super star

Hey everybody, we made it to March! Did not see that coming at all. I’m still resurrecting my brain and body post-album release over here, which is coming along nicely. The album’s done well enough? People seem to like it? It had a decent peak on streaming and it’s done better than my last one on the college charts? As always in music I can never tell if anything is a success or a failure until later or… ever… but, you know, we got ‘er done. Thanks everybody.

Postal woes

Most people have received their orders (thank you for the vinyl photos and videos, you all have such attractive turntables), but unfortunately I’m still hearing from people that some are missing. I’m not sure if it was the Canadian postal strike a little while ago, the Phantom Menace-ass trade war going on or something dumb I did, but if you haven’t received your order please get in touch. Sorry for the hassle, what a headache. I’ll get it sorted.

What are next

In between replacing lost orders, I’m happy to be a bit lower on deadlines while I catch up on admin stuff, which I’ve been having a little trouble keeping up with. Creatively though, I’ve been making time to organize all my music & writing ideas, practice and play and experiment with sound. Maybe getting a little bit inspired, I don’t know. We’ll see about that.

I hope you’re all doin’ good out there. I send you positive vibes, may they reach you quickly, without delay, damage or additional expense. Talk soon,

Brad
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Happy first three weeks of “Naturally”

Hey all,

Thanks for all the kind words on the new album (here’s the full thing on youtube btw)— it’s always a roller coaster finishing a big project and that was by far one of my roller coaster-iest tbh. So your comments & support have been a big boost as I regenerate my life force over here. I’ve been behind on emails and messages but I’m getting caught up — if you’re waiting on a reply, feel free to try again, I’m only accidentally ignoring people right now.

The release overall has been going well (here are some thanks & notes I posted on Instagram), I got all of the crowdfunding orders shipped and people seem to be enjoying the vinyl, which is awesome. I’m caught up on shipping post-release orders as well so if you order off my website I’ll ship it out of here fairly quickly.

The Learning to Lie sci-fi pickleball music video got a fair amount of attention and the song itself is now just short of 40,000 plays on Spotify, which isn’t too shabby. Other tracks on the album seem to be In Trouble, Over and Over and Over and Wasting My Potential.

Last week the album debuted at #46 on the North American College & Community Top 200 which I’m told is good?

(Imaginal Disk is a really good record btw)

Anyway, happy to have it out there. Thanks for listening to and sharing it!

Oh, an item of business: if you paid for a cover song in the fundraiser and haven’t given me your song request, could you get in touch with me? I haven’t been able to get responses from a few folks and want to get you your covers.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for this month, thanks for reading. I feel brain dead. The plan for this month is to catch up on admin tasks I’ve neglected for eight months while David Lynch’s The Art Life plays on repeat in the background. Hope you’re hanging in there,

Brad
—
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Vinyl is available here, all the streaming links are here…and I’ve got a post over on Instagram with my many thank yous:

🚨🚨 My new album “Naturally” is streaming everywhere TODAY and also available on fancy vinyl! A year ago when I launched the funding campaign I had no idea how big of a project doing a more organic/live sounding album would be, but I think we pulled it off.

I’m proud and very relieved to have gotten it done and extremely grateful for everyone’s help: thank you so much to the crowdfunding backers for making this project possible and for being patient with the delays and complications that cropped up.

And of course, thank you to everyone who helped with the production, especially: Ben Mullin, Justin Purvis, Steve Gaw, Rob Cosh, Matthew Pfahlert, Glenn Forrester, Steve Pelehos, Nicholas Seguin and Justin Perkins. With special thanks to Emily & my parents for their much-needed emotional support. I plan to be in a better mood soon.

Thanks for your streams, shares, likes, comments, and letting me still do this after so many years. I hope you like the album! ❤️❤️

I’m not sure who actually reads this blog slash news page, but thank you for reading.

Brad

The Learning to Lie sci-fi pickleball music video’s out on YouTube if you’re so inclined to watch

Happy 2025 everybody, I posted my 2024 year in review if you missed any Brad Sucks stuff last year, god forbid. At long last, the new album “Naturally” comes out next week, it’s currently shipping and available for order on my website now. Fingers crossed you like it! But first:

Learning to Lie (and video)

The final single “Learning to Lie” is out tomorrow (1/7) and the b-movie sci-fi pickleball video premieres at 11am EST! Come hang for the premiere!

I think it turned out pretty fun? It was a ridiculous idea I had that snowballed out of control. Anyway, hope you like the song and video — I gotta get back to shipping and prepping for the album release — stay cool!

Brad
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Happy new year! Well, looking back I certainly took on more than I could handle in 2024 and I’m looking forward to getting caught up and fixing that. Always shocking how quickly business stuff gets out of hand and crowds the fun stuff like making and playing music into the backseat.

But we made it, the final single “Learning to Lie” is out on Tuesday along with a video we made and the album “Naturally” officially releases a week later on the 14th. I’m proud we got it done and I’m excited to get it out there.

Thank you for your support and patience in 2024 — I’m looking forward to a more balanced and creative 2025. Here’s some of the main stuff I posted last year:

PUBLIC

• POST: On that Lexus Commercial (it got renewed for a second year!)

• SONG: Myself Almost

• SONG: In Trouble

• SONG: Feeling Pretty Good

• COVER: Lonely (featuring Felicia Day)

• COVER: Mellow My Mind (Neil Young)

• COVER: Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails)

• COVER: Nasty (Janet Jackson)

• COVER: Lithium (Nirvana)

• COVER: Brick House (Commodores)

PATREON

• COVER: Climbing the Walls (They Might Be Giants cover)

• SONG: This Fire

• SONG: Alcohol and Drug Abuse Lake

LIVE

• Stream: January 25th, 2024

• Stream: February 22nd, 2024

• Stream: March 21st, 2024

• Stream: April 25th, 2024

Not an amazing amount of output but most of my focus this year was on getting the album project done/fulfilled, plus a lot of stressful behind the scenes big boy business stuff. Hoping once the album is out to focus on just making stuff for the fun of it again. Thanks everybody,

Brad
—
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Feeling Pretty Good?

Howdy! I have a new country indie rock single from the new album for ya and it’s called Feeling Pretty Good. It’s streaming now and there’s also a lyric video of me riding a robot horse-monster you can watch:

Vinyl’s Here!

The vinyl miraculously arrived ahead of schedule and look how beautiful it turned out:

Backers received the digital download of the album last week (please reply to this if you didn’t get the email!) and the vinyl will start shipping later this month. The Indiegogo is still live if you want one early but it’ll be on my website once I get a handle on all the backer orders.

Next Up

Well, it’s been QUITE an intense year for this buckaroo and my brain and body are demanding a little cool down before the final single and full album release in January. I still have a ton of behind the scenes stuff to do but I’m hoping to take some time to catch up, regroup and prepare for a hopefully more regulated and sustainable 2025. Thanks for your support, encouragement, patience and being along for the ride. Love ya,

Brad
PS: FYMF (IC)

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In Trouble, the indie/rock/disco lead single from my new album “Naturally” (out 1/14!) is now streaming wherever you stream. And YouTube. It’s mostly about tricky relationships but you can pretend it’s about anything you want, I’m powerless to stop you. Thanks to all the album backers and my patrons… I would certainly be ⚡In Trouble⚡ without you. Thanks everybody for listening, liking, commenting you saw my song in a Lexus commercial and being generally around.

[prince voice] I got 2 much news 4 u:

New Singles

In Trouble, the first indie-disco single from the new album is out tonight at midnight! A goofy lyric video will premiere at 10am EST tomorrow (Friday) morning — click the Notify Me bell to get alerted when it goes live — I’ll be hanging out in the chat feeling awkward. Hope you like the song — you’re cordially invited to play it, save it, playlist, share it, comment, etc, etc. Thank you!

I also released Mellow My Mind — a Neil Young cover we recorded in the same sessions.

Lonely (featuring Felicia Day)

I shared a long lost recording of my song Lonely sung by actress Felicia Day (Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Her voice is beautiful and it was nice to get this out there after almost ten years of it sitting on my hard drive.

Covers

Two more covers: Nirvana’s Lithium and Brick House by the Commodores. A few left to do and then I will feel great relief.

Learning to Lie Video

We shot the stupid Learning to Lie video! Three nights on the court in the Canadian cold (& rain) plus one warmer indoors band shoot. Videos are a TON of work but it was very fun. Some behind the scenes evidence: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

The New Album

Status: test pressings are approved and the album’s in manufacturing right now, woooo. Backers from the crowdfunder will get an early digital copy later this month and then it’ll be on streaming + vinyl in January!

That’s it! Sorry for having too much content right now, thank you for reading this far. I’ll space it out better (and be lazier) next year, I swear.

Brad
PS: Look at these folks rocking out to this Making Me Nervous remix… so weird!

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I shared a long lost version of “Lonely” sung by actress/author Felicia Day, originally intended for the Bee and PuppyCat show. I did a new mix and master on it but it’s nearly ten years old 💀⚰️

Streaming now

In the sessions for my upcoming album “Naturally” the full band recorded our cover of Neil Young’s song “Mellow My Mind”. We’ve been playing it at shows for a long time so it was nice to finally get a recording of it. It’s a beautiful song about wanting a simpler life and/or wanting to get very high. All glory to Neil Young.

From the Patreon:

Mellow My Mind, the full band cover of Neil Young’s beautiful song from Tonight’s The Night (1975) is out now. You can stream it anywhere and it’s also on YouTube.

We’ve played this one live for years so it’s nice to finally get a real recording of it. I thought about including it on the upcoming album as we recorded it in the same sessions and it fits the vibe, but the administrative stuff is annoying. Tracking every album sold and sending a check for eleven dollars to Neil Young’s people for the rest of my life seems like one of those magical things a record label would take care of but I am just a humble indie musician with more than enough paperwork to do.

Anyway, hope you like it! First real album single will be out soon.

Credits:

Electric Guitar: Ben Mullin
Bass Guitar: Steve Gaw
Drums, Percussion: Justin Purvis
Vocals, Guitar: Brad
Drum Recording: Glenn Forrester
Mixed & Mastered: Rob Cosh

Album, Covers, Video

Happy spooky month to you and yours — scary busy times over here! After an epic, hard-fought battle of recording and mixing, the “Naturally” album is finally going into mastering this week and vinyl production right after that. Phewwww.

I’ve lost all objectivity on it as is tradition but people I trust say it’s good? It’s been way harder than I thought doing a more traditional live-ish album and I’m looking forward to having it done. It’s been cool to do, but after spending most of a year on this thing I’m thinking 2025 will be about releasing more DIY singles at a much faster rate. 

Bandcamp Friday Clearance

I need to make room for vinyl so I’ll be doing a little old-timey media clearance sale (CDs and tapes) over on the Brad Sucks Bandcamp if you’re interested in such things.

Commissioned Covers

I’m posting some of the commissioned covers from the LP5 “Naturally” fundraiser on YouTube that I’ve already shared on the Patreon. Two so far:

Brad Sucks - Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails Cover)

Brad Sucks - Nasty (Janet Jackson Cover)

Just ridiculous.

Learning to Lie Sci-Fi Pickleball video

Looks like we’re probably gonna come up short on the Learning to Lie video fundraiser goal but thanks to the everyone who contributed, every bit helps! We’re scrambling to get everything ready to film next week, may the weather be merciful. Still time to get in on it if you want your name in the credits, be part of pickleball history etc but no pressure of course!

Anyway, back to work for me… lots of stuff to get ready for the release. Hope you’re well!

Brad

Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Summer’s over and I’m mad about it!! Anyway, some news:

Video Fundraiser

So I had a dumb idea for a low-budget sci-fi pickleball music video? We shot some test footage last week and I think it turned out pretty funny so I’m wondering if we can get a little bit of a budget for it. Check out the Indiegogo here if you want to see the footage and/or you’re interested in making it happen, but no pressure! I know I still owe y’all an album! Speaking of which:

The Album

It’s coming along!! Here’s the album cover! It’s been a lot of back and forth and attempted and abandoned ideas but the great and patient Matthew Pfahlert and I finally settled on a risograph-style filtered image of a photo I took while zip-lining in North Carolina a few years ago. 

We’re mixing the album right now and it’s getting there! I’ve been bananas bonkers stressed to death about it so it’s great that it’s finally coming together. Also have been making progress on all the covers I owe people — you should start receiving them soon!

Other than that I’ve been posting goofy stuff on Threads. I’m silly.

That’s all for now, thanks everybody!

Brad

Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Hey! How’s your summer? I’m playing as much pickleball as my body will allow and then a little bit more so that I’m constantly sore. It’s great!

Titled Fifth Album

I have big not-great news: my next album (now titled “Naturally”) has unfortunately encountered A Shameful Delay and I’ve pushed the release back to November. Read the post over on the Indiegogo for my many apologies and some other ramblings but in a nutshell: it’s taking longer than I thought, I’m very sorry about the delay and if for any reason you’d like a refund, just reply to this email and let me know. Everyone’s been super chill so far… thanks for understanding. I think it’s gonna turn out good.

Playing and Talking

I was on the Six Picks Music Club podcast which was a fun discussion and they also animated me lol.

Likely only of interest to people nearby but I’m playing a small semi-acoustic street piano show outdoors at the North Grenville Public Library this Saturday at 2pm. Should be a new experience! Here’s me and the street piano hanging out: 

If you’re around, come say hi. 

Stuff I’ve Liked

• I really loved Jordan Mechner’s development journals of Karateka and Prince of Persia and his graphic novel memoir Replay. Somehow reading about crunch time finishing video games makes me feel better about finishing my album.

• Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee is an incredibly vibey album. Kingdom Come sounds like a lost cut from some cool sixties band.

• Stand-Up Solutions is a standup special making fun of AI and blowhard CEOs. Pretty obnoxious but it sure made me laugh.

• I hadn’t thought about it in a while but seriously, where did Ms. Pac-Man go?

OK, back to work. Stay cool!

Brad

Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Here's a post I made over at the Brad Sucks LP5 Indiegogo:

Let me hit you with the bad news first: I need more time! I planned to have the new album to you all in August but I’ve clearly underestimated how complicated it’d be to put this very human record together. I’ve never made an album with this many people and tracks involved and it’s been moving slower than I hoped.

So with a huge apology I’m moving the release to November. If anyone’s super bummed and wants a refund, please contact me and I’m happy to give you your money back. I’m really very sorry for this — it’s been stressing me out and I should have budgeted more time from the get-go.

The good news, though: we’re basically done tracking — drums, bass, guitars, keys and vocals. So next it’s overdubs (additional percussion, keys, sounds and backing vocals) and then finally mixing and mastering. I think it’s all sounding really good and I can’t wait to get to the final stages of polishing everything up.

I’ve also got an album title: “Naturally” (after a song on the album). I think the title works on a few levels — it speaks to the more organic/natural process of this album with real musicians playing everything instead of my usual computer-first DIY approach. It’s also a bit of a double entendre — Brad Sucks “Naturally” aka “Brad Sucks Of Course”, and there’s also some irony in there as unless it’s truly live, no recording is really “natural”.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the rise of artificial intelligence in visual arts and music. It’s fascinating from a technology perspective — I owe my career to digital home recording and file-sharing which analog purists hated — and of course it’s very scary from a professional artist perspective. The seven-fingered A-OK logo (featuring video of my hand) is a reference to the trouble AI has had drawing hands. 

Making this album in a more traditional way with real organic performances and contributions from a full band feels like it could become a thing of the past so I’m very thankful to you all that I’m getting to do it at least once in my life. It seems like music will be in a very different place once this project’s done.

Anyhow, my apologies again for the delay and a huge thank you for your support and patience, 

Brad

Thanks to everyone who tuned in for the Live Stream on April 25th, ’twas a blast. Taking a little break for album recording and also to think about the future of the streams and how to make them more sustainable. We ARE however gonna do another low-key studio stream this Thursday at 1pm EST where we’ll work on requested covers and such. 

PS: my single Myself Almost is still new-ish!

Untitled Fifth Album

In new album news, I shared a new version of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Lake that we did with real drums if you want to check it out. Busy working on tracking all the parts right now and boy are my fingers tired.

Also I’m considering releasing the vinyl a while before it goes to streaming. I’m not 100% on that (open to input) but if you want your copy, you can still hit up the Indiegogo for a little while yet. 

Stuff I’ve liked

• Hundreds of Beavers made me laugh so much.

• The Midnight Special YouTube channel is a gem if you like old-timey live music performances and all the Wolfman Jack content you can handle.

• STEVE! (martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces is a great documentary for any comedy fans out there.

Always looking for recommendations so feel free to email me or suggest them in the Brad Sucks chat.

That’s all for now, back to work on recording, thanks everybody!

Brad

Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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My new song Myself Almost has been out for over a week and people seem to like it? Here’s the lyric video. Thanks for the streams and views and comments, they make a huge difference. The song’s received enough streams to make it into Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist so hopefully it’ll have some legs — all hail the merciful algorithm.

After a long stretch of rehearsals, we tracked the drums to the new album recording 13 songs over a weekend, whoo-eee. It went pretty well, I think we got good stuff. I’m working on getting them comped and edited so we can move on to tracking the rest. I’ll post some progress clips on the Patreon soon.

Stream shows

I’ve got TEN cover songs to deliver from the album crowdfunding so Ben and I are gonna try working on them live on stream tomorrow at 1pm EST, not sure how that’ll go but feel free to pop by. Next full concert stream will be April 25th.

Stuff I’ve liked

Some things I’ve been into this month:

• Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel is an excellent adaptation of the Kurt Vonnegut classic.

• Edward Gorey illustrated a lot of the books by John Bellairs that I loved as a kid but I didn’t know much about him until I read The World of Edward Gorey. (He was also quite the dresser.)

• Ghanaian Fantasy Coffin Maker Paa Joe makes amazing coffins. He has the KISS Kasket beat for sure.

• I dove into the world of fan-made fantasy Nirvana albums — they’re like demo and rarity mixtapes with a helping of AI to modernize the production. AI stem separation is getting scary good and I’m fighting the urge to make my own “lost” Nirvana album.

• ‘Twas the season for me to be re-obsessed with Drew Sarich’s performance of Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say) from Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve watched every performance by everyone on Youtube and this one’s the best. (Skip to 2:08 for the best part.)

That’s all, thanks everybody!

Brad
Official Website (Vinyl, Shirts & News)
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Myself Almost — my new single — is available today everywhere you get your fine organic hand-made artisanal music streams… It’s a vibey indie electronic song about relationships and technology, disconnection despite constant connection. I am typing this into my phone instead of talking to my friends. Hope you like the song. Here’s the lyric video:

Thanks for listening. Also stream show tonight on YouTube 8pm EST/5pm PST.

Putting in work in the basement (Photo by Steve Pelehos)

Well well, we wrapped album rehearsals last Thursday and are headed into drum recording sessions this weekend. About a month behind schedule 😅 but I’m hopeful that won’t mean any changes in the release schedule. 

It’s always tough (for me, anyway) to commit to final versions of songs but it’s been good to take the time to really work on them. They’ve all locked in and stopped changing much so I’m working on reaching the acceptance phase here. The songs sound good in the basement, so I feel like as long as I can get a recording in that ballpark we should be in good shape. This is new territory for me recording-wise so wish me luck.

I call this look: “dead inside due to finishing album” (Photo by Steve Pelehos)

After the drums are recorded, I’ll be getting all the songs into shape and then it’ll be time to track bass, guitars, keys and of course, least enjoyably — my vocals. I’m still tinkering with the words on a bunch of songs even though I’m sure I’m lost in the OCD weeds here.

Also, tangentially related: we’ve got our monthly stream show tomorrow and two weeks after that (April 4th) Ben and I are gonna try live-streaming working on the cover songs we owe everyone from the crowdfunder (10 in total! that’s a whole other album!!) so feel free to come watch us work on songs by Nirvana, Commodores, They Might be Giants, Janet Jackson and many, many, many, many many more.

Also ALSO: I’d be a bad indie musician if I didn’t mention that I have a new song out on all streaming services tomorrow called Myself Almost. It’s about relationships and technology. Give it a listen?

Thank you thank you.

I’ve got a new single streaming on Thursday: Myself Almost. It’s a mostly-electronic song about technology and relationships. Mixed & Mastered by Rob Cosh, with visuals by Mackenzie Glisson.

I’ve included the final audio file for patrons if you want to check it out early. (The demo was called Cell Phone and was posted last June.)

Also: come join Ben & I this Thursday at 8PM EST/5PM PST for a release day live stream!

Brad