Concert News

Friends Announce Debut Album and Tour

• 3rd May 2012

After blazing out of Bushwick in 2011 with two buzzworthy singles and a reputation for turning live gigs into spontaneous DIY parties (and vice versa) – Brooklyn’s Friends will release their debut album Manifest! June 4th on Lucky Number.

The album was produced by the band – singer Samantha Urbani, multi-instrumentalists Lesley Hann, Matthew Molnar, and Nikki Shapiro, and drummer Oliver Duncan. They recorded its twelve tracks between last summer and this spring with engineer Daniel Schlett at Strange Weather studios in Brooklyn.

Manifest! aims both to live up to and to defy the promise of those singles – “Friend Crush” and “I’m His Girl” also feature here – over the course of a thirty-eight minute long player. “Va Fan Gor Du” is a rowdy, swear-y rebuke to the come-ons of passenger-side hanging scrubs (and a longstanding set-closing live killer). “Sorry” floats in on a breezy rush of instantly familiar tropical pop. “A Thing Like This” is gorgeous and groovy, a love letter to a bygone era when they used to write ‘em like that all the time. And yet, the album’s climax, “Mind Control” still surprises – mixed by Paul Epworth, it sums up the seditious streak of Manifest!, mixing superfly bass, slinky synth, crybaby wah, bongo solo and group chants, and closing out this subversive and self-assured album on a riotous high.

And, with Friends selling out their Scala show next week, they have also just announced more UK dates in June, including the Dot to Dot festival in Nottingham and another massive headline show at Dingwalls in Camden. If you missed their earlier sold out shows, make sure you don’t miss them this time round.

With Friends selling out their Scala show next week, they have also just announced more UK dates in June, including the Dot to Dot festival in Nottingham and another massive headline show at Dingwalls in Camden. If you missed their earlier sold out shows, make sure you don’t miss them this time round.

5th May – Leeds, Live at Leeds Festival
6th May – Newcastle, Digital
7th May – Glasgow, King Tut’s
8th May – Manchester, Academy 3
9th May – London, Scala
10th May – Brighton, The Great Escape Festival
12th May – Birmingham, Academy 2
14th May – Bristol, Thelka

2nd June – London, Field Day at Victoria Park
3rd June – Dot To Dot, Nottingham
4th June – Rough Trade East instore, London
6th June- Dingwalls, London
8th June – Liverpool, The Kazimier

17th August – Leicester, Summer Sundae