Unlikely Friends - We Blast Last CD

Bill Clinton (2019)

Unlikely Friends put out yet another CD.  Still waiting for some vinyl from these guys, but at least they aren't putting out cassettes.  This one is a limited edition album that contains twelve cover songs of other Pacific Northwest bands.  It's a pretty fun idea and they manage to tackle some bands that I really love.  That some of them are pretty under the radar or perhaps forgotten by the sands of time is just a bonus.

I'll start out by saying that I can't believe there's a Flop cover on here.  Flop was such an incredible band, but they are also one that I fear is being lost as time goes by.  Unlikely Friends cover "Hello" and while I personally would have picked "Anne" they do a tremendous job with this incredible track from & the Fall of the Mopsqueezer.  Whereas on the Flow version the song starts off acoustic, Unlikely Friends gives it the barbershop quartet treatment before the guitars roar in.  I love it.

Over the course of the album, Unlikely Friends pay tribute to some incredible bands and songs including "Is This Real" (by the Wipers), "Your Asterisk" (by Halo Benders), "In The Summer" (by Fastbacks) and "Ontario" (by The Posies).  I could really list every song on this CD.  There's not a dud in the bunch and it showcases Unlikely Friends talent of adapting themselves to the sounds of some very different bands.  It looks like the CD is sold out, but you can still download the digital version for Name Your Price on Bandcamp.

Unlikely Friends - We Blast Last:
https://unlikelyfriends.bandcamp.com/album/we-blast-last-a-love-letter-to-the-fabulous-bands-of-the-pacific-northwest

Unlikely Friends - Crooked Numbers CD

Swoon (2018)

I had mentioned how much I enjoyed this Unlikely Friends album when I posted my year end list of my favorite records of 2018.  I hadn't written about this album prior to making the list as I hadn't yet purchased the CD.  I kept holding out hope that eventually it would receive a vinyl release.  Unfortunately that never came to pass, so I grabbed the CD version.  All that did was make me wish there was a vinyl release even more.

I love Unlikely Friends.  As I was a pretty big fan of the band Boat, I eagerly follow D. Crane (or Dee Krain - whatever his name actually is) when the first Unlikely Friends album Solid Gold Cowboys came out (also only on CD...).  As great as Solid Gold Cowboys was, Crooked Numbers raises the game even higher.  It's simply a tremendous album of indie rock with a powerful 90s feel to it.  You could easily name check Pavement, Built To Spill, Superchunk, Guided By Voices and many others and while that would put you in a decent frame of reference, none of them truly describe what Unlikely Friends sounds like.

The way the guitars intertwine with the vocal melodies and the incredible lyrical imagery is something very unique to Unlikely Friends.  They are releasing some of my favorite music, I just wish someone would release this incredible music on vinyl.  This is an album that deserves it and Unlikely Friends are band that deserves to be significantly more famous.  Definitely check this one out.  Heck, I'm even considering buying a 2nd copy as the cardboard sleeve of my CD split apart in shipping.

Unlikely Friends - Crooked Numbers:
https://unlikelyfriends.bandcamp.com/album/crooked-numbers

Unlikely Friends - Solid Gold Cowboys CD

Jigsaw (2015)

While I don't have nearly the ill will towards CDs that I have towards cassettes, I still don't really like buying them anymore.  It just doesn't really feel like I own the record the way I do when I pick up something on vinyl.  That being said I have so many CDs, many of which never came out on vinyl, so it's not like Unlikely Friends are going to be lonely on the shelf they end up on.

This is the only record that ended up on my Absolute Best Records Of 2016 list that I hadn't reviewed prior to sharing the list.  They reason?  Because it only came out on CD.  I kept putting off buying the record in the hopes that eventually someone would press it on vinyl.  It was available as MP3s.  Then as a cassette.  Then as a CD.  I figured that vinyl should surely be just around the corner, but it never happened.  Maybe it will someday.  If it does, I will buy immediately because I love the record.

Featuring members of another favorite band of mine, Boat, Unlikely Friends are plugging away with a similar stain of catchy and quirky indie rock.  Kind of like Pavement, Archers of Loaf and Built To Spill all mixed up into an upbeat guitar pop.  The lyrics are somewhat irreverent, the vocal melodies soar and musically the band branches out and takes chances, but they never sacrifice the hook while trying to do something weird.

Essentially this is just one of the best indie rock records of the 1990s that came out in 2015 by mistake.  I hope this doesn't signal the end of Boat, because I would hate to see those guys stop putting out records, but I'm happy to get some more Unlikely Friends records as well.  Though they really should do vinyl next time.

Unlikely Friends - Solid Gold Cowboys:

https://jigsawrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pzl072-unlikely-friends-solid-gold-cowboys