Photo: Julian Bajsel

Gilligan Moss teams with Holiday87 on “New Best Friend”

The name โ€œGilliganโ€ makes me think of two buddies on a tropical island, just like Gilligan and The Skipper on the 60s sitcom Gilliganโ€™s Island. Only this time itโ€™s Gilligan Moss and Holiday87 (The Knocksโ€™ Ben Ruttner) chillinโ€™ on a track called โ€œNew Best Friendโ€, which sounds like a funkier Tame Impala. The song imparts a joyous sense of well-being, like youโ€™re enjoying a glass of wine on the beach in Martinique.

Gilligan Moss consists of Ben Cronin and Evan Dorfman, who first met years ago in a preschool class in Chicago. The duo recently wrapped up a tour supporting ODESZA, and their previous single โ€œLove Songโ€ was enthusiastically received in both the US and UK.

Keeping up with Ruttnerโ€™s many record labels can be challenging. He created both the Black Clay and HeavyRoc Music labels, but โ€œNew Best Friendโ€ comes to you courtesy of Foreign Family Collective.

The Knocks will be a headliner at this summerโ€™s Lollapalooza in Chicago, fueled by the worldwide success of the groupโ€™s HISTORY album from last year (which makes my short list of Five Best Albums of this decade).

Says Gilligan Moss: โ€œโ€˜NBF came about on a writing trip with our friend Ben (Holiday87, The Knocks). It was a very natural-feeling collaboration and unlike many of our other songs, most of the parts came quickly then all at once. Itโ€™s a tune about how we locate ourselves through the trends of our time, and the inevitability of the clock moving forward. The lyrics were written while eating a large Cafe Panna ice cream sundae.โ€

Listen to โ€œNew Best Friendโ€ below, or find it on your streamer of choice.


โ€œNew Best Friendโ€ is out now on Foreign Family Collective.

Follow Gilligan Moss on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Follow Holiday87 on Instagram and Twitter.