Real Friends, Can't Swim, Carly Cosgrove, Slow Joy

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Michael Herrick

The five members of Real Friends.

Real Friends

It’s Monday and what better way to shake up the beginning of the week than by taking in this quadruple bill at the High Noon? Headliners Real Friends continue to infuse elements of pop into hard grunge with their latest, this year’s Blue Hour. New Jersey’s Can’t Swim, Philadelphia’s Carly Cosgrove and Dallas’s Slow Joy (the solo project of Esteban Flores) are all much in the same vein — loud pop rock mixed with generous helpings of emo and shoegaze.

media release: Slow Joy’s new studio EP, Mi Amigo Slow Joy, was released on June 7, 2024 via Mick Music. The EP was produced by Mike Sapone (Oso Oso, The Front Bottoms, Grouplove) and follows 2023’s Wildflower EP. Flores’ growth as a songwriter and musician can be heard throughout the four new tracks, an accomplishment he credits Sapone for helping him to achieve.  In addition to the change of perspective and the sonic growth, it was important to Flores that the EP’s visuals and title reflect his Hispanic heritage and culture. “Naming it Mi Amigo Slow Joy is like, ‘Hey, this is rock music. It’s serious, and it's important, and it's me.’ And one thing that is me is being a Mexican-American person, and being proud of that culture, and showing it off.”