Filthy Friends have announced the release of their second full-length album Emerald Valley, out May 3 via Kill Rock Stars. They released the first track “Last Chance County.” The first releases from Filthy Friends, features some of the most original musical voices of the past three decades, including Sleater-Kinney co-founder Corin Tucker, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and indie stalwarts Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch.

The core idea came from a demo Buck shared with Tucker for a grinding blues song that eventually turned into this new album’s title track. The minute she heard it, Tucker says, it sparked something within her: “I had this long poem growing in my brain,” she says. “It turned into a sort of manifesto about the kind of place we are at as a country but also as a region. Just taking stock of where we’re at and feeling like I can’t believe we let things get this bad.”

While Emerald Valley s tarts off with idyllic imagery (“Rolling fields, they speak your name/vibrant green is here again”), the album and its title track slowly reveal the ugly underneath, with human arrogance and hubris hurting the Earth and the people who take on “backbreaking work for little pay.”

From there, the Friends address growing concerns over oil production and distribution (“Pipeline”), gentrification and income inequality within the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon (“One Flew East”), and taking on the voice of the desperate souls that are getting crushed under the wheels of capitalism (“Last Chance County”). The band paints these themes with many different shades of the rock palette, nestling a snapping punk tune between a bit of jangly pop and an almost-shoegaze ballad, with stops along the way for songs that burn as hot and move as slow as lava and tunes that stay steady and fast as a rocket launch.

Filthy Friends
Tour Dates

May 9 – Seattle, WA – Neumos *
May 10 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre *
May 11 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios *
May 13 – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Hall *
May 14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo *
May 17 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
May 18 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
May 19 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
May 20 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
May 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
May 23 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
May 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg

* = with The Eyelids