Riding a crest of renewed interest in '90s alt-rock, Weakened Friends channeled those touchstones into a distinctive snapshot of life in one's mid-twenties. The Portland, Maine trio surfaced toward the end of the 2010s, earning an early accolade and securing a SXSW slot ahead of issuing their first album. That 2018 debut, Common Blah, showcased how the rhythm section underpins buoyant melodies carried by Sonia Sturino's expressive vocals.
Sturino initially conceived the project simply as a vehicle for her own songwriting. After parting ways with Box Tiger—the group she and drummer Cam Jones had both played in—she teamed with bassist Annie Hoffman to launch the new trio in 2015. Sharing a house and practicing in its basement, the three quickly generated material; their debut single, "Won Yet," surfaced that same year and was followed later by the Gloomy Tunes EP. The six-track Crushed EP arrived in 2016, bringing enough attention to win the band the Best Unsigned Artist of the Year Award at the 2017 Boston Music Awards and another invitation to the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
Building on that visibility, they released "Hate Mail" as the opening preview of their full-length debut, which included a guest appearance by Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis. Despite growing recognition, the members maintained separate part-time employment: Sturino at a glass-cleaning firm, Hoffman at both the Berklee College of Music and Zippah Recording, and Jones in a Portland kitchen. Between those obligations they still completed writing and recording the album, whose sonic resemblance to '90s alt-rock acts such as Veruca Salt was offset by Sturino's vivid treatment of failed relationships, giving the songs a fresh, present-day edge. Hoffman herself produced and engineered Common Blah, which Don Giovanni issued in 2018.
