Louisville tonight, Steve Albini forever

 Happy May, friends!

We're playing Portal in Louisville tonight, May 24th, with Whores. and Bad Wires! Come on out; we'd love to have you there.
Tickets HERE!

Speaking of tonight, we're playing a song from our second album BILL to honor our friend and collaborator, Steve Albini, who passed away earlier this month on the 7th. We've been reeling from the grief, and feel that playing loud music—especially music we tracked together—is the best way to honor who he was.

We had the pleasure of making BILL with Steve in late 2017. We spent a week with him at Electrical Audio hammering out thirteen songs to two-inch tape—an ambitious endeavor that he led handily. We had both loved his work as a musician and engineer for years and doing that project with him exceeded all hopes and expectations. Steve was a warm, funny, accommodating collaborator, one from whom we learned too much to list. Contrary to reputation, he earned every bit of the co-producer credit he has on that record; we were actually surprised by how involved he got. We loved and welcomed all contributions, of course.

Beneath the profound grief we know we share with countless people the world over, lives our gratitude for having had the experience at all. We could have only talked about it and never actually done it. But we did do it. We went. We made cool shit with a hero and legend who became a friend. And now we’ll miss him forever. We offer our love and condolences to all who lost him. If you haven't listened to his last album, To All Trains by his band Shellac, go do so immediately. It was released ten days after his death and is a stone-cold masterpiece.

We'll have more to say about making BILL with Steve in the coming months, but for now, we're off to Louisville!

Thank you for being here; we hope to see you tonight!
Buick & Jerry, FC

December 10th Live Stream from Exit/In!

Friends!

We have one more thing for you this year and it's a full-volume, full-impact live stream show one week from today! We're going to play the stage of Nashville's legendary Exit/In! For those who have seen the video for "Stonechild," it's that amazing stage! We'd be so honored to have you in attendance from wherever you are! It will probably be our last live performance for a little while. Get tickets HERE.

Speaking of "Stonechild," Talkhouse published an essay Buick wrote about writing and releasing the song, and about the cultural responsibilities of making work about someone else's life and death. We hope you enjoy it.

Buick also had a live conversation with Robin Little Wing Sigo of the Suquamish Tribal Council on November 25th! Robin graciously spoke to Buick about the impact of Stonechild's death on the Tribal community, the systemic racism involved in the still-unfolding story, and all kinds of other things. We've made the video available on Youtube and you can also find it below!

As always, we'd love to send merch to you or anyone you think deserves the gift of FC this holiday season! We're happy to gift wrap stuff, too - just send us a note when you order!

We are so incredibly grateful to all of you for your support and attention. It's been difficult to be off the road for all of this year, but we have so appreciated being able to stay connected with you in this and other ways. May 2021 bring us more opportunities to see one another. 

We send you love and solidarity!
Buick and Jerry
Friendship Commanders

New Videos / Merch / Rolling Stone!

Dear community!
Thank you for your kind attention and support over these last few weeks! We're so grateful for the reception of "Stonechild" and "Your Reign Is Over." We want to share this piece that Rolling Stone (!!!!) did about it. Unreal!
 
Last week we premiered the video for "Stonechild" at Brooklyn Vegan! You can watch it below. Jerry wrote, directed, shot parts of, and edited it. The narrative shots were performed by Austin Strobel; the performance shots were done at Nashville's EXIT/IN, one of our favorite independent venues, and one that is in danger of closing without support. We hope you enjoy it! And this week on Election Day, we released the lyric video for "Your Reign Is Over"! Also below!

Today is another beloved Bandcamp Friday, which means fees are waived for artists. We do have merch for the new release, and since it's a digital release, we so appreciate all who buy merch to help us offset recording and production costs. All of the merch items come with downloads of the new songs, and the items are all limited edition, only available this time around! Buying the songs themselves is also great!

Last, tonight we're part of a fundraiser for another venue we love, ONCE in Somerville, MA. We're playing a couple of songs live for a great cause. Join us if you're available!

That's it for now. Thank you again for sharing in what we do.

We send you all love and solidarity. The next time you hear from us, we'll have elected a new president. Can't wait.

Our best to you,
Buick and Jerry
Friendship Commanders

Virtual Merch Table 3 today, June 5 - All profits to Black Visions Collective

Hello, friends.

First, an acknowledgment of the lives lost to police brutality and racist violence. Breonna Taylor would have been 27 today. Her absence is unacceptable.
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We are going to do this a little differently today. Today is the third installment of Bandcamp waiving artist fees; we're grateful to them for this generous effort. We have appreciated everyone's kind support of our new record. Today, if you buy anything from us on Bandcamp, the profits will be donated to a group called Black Visions Collective in Minnesota, the home state of George Floyd. Their organizational vision is as follows:
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Since 2017, Black Visions Collective has been putting into practice the lessons learned from organizations before us in order to shape a political home for Black people across Minnesota. We aim to center our work in healing and transformative justice principles, intentionally develop our organization's core “DNA” to ensure sustainability, and develop Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership to lead powerful campaigns. By building movements from the ground up with an integrated model, we are creating the conditions for long term success and transformation.
Black Visions Collective envisions a world in which ALL Black Lives Matter. We use the guidance and brilliance of our ancestors as well as the teachings of our own experiences to pursue our commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and violence. We are determined in our pursuit of dignity and equity for all.
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If you feel moved to buy our work today, that's who you'll be supporting. Thanks for your consideration.

Second, for today, all of our digital releases will be "pay what you want." If you have it to give, please do, but if you don't, we'd like to remove the financial barrier to the extent that we're able. Our record, Hold On To Yourself, is dedicated to anyone living with—or who has lived with—abuse. We understand that persons living in abusive situations might not have access to funds, due to age or financial abuse. We'd like the music to be free to them at this time.

Last, we appreciate all who virtually attended our first crack at a live stream last month! We had a great time! We are partnering with two independent venues for live streams this month. They are listed below. If you'd like to be updated about our virtual shows in the future, make sure you're following us on Bandsintown; the shows will be listed there.

We will be pausing the essay series, About the Songs, for the time being. There are more pressing actions to be taken in the name of equality, equity, and accountability.

We hope you are well, and that you will take whatever actions you can to be anti-racist going forward. It requires all of us. We will do the same, in humble service to the memories of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the many others whose lives have been taken—the number is too great. It is unacceptable. Black lives matter.

We appreciate your continued support, now and always.
In solidarity,
FC

UPCOMING LIVE STREAM SHOWS

June 13 - via Westside Bowl - Facebook Live - 8 pm EDT

June 27 - via ONCE Somerville - YouTube Live - 8 pm EDT