Old New Battered Blue Liner Notes

  

The liner notes for my new album are done.  They can be found here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hyxDRsG0BZoj3vK171KYxrOF0FTH5K0/view?usp=sharing  The album is Old New Battered Blue.  The album will start popping up on various listening services in the next few weeks, but for now you can read about it at least.  I'm probably going to make one video for the album.  Which song should I pick?  Feel free to email or comment if you have a suggestion.

For more Wred Fright music, give his other albums a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp! 

Old New Battered Blue Track List

  

The track list for the new Wred Fright album, Old New Battered Blue, is as follows:

1. Dance Party At The End Of The World
2. Unreported News
3. Terri Cockring
4. But At Least You're Not Bitter
5. The President Shit His Pants
6. Crossing Guards Often Have A Thing For Me
7. Partying By Myself
8. Republican Cereal
9. Orange Marmalade
10. Kimberly James
11. Gumshoe
12. Ambulance Driver
13. Staring At Ruby
14. Vagina Dentata

The album clocks in at about 35 minutes.  You can hear the tracks now at https://soundcloud.com/wredfright though I have not created the official album/playlist yet (about three weeks away from that if the current workload trend continues--it's possible the album might even pop up on Spotify between now and then, but I doubt it).  This album is unusual in that I haven't released any new music since I finished the recordings from the album (they are recorded, however, and ready to go--look for them in a few months once I clear out some other stuff also already in the pipeline).  Look for the next post to feature the liner notes for the album.

For more Wred Fright music, give his other albums a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!

Old New Battered Blue Cover

Here's the cover for the new album.  This is the original image before it got pushed into the standard square album format.  I do miss the days when album covers were works of art or playful such as Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti where one could play with the sleeve to have different figures appear in the building's windows.  However, those days are long gone.  The cd version of Physical Graffiti isn't quite as much fun, and cds in general tend to have less interesting artwork due to the smaller size.  It got worse with MP3s, so I just aim for something that will look decent when at reduced size.  A punching bag, Valentine's Day decoration, and duct tape probably doesn't make for the greatest album cover but when compared with the awful AI/computer art I see these days on other albums, I'm quite happy with it.  Vinyl's comeback has meant that the size of album covers can be restored to their former glory, but with most people experiencing the album as a computer stream, it's still not quite the same.  Spotify (and I'm sure some of the other music streamers as well) allows listeners to click on the artwork for a larger image, but on my monitor at least it still looks about the size of a cd cover.   In any case, it's mostly just packaging, but it's still fun to have an appropriate or intriguing image as part of the total artifact.  Next time, I'll post the track listing.  In the meantime, you can check out the first five albums in the links below.

For more Wred Fright music, give his other albums a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!

Old New Battered Blue

A new Wred Fright album should be out soon.  I already uploaded it to the distributor because the last album took two months for them to distribute (that's not a complaint--they're free in hopes, vain hopes in my opinion, we'll all make money from the album down the road--one can't complain when it's free really), so you can find it on Spotify and other places probably in about two-three months unless the processing period has greatly improved or worsened since last year (I would guess worsened as I suspect some people are using artificial intelligence to crank out audio, so there are likely more releases to distribute--I have not used AI as it's not interesting to me as of yet but I won't hate on it as I don't want to sound like a guitarist hating on synthesizers in the 1970s).

The new album is called Old New Battered Blue, a play on the old wedding advice of something old, new, borrowed, and blue.  It was originally just going to be a collection of some older songs I hadn't given the full solo treatment to yet, but I kept writing new songs, so it's a mix of both.  I originally planned on doing a cover on it (the something borrowed the battered replaced), but I didn't want to go to the bother of paying royalties/getting a mechanical license.  A record company can deal with that accounting; I'd just rather have fun.

In coming weeks, I'll post about the cover, track listing, and liner notes, as well as let you know when it's up on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and Spotify.  It's a fun record.  Nothing else really sounds like it even with all the great music being released these days, so that's cool.  Maybe this one will actually get a review somewhere (let's hope they don't just say it sucks or something, but I'd probably still be happy just to finally have a record review six albums in).  There are no plans for a cd or vinyl version (though any interested parties are welcome to get in touch).

For the previous Wred Fright albums, stream or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!    

New Recording!: Vagina Dentata

wredfright · Vagina Dentata

This is an old GoGoBots tune that I felt like playing again since it's fun to play.  It's basically about irrational beliefs like a man's fear of women and people who claim to be postmodern yet still act fairly rationally in expecting toast to pop up toasted when they put bread in a toaster instead of, you know, a lobster or a 1989 Ford Fiesta.  Musically, it's the usual vocals, guitars, and drums, though I used parts from a broken wooden chair for the drumsticks and a coffee can for the main drum.  Chock full o' Nuts coffee is all right, but I can heartily endorse their metal coffee cans when you need a homespun drum.

For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!   

Spring 2026 Hoof & Antler!

The new Hoof & Antler is out!  In this issue of the Mickey Mart newspaper, I have an article about the mysterious Russian radio station known as UVB-76, the infamous Doomsday Radio!  Check it out and read other fun stuff by stopping by a Mickey Mart.  It's free, though Mickey The Moose probably hopes you buy some gasoline or a cup of coffee or something.

If you want to read something else by me, then get my new novel, The Front Yard War! 

New Single!: Staring At Ruby

wredfright · Staring At Ruby

This song is about the modern corporate habit of having virtual meetings.  I've been in some of these things with hundreds of people, and they are usually ridiculous wastes of time wherein the company could have just sent an email out and saved lots of money instead of having everyone stop doing productive work and waste an hour listening to the CEO talk some drivel.  In this song, the main character gets a crush on one of the coworkers and enjoys the virtual meetings because he can stare at her in a way that one could not do in real life without making someone quite uncomfortable, all the while thinking, "She's so pretty."  I bet this sort of thing goes on a lot and is probably one of the few good things about virtual meetings.  Musically, the song is vocals, guitar, and drums, though I also made good use of the toy piano mat.  I opted not to use the lyrics in the third input part on the recording, but I may throw it in live from time to time.  Lyrics are below:

There are 400 people on this call with Zoom,
but only one who makes my heart go boom, boom, boom!

I'm staring at Ruby.

I don't hear a single word the CEO speaks.
I could stare at her beauty for weeks and weeks.
If people knew I was taking this long of a peep,
they're embarrassed by love these days, so they'd probably call me a creep, but I'd still be staring at Ruby.

She'll never see her very own face,
just the reflection that takes its place.

She's got those 21st Century eyes,
and she's got me full of sighs.
She might even be ruthless, but I'm ruthful.
I'll never meet her in person, life can be so cruel, but I'm happy
staring at Ruby.

For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp! 

What Wred's Reading: The Fourth Edition Of The Trouser Press Record Guide Edited By Ira A. Robbins

  

This book dates from 1991 and early that year before Nirvana and alternative music in general started selling millions of records (the Nirvana entry mainly covers Bleach).  As a result, it's a treasure trove of 1980s college radio, filled with fun bands and cool music.  It's mainly punk rock and new wave, but it covers reggae and hip-hop as well, generally anything cool and underground from the mid-1970s, when Trouser Press started as a zine, to the publication date.  Covering 2,500 musical artists, the book is a great resource for music if you're looking for something new (albeit that it's old now if it's in this book) to listen to that is likely pretty good or at least interesting.  One nice thing about having this book in 2026 is that it's a lot easier to hear this music than it would have been back then when one had to track down an obscure and possibly out of print record.  Today, you can find most of this music on the Internet somewhere.  I've been getting rid of most of my books because I was tired of dragging them around with me, but this is one I'll be keeping.  When I can't find anything new worth listening to, I'll dip into it and check out some old band that's new to me.  The book is out of print (though available used and even reasonably priced if you dig a bit), but you can probably find the reviews from it at TrouserPress.Com, and they have all the issues of the magazines that predated the record guides there which is very cool of them.  They still publish books today, though the last record guide like this was a volume back in the 1990s covering that Nirvana/alternative music goldrush.

If you want to hear some music made since 1991 that might have fit into Trouser Press's editorial scope also, then give my latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!  And if you want to read some more, then please read my latest novel! 

New Recording!: Ambulance Driver

wredfright · Ambulance Driver

Another older song I wanted to give the solo treatment to, this song stemmed from seeing an EMT hit on a convenience store clerk.  It's vocals, guitar, and drum machine, plus a sampling of the Russian radio station The Buzzer (I was writing an article on the station at the time).  

For more Wred Fright music, give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!