Friends of Mine (20th Anniversary): Vinyl 2LP Adam Green

Capitane Records will re-issue Adam Green’s Friends of Mine in recognition of the album’s 20th anniversary. For fans of Green and his band The Moldy Peaches, it may be hard to believe that it’s been twenty years since those days of the early 2000s when the indie rock world was set ablaze by a new generation of artists, performers, and songwriters. Within what felt like only a few months, bands like The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Libertines, and The Moldy Peaches, provided indie music audiences with fresh iterations and interpretations of the rock and roll canon, with influences that included both standard bearers like The Velvet Underground, Television, The Stones, The Doors, The Stooges, Leonard Cohen, The Modern Lovers, and Bob Dylan, and also more recent artists like Beck, Daniel Johnston, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, Pavement, and The Silver Jews. The results varied between straight up rock and roll and punk with a songwriting, folk-inspired, consciousness. Gone were the ripped-up jeans and flannels of yore. Tight trousers and leather jackets ruled the day. It was on the heels of the success of his band The Moldy Peaches (who signed along with The Strokes to Rough Trade Records in 2001 and subsequently toured with them) that Adam Green wrote and recorded Friends of Mine, the seminal album that would define a new direction in his career.

Diverging from the home-recorded, 8 track-analog framework of his previous albums, Green adopted what then seemed like a distinctly hi-fidelity sound, complete with a full band, crooning vocals, and a string section (with arraignments by Jane Scarpantoni). Friends of Mine drew on the work of Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker, and Frank Sinatra, while its lyrical content felt as if derived from symbolist poetry and the surrealism of Brecht and Dylan. The result was something altogether new, a record that could feel both touchingly sad and also sardonic, satirical, louche, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Songs like “Jessica” would become anthems to a new generation of young indie rock fans both in the United States and Europe. Capitane is proud to release Friends of Mine as a double LP, with a second disc of outtakes, B-sides, and live versions. This deluxe edition features notes on the songs by Green, a text which provides new insights into his often cryptic lyrical methodology along with anecdotes from the days when these songs were composed. Also featured is a conversation between Green and Dan Myers (producer), Steven Mertens (bass player), Matt Ramono (drummer) and Larissa Brown the time). The five old friends do a deep dive into the production of Friends of Mine and trade stories of the bygone era. The 2023 edition of Friends of Mine is a window into an essential part of our recent past as well as a testament to an artist who has stood the test of time.

Tracklisting:

A1. Bluebirds
A2. Hard to be a Girl
A3. Jessica A4. Musical Ladders
A5. The Prince’s Bed
A6. Bunnyranch
A7. Friends of Mine

B1. Frozen in Time
B2. Broken Joystick
B3. I Wanna Die
B4. Salty Candy
B5. No Legs
B6. We’re not Supposed to be Lovers
B7. Secret Tongues B8. Bungee

C1. I Wanna Die (demo)
C2. Friends of Mine (fragment 1)
C3. What a Waster
C4. Hard to be a Girl (demo)
C5. Eating Nod demix
C6. The Prince’s Bed (demo)
C7. Kokomo (With Ben Kweller)
C8. Born to Run
C9. No Legs (demo)

D1. Jessica (demo)
D2. Salty Candy (Live)
D3. Bungee (demo)
D4. Were not Supposed to be Lovers (demo)
D5. Friends of Mine (demo)
D6. Jessica (Live)
D7. Frozen in Time (demo)
D8. Bluebirds (demo)
D9. Friends of Mine (fragment 2)