"Some say God is in the water / Not for all of the bad daughters / Maybe there's a place for us / With drier shores and less distrust..."
The tragedy and torn promises of loving one another ripples through "DEAD & DISCARDED GIRLS" by Nashville-based alt rock melodic duo Friendship Commanders, and from their fourth album "Bear" out now on Magnetic Eye Records, is a heavy metal laced, grunge dipped elegy. Inspired by the unthinkable and 'written partially about the death of Reena Virk, a fourteen-year-old girl who was murdered by her peers in 1997, and partially about the question of why people need to relate to someone’s plight to have empathy for them', this song equally inspires deep reflections on our society and how we are failing as parents. Sonically, the song erupts with big guitars as if powerhouse Buick Audra has stacks of Marshall amps daisy chained together and drummer Jerry Roe's artful heavy hands somehow sound thoughtful in terms of the emotional resonance. I think I am detecting a tonally different snare sound that for me has less big rock snap and more low end thunkiness or earthiness like a mondo drum (lest my ears are deceiving me) but I am feeling a grounded-ness that appeals to me especially for this song.
Buick Audra's vocal countenance is blistering and worn like she sang the lyrics many times scorching her vocal chords / throat and given the subject matter, you feel the distress, the sadness. My wife and my first born was a boy followed by two girls. It is difficult to explain how terrifying it is to be a man and feeling the utter unease about how to protect them (in our case) from men. There are obvious, in our fucked up culture so many violent, evil men and in thinking about the various stories of groups of girls bullying and even killing other girls, it suggest to me that they were likely broken, abused by males. I have know people who had horrible fucked up abusive fathers, most of the time they become empathetic but sometimes they go the other way.
“I learned of Reena’s story through the work of Rebecca Godfrey, who wrote a book about this horrific event, and I was struck by this tale of exclusion, violence, and ultimately death that befell a kid who just wanted to fit in. I know it well, and I also know how little empathy women and girls are sometimes able to extend to their own kind. I’ve felt it all my life. In this track, I’m trying to say, look at what we do to each other. I recorded the vocals for ‘DEAD & DISCARDED GIRLS’ last year on November 14, in tribute to her. The track spans the broadest dynamics on the whole record, going from an intimate opening to a crushing middle section, audibly reflecting the track’s message: care about someone else; care about her. Reena was drowned, so the song and video are both centered around water.”
Jerry Roe shares:
“I tend to see visuals and work off my gut instinct to begin with when it's time to make a video for a song, but I leaned harder on that than anything else this time. Rather than get overly specific or directly reference what this song was about, I wanted to involve water and the type of foliage that lives around bodies of water. Contrasted against the dark black and blue predominantly slow-motion performance footage that's made to look as if we're underwater ourselves, my goal was to sort of present souls that have been lost to the water as living on underneath and in the earth forever. Not trapped, but there to remind us always of what should be and wasn't.”
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/friendshipcommanders/
https://www.tiktok.com/?_r=1
https://www.facebook.com/friendshipcommanders
https://magneticeyerecords.bandcamp.com/
https://friendshipcommanders.bandcamp.com/album/bear
Friendship Commanders are a heavy duo from Nashville TN. The band is vocalist/guitarist Buick Audra, and drummer/bassist Jerry Roe. Their recent single “And If My Body” challenges the attitudes that led to the dangerous Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The single is the lead track on their new EP, "RELEASE THE REST", a limited vinyl compilation of the singles they have released since their 2020 EP, Hold On To Yourself. The vinyl was released on 12/1/22 and is available now. The band has released two albums. Bill (2018) was recorded at Electrical Audio by Steve Albini, and Dave (2016) was engineered and produced by the band. Their third album will be released in 2023; it was co-produced, engineered, and mixed by Kurt Ballou, and was recorded at his Salem, MA studio, GodCity.
Nashville-based heavy melodic duo Friendship Commanders are loudly presenting their fourth album, BEAR on their new label home Magnetic Eye Records (order). BEAR was co-produced by band members Buick Audra (guitars, vocals) and Jerry Roe (drums, bass) along with their longtime collaborator, Kurt Ballou, who also tracked the instrumental performances and mixed the record. The project is centered around the ever-elusive idea of belonging—where it occurs, and where it absolutely does not.
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