Hear ‘Any Kind of Crowd,’ the New Single from R.E.M. / Sleater-Kinney Supergroup Filthy Friends
Just a month after releasing their most recent recording, Filthy Friends — the new supergroup featuring Sleater-Kinney singer/guitarist Corin Tucker and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck — is back with another new song.
Titled "Any Kind of Crowd," the track made its debut on the Feb. 28 episode of The Best Show With Tom Scharpling. A press release reports a physical release is set to follow in the form of a limited-edition 7" single that's scheduled as part of the lineup for this year's Record Store Day festivities, with a cover of Roxy Music's "Editions of You" tabbed for the b-side.
Filthy Friends' lineup is rounded out by longtime associates of Buck. Scott McCaughey, Kurt Bloch and Bill Rieflin have worked with him in McCaughey's collective the Minus 5, and McCaughey and Rieflin have toured with R.E.M.
"Any Kind of Crowd" follows "Love in the Time of Resistance," a song recorded for the recently issued Battle Hymns compilation curated to benefit the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and 350.org. The group's recent flurry of activity comes as something of a nice surprise for a collective initially described as a "one-off" after their debut performance at the Todos Santos Music Festival in early 2016.
The new song also represents something of a slow thaw in Buck's attitude toward making music for money. Disillusioned after years of working in the major-label system as part of R.E.M., Buck shared his frustrations in an interview early last year, looking back on his relief after the band's decision to part ways and making no bones about his reluctance to get back in the industry. "I hate the business," he shrugged, "and I didn't want to have anything to do with it."
Check out "Any Kind of Crowd" at The Best Show's website — the song begins roughly five minutes into the show.
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