Listen Here: Friends

Listen Here: Friends

07 February, 2012
by: Domzig

Delta 5 meeting Janet Jackson

Can you believe that the Rapture’s ‘House of Jealous Lovers’ is 10 years old next year? Exploding on to the world’s dancefloors like an atom bomb back in 2003, it literally changed the indie scene over night, inspiring a generation of kids to abandon the slow, plodding rock of bands like Oasis and rediscover the disco-friendly funk-punk of bands like ESG, Liquid Liquid and Gang of Four.

Nine years on and the bandwagon has been jumped on so much it’s a surprise that the old thing still runs, let alone produces bands as good as Friends. Consisting of five Brooklyn-based uni kids who met in 2010 through a mixture of poverty, serendipity and bedbugs, they’ve become something of a phenomenon over on New York’s live scene playing some pretty high profile slots down at the Bowery Ballroom as well as this fun-looking outdoor show last summer.

Now, it’s undeniable that some of that recent success is probably down to the fact that they look like they’ve stepped straight from the pages of Vogue circa 1993, but even the most hard-hearted pop hater has to admit that their dancefloor-friendly anthems built from disco, hip hop, funk, electro and no wave influences are more infectious than the Ebola virus. You have to take your hat off to a band that can pull off sounding like the Delta 5 meeting Janet Jackson whilst keeping their street cred intact.



Easily the stand-out band in the BBC’s recent Sound of 2012 picks, the future seems super bright indeed. With their last single ‘I’m His Girl’ exploding over dancefloors in a similar way to The Rapture’s masterpiece and the Youtube video closing in on 500,000 views (not bad for an independent release) the band are in London this week for a couple of shows at the Lexington and XOYO. Tickets are pretty hard to come by, but if you can get hold of one, you should. These guys could easily be the next CSS.

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Domzig