Threadsboro

Threadsboro is the fourth and final studio album by New Threads and the final album in the Threadsboro saga. It was recorded in a storage unit in Smyrna, Tennessee from February to June 2019.

Background and Recording
Immediately after they completed a run of shows promoting Felonious Wilma, New Threads returned to the studio for the next release. During the Felonious Wilma promo cycle, they began playing a new song live called "Everybody Wants to Be Me" that eventually never made an album. While they were performing live with bassist Daniel Suarez, they did not include him in the recording of this album.

The initial concept of the new album- originally titled NEW THREADS II - was that Jacob Keplinger, Justin Siegel, and Jake Burdock would travel 17 hours north to Boston, Massachusetts, and track the new album in a house. Things got off to a rocky start when the band began practicing the new tunes in Keplinger and Siegel's 2nd story apartment and were almost immediately evicted due to noise complaints. On top of that, Burdock's 1993 Chevy Van 20 (better known as Felonious Wilma) began to become more of a headache than the car was worth, and Burdock ultimately sold the vehicle in favor of a red Cadillac Deville. These issues left the newfound trio reconsidering their Massachusetts album, and instead opted to record a small selection of new tunes as part of a Felonious Wilma deluxe package as opposed to a new album outright. They got creative when deciding on where to track the new songs, and decided to convert a single-outlet storage unit into their new studio.

The trio got together as early as February to begin writing and demoing new music. Songs like "There Goes My Mind," "Clean," and "Some Friends" were demoed back in January, quickly becoming relevant again when the band started work in the storage unit in March. The album's darker, moodier tones are certainly thanks to the fact that the storage unit had no heat, and was in the high 30's and low 40's for the first two months of tracking. The unit only had a single outlet, so the band was always at risk of blowing a fuse- both literally and figuratively. But as their small selection of four new tracks blossomed into seven or eight, the band yet again reconsidered their plans. The next iteration was to title the now-standalone album Caddy, after Burdock's new car- but the final title was thought of shortly after.

As the weather began to warm up, the now self-proclaimed 'studio band' became impressively productive, and started to write tracks like "Way Back Home" and "Sunburn" that sounded nothing like the type of music that they had been writing thus far. This was likely thanks to their newfound love of jazz, progressive rock, and fusion, something that propelled both Keplinger and Siegel as writers and as players.

New Threads played a string of shows with bassist Daniel Suarez during the creation of this album, but no new songs were tested live (sans "Everybody Wants to Be Me"). As they got deeper into the album process, the band doubled down on their efforts and stopped booking live performances altogether; their last show was on March 23, 2019 at The Kitchen in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. After this show, the band nearly went silent- other than the mid-April release of the "Strawberry Shake" music video, no word came from the band regarding new material.

Release & Future
On May 17, the band released "Clean," the album's first single. The song was met with good reception, but it was notably darker than anything the band had released so far. No music video was released, but the band did not continue to keep completely quiet about the album. With the single, they announced that their new album would be titled Threadsboro and would release on July 12, 2019.

Less than a month later, on June 7, 2019, the band released the album's controversial second single, "There Goes My Mind," along with pre-orders for the new record. The song was met with very mixed reviews, largely due to its' length. The track was the band's longest yet, with five of the nine total minutes dedicated to a single guitar solo. This track did feature a music video- one that brought viewers directly into the creation of the album. Lots of footage is featured of the band, almost documentary-style, recording in their storage unit studio. Along with the video release, the announcement of Daniel Suarez' re-addition to the band was made, and promo shots taken by Miguel Najera were distributed. However, Suarez does not actually appear anywhere on the album, as Keplinger played all of the bass parts.

The album's third and final single "Sunburn" was released on July 5, 2019. This song became a fan-favorite and helped heal the wound left by "There Goes My Mind," but people were still unsure of the new direction that this album was taking them in. The artwork for "Sunburn" was a direct reference to the "Alcohol" cover, featuring a repainted version of the newly named Sunburn Bass (previously known as the Seymour Butts Bass).

When the album did release on July 12, the album's fourth track "Some Friends" became an instant favorite, and the album's ambitious closer "Way Back Home" was a popular deep cut as well. "Way Back Home" features lyrics that tell the story of a town in Maine called Threadsboro, and features vague themes that would be conceptualized and thoroughly fleshed out throughout Keplinger and Siegel's later studio albums. The song's third movement "Space Jamaica" has left the largest influence, with Space Jamaica becoming the title of the portal used by Rock Anderson to in the Free Rock Saga.

After a brief stint under the New Threads moniker, the Boston lineup of Keplinger, Siegel and cousin James Siegel rebranded as The Free Rock Trio, making Threadsboro the final New Threads album.

Tracklist

 * 1) There Goes My Mind
 * 2) Clean
 * 3) Slight Return
 * 4) Some Friends
 * 5) The High Road
 * 6) Sunburn
 * 7) Caddy
 * 8) Way Back Home
 * 9) Return to Threadsboro
 * 10) Atlantis
 * 11) Space Jamaica
 * 12) Atlantis [Reprise]
 * 13) Home
 * 14) Caddy [Reprise]

Trivia

 * The album's original title was NEW THREADS II, a direct sequel to 2018's NEW THREADS.
 * "Slight Return" features a voicemail from the band's personal Sweetwater Sales Representative, Patrick Dennis.
 * Played together, "Slight Return" and "Some Friends" are their own mini-epic, becoming known as "The Slight Return of Some Friends."
 * The car on the artwork for "Clean" is guitarist Jake Burdock's personal Caddilac Deville, and is also referenced in the song title "Caddy."
 * The band recorded the album in Smyrna, Tennessee at Storage Plus.
 * This is the only New Threads album to be recorded as a trio (Suarez was technically a member, but did not contribute to recording).
 * This is the final album in the Threadsboro saga, the grouping of albums released in Tennessee.
 * The melody from "Everybody Wants to Be Me," an unreleased b-side from the album, is heard in multiple sections of "Back to the Barnyard," the opening track on The Free Rock Trio's second LP Buford.

Credits

 * Jacob Keplinger - vocals, guitar, keys, bass, engineering, mixing, mastering, art direction and design, photography
 * Justin Siegel - vocals, drums, guitar, u-bass, melodica, videography, photography
 * Jake Burdock - vocals, guitar, engineering
 * Miguel Najera - photography
 * Daniel Suarez - band member