “Christine Zero” is death disco. Purgatory pop. What could be of more use now? It’s about the desires and illusions, not only of our youth, but of our country’s. That is to say, it’s really a song about power and powerlessness within many systems. From your naked body to your naked dreams. The creeping sense that your world is being spun by invisible hands. I think that’s in the s & m pulse of the music as well as the words. Plus my vocals are likely to terrify small children, and I take a certain pleasure in that.
“Killed For Kicks” is one of those songs where you try to establish a slightly new aesthetic that announces your intent to fuck with people. The foundation of rainy My Favorite is there, but it’s the gauche 80s plastic soul elements that I love. And I particularly love them now, because now the plasticity in our culture is so pervasive you can barely even perceive it anymore. So I think something like a Xanax sax or DX-7 synth stab can be like smelling salts. Plus, I want to be the Nick Carraway of indie…and I suppose “Kicks” is what I think that sounds like. In all seriousness, both those songs are deeply-felt walks across rooftops, but that’s really a private thing to be experienced in the dark with headphones on. I just hope people do.
My Favorite has been a cult band to many fans and other artists or bands. I guess we want to know what cult bands are on MF’s top of the charts sorts of lists?
Well…many is a relative term, but I think the quality of our chums is quite high. As far as cult bands I love…well I think The Velvet Underground are like the King David of cult groups….legends now, but that took a bit of time to occur. Other acts like The Smiths, The Cocteau Twins—even Steely Dan—are hugely important artists. But their fan bases—to which I certainly belong—are clannish and devout and misunderstood by everyone else, so I think they qualify.
John Coltrane is a cult artist to me. I mean, he has his own church! Felt are patron saints of the cult indie band. Momus the cult synth pop band. I think Unrest understood the aesthetics of the cult band…while I think Comet Gain understood the pathos of it. And in their own way Public Enemy are a cult band. This answer could go on forever. I think I only like cult bands.
The cover of My Favorite’s 7″ via Death Party Records.
What can you tell us about the next set of My Favorite recordings?
We’ve written and rehearsed the rest of the record and we’ll be continuing to record all summer. I think it’s an interesting balance of the sounds we explored in the past and certain things people are not going to expect. I like how the aesthetics of certain signifier—like goth, for example—can feel like an initiation to younger listeners , and a requiem to older ones. I went into this reinvention expecting it to lean heavily towards electronic music, but the final balance between man and machine is probably just where it should be: a standoff. I’m really proud of what we are doing. I think all the members of My Favorite have brought something special to what is, at its core, a dire collection of songs about growing up, growing older, and trying to outrun your own shadow. I think it’s the kind of record that could help people remember the things about themselves they aren’t quite ready to surrender. So let’s get on with it!
Other notes from Long Island and elsewhere you can leave us with?
Well, we are really starting to spread out as a band. Soon we will have outposts in Brooklyn, Jersey City, Bennington, and Bayville. The entire Northeast will have agents poised to act. Speaking of Long Island, I was doing a little research, reading the Wikipedia page for the murky lake at the center of my hometown (Lake Ronkonkoma), and it actually said that the lake was “rumored to have no bottom,” and “its depressions to be gateways to Hell.” I think that explains a lot about My Favorite. It’s always been sink or swim.
The new My Favorite 7″ ft. “Christine Zero” b/w “Kill For Kills” is available now from Death Party Records.
