Friendship Commanders comes to you all today baring sludgy riffs, pummeling drums, and deeply personal lyrics. The band is now streaming "Fail" from their upcoming record Mass due out September 29. The record was co-produced, recorded, and mixed by Kurt Ballou (Converge) at his GodCity Studio, and you can grab your pre-order here. As an added bonus, Mass is accompanied by a memoir in essays by vocalist and guitarist Buick Audra, who had the following to say about "Fail".
"Fail" is dedicated to Audra's late friend Marc Orleans (Sunburned Hand of the Man, Spore, Juneau, Enos Slaughter), who died by suicide.
"I was in my late teens/early twenties when I first met Marc," said Audra. "We were both playing in bands and making art in Boston. Our friendship was so easy and uncomplicated, and when I look back at that time, I realize how rare that was for me then. The rest of my story up there was intense and even traumatizing.
"His death has brought me an unbelievable amount of grief, but also the confirmation that I knew and loved him when he was here—and I sure as hell hope that he felt known by me in his lifetime. Losing him has made me aware of who I want to be to the people I actually care about, and who I want to spend less energy on. It's been illuminating in a number of ways, but mostly, I just miss him. I respect his decision to die, but I might be sad about it for the rest of my days. I wrote this song to speak to him from here."
The video for "Fail" was shot and directed by drummer and bassist Jerry Roe, who says, "Buick wrote a careful and loving song for Marc that's also really energetic and fun to listen to. We wanted it to be a heavy rock song that he would have enjoyed. In making the video, I wanted to honor all of those things, while respecting him and his decision to leave."
