Friendship
WE’RE NEW HERE
Wry songs about videogame addiction and landscape gardening from indie/ country contenders
Friendship: (l–r) Peter Gill, Michael Cormier-O’Leary, Dan Wriggins and Jon Samuels
CHARLIE BOSS; KARLY HARTZMAN
“I FEEL like we’re still figuring it out, because it’s not a simple formula,” says singer-songwriter Dan Wriggins, attempting to explain Friendship’s unique chemistry. “We all have certain strengths and disparate influences, but not enough for it to be totally contradictory. We’ve always been an Americana band, but also much more than that.”
Ten years in, the Philadelphia-based quartet have long outgrown their rugged alt.countrybeginnings. Latest album Caveman Wakes Up – their fifth overall – makes space for soulful grooves, Mellotron, woodwinds, piano flourishes and the odd string arrangement. At its heart is Wriggins’ downcast baritone and wry wordplay, elevating the everyday to poetic levels of abstraction in a manner that recalls Vic Chesnutt, Songs:Ohia or Will Oldham. “We all love people like Jason Molina, Lambchop and Bill Callahan, and it comes through plenty,” says Wriggins. “But there’s others that are not in that universe. On Caveman Wakes Up, there are a number of beats, basslines and rhythms inspired by Motown or Stax. And Peter [Gill]’s lead guitar doesn’t really feel like indie-rock or country.”