On May 3rd, Filthy Friends—the supergroup featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, King Crimson’s Bill Rieflin, The Minus 5’s Scott McCaughey, and The Fastbacks’ Kurt Bloch—will release their sophomore album, Emerald Valley. The LP follows 2017’s Invitation, and is today being previewed with the lead single, “Last Chance County”.
The propulsive, punk-inspired tune deviates from the group’s traditional songwriting methods. Filthy Friends’ debut record found Buck writing the music and Tucker penning her own lyrics before adding her vocals and guitar. “Last Chance County” offered the opportunity for a more collaborative writing process, with Tucker bringing chords and self-described “bratty vocals” to Buck and the duo developing the song’s chorus together.
Tucker explained the song’s inspiration to Rolling Stone:
“It’s about a teenage girl riding the bus through a depressed Northwest town in the 1980s, a version of myself and the frustration I saw there… Riding the bus to work, I saw people struggling to make ends meet and make sense of their lives. It’s disheartening that 30 years later, the struggle for working people might be even greater.”
Listen to the track below.
Filthy Friends’ Emerald Valley is currently available for pre-order. The album serves as a tribute to Tucker’s childhood home of Eugene, Oregon. Explained the singer, “It’s a beautiful, green, lush valley filled with hippies, yuppies, loggers, farmers, migrant workers all trying to make a life for themselves… We try and paint a picture of that for people.”
Following Emerald Valley’s release on May 3rd, Filthy Friends will hit the road to promote the new collection. The band’s upcoming month-long tour begins on the West Coast before routing through the South and the Northeast. Find the group’s full itinerary below.
In related news, Tucker’s other outfit, Sleater-Kinney, is gearing up to release its own new album later this year.
Filthy Friends 2019 Tour Dates:
05/09 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
05/10 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre
05/11 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
05/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
05/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
05/17 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
05/18 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
05/19 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
05/20 – Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall
05/21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
05/23 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
05/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
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