Although their name adopts an Anglicized spelling, the Favourite Sons function as a Brooklyn-based band. Singer Ken Griffin hails from Ireland, while the remaining members trace their origins to Philadelphia’s late-’90s space rock scene; the group’s present form, however, resides in New York City’s most hipster-oriented borough. Griffin launched his career during the shoegazer period when the Dublin-born vocalist and guitarist assembled Rollerskate Skinny, an underrated outfit forever labeled bandwagon jumpers largely because its lead guitarist was Jimi Shields, younger brother of My Bloody Valentine leader and semi-retired sonic perfectionist Kevin Shields. Guitarist and keyboardist Justin Tripp, guitarist Carmine Degennaro, bassist Matt Werth, and drummer A.J. Edmiston previously belonged to the Philadelphia psychedelic pop group Aspera (aka Aspera Ad Astra), which issued several albums near the turn of the millennium amid peak “Psychedelphia” attention. Following the departure of singer Drew Mills after Aspera’s poorly received 2003 album Oh Fantastica, expatriate Griffin united with the newly relocated former Aspera members in 2004 to establish the Favourite Sons. Eschewing Aspera's psychedelic flourishes, the band adopted a blend of shoegazery guitar drones and tightly wound dance rhythms in the manner of the Strokes, crowned by Griffin’s son-of-Iggy Pop vocal style. In 2005 the Favourite Sons issued singles on the Gold Standard Laboratories and Loog labels along with a live EP; their full-length studio debut, Down Beside Your Beauty, appeared on Vice Records in fall 2006.
