Friendship announce new album ‘Caveman Wakes Up,’ share “Free Association”

Philly indie band Friendship have announced a new album, Caveman Wakes Up, which follows 2022’s excellent Love the Stranger. It arrives May 16 via Merge (pre-order), and lead single “Free Association” is out now. It’s a suspenseful, slow-burning indie rock song led by Dan Wriggins’ ever-somber vocals, and it comes with a Zach Puls–directed video that was shot on Super 8 on a Seaside Heights, NJ boardwalk that was closed for winter. Dan says:

AAnother one about love and other people and how the only hope we’ve got in the search for meaning is to make it up. I was hanging out with the folk singer Kath Bloom years ago in her yard, by the barn, and I think I made a comment on an ancient riding mower she had, and she said, “Yeah, everything we have was given to us.” “Born with a weak heart,” of course, swiped from David Byrne. The Mellotron sax and voice patch were both jokes that we ended up loving. Also the only song with synth bass. We’re proud as hell of the production.

As for the video, Zach Puls directed it. We went to Seaside Heights, NJ. Realized after the fact that Jersey Shore took place there. We were hunting for a lost empire, but I can’t reveal too much.

Check it out below.

Tracklist
1. Salvage Title
2. Tree of Heaven
3. Betty Ford
4. Free Association
5. Hollow Skulls
6. Artex
7. Love Vape
8. Wildwood in January
9. Resident Evil
10. All Over the World
11. Fantasia

Friendship — 2025 Tour Dates
Apr 05 Durham NC – Brickside at Duke Coffeehouse
Apr 06 Asheville, NC – Ayurprana
Apr 07 Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern