Television Personalities - My Dark Places

Eight years since the last album, The Television Personalities new LP - My Dark Places (due 2/27/06), has really grabbed me. I had read about the band for years, but am hearing their music for the first time today. I knew they were willfully shambolic, and am familiar with various spin offs and bands that cited them as influences. I get the sense that they were so influential that coming late to their music, it sounds derivative of devotees like The Beat Happening, Felt, Mark Stewart, and The Pastels, but also something boldly silly.

"She Can Stop Traffic" recalls The Beat Happening "She's a Godsend" - a longtime fave. The whole LP has a raw honesty.

I also have the pleasure of hearing it 5 days before release, having picked it up for $0.49 in a local store, the CD housed in a plain white sleeve with only the cryptic scrawl "TVP My Dark Places" to identify it. Luckily, I'd read a rave review, and was on the lookout.

Frontman Dan Treacy has a curious story, trouble with drugs, believed dead, then writing a harrowing blog from prison before this comeback. Not sure where the prison posts are, but he's still blogging. And his fanbase seems committed.