Freedom Fry – Queen City Sounds and Art

Freedom Fry’s Dark Disco Synth Pop Single “Best Friend” Is Imbued With an Air of Crime Noir

Sure the Freedom Fry song is titled “Best Friend” and superficially it sounds like the words of someone who wants to be more than a lover to someone but also, indeed, a best friend. The vocals are melodic and sweet but the bass line has a menace like something out of a crime or spy thriller soundtrack. It has a seductive tone especially with the dreamlike melodies and the sultry aspect of that bass line. But the lyrics contain promises and mentions of sticking a needle in one’s eye and hope to die rather than break the narrator’s word to the object of her affection. It’s reminiscent of an Air song through the filter of a darker LCD Soundsystem tune and something made for a skate disco party in a Guy Ritchie film. The surreal claymation style music video seems to confirm the suspicions of skullduggery or at least criminal conspiracy afoot and holding the couple together but fortunately it is that of the more musical variety and Freedom Fry offers yet another memorable song to its already impressive catalog. Watch the video for “Best Friend” on YouTube and follow Freedom Fry at the links provided.

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Freedom Fry’s Psychedelic Pop Single “Sorry Situation Number Four” is a Loving and Shimmering Glimpse Back at Summertime Relationship Panic

Freedom Fry pulls us back to a summer mood in time for the chill of fall to start with “Sorry Situation Number Four.” The loops of guitar jangle and minimal percussion lend the song the feel of a psychedelic folk song of the early 70s and the vocals in the verses wax Dylan-esque in the arrangements if not in affect. That is if Dylan worked on a pop song with Roger McGuinn. The slight psychedelic shimmer on the vocals in the choruses are like the sun glimmering on the ocean and suit the romantic cast of the song as the keyboard melody swells in the background. The song seems to be one of unexpectedly sudden relationship panic (the sense that everything might be going wrong or that you’re about to lose your loved one even if none of that’s true) that flows into gentle reassurance of commitment and passionate connection. Though the song taps into a retro sound its emotional resonance has a charming immediacy and freshness that bears revisiting. Listen to “Sorry Situation Number Four” on Spotify and follow the Los Angeles-based duo at the links provided.

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Freedom Fry’s Electro Funk Pop Single “Midnight Serenade” is a Celebration of Memorable Chance Romantic Encounters After Dark

Freedom Fry hit some nostalgic notes with its new single “Midnight Serenade.” In the beginning the wordless vocal phrase, repeated later as a kind of chorus, and mood of the song is reminiscent of Suzanne Vega’s 1987 hit song “Tom’s Diner.” This resonance feeds into how the song has the sound of a time of day more than suggested by the title. And the lyrics of thoughts looking back on a chance potentia romantic encounter with a stranger that in retrospect feels like it could have come from a dream. Then to subsequently entertaining fantasies of what could have been and might still be after our narrator sobers up and can’t stop thinking about “our midnight serenade.” The funk guitar riff and sweeping synth melodies soaring over and under the vocals and weaving throughout the song all accented by a nicely subtle rhythm lingers long after the song is over too, the mark of we well crafted pop song as is usual for the duo. Listen to “Midnight Serenade” on Spotify and follow Freedom Fry at the links below.

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Freedom Fry Tells Us to Live Our Best Lives In This Moment Because We Can if We Just Say “YOLO”

When Freedom Fry takes us into “YOLO” it feels like we’re going on a flight with the duo somewhere. That ascending non-musical tone just has that vibe like you’re about to step onto a fast moving airplane to adventure. And the tropical percussion accents and retro synth pop melodies mixed with what might be described as summery melancholic pop. The title suggests a foolhardy sentiment of gusto but the lyrics tilt that spirit in a positive and self-affirming direction by pointing out how there is only living and the alternative and that mistakes and fear of them are unnecessarily stumbling blocks that you can get past with ease as long as you keep your focus on living the kind of life you want excepting perhaps if that means dire consequences for others but most of us don’t have to tangle with such potential quandaries and adhere to arbitrary social bounds implanted by us in our own minds to prevent us from living life as fully as we can in the moment. Listen to “YOLO” on Spotify and follow Freedom Fry at the links provided.

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Freedom Fry Embraces and Celebrates the Natural Cycle of Learning and Evolving on “Growing Up”

Freedom Fry seems to be channeling a bit of early American folk music on its “Growing Up” single. The banjo provides as much texture as it does a percussive melody to frame the lyrics about the inevitability of growing up throughout life. Sometimes that growing can be painful, sometimes it can hit us unawares, sometimes it comes to us in a flash for which we’re not prepared, certainly not at the rate at which it happens, sometimes its a gradual realization that seems so natural that it doesn’t feel like growing. Freedom Fry embraces and celebrates this aspect of life that all of us, with any luck, share rather than sitting static in a part of life stubbornly refusing to move into a different headspace given new information and changes in the body and life circumstances that aren’t always, arguably rarely, entirely under our control and it’s folly to believe that anyone is completely the master of their destiny. Freedom Fry’s jaunty vocal harmonies and immediately engaging and compelling melody draws one’s attention immediately with sentiments that hit with an obvious truth that is easy to overlook in the rush of life in the living. Listen to “Growing Up” on Spotify and follow the prolific songwriting duo at the links below.

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Freedom Fry Takes Us Down to Where Nothing is Real on “Ego Trip”

On a slowly pulsing electronic tone accented by spare keyboard notes Freedom Fry makes musically explicit the themes of its new single “Ego Trip.” In Beatles-esque vocals the song traces the easy way one can fall\ into a seductive spiral of becoming self-involved . Though the production on the song sounds like something that could have come out fifty years ago it also recalls the surreal pop quality of MGMT. The contrast really opens the song up so that there can be some sympathy for a person who maybe got so caught up in the conversations one has in professional life and certain social circles and being busy all the time with work and the leisure activities following that work that it becomes a ritualized experience. All the while drifting into a dissociated head space where your only break from your life is indeed being on an “ego trip” where you can take out the time to feel out “the vibe” and then, as the chorus of the song goes, get “lost in my head again.” The song casts no judgments on being in that place but does highlight how easy it can be to see the ingrained habits of your life are things you can rationalize to yourself as fun and being stuck in a perpetual state of stagnation that feels like you are feeding your ego in a healthy way rather than merely sustaining a cycle of soporific behaviors that shield you from exiting your comfort zone. Listen to “Ego Trip” on Soundcloud and connect with Freedom Fry at the links provided.

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Freedom Fry’s “David Bowie” is a Simple Love Song About Rejecting Conformity of Identity in Our Ever Evolving World

FreedomFry3_sm — Freedom Fry, photo courtesy the artists

With its new single “David Bowie,” Freedom Fry once again demonstrates its knack for letting stripped down but sonically rich music serve as a backdrop to a compelling and relatable, if unusual, story. In this case the narrator is someone who can’t help being a weirdo who goes through life dressed up like they’re out of the same science fiction glam universe as David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust phase. But our storyteller is casually confused by people not accepting their normal because it suits them. And let’s face it, business casual or formal business wear is odd in its own right because it imposes a uniform standard of presenting oneself and thus conformity. In its way it is a form of psychological warfare to normalize behaviors and mindsets that deny your unique human qualities. The narrator of “David Bowie” sees no reason to adhere to such needlessly strict and destructive standards and rejects the laughter of those who have submitted to the will of conditioned and unquestioned behavior. This narrator sanely sets their own standard and speaks nothing of imposing one on others. It’s also a bit of a love song suggesting a like-minded companion has been found who too can shrug off the shackles of a phony sense of normalcy. If anyone was an avatar of making the world accept his eccentricity it was the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Sun Ra but Freedom Fry made David Bowie the icon this time out. Listen to “David Bowie” on YouTube and follow Freedom Fry at the links below.

soundcloud.com/freedomfry
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Freedom Fry Attain a Psychedelic Zen State With a Simple Song About Their Dog on “Me and Bonnie”

FreedomFry5_lg — Freedom Fry, photo courtesy the artists

“Me and Bonnie,” the latest single from the Rio Grande EP by Freedom Fry could be said to simply be an affectionate ode to the duo’s dog. Granted, their dog goes on all their tours and is a constant presence in their life. In the song Freedom Fry takes Bonnie for a walk as usual but this walk, as mundane and ritualistic as it can be, turns into something extraordinary and colorful as both band and Bonnie take in the world’s hidden features by paying closer attention to their surroundings while simultaneously allowing their imaginations to roam and getting into the hypnotic, and inherently gently trippy, aspect of the daily repetition and its endless variety if you’re not tuned out of your everyday world. And when you’re on tour a nowhere town or rest stop can be an adventure if you’re in the right frame of mind. Freedom Fry has a gift for taking simple elements and combining them in a manner that gives repetitive musical figures an expansive and entrancing quality. Check out the video below and follow Freedom Fry at any of the links provided.

soundcloud.com/freedomfry
open.spotify.com/artist/195hFqaTDENqLCcG8uGtM7
youtube.com/freedomfrymusic
twitter.com/freedomfrymusic
facebook.com/freedomfrymusic

The PBS Educational Video/70s Action Thriller Vibe of Freedom Fry’s “The Sun is Gonna Shine On You” is a Winning Combination

FreedomFry1-sm — Freedom Fry, photo courtesy the artist

Freedom Fry has been releasing an EP a month in 2019 and “The Sun is Gonna Shine On Your” comes from the group’s latest offering. The song is gritty yet breezy retro-futurist pop like a 1970s AM radio hit with modern sonic sensibilities. The video is more or less a lyric video but with the shifting, stylized yellow and black pinwheel in motion as the background imagery, it’s like you’re seeing an intermission reel for a lurid action thriller epic set in 1978 with the vibe of a safety video, Schoolhouse Rock and one of those psychedelic shorts in Sesame Street and Electric Company designed to make reading, doing math and learning language as exciting as they can be. Whatever the exact aim of pairing the song with these visuals, there’s no denying the impact. To further explore and keep up with the band’s new releases and other hijinx at any of the links below the video.