Texas alternative rock quartet Dexter And The Moonrocks have released their long-awaited debut album Friends That I Don’t Like, arriving alongside a new music video for Why Don’t You Say So, featuring country star Avery Anna.
Released via Severance Records/Big Loud Rock, the 14-track album marks a major milestone for a band whose rise has accelerated dramatically throughout 2026. Built on guitar-heavy rock, driving rhythms and the grit of grunge, Friends That I Don’t Like draws heavily on the group’s West Texas roots while continuing to blur the boundaries between alternative rock, country and their self-described Western Space Grunge sound.
Dexter And The Moonrocks (Derek Hockemeyer)
At the centre of the release is Freakin’ Out, the breakthrough single that has transformed the band’s profile over the past year. The track became their first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 33 within a month, while also taking them to number one on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart.
The song has subsequently surpassed 300 million global streams and earned Dexter and The Moonrocks their first RIAA Platinum certification. Its momentum has also taken the band to late-night television, with their debut performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon adding another landmark to an extraordinary year.
Now, Friends That I Don’t Like places that breakout success within a much broader album context. The record opens with Don’t Wanna Be High before moving through a collection that combines raw guitar energy with more reflective moments. Mull It Over, Said What I Said and It’s A Lot establish the album’s rock-forward character, while Complacent and Let It Hurt add further emotional weight.
The collaboration with Avery Anna, Why Don’t You Say So, provides one of the album’s key crossover moments and arrives with a new official video. The track is followed by 12 Steps, featuring Treaty Oak Revival, while Under The Weather, Space Invader and If You Could Talk further demonstrate the range within the band’s debut. The album ultimately circles back to Freakin’ Out, before closing with Embarrassing and the tongue-in-cheek Outro (Is DeMar DeRozan Dexter?).
Avery Anna @ Electric Ballroom
For guitarist Ryan Anderson, the album represents the culmination of a process the band has been building towards for years. “We’ve been waiting a long time to do an album. We always knew the moment had to be perfect for us to do it, and the timing couldn’t be better,” Anderson says. “The making of it was the most fun the four of us ever had, and I think you can hear it in the songs. This collection of tunes is the most ‘ourselves’ we have ever been, and we couldn’t be more proud of it. It’s pure, unadulterated Dexter.”
That sense of identity is central to the record. Dexter And The Moonrocks have developed their Western Space Grunge approach by combining the attitude and weight of alternative rock with the musical heritage of their Texas surroundings, creating songs that can move between hard-edged riffs, melodic hooks and country-inflected textures without settling comfortably into a single genre.
The band’s story is remarkable for its speed as much as its scale. Barely five years ago, the Abilene, Texas quartet were playing to fewer than 50 people at a local watering hole. Their audience has since expanded into packed venues across the United States, fuelled in part by the viral success of their music across social media.
Before Friends That I Don’t Like, the band released the Happy to Be Here and Donkey Flats EPs in 2025, following earlier success with Western Space Grunge and Sad in Carolina. The arrival of Freakin’ Out in 2026 then pushed their music to an entirely new audience, generating billions of combined views across TikTok and Instagram while driving millions of streams.
That online momentum has translated directly into the live arena. Dexter and The Moonrocks have spent recent months on a major headline tour, playing packed venues across the country, including a recent performance at the Palladium in Los Angeles.
The band’s audience reflects the broad appeal of their sound, bringing together rock fans, country listeners, metalheads and younger audiences discovering the group through social media. It is a crossover that mirrors the music itself: rooted in rock but deliberately resistant to genre boundaries.
With Friends That I Don’t Like, Dexter And The Moonrocks now have their first full-length statement to build upon that momentum. The album captures a band moving rapidly from Texas bar rooms to national stages while remaining focused on the distinctive combination of attitude, melody and heavy guitars that has defined their rise.
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