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 posted a little 2023 update about my plans for this year over on the Patreon:

Hope your 2023’s off to a good start! I took some holiday time off to chill and sketch out what the year’s gonna look like for Brad Sucks. Here’s the timeline so far: 

The main ones:

• I Don’t Know What I’m Doing 20th anniversary. Working on planning a big show for August 26th. Main tasks: learning the full IDKWID album, getting the full band back in shape, warm-up shows, booking, lights, video, streaming, promotion. Also want to come up with some fun stuff to celebrate the album. 

• Officially release Patreon songs. I've gotta finish the recordings, mix and master them, then do video, promotion, etc. 

• Streaming & more video content. Shooting for stream shows with Ben every 1.5 months or so as we practice the I Don't Know What I'm Doing album.

• More song demos for the Patreon. Still have a huge backlog of songs to finish over here.

• Plus tons of small to medium sized things in between.

I'm anxious about having this many deadlines and moving parts -- not to mention nervous about finishing songs and playing live IRL again 😅. I think this'll be the most I've tried to pull off in a year... but mapping stuff out like this has made things manageable for the past few projects so hopefully that'll keep me in check. Wish me luck!

Brad

2022! Not my favourite year but the competition hasn’t exactly been stiff lately. Thanks for being along for the ride! All your likes and shares and comments mean a ton to me. And of course special thanks to all the Brad Sucks Patrons: your support each month reminds me to keep at it even though why bother doing anything ever am I right.

In 2023 the plan is to finish and release a lot of the Patreon songs I’ve been working on and try to force people to listen to and share them. Next year is also the 20th anniversary of my first album I Don’t Know What I’m Doing so I’m hoping to do some fun stuff for that. Also artificial intelligence will replace songwriters and musicians soon so that’ll be relaxing. 

Gonna try and chill till the new year I think and then get back at it. Here’s a list of some of the stuff I put out or was involved with this year:

PUBLIC

• VINYL: Guess Who’s a Mess on vinyl (shop link)

• SHIRT: Fun Guy t-shirts (shop link)

• SONG: Too Sick to Love but Too Well to Die (youtube link)

• SONG: Pepper (cover) (youtube link)

• SONG: Lotion (cover) (youtube link)

• SONG: Fuck You, Motherfucker (It's Christmas) (2022 Version) (youtube link) 

• VIDEO: Brad Sucks - Making Me Nervous (Live on The LightTwist Show) (youtube link)

• VIDEO: Brad Sucks Live Stream: January 27th (youtube link)

• VIDEO: Brad Sucks Live Stream: September 22nd (youtube link)

• VIDEO: Brad Sucks Live Stream: November 3rd (youtube link)

• TV: I have a song in Bee & PuppyCat on Netflix (link)

• GAME: I did sound design for VargaVinter (instagram link) (game link)

• REMIXED: Dirtbag (SOMMERS UK Remix) (link)

PATREON $3+

• SONG: This Meeting (2022 demo) (patreon link)

• SONG: Nature is Healing (demo) (patreon link)

• SONG: The Answer (demo)  (patreon link)

• SONG: Video Games (Lana Del Rey cover) (patreon link)

• SONG: Killing It (demo) (patreon link)

• SONG: 80s Western Rock Commission (patreon link)

PATREON $10+

• I Command You to Be My Woman + Incomplete Animated Video (patreon link)

• Making Me Nervous (early demo) (patreon link)

• How to Not Kill Yourself (early demo) (patreon link)

• Talent (demo)  (patreon link)

• The Answer (early demo) (patreon link)

• In Trouble lyric brainstorming (patreon link)

• All album instrumentals (patreon link)

I think that’s it until next year, thank you again! My links: web, patreon, instagram, tiktok, spotify, twitter, facebook, discord ✌️❤️ — Brad

Very happy (and relieved) to say that all of the orders from the Guess Who’s a Mess Indiegogo have been shipped and are on their way!

My huge thanks to everyone who supported this project — I was able to do a high quality remaster of the original album and now I have all four full length Brad Sucks albums available on vinyl. Amazing. I feel so grateful and I can’t thank you enough for your support.

So that wraps up this project and after some clean-up and catch-up over here I’m planning on turning my focus to working on finishing new Brad Sucks songs for release and also trying to get better at regularly producing and putting out video content as that seems to be what modern music promotion requires. 

Songs in progress will still be going up on the Brad Sucks Patreon (there are 20+ unreleased demos over there) and I’ll be making more of an effort on the YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Also there's a (usually monthly) Brad Sucks mailing list you can hop on if you want to stay updated. Wish me luck and thanks so much for coming along the ride with me. Love,

Brad

Trying to be a pro up in here but it's quiet, not too interesting work: 1) Working on the new album - met with Rob Cosh who I worked with on Out of It and it looks like we're good to go. I just need to finish off the tracks. Also I'm trying to decide on album artwork.

2) Working on the live show - adding lights and visuals and working on improving the general live sound and presentation.

3) Planning - I have a sheet of paper here with Brad Sucks stuff (releases and promotion etc) planned out until next June. I feel so legit looking at it. Legit and overwhelmed.

4) Video - trying to get some video stuff going for the next record. It's an area I never really enjoy but I should probably do it.

5) Website fixing - tidying up this place a bit. Upgraded bbPress, added Facebook connect and fixing my mailing list software since I haven't sent out the Brad Sucks mailing list in forever.

6) Secret projects - plotting out some new projects which have so far involved a lot of meetings.

7) Maintaining my mlkshk account - this thing doesn't update itself you guys.

But enough about me, how are you?

Minor update to Gimme Some Money, the object donation script. Just a formatting issue with the Javascript widget that should make installation less annoying.

I've been lazy with the blogging lately. Too busy, too boring. To make up for this I have put my latest Twitter status at the top of my blog now so you can know that I'm not dead if this is a concern of yours.

Twitter has been a pretty interesting service. Casual status contact with people I like is a nice addition to instant messaging. What would otherwise be a worthless bit of information is meaningful when it's someone I care about.

That being said, I hate it when blogs that I subscribe to decide to cram their worthless twitters down my throat via RSS so I will not be doing that.