Friendship Commanders’ new full-length album »Mass«, co-produced by Kurt Ballou (Converge) out now; fall tour kicked off this Saturday!
Nashville, Tennessee based heavy rock duo Friendship Commanders presents their third full-length album, »Mass«, which was just released on September 29th, 2023.
Tracklist:
01. Blue
02. Fail
03. High Sun
04. Vampire
05. Still Life
06. We Were Here
07. Distortion
08. A Retraction
09. Move
10. Dissonance
Produced by Friendship Commanders & Kurt Ballou.
Recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou at GodCity, Salem MA.
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
Courtesy of Clarion Call Media:
Nashville heavy duo Friendship Commanders are excited to release their highly anticipated third album »MASS« on Trimming The Shield, along with an essay collection by the band’s Buick Audra, »MASS: Essays on Memory, Language, & the State of Massachusetts« (order).
Listen to »MASS« on all digital platforms!
The album arrives after the release of recent acclaimed singles »Blue«, »Fail«, »High Sun«, »Vampire« and more. The tracks caught the ears of writers at outlets such as The Big Takeover, CREEM, CVLT Nation, Everything Is Noise, Guitar World, Loudwire, No Echo, The Talkhouse and many others.
To celebrate the release, Friendship Commanders will kick off their extensive North American tour on Saturday, September 30 in Knoxville, TN at Brickyard. The upcoming tour will include shows in Raleigh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco and more. The band has also ann a hometown show on December 8 at DRKMTTR in Nashville. A full list of shows is listed below and tickets can be found HERE.
Photo by Anna Haas
»MASS« is a concept record about memory, language, and the state of Massachusetts. The project was written after the suicide of songwriter Buick Audra’s longtime friend. The ten-track body of work presents a series of true stories, snapshots of experiences that Buick lived through and has come back to address.
Of the collection, she says: “I was in a position to look back on my time in Massachusetts, a place I’m not from, but was moved to several times throughout my adolescence, and where I lived for some of my early adulthood. What I found, was new awareness and vocabulary around events that had once confused and injured me – and some that have shaped me to this day. I never expected to make this work, but after Marc died, this was where my mind went, and I just let it run. I had blocked some of it out, but once I started to write music about it, it all showed up. My bandmate Jerry Roe and I co-produced the album with Kurt Ballou, and it was recorded and mixed by Kurt at his God City Studio in Salem, Massachusetts. It was intense to return to Mass to make the record there, but we think it was the perfect choice, sonically and personally.”
While the project is autobiographical, it invites the listener to ask themselves about what they understand of their past, and how that knowledge colors their present.
Jerry Roe says, “I met Buick after nearly all of the events, times, and places that inspired this album took place, but I’ve come to know the stories intimately and it felt very special to bring these songs about them to life. Musically, I’ve never felt more at home. This new body of work combines all of the things I love most. It’s heavy, very melodic, intensely emotional, and somehow simultaneously fun and heartbreaking. Very proud of what we all made together from Buick’s work.”
The album’s sequence is designed to carry the narratives. The opening track, »Blue«, sets the table for the whole project by rejecting the idea that staying – whether in a relationship or a place – is the superior move. It also promises that if someone is living in a chapter they don’t know how to leave, they will. The next track is »Fail«, an anthem about inadvertently failing who we love wherein Buick openly grieves the death of Marc Orleans. »High Sun” takes the listener back to some of the events that turned Massachusetts into a dark place for her, including two episodes where she was mistreated by peers while onlookers did nothing. »Vampire« kicks against the grip of a dominant personality. »Still Life« echoes what Buick was told when she spoke up about imbalances she witnessed. »We Were Here« names the fear Buick long carried as a result of her Boston years: that she was unlovable. »Distortion« lists the things she felt she had to say about herself and her story to blend in with everyone else, always feeling that being different was a problem. »A Retraction« stands up to apathetic former friends while stating that if she ever told them she loved them, she didn’t. »Move« reminds the listener that they are always allowed to leave. And at the end of the album, the music falls away for »Dissonance«, a spoken piece about the many things she hoped the listener was able to hear and see during the course of the record.
The artwork for »MASS« and its related singles was done by Buick Audra using the cyanotype printing method, a choice chosen to illustrate how her memories have been colored by trauma, all blue. A limited edition of hand-numbered and signed cyanotype prints will be made available with the album, as well as an essay collection by Buick Audra (»MASS: Essays on Memory, Language, & the State of Massachusetts«), prose that further explores the narratives and themes of the music.
Friendship Commanders Tour Dates:
09.30 – Knoxville, TN @ Brickyard
10.01 – Gainesville, GA @ Blackstrap Rock Hall
10.05 – Asheville, NC @ The Odd
10.06 – Raleigh, NC @ Ruby Deluxe
10.07 – Richmond, VA @ Get Tight Lounge
10.08 – Charleston, SC @ Tin Roof
10.11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Century
10.12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Squirrel Hill Sports Bar
10.13 – Baltimore, MD @ The Undercroft
10.14 – West Akron, OH @ Buzzbin
10.15 – Kalamazoo, MI @ The Run Off
10.20 – Catskill, NY @ The Avalon Lounge
10.21 – Allston, MA @ O’Brien’s
10.23 – Detroit, MI @ The Old Miami
10.25 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s
11.01 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The DLC
11.02 – Reno, NV @ Alturas Bar
11.03 – Portland, OR @ Azoth Space
11.04 – Vancouver, BC @ Black Lab
11.05 – Seattle, WA @ Funhouse
11.08 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
11.10 – Long Beach, CA @ Supply & Demand
11.11 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewing Co.
11.12 – San Diego, CA @ Til-Two Club
11.14 – Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot
11.15 – Tempe, AZ @ Yucca Tap Room
11.17 – Houston, TX @ Kickback Bar
11.25 – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl
12.08 – Nashville, TN @ DRKMTTR
“Consisting of singer-guitarist Buick Audra and drummer-bassist Jerry Roe (who’s also an in-demand session player with credits on a ton of country projects), Friendship Commanders nod to the sludgy, stoner-metal sensibilities of Kyuss and Sleep in their thundering anthem about injustices. Singer Audra’s ethereal delivery is more otherworldly and haunted than lacerating – an approach she favors on Friendship Commanders’ other releases” – Rolling Stone
“Buick Audra’s riffs carry the weight of doom and sludge metal, but her crystal-clear, melodic singing is as approachable as anything on ’90s alt-rock radio.” – Brooklyn Vegan
“Friendship Commanders needs to be much bigger than it is right now.” – Metal Injection
“This Nashville duo marries gritty fuzz and weighty rhythms with a glittering melody on “Blue” that is somehow bringing together all of the love and despair in my memories and inviting them to share the same space.” – CVLT Nation
“Co-produced by Kurt Ballou – a byword for gloriously filthy tones – this three-and-a-half minute riff blast from the Nashville heavy duo melds the worlds of ’90s grunge and contemporary sludge-metal in seamless, devastating fashion.” – Guitar World on »Fail«
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well