About Me
fred: who/what/where/when/why
fred was rediscovered in 2000 by World In Sound. An indie record label, World In Sound found their 45 rpm single Salvation Lady/a love song (Arpeggio Records 1971) at a German flea market. Tracking down guitarist Joe DeCristopher via the internet, World In Sound signed the group and has since released 3 albums. fred's 1st album is World In Sound's number 3 Top Seller.
Who or what is fred?
In Swedish, fred means "peace", a good idea for any decade. In music, fred was part of the "turn on, tune in, drop out" culture of the late 60's and started playing together in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1969, while the nucleus of the band was still attending Bucknell University.
By early 1970, the group was already madly writing innovative original songs, and amidst the belated arrival in small-town rural America of a blossoming counterculture of peace, love, and drugs, it was the beginning of a unique musical journey.
When school ended in the spring of 1970, most of the band moved west of town into two small farm houses, where they raised food, hell and plenty of consciousness. Music was just part of the overall experience. There was a shared commitment to the vision of creating a self-sufficient community of artists and musicians.
Existing as rebellious outsiders in a society filled with political unrest and generational turmoil, fred defiantly played what pleased them wherever they went. During 1970/71, the group was "on the road" playing "covers" by its favorite artists (Procol Harum, The Band, Traffic, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, and Yes) as well as trying out their original fred material on unsuspecting audiences.
In late 1971/early 1972, the band recorded many of their original songs at ITI Studios in Maryland with engineer George Massenburg. These recordings make up the bulk of fred's 1st album on World In Sound, the self-titled fred (WIS-1003), digitally remastered/released in 2001.
Mystical, trippy lyrics and heavenly vocal harmonies floating over mesmerizing fuzz-tone guitar merge with graceful bass lines, enticing tonal colors, and imaginative rock drumming to produce exquisite progressive rock songs. Haunting lyricism combines with acid rock intensity as these intricate pieces fluidly mix musical styles, venturing off in refreshingly unexpected and enchanting directions.
It's an alluring atmospheric blend of moody art rock, exotic non-western scales, stunning psychedelic instrumental sounds, and a gentle American folk-rock vibe rubbing up against the rich harmonic progressions of European classical music. Joe DeCristopher's raunchy rock guitar contrasts marvelously against David Rose's sweet rural violin in these ambitious and curiously captivating tracks.
fred brings a unique sensibility and style to these pieces, uncannily as fresh today as they were when they were first recorded.
By fred's 2nd album, Notes on a Picnic (WIS-1016), the band's music evolved into inventive instrumental progressive rock featuring quirky melodies, intricate scored parts, tight ensemble playing, complex polyrhythms, sophisticated multi-tracking, and inspired rock improvisation.
Originally recorded 1973/74 at Blue Rock Studios in New York City but not released until 2003 by World In Sound, Notes on a Picnic is a full-tilt sonic feast, 24-bit digitally remastered from the original session tapes.
Sparkling with creative musicianship, the album overflows with wonderfully raucous rock guitar, mind-bending electric violin with fusion/classical overtones, propulsive rock drums and bass, swirling garage rock organ, and funky electric piano.
Bursting with an eclectic, eccentric diversity, Notes on a Picnic is adventurous, playful, and unpredictable, vibrating with a vivid intensity. Furious fun, delightfully deranged.
With fred's final album in its World In Sound trilogy, live at the bitter end (WIS-1020), the band makes a dramatic leap into high-energy instrumental fusion, floating strange unearthly chords over dark obsessive grooves, with blistering solos that whisper and scream.
Recorded over the summer of 1974 while fred was headlining at NYC's world famous nightspot The Bitter End, these are raw, in-your-face live performances, digitally remastered/released by World In Sound in 2004.
It is high-octane, aggressive electric instrumental music with Bo Fox's pulverizing rock drums, Joe DeCristopher's wailing gutsy guitar, and David Rose's wild violin pyrotechnics. The mood ranges from tender to tortured, demented to delirious, always edgy, enigmatic, and full of surprise.
With powerful melodic themes over innovative rhythms, complex harmonies and inspired ensemble interplay, fred lets loose over elegant structures for extended solo flights in the twilight zone of rock improvisation.
So who or what is fred?
Moody, atmospheric art rock? Mysterious, jam band psychedelia?
Or some kind of twisted, progressive fusion?
How about:
future music from the past for thrill-junkies everywhere.
reviews: past/present
fred - fred
...in Joe DeCristopher the band had a guitarist of exceptional ability and the interplay between his guitar and David Rose's violin is just one of the highlights of this wonderful album...strong vocal harmonies, innovative time signatures and complex musicality...
- Piccadilly Records
...high quality songwriting...well arranged and impressive music...
- Ragazzi
...some fine fuzz solos and acidic leads...a strong aura of mellowed, slightly trippy, pastoral rock...the violin adds to the non-urban vibe...
- Fuzz, Acid and Flowers: A Comprehensive Guide to American Garage, Psychedelic and Hippie Rock (1964 - 1975)
...very atmospheric music with mainly progressive, psychedelic and folk elements...the most British sounding US band that I've ever heard...
- Coloured Rain Records
...the music is pulsating, fun, phenomenal...a love song is lovely and haunting...
- Bucknell World
...featuring the interplay between violin and electric guitar...a progressive feel throughout...a great disc as all fred titles are...
- Shindig! Magazine
...romantic songs and intelligent lyrics, arranged with progressive rock fuzz guitars, mixed in a splendid way, giving the arrangements unique delicacy and complexity...fantastic stuff...a great discovery of a lost attractive gem...
- Progressive Homestead
...the players are all quite talented, and it’s nice to hear how bands used to focus so much on crafting strong melodies and beautiful harmonies, an art that seems to have largely been forgotten in modern music...superb electric guitar work, with nice psychedelic effects that add a little edge here and there to an otherwise fairly mellow album (I absolutely love the solo on By the Way)...some very strong songs with that classic late 60’s early 70’s sound that you can’t go wrong with...
- Aural Innovations
fred - Notes on a Picnic
...the music on Notes on a Picnic is tight - really tight - like one would expect from a Frank Zappa recording...it is often fusiony in ways that bring to mind early Mahavishnu Orchestra (Variations could have fit perfectly on Inner Mounting Flame)...the overall album feel is both adventurous and cutting edge...I cannot compliment this band or recommend this album highly enough and am always struck by the fact that these are compositions from recordings made in 1973...for that year or any year, this is a first rate jazz-rock/fusion release...
- ProGGnosis
...a regional gem by the Lewisburg PA based art-rock band fred...
- George Graham, WVIA-FM 89.9 Wilkes-Barre, PA
...fine progressive rock...sophisticated original compositions that feature a remarkably accessible synthesis of rock rhythms with a classical sense of structure breaking into wide-open improvisational jazz sounds...Here's a Wet One features a marvelously melodic vocal section and a super guitar/violin duet...and with all the musical diversity fred displays, there is a powerful rock bottom to all the music, especially Mantra...
- Record World
...powerful jazz/rock, unbelievably vital and energetic...multiple layers of melody unify in a fantastic way...the musicianship is outstanding...David Rose on the electric violin plays up a storm...
- Ragazzi
...fred combines jazz, classical, and rock for a set filled with instrumental invention and an excellent tight performance...
- Variety
...sounding much more European than American, fred developed a progressive instrumental style that drew on jazz rhythms and timings, borrowed heavily from orchestral composition and melted it into a (tastefully!) progressive rock framework...if you like European prog at its most incisive (even though they are American) then you will most certainly want to hear this...
- Shindig! Magazine
...one of the favorites among Prog Rock fans...
- Tom Gagliardi, Host/DJ at Gagliarchives Radio Philadelphia
...fred is a fun, cool, jazz/rock/fusion experimental band that was around the fringes in the late 60s/early 70s...it's a rarity to find musicians so deeply bonded...sometimes seasoned and studio musicians can really lock with one another...fred takes it much deeper to a freedom that I would imagine many intuitive musicians long for…these guys are great, top musicians with their own sound…I enjoyed all of the songs, especially Perverseerance, Variations, and an obsessive favorite, one that will be on my fav list for at least the next decade, Mantra...it is simply perfect - the theme, the meters, the dynamics, the instrumentation, the composition - perfect...
- Countess B., Odd Time Obsessed Radio
fred - live at the bitter end
...white hot instrumental fusion similar to Mahavishnu Orchestra...simply blazes from beginning to end...killer guitar solos throughout...
- The Laser's Edge
...impressive solos, sculptured unison passages, fantastic melodic escapades...a convincing adventure in sound full of immense power and sophistication...
- Ragazzi
...the group as a whole is to these ears more enjoyable than either the Mahavishnu Orchestra or the Billy Cobham band...in fact they are providing the kind of solid rhythmic electric music that I didn't think existed in pop circles anymore...
- Soho Weekly News
...somewhere between King Crimson and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the album is so powerful and playful that one is surprised it took 30 years to release these recordings...the sound is fresh, dynamic, forceful, and crisp...fred's brilliant ensemble playing creates a witches' brew of bubbling virtuoso interaction, while the more relaxed passages build tension for the next volcanic eruption...
- Babyblaue Prog-Reviews
fun fred facts
fred opened for:
The Byrds
Muddy Waters
Laura Nyro
The Guess Who
John Mayall
Asleep At The Wheel
fred played on the same bill with:
Andy Kaufman
The Left Banke
Dan Hartman (Edgar Winter Group)
opening acts for fred:
Maggie & Terre Roche
Billy Crystal
fred played at:
Max's Kansas City
The Bitter End
My Father's Place
The Bottom Line
Kenny's Castaways
Dr. Generosity's
fred jammed with:
Doug Lubahn (Clear Light, early Doors albums)
Randy Brecker (Blood, Sweat & Tears, Billy Cobham)
Jeff Kent (Dreams)
fred recorded with:
Yoko Ono at The Record Plant (we weren't allowed to talk to her)
fred rehearsed with:
Stan Getz at his mansion (we beat him at ping pong!)
fred hung out with:
Robert Moog in his synthesizer lab
Muddy Waters (actually, it was just Gary "hanging out" at the next urinal)
fred songs have "supernatural" powers:
While playing Here's a Wet One on a flatbed truck at an outdoor concert in York, PA - it actually started to rain!
a producer's perspective: Joe Schick
(from the liner notes for fred - Notes on a Picnic)
In 1972, I owned a 16-track studio called Blue Rock in New York's Soho district with a certain amount of downtown cachet. I was 26 and it was a heady time - Dylan had recorded there and the excitement of making music that I loved was enough to make up for the fact that I had no idea how to run my business or pay the electric bill.
Blue Rock had walls made of denim and Turkish rugs on the floor. It was dark and comfortable. We wanted it to feel like an opium den, and it did. Rolling Stone called Blue Rock "the apotheosis of the laid back."
Somehow, in early 1973, fred wandered in from Amishville and blew our minds. They played music that couldn't be defined: It was pure and original. It sounded like jazz and classical and rock at the same time. And it was dangerous and awesome because it was so honest that you couldn't listen to it without feeling it owned you.
fred became Blue Rock's house band, and we became their house. It was fun to have them around, like a family of crazed, hungry, brilliant teenagers.
There were the mad ones - David, who tried to be the organized leader, but whose artistic fury and the lunacy that fed it always won out; Peter, a dark cloud of sullen precision, cool intelligence, and entertaining sarcasm; and Fat Mike, the mischievous contrarian jester who never seemed to be the same person he was the last time you saw him. Then the slightly less mad ones - Joey, a blue-collar guy with musical chops that let you know how weird he really was; Kenny, maybe a little stern and professorial but subtly unhinged; and Bo, surf god choir boy with a good heart.
In the fashion of the day, fred was a democracy, and every damn thing was subject to the will of the majority. With this cast of characters, that meant voting blocs with the stability of the Middle East.
There were sleeping bags everywhere, incessant card games, ganja, 18-hour sessions, laughter, passionate arguments, and egg creams at 4:15 am.
When fred played gigs, this whole unstable vibe went with them. Sometimes it meant exalted evenings, like those at a tiny dive where I remember a 20-minute version of War's "Slippin' Into Darkness" that was achingly disturbed. It also meant gigs in rural Pennsyltucky (fredspeak for nowhere) towns, after long cold rides in vans done up in bad shag carpet.
And it could be that the best fred music is buried in the walls of the milkhouse of the farm in Lewisburg, where they rehearsed, unselfconsciously shooting off luminous fragments of now-lost songs into the cool light of midnight.
The fragile web that held the whole thing together tore apart way too soon. But when it was working, when Blue Rock was resonating with their stunning originality, we had absolute faith that fred was the best band on the planet. I'm still not sure they weren't.
