So my apparent "friend" got me sick. She's a terrible, terrible person. She might or might not have had conjunctivitis. She might or might not be one of the other posters on this blog. She might or might not blow her snotty diseased nose all over me after she reads this. She is not a very good friend in this respect. You know who are great friends though....
The Friends are great friends indeed. If great friends make fantastic, energetic and polished sounding pop music, then The Friends are great friends. If great friends are actually wonderful, interesting and funny people, then The Friends are great friends for sure. If great friends never give you a runny nose and persistent headache but rather sooth your nerves with sweet, sweet music, then The Friends are definitely great friends. The Friends are really the best around. If you're under the weather, they will tuck you into bed and make you Cup'O Noodles. If you need some cheering up done, they will go out and find you a puppy with a bow around it's neck. If you're stranded in an crack den in Cleavland, they will barge in, finish the rest of your rocks, and then get you both out safely. I hold them all to this. Really, The Friends might just be lifesavers.
Complied of Gangster Legs buddies Jonathan Rosen, Luke Hamel and a plethora of other equally awesome and talented guys and gals, The Friends are hard at work on an album. But in the meantime, they put on the funnest shows around these parts. They literally tie on your dancing shoes for you. If that's not the sign of a good friend, then I really don't know what is.
They are going to blow up so big, ya'll don't even know. So seriously get your "I knew them then" stories straight now before they become famous. For example:
"Oh yeah man, I was in like, two classes with Luke back in college." "No way dude, that is SO cool. They're like, majorly successful musicians now!" "Dude, I KNOW. But they're so chill. Jonathan was like, one of the first people I met there too. I totally heard "Fell in Love With A Ghost" in it's early stages like, out on a fire-escape at a dorm party. So chill." "Whoa! That makes you so much cooler." "Yeah, I know" (End Scene)
If you can, check them out in Annandale on March 13th @ 8pm. They're playing with The Americans, The Evan Uhlmann Band and The Sparrows, all very friendly acts as well. If you can't truck through the muddy pathways, consume some XXX, and dance your skinny little ass off like everyone else there will be, pacify your sadness of missing that AMAZINGLY GOOD TIME by downloading these tunes:
I Fell In Love With A Ghost
Howl
The River Motel
Joseph and Mary
Posts
Beth: I would have made you Cup O' Noodles if you had asked. I'm not a mind reader. -Emily
ReplyDeleteHere is an interview I did with The Friends sometime in late 2008.
BARD BANDS
A Great (Too?) Many Friends
In the beginning, there were two. Then, eight.
By Emily Diamond
The Friends are a campus band with too many members, too much humility, and not nearly enough credit for the patience it takes to play with eight people. I met with the two founding members, Jonathan Rosen and Luke Hamel, to talk about the group. Zachary Seman, another member, sat nearby and said nothing. The boys have beef with the makers of Chumby (kind of like a small computer) and need a label. Read this and consider signing them.
FREE PRESS: When did you guys get together, you two?
Jonathan Rosen: Sexually, or politically? We got together at the beginning of freshman year of college. We were both really into Creedence Clearwater at the time, so the idea was just to rip them off.
Luke Hamel: We sound nothing like them.
Jonathan: So we wrote a song that ripped them off and after that we started sounding completely different.
Luke: We’ve known each other since sixth grade and we had a band in high school together.
So why did you decide to add the other six members? It was going pretty well with just the two of you.
Luke: Last year it was just a recording project. It was just us two, so we’d have all of our friends, like Zachary Seman, come and play on the recording. We were planning on this year putting together a live band so when people were recording I’d be like, we’re putting together a live band next year you guys should just play with us. And six other people agreed.
Who are the most prominent members of the band?
Luke: Zachary Seman and Kelsey [Shell] on the recordings.
Tell us about the actual process of writing the songs.
Jonathan: It all depends on different songs. Our chord progressions are generally really easy. So I will just start messing around with a melody over it. The lyrics will always come last. The songs are personal,--quasi-metaphorical.
Luke: I play guitar, I do a lot of the lead guitar parts, if not all of them. But in the recordings, on “I Fell in Love With a Ghost” and “Joseph and Mary” I played all the instruments on it.: bass, guitar, piano, drums.
That is not possible to do all at once.
Luke: I actually just have a lot of arms. That’s the only way to do it.
Jonathan: He has a lot of arms. Maybe seventeen. He has a lot of idle arms during the show.
Do you have any influences, besides CCR?
Jonathan: CCR, we are no longer citing them as an influence.
Good, I don’t think you sound like CCR.
Luke: I just have to mention The Beach Boys. I write the harmonies and I fucking love The Beach Boys.
Jonathan: Other than R. Kelly, my main influence is Paul Simon. I don’t know if it manifests itself in my songs but he is my favorite songwriter of all time.
Let’s get into aesthetics. Why do you dress the way you do?
Jonathan: We are kind of the pioneers of our generation’s fashion. Luke’s kind of got the “I just woke up in a pantry” look—because he lives in a pantry. And Zachary Seman’s got the acid wash jeans look.
You do wear those a lot.
Luke: Yeah you do!
Zachary Seman: You like them.
Jonathan: And I wear Gap Kids boxers. And Zachary Seman wears Old Navy.
Where do you see your music going in the future?
Jonathan: Getting better.
Luke: The recordings need to start sounding better, that’s me. They need to sound like the people I love, and I’m not that good of a producer yet. And we need to find our own voice as far as production goes. We don’t have much uniqueness yet.
Do you guys have the goal of being signed by a label?
Jonathan: A couple of weeks ago Luke and I went down to New York City with the one ambition of getting singed by the biggest label in the world. Really any of them. We got out of the train station, walked straight to the Sony building with our shitty looking demo.
Luke: We taped a recorded CD in paper with our pictures on it in black and white.
Jonathan: I don’t really remember what happened.
Luke: I remember exactly what happened. It’s a long story. Actually, I’m not a good story teller.
Zachary: I’m going to New York City guys. (Gets up and leaves.)
Luke: Are you back this weekend?
Zachary: I’ll be back tonight at like 4AM.
Jonathan: Call me!
Luke: I don’t think I want to tell the story.
Okay. Is it hard being best friends, and living together, and being in the same band?
Jonathan: The common misconception is that Luke and I can actually stand each other. I hate him.
Luke: It’s only musical. We never spend any time together. It’s his character.
Jonathan: When you put this in the interview you have to make it clear that this is a joke.
No.
Jonathan: Luke and I love each other. We really do.
Who do you think, of the two of you, is more important to the band?
Jonathan: I’d say Luke.
Luke: Definitely Jacob. He really ties it all together.
What with the economy being so bad right now, do you foresee a lot
of layoffs in your band?
Luke: We should fire Jonathan.
Jonathan: Desperate times call for desperate measures. We might have to downsize. I might not be in this band come tomorrow.
Luke: The good thing is that all our recordings were made for free so we aren’t losing any money if people steal our music.
Jonathan: Ooh! We should mention that two of our songs were on a commercial for Chumby. What is Chumby?
Luke: It’s…I don’t know.
Jonathan: Chumby is this mysterious product that we still have no idea what it is but this woman solicited us saying that she would like to put our music on the website for Chumby.
Luke: She promised us a couple hundred bucks.
Jonathan: And all we got were two free Chumbys.
Luke: Which I have never seen.
Jonathan: We don’t know what the fuck a Chumby is.
Luke: This woman was a friend of Kelsey’s, this is how it all got set up. So Kelsey got the Chumbys. And Kelsey has stolen the Chumbys.
Jonathan: The commercial is like, sort of impressive.
Luke: I have got to say, our music works well to sell things.
Jonathan: Particularly Chumbys.
It makes me feel happy.
Jonathan: Thank you. Are you going to put a fat picture of either our faces or genitals in the article?
Yes.
Visit The Friends on MySpace at myspace.com/thefriendsrock and on Facebook. Although they do not have any shows before winter break, be on the lookout for spring performances.