Though many assume Soldiers of Fortune function as a conventional band, the collective insists otherwise, proudly identifying as an "anti-band" devoted to creating music while avoiding songwriting, rehearsals, and studio releases. They have fallen short only on the final prohibition, executing the first two aims with surprising consistency. At once an "anti-band," Soldiers of Fortune also operate as a de facto supergroup assembled by Brad Truax of Home and Interpol. Truax launched the project in 2004 alongside his friend Marc Moore of the Ospreys, intending to pursue extended jamming free of typical hippie excess. Moore suffered a fatal head injury several months afterward, yet the endeavor continued when Mike Bones of Oneida offered to replace him. Soldiers of Fortune expanded, whenever the urge to perform struck, into a full roster that incorporated Bones’ Oneida colleagues Kid Millions, Papa Crazy, and Barry London along with Jesper Eklow of Endless Boogie and Matt Sweeney of Chavez and Zwan. Sporadic live appearances persisted despite the absence of formal band structure until Mexican Summer Records convinced the musicians, in 2011, to commit the album-making transgression. The resulting four-song, 37-minute Ball Strenth (deliberately spelled that way) captured their approach for posterity. Lightning struck once more in 2015 when the group entered the studio for another round of high-impact jams released as Early Risers; on this occasion several guest vocalists participated, among them Stephen Malkmus, Cass McCombs, Dan Melchior, and Clark “Yeremias” Bronson.
