With a sound blending hard rock guitar, country-influenced confessional lyrics, and an unmistakeable talent for melody, the self-proclaimed “four dumbasses from West Texas” who comprise Dexter and the Moonrocks have coined a genre of their own — “Western space grunge” — and, with songs that would sound perfectly at home in ’90s Seattle, helped fuel the current rock revival on the Billboard charts.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
After making its alternative radio breakthrough in 2024, the band became a true commercial force earlier this year when its smash, “Freakin’ Out,” spent five weeks at No. 1 on Alternative Airplay, broke onto Pop Airplay and became the band’s Billboard Hot 100 debut, reaching No. 33. It’s one of fourteen tracks on Dexter and the Moonrocks’ debut full-length, Friends That I Don’t Like, out October 2 — the full tracklist of which the band reveals exclusively to Billboard here.
Two tracks on the album pair singer James Tuffs’ magnetic vocals with a featured guest who is a country-rock kindred spirit of sorts for the band: Treaty Oak Revival on the already released “12 Steps,” and Avery Anna on “Why Don’t You Say So.” The searing duet for Anna and Tuffs — which the band, with its trademark sense of humor, teased on Instagram with a promise that it will “bring back the 2000s divorced dad rock era” when it comes on album release day — gives the rising country star a prime showcase for the rock goddess vocals she’s memorably demonstrated on her cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” and her own “Blood Runs Thicker.”
Drummer Ryan Fox (better known simply as Fox) recently told Billboard he was a fan of Avery Anna’s, and he soon learned that the feeling was mutual: When they first communicated via social media, she’d already made a few TikToks with “Freakin’ Out.” “I started talking to her and she was like, ‘Oh, I love dad rock, I love Limp Bizkit, all these bands,’ and I was like, ‘Man, I love this idea that we’re [both] almost corrupting the country space.’” After asking her to hop on “Why Don’t You Say So,” the cut happened within 72 hours, according to Fox. “I was super stoked for it — to me she sounds like Hayley Williams, like Seether meets Evanescence meets Paramore.”
With big ambitions — “we get to set the tone of what this culture is going to be, what rock music is going to be, for the next three to five years,” Fox told Billboard ahead of the album release — the band will set out on a tour of theaters and festivals across the United States, Canada and Australia September 24, continuing through February 2027. See the full Friends tracklist below.
FRIENDS THAT I DON’T LIKE TRACKLIST
1. Don’t Wanna Be High
2. Mull It Over
3. Said What I Said
4. Why Don’t You Say So (feat. Avery Anna)
5. It’s A Lot
6. Complacent
7. Let It Hurt
8. 12 Steps (feat. Treaty Oak Revival)
9. Under The Weather
10. Space Invader
11. If You Could Talk
12. Freakin’ Out
13. Embarrassing
14. Outro (Is DeMar DeRozan Dexter?)
