Friendship Commanders Focus on Healing in 'What You Ravage' [Fresh Vid]

Friendship Commanders don’t play around when it comes to volume. When I saw the Nashville duo of B. Arson and Jerry Roe about a year ago at Radio Cafe, I could feel my chest cavity vibrating from the sheer sound pressure pumping from Arson’s twin-amp guitar rig and radiating off the drum kit Roe had set up to one side of the stage, turned to face her. It seems important to them to come through loud and clear, whether they’re playing to pump up Southern Girls Rock Campers or participating in activism efforts that align with the model of respect for human dignity that informs Arson’s songwriting. 

Today, we’re very pleased to premiere a music video for a fine example of that ethos that also extends into the very personal. “What You Ravage” is from the group’s 2018 LP Bill, which they co-produced with the legendary Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. The track showcases the band’s penchant for heavy riffs, relentless drumming and soaring melodies as Arson looks back on a chapter in her life that closed in a painful way, as a longtime partner ended their relationship over a two-hour phone call.

“Through the whole thing, I just kept painting the blue wall I had started before the call,” she says in an email. “I have since felt like that blue wall has part of me painted into it; some part of my heart, but also my refusal to give into the gravity of grief; that facet of who I am has kept me alive many times. I wanted to tell the story of the wall here, and and also about how we’re all walking around with invisible scars and injuries. Do no harm.”

Above, see the video for the song, directed by Matthew Sterling. In it, a knife — typically an instrument of violence — is used in self-defense, to carve out a place to lay a fractured relationship to rest. It had to be damaged in order to be repaired, and it’s a reminder that we are all neither universally strong nor hopelessly fragile. We're all in this together and we need to take care of each other, even if the way to do that is to let go of each other and move on.

You can grab a copy of Bill at your favorite record store or via Friendship Commanders’ site, where you can keep up with all the latest from the duo. You can also get your organs rattled in person when they play at The High Watt on April 4, on a show that doubles as an album release for HER. Advance tickets are $10 and available now.