Release Date: Apr 24, 2012
Genre(s): Grunge, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Hard Rock
Record label: Razor & Tie
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With their fifth studio album, United We Stand, Brad have been a band for almost 20 years. Living in the shadow of guitar player Stone Gossard's other (exponentially more popular) band Pearl Jam for the entirety of their existence, it's impossible to extract Brad from their associations to one of the foundational forces of grunge. The ten songs on United We Stand attempt a wide range of styles and emotional twists, but never reach far enough that you forget it's the guy from Pearl Jam and some other mainstays of Seattle's golden age of grunge making the sounds.
Brad feels like a longshot that came in. This 20-year-old side project somehow managed to skirt the perils that doomed so many of their Seattle peers: the decline of grunge, flannel shortages, Courtney Love. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Brad guitarist Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) attributed their longevity, in part, to the band being an outlet for making music with no expectations.
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