'19 Hard Drive Crash

The '19 Hard Drive Crash refers to the October 2019 day when the PINK HAT® master hard drives suffered a crash, resulting in the erasure of all PINK HAT® recording sessions and masters up to that point. This includes everything from the 2018 Mesa Dog Records Acquisition, and everything from NEW THREADS to Bootleg Live, Vol. 1.

This crash is also cited as a driving force in the creation of The Free Rock Trio. The original demos recorded for the band's then-upcoming studio album Free Rock featured a lightweight sound more in the vein of "Bringing Me Down," which was the original lead single from the record. This songwriting style was abandoned in favor of more improvised and psychedelic jam rock immediately following the drive crash, which destroyed their current demos and forced the trio to start from scratch.

Master Sessions Lost
The following albums' master sessions were lost forever in the crash:


 * Cherry, Maple Cap
 * Live at Last, Maple Cap
 * Metamorphosis, Maple Cap
 * Seymour Butts, Seymour Butts
 * Death in the Afternoon, new threads
 * The Russ Anderson Mixtape, Jacob Keplinger
 * NEW THREADS, new threads
 * Infinity War, Seymour Butts
 * Felonious Wilma, new threads
 * Threadsboro, new threads
 * Bootleg Live, Vol. 1*, The Free Rock Trio

* Tracks 7-9 were recorded after the hard drive crash.