Filthy Friends include Corin Tucker and Peter Buck.

Sleater-Kinney singer-guitarist Corin Tucker grew up as a fan of R.E.M. Eventually, the influential alt-rock musician befriended one of her heroes, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. By 2012, both were living in Portland, Oregon. That year, Buck was working on a solo album and invited Tucker to sing on a song.

The collaboration went better than either expected, Tucker said in a call last week from her home in Portland.

“He actually called me and asked me to make an album with him,” Tucker said. The songs the duo began writing in 2012 and 2013 became the basis of Filthy Friends, a band that includes guitarist Kurt Bloch of The Fastbacks, bassist Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows and drummer Linda Pitmon, who plays with Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3. Pitmon replaced Bill Rieflin of King Crimson, who appears on Invitation, released Friday via Kill Rock Stars.

The idea was always to record an album, Tucker said. She and Buck fleshed out the songs before taking them to the rest of the band. They recorded in quick succession.

“It was more about having a good chemistry as collaborators and songwriters and working on songs that we thought were interesting,” she said. “I’ve always loved Peter’s guitar playing. I was a huge R.E.M. fan, so getting to sing with his guitar is a wonderful opportunity.”

Filthy Friends don’t sound much like Sleater-Kinney or R.E.M. The primary creators purposefully wanted to stand out from their previous material, but the unique chemistry from the entire band was also instrumental. Tucker said that without the pressure of a label, she was curious to see what happened in the studio.

“It’s kind of a neat project because there are zero expectations, really, and there’s not really an agenda,” she said. “So we got to try out a lot of different styles of songs.”

Tucker first pointed to the album closer, the title track. She describes the guitar part in the song as ragtime. Overall, the song has a kind of Beach Boys rollick to it. The first song from the project to be released was “Despierta,” as part of the anti-Trump project 30 Days, 30 Songs. It’s an angry, driving song that never lets up. The upbeat “Any Kind of Crowd” came next, released on Record Store Day. The official first single, “The Arrival,” is a bluesy garage rocker, as Tucker snarls, “Got something to prove! Got something to say!” The band Television heavily influenced the lead guitar on “Windmill,” Tucker said, while on “Come Back Shelley, the band added a T. Rex vibe.

“We were definitely under a sort of Pixies sound for the ‘Brother’ song,” she said. “So, we tried a lot of different things. And Peter is such an eclectic person. He’s got so many different influences, and it’s super fun as a lyricist and a singer to try out different styles.”

The Northwest is home to three of the four band members (Buck also calls Portland home and McCaughey lives in Seattle), and its musical heritage and nature is also seeping into Filthy Friends’ songs with influences like the Sonics and the Wipers.

Tucker was the lyricist for all of the songs, pulling from whatever was occupying her mind on any given day. Many of the songs are politically and socially charged. While “Despierta” addresses the 45th president, “No Forgotten Son” is about the murder of Trayvon Martin. The stories she tells could be personal or shared by millions. Right now, the state of the country is weighing heavily on her, Buck and their bandmates. That’s why several songs on Invitation are about encouraging people to speak up and make a stand against injustice and racism.

“For me, it’s [about] finding a voice that has a story to tell,” said Tucker, adding that she will plans to address these topics at Filthy Friends concerts.

“I can’t imagine not talking about it. I think it’s on everyone’s minds right now. It’s just a really terrible time in the U.S., and I think that everyone’s going to be talking about it anyway. … It’s so beyond where I ever thought we would be in 2017. It’s truly, truly unacceptable. We have to speak up and say that we will not tolerate white supremacy in our country. We just have to keep speaking out and demand that our leaders speak up against it, that they don’t just acquiesce because they want to stay in political power.”

Tucker is not sure how much touring Filthy Friends will undertake following an initial handful of dates beginning next week, but there will definitely be a second album, a good chunk of which is already written.

Buck has recorded and released roughly one album per year, all under the radar on small labels, without fanfare. Invitation is the first he’s has actively promoted. How often Filthy Friends can release albums, however, is up in the air.

“Well, I would like to keep going with it, but obviously I have other projects that I do, and I have two kids (a 9-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son), and so these are things we need to work on as well, which is good. I look forward to doing more work.”

Follow Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.