Friendship, the Philly-based band of Dan Wriggins, Michael Cormier, Jon Samuels (JR Samuels), and Peter Gill (2nd Grade), will release their next full-length, "Love the Stranger," worldwide on Merge Records in 2022. Friendship released the EP "F/v Hope" on Philadelphia's Sleeper Records, and LPs "Shock out of Season" and "Dreamin'" on Orindal Records in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Like its sprawling lyrical references, Love the Stranger’s production is both familiar and capacious enough for pedal steel, synth strings, airy folk guitar field recordings, and MIDI pad exploration to work in vital harmony. Influenced by Friendship’s punk and indie peers as much as road-star forebears like Lucinda Williams and Lambchop, Wriggins says of the recording sessions: “We all got to stretch out, chase our personal musical fixations, and build on each others’ work. Bradford Krieger, our engineer at Big Nice Studio, has a mind-blowing creative energy and hundreds (thousands?) of instruments.” He recalls further: “I wanted the album to sound like Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band in the ’70s. Pete wanted it to sound like a semi full of spent fuel rods, barreling towards a runaway truck ramp. Jon kept reminding us that the studio is an instrument, and Michael wanted it to sound like the breakdown two-and-a-half minutes into Shuggie Otis’ ‘Strawberry Letter 23.’”

Lee Ritenour, Friendship, Terry Collier

Lee Ritenour

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