Gone Wild

Gone Wild is the third studio album by American psychedelic rock group The Free Rock Trio. It was released worldwide on October 2, 2020 via Pink Hat Records and featured the singles "Racket" and "Next Step." It was notable for its' decreased track lengths and lack of extended jams that took up the majority of Free Rock and Buford 's runtime, marking the band's first venture into more commercial music. This sound would be further realized with 2021's New Threads is Dead.

Background & Recording
With COVID-19 still in full force, the Trio wasn't sure how to move forward following the release of Bootleg Live, Vol. 2 (and the simultaneous second season of Bootleg Series) in June/early July 2020. The standalone single "Schlitz" was a sort of guinea pig for what could have been an album recorded in complete isolation, but the band ultimately decided that in-person recordings would sound the best, thus opening their personal COVID-19 risk circles to make the album happen.

The album was recorded at PINK HAT® Boston from June to August 2020, and is the band's third studio album. The first track recorded for the album was July's "Racket," recorded on a whim and ultimately pushing "Schlitz" out of the spotlight as the album's lead single. Over the next few months, the band would record eight more tracks that would make up the tracklist.

The only major shift that happened during the recording of Gone Wild was the recording and release of Seymour Butts' long-anticipated third studio album Jazz Music. This album included three tracks that would eventually be re-worked for Gone Wild: "Off the Wall," "The Law is Goin' Home," and "Raisin Man," the latter of which would be retitled "New Threads..." on the new release.

The album was recorded using two mixing boards- the first of which was the 1987 Peavey Mark IV that New Threads used for the tracking of Threadsboro and The Trio's Bootleg Live, Vol. 1,and Buford; the second being the Tascam Model 24 that was primarily used for Free Rock and Bootleg Live, Vol. 2. The Peavey came first in the signal chain, using the send outputs to jump into the Tascam, which ultimately went into Pro Tools. Unlike on Free Rock and Buford, drummer Justin Siegel removed all of the resonant heads from his kit for Gone Wild 's production, a technique made popular in the 70s. Most of the electric guitar tracks are Keplinger's 2017 Gibson SG Special through a Roland JC-40, but with many of the guitar solos being recorded in isolation, Keplinger opted for a DI approach featuring his Paul Reed Smith SE Standard 24 through the Richie Kotzen signature Tech 21 Fly Rig V2. All of the bass tracks are done on a different bass as well- while Free Rock, Buford, and both volumes of Bootleg Live were recorded using James Siegel's Ibanez Soundgear 5-string, Gone Wild features a 4-string Squier J-Bass DI'd through James Siegel's Tech 21 Bass Fly Rig V2.

Release and Reception
Gone Wild has been cited by many as more accessible and digestible than the trio's previous releases, with most of the songs averaging around three minutes in length and focusing more on vocal melodies. This is a stark contrast to the previous two studio albums released by the band, Free Rock and Buford, both of which prided themselves on long, sometimes instrumental free jams like "Back to the Barnyard" and "Head in the Sand."

Music videos were released for nearly every track on the record, with only three tracks not receiving the treatment; incidentally, these are the same three tracks that were late additions to the albums tracklist ("New Threads...," "Off the Wall," and "The Law is Goin' Home"). The LP features a handful of continuations to the Free Rock story that follows rogue mafia captain Rock Anderson and a small trio of rebels known as the Free Rock trio. Picking up where Free Rock left off in the mountains of Womble, Rock and the Trio meet a member of the Blind Men Brotherhood, an ancient cult that protects a legendary portal between dimensions called Space Jamaica. The mafia and the Brotherhood have been at odds for a long time, largely due to the mafia's interest in the portal, which provides safe passage to the world of Guyamar. Rock presents the cultist with three severed heads (the three leaders of the mafia) in exchange for passage through the portal, and the cultist accepts ("New Threads..."). However, only Rock can enter the caves- the trio must stay behind. They split up, and the Trio goes off in search of the superhero Bagman, hoping he can get them into the caves as well ("Bagman"). They cannot find him, and are ambushed by police while camping in the wilderness ("Off the Wall") before being taken into custody and questioned. Authorities go to the caves to find Rock, but they find nothing but a wreckage of stone and rubble. Everything's caved in, and they call off the search under the assumption that Rock is dead ("The Law is Goin' Home"). Meanwhile, in the caves, Rock and the cultist reach a large room with a twenty-foot tall portal against the back wall, seemingly opening into space. Rock presents the three severed heads to the Brotherhood, and they graciously accept his trade. Rock enters the portal, never to be seen in this world again ("Racket").

The band also started the Gone Wild Podcast, which released four episodes on Spotify leading up to the album's release. Topics ranged from politics to music and everything in between, and Episode 2 saw the band reunite with ex-bassist Dan Suarez. It is unclear whether or not the podcast will see any more episodes beyond the promotional period of Gone Wild.

Two music videos were released after the album. The first of which, "Gone Wild," premiered on November 27, 2020 and was initially slated to be the last video from the release. However, with the group changing their name from New Threads to The Free Rock Trio in March of 2021, the trio decided one more video was necessary to help bridge the gap created by the name change. On April 24, 2021, the band released a music video for "Off the Wall," which features Jackson Keplinger and Evan Norcross "in an intense battle of ping pong." The footage was originally filmed as b-roll for the Racket music video, but was ultimately cut from the final release.

A recording of "Slow Emotion" (later released as Slow Emotion 2020) was made during these sessions, but was not included on the album. According to Keplinger, the track was never intended to be a part of Gone Wild, but rather that the band seamlessly continued into recording their next album... only to have New Threads break up just days later. This is the only track that survived.

Tracklist

 * 1) New Threads... - 3:14  (Keplinger / Ju. Siegel) 
 * 2) Bagman - 6:49  (Keplinger) 
 * 3) Two Scoops - 3:29  (Keplinger / Ju. Siegel) 
 * 4) Next Step - 3:13  (Keplinger / Ju. Siegel) 
 * 5) Off the Wall - 1:44  (Ja. Siegel) 
 * 6) The Law is Goin' Home - 3:33  (Keplinger / Ju. Siegel) 
 * 7) Captain Trips - 4:00  (Keplinger / Ju. Siegel) 
 * 8) Racket - 4:39  (Keplinger) 
 * 9) Gone Wild - 3:32  (Keplinger) 

Trivia

 * The title of the song "Captain Trips" is a direct reference to Stephen King's post-apocalyptic novel The Stand, with Captain Trips being the name of the super-virus that wipes out most of humanity.
 * The title "Next Step" was pulled from an Electro-Harmonix Next Step Crying Wah guitar pedal that was in the studio the day the track was written.
 * "Bagman" is titled directly after the Season 5 episode of Better Call Saul of the same name.
 * "New Threads," "The Law is Goin' Home," and "Off the Wall" were heard first on Seymour Butts' third studio album Jazz Music, a collection of five free rock jams released in August 2020.
 * "The Law is Goin' Home," "Bagman," and "Racket" feature a storyline that is loosely connected to the narrative events of Free Rock.
 * "New Threads..." features an ellipsis in the title, connecting to the opening track of the trio's 2021 LP New Threads is Dead, "...is Dead?".

Credits

 * Jacob Keplinger - lead guitar, lead vocals, keys, engineering, mastering, art direction and design, videography
 * Justin Siegel - drums, backing vocals, lead guitar
 * James Siegel - bass, backing vocals