The Providence-based musician Ted Bradley performs with Empty Country, the project led by former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino, and he also crafts solo material under the moniker Strange Pains. D’Agostino handled production, engineering, and mixing for Strange Pains’ forthcoming LP The Diamond District, Volume 1, the first installment of a planned two-record set, which was originally slated for today. The release has been pushed to next month, but the fresh single “Lucifer Disguised” arrives today.
We’ve already shared Strange Pains’ tracks “Memory Man” and “Walking With Yves,” along with a handful of other tunes from The Diamond District, Volume 1. Yet despite the existing material, “Lucifer Disguised,” the new Strange Pains single, surprised me. It’s a brisk alt-rock number with commanding hooks, and I can imagine it getting substantial FM play in a fictive era of the past. Bradley explains in a press release:
I began drafting it the morning after I relocated to Providence, my thoughts rattled. I’d attended the There Were Wires reunion at AS220 the night before, and on the walk home I spent time thinking about identity—the way it accumulates, sheds layers, and how you can sometimes feel detached from yourself. There’s something funny and disquieting about that. It felt natural to approach the idea in the second person, and I kept that stance in the finished piece.
Listen to it below.
The Diamond District, Volume 1 is due out on 10/16 through Best Brother Records.
