dog eyes, the lo-fi Oakland duo of Davis Leach and Haily Firstman, want to talk about friendship. 

holy friend, the pair’s sophomore release – announced today & their first for Grand Jury Music– is a gentle 10-song ode to all types of relationships, an examination of the effect we have on the most important people in our lives.  It’s a cornucopia of hushed & humble mini-epics. Across the record, there’s ethereal twee on “fair,” patient slowcore on “rusty, my dog,”  mossy indie folk on “drive”  and economical bedroom pop on “moment,” available everywhere today. 

As Firstman puts it, “the ‘Holy Friend’ as a concept, creates an ideal person from scraps of perfection/the divine we find in flawed places. Hopeful, yet grounded, the “Holy Friend” is a testament to the idea that age brings nuance. Something bigger than the sum of its parts that helps guide us, rooted and reflected in the nuance of friendship.”

The band wasn’t nearly as conceptual with their debut, good, proper send off, which they self-released in 2022. “Our vision for ‘good, proper sendoff’ was a lot more pared down and simple,” says Leach. Where good proper send off was a record filled with field recordings, fuzzy radio static and fragile folk, holy friend levels up the ambition and expands the sonic horizons. On August 16th, Grand Jury will release that document, a limited edition cassette featuring holy friend on the A-side and good, proper send off on the B-side.

01 crush
02 firsts
03 rusty, my dog
04 drive
05 fair
06 moment
07 nothing at all
08 go together
09 ties
10 holy friend
[PRE-ORDER CASSETTE]