Common Blah is the debut full-length by Portland, Maine’s Weakened Friends and it’s scheduled to be released on 2nd November via Don Giovanni Records. Founded by songwriter Sonia Sturino, bassist Annie Hoffman, and drummer Cam Jones in 2015, the trio is a low pressure outlet for emotionally volatile music. Engineered and produced by Hoffman and perfected over the last year, the record broadcasts heavy feelings amid screech and feedback with little more than a distortion pedal to clog up the signal chain.
The band unveiled the single “Blue Again“. The single illuminates the frustrating process of draining your own energy by trying to please others; as Sturino explains, it’s a song about “how tempting it can be to just follow suit and do what you think others would want from you, in art, life, careers, politics, etc., and all the insecurities, anxiety and feelings of worthlessness that can come with that.”
For Sturino, writing in Weakened Friends is more of a physical process than a mental one. “I have to feel the vibration or sound coming out of my body. I need the physicality to do it, to enjoy singing it,” she says. “People probably hear the vocals and think, ‘she just puts on that weird voice,’ but it’s really just what comes out. It’s my body making that sound.”
On Common Blah, Weakened Friends use volume — instrumental and emotional — to reassert a sense of control in a time when daily life has slid out of tune. The album also features guest shredding by peer and kindred spirit J Mascis on the song “Hate Mail.”
The band will be in Europe for a few shows, dates below:
Oct 30 – Paris, FR – Pitchfork Music Festival
Oct 31 – Brighton, UK – The Hope & Ruin
Nov 02 – London, UK – The Old Blue Last
Common Blah Tracklist:
1. Peel
2. Waste
3. Blue Again
4. Early
5. Hate Mail (feat. J Mascis)
6. Aches
7. Common Blah
8. Younger
9. Not Doing Good
10. Good Friend