Album Review: Surfbort – Friendship Music

Surfbort are set to release their debut album, Friendship Music, on June 7th through Cult Records and Fat Possum Records, their reputation has preceded them, even across the Atlantic, as they have been delivering explosive live shows that have laid waste to venues across the US since 2015. Surfbort are led by the charismatic and explosive front woman Dani Miller, who is backed up a trio that includes former members of Fuck Emos, Fakers, Ice Balloons, Verbal Abuse, The Motards and Headache City, together they create a soundtrack that is unlike anything else I have encountered in 2019.

Friendship Music constantly shifts between the heavy grunge, discordant punk rock and dirty garage, everything on this sprawling seventeen track debut is delivered in a lo-fi style that at a casual listen recalls a collision between early L7 and X, but there is much more to Surfbort than that. Surfbort possess an experimental side that sends tracks heading off at unexpected tangents, something that ensures Surfbort‘s debut full length is anything but predictable. Throughout Friendship Music there are the ever present vocals of Dani Miller, like the music she constantly shifts in style, alternating between deadpan, seductive and confrontational, but there is always a ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude to her delivery that adds a cutting edge to Friendship Music.

Surfbort have already gained the endorsement of X‘s John Doe, Blondie‘s Chris Stein and the legendary Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers, who has appeared in two of their videos and has also performed with the band live under the name Butthole Surfbort. It’s not hard to see why outsiders from the music scene have endorsed Surfbort, everything about Friendship Music embraces that outsider ethic that has always been at the core of everything and everyone that has mattered in alternative music, and if you ask me Surfbort matter. Friendship Music is not your run of the mill radio friendly punk album, this is grit and guts that lies at the heart of punk rock, it’s challenging, unpredictable and occasionally uncomfortable.

Surfbort‘s website is here and they can be found on Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify

Friendship Music can be pre-ordered and pre-saved here