Brad -- Hipster Music Collection

Hipster Music Collection Alphabetical: # | A | B | C | D | E| F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL

Brad
Artist Website: bradcorporation.org

Interiors

Shame
Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam fame may have one of the cooler names in rock 'n roll, but his hard-rockin' name belies the soft-rock underpinnings of his side-project, Brad. As far as side-projects go, this one could certainly be worse, but it could also be more exciting. In fact, I've heard C-SPAN 2 Senate debates that are more exciting. Like most side-project albums, this thing is very front-loaded, with most of the decent tracks way up front. Perfect to fool those picking this thing up at a used record store with listening stations. The lead singer certainly has an interesting voice, and Gossard's song writing is obvious after hearing his tunes on various PJ albums, but what starts off as a promising, yet slow album, sputters as it gets deeper into the tracklisting. It's a nice, little album with a couple pleasant tunes, but I've had pillows with more weight to them.

Welcome to Discovery Park
I honestly picked this one up out of the junk bin at work because I was curious where these guys would go after their first two albums. Well, as it turns out, straight to the junk bin. The lyrics on this album are like terrible, inspirational poems for children. The music just seems to meander from jingle to jangle, as it mines the depths of the soft rock basement. There's an odd late-80's thing going on here, resurrecting the worst of Maggie's Dream and dragging it through the country ringer. Once again, the only draw is lead singer Shawn Smith's voice, but he is a wasted commodity in an album full of songs about "being friends" and other niceties. Time to break up and reorg.

Musical Connections:
Green River
Mother Love Bone
Pearl Jam
Temple of the Dog