Music, Style & Culture

First On: Friends With Benefits

Their songs are cold, harsh truths put into the most vulnerable light available.

In 1959, nine ski hikers ventured up the Ural mountain range in Western Russia and were found dead days later in an area known as the ‘Mountain of the Dead’. Due to strange paranormal signs found at the site of evidence, Dyatlov’s Pass became something of a subject of intrigue, so much so that it’s become the subject of one of the first songs from a small Chicago dreampop group.

Friends With Benefits’ name might appear trivial, but judging from their interest in the Dyatlov incident and their icy, temperamental style of songwriting, there’s more to them than a mere ode to Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Hugely and obviously inspired by Gem Club, their songs are cold, harsh truths put into the most vulnerable light available. Their recent ‘Six Months’ EP consists of ten hollow minutes of odd pop.