As we sit here and write this, we can’t helping thinking, “Man. So many of our favorite bands have stayed together so long. Why can’t ours stick it out?” It’s true: Superchunk, Sloan, fuck... even the Rolling Stones. Bands we look up have yet to call it quits, and are still making records, touring, and perhaps, chasing after their own tail.
But in that same instance, we think of the ones that didn’t last. Chisel. Archers of Loaf. Velocity Girl. The list of the obscure, forgotten, or the ones who quickly ran out of steam, could go on and on. Still, these are bands that had a moment in time; sure, they may have been here and gone, faster than the on/off click of a stopwatch. But these are the bands that have never reformed to cash in, and instead cashed out while they still had some dignity left in them. Indeed, as much as we love them, the aforementioned bands in the first paragraph certainly have some things to be embarrassed about in their later years, right? (Ed note: Admittedly, Here’s To Shutting Up only seemed like it sucked when it came out... now, it sounds pretty good to these old ears).
Now, we’re hardly putting ourselves in the same class as some of our heros. But it’s with that sentiment in mind that we, Friendly Foes, posthumously, give you Liz, Ryan, & Sean -- our final recordings before we tuck our little baby into bed one last time. At the time that we decided to break up, we weren’t sure what we wanted to do with the songs that we had been working on -- as far as we knew days earlier, they were still intended for that elusive second full-length album... one that so many great bands never get to make (and if they do, to the naysayers, it’s almost always a letdown). And as conversations happened, preparation for our final shows took place, and realizations that our friendships would prevail through this, we decided the songs were too important to us to go unrecorded and unheard.
So this is Liz, Ryan, & Sean. Our free, final gift to you; a token of our gratitude for paying even the least bit of attention to our band. Sure, we may not have had a schtick, and we know that playing pop music with 1 guitar, 1 bass, and 1 drum set wasn’t reinventing the wheel, but we never quite cared about that shit anyway. To us, it was always about the songs. Faster. Slower. Harder. Softer. Louder. Quieter. Neater. Nicer. Meaner. Bitter. Sweeter. Better. Liz. Ryan. Sean. And that’s what we think we did with these final four on Liz, Ryan, & Sean. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we did writing and recording them, and that we’re as fond a memory for you as the band will be for us.
Thanks forever,
Liz, Ryan & Sean
FRIENDLY FOES
