Vine(yl) Club #8 - Brad
I had a phone call today with 2 of my best friends…we’ve been friends for 30 years. I called Dave and Mitch to talk about the album “Shame” by the band Brad. For the life of me I couldn’t remember WHO introduced the album to me, or if I introduced it to them. Turns out all of our memories are a bit fuzzy as we had three separate stories (it was 1994, cut us some slack). The one thing we ALL could agree upon was seismic shift we felt hearing the voice of Shawn Smith for the first time. Ethereal, at times sultry, and always soulful. From the opening notes of the quiet and steady drum beat of Regan Hagar, the sparsely beautiful bass notes of Jeremy Toback, and of course the rhythmic guitar of Stone Gossard, Brad had me from the get-go. But it was Shawn’s voice that had us all mesmerized.
If you’ve been a member of our VINE(YL ) Club from early on, you’ll have heard me wax poetic about Shawn when we released Satchel’s “Heartache and Honey”. It’s difficult writing about something so important in your life. You want to express the HOW and WHY, when many times it’s unexplainable. Music allows us to take a journey back in time when we were more innocent (some of us), and certainly not as wise. But we had wide eyes and a long runway paved with high aspirations in our headlights. And hope. A lot of hope. The music helped me stay hopeful and grounded.
The 90’s were the most important decade in terms of music for me. I spent every waking hour consuming music. Whether out at clubs in Seattle (raise your hand if you’ve been to RCKNDY, The Off Ramp, or The Central Tavern), hanging out at friends’ houses or at my home, and even at work, I had music on my mind. We named the winery after a f*cking Pearl Jam song! I was a veritable sponge for music, so when Brad entered my life, I absorbed EVERY. NOTE. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve listened to “Shame”. I know this album front to back, every intonation of Shawn’s voice (trust me, I’ve tried singing them all). Every lick of Stone’s guitar and Jeremy’s bass on my air instruments. I’ve stopped mid-sentence to play the funkiest bass line AND guitar riff of “20th Century” AT THE SAME TIME (not an easy task), and THEN break out into air drums on the outro. You’re welcome.
This album has so many “moments” for me. And I hope it does for you as well. It’s SO special, that I decided to interview Jeremy Toback, the bass player for Shame, and I had Dave Place join me as a surprise! It’s now up on our YouTube channel! It was a thrill to break down the album, get some of the behind the scenes moments, discuss the genesis of the project, and geek out with Jeremy! But most importantly, you get to see 30 years of friendship, one that is and will always be, deeply cemented in music. That link is HERE.
VIVA VINE(YL)!
Trey and the entire team at Sleight of Hand
PS: Only 250 copies of this exist. We had our friends at Loosegroove Records press this in a variant color (maroon), different from the wider release. Feel free to upload this to your Discogs account!
