Contact to book Brad Armstrong
About
Brad Armstrong was born in Birmingham, AL in the early 1970s. 1974, actually. It was a pretty good year for music. Not because Brad Armstrong was born, though if you want to think that, it is ok.
Brad Armstrong was a product of hair metal. Later, there was Bob Dylan and the Pixies and all that, but the first things were Motley CrueShout at the Devil and Van Halen Eponymous and Kiss Alive II and The Cult Electric. Brad Armstrong is not ashamed of this. He is also a devotee of the film Trick or Treat.
Brad Armstrong had a band called 13ghosts that recorded six albums between 2000 and 2011. Four of them are readily available on Spotify, and presumably other streaming services. However, he has no access to those accounts and isn’t sure where the tens of dollars is being sent. In fact, it’s interesting to note that if he is ever sued over a certain song being available on Spotify, he cannot be held liable since he has tried repeatedly to convince Spotify that he is that Brad Armstrong, and they just will not accept it. He was talking to his friend about it, and his friend said, “Don’t worry about a thing, man, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.” So he doesn’t.
Brad Armstrong spent a long time playing guitar in the Dexateens, which is a southern institution. Kind of like a college of rock and roll, in a weird way. There were many years of touring. Then that was over. They haven’t played in a long time. But they still have a group thread going that is active daily. Many memes are shared. Some of them are amusing. Maybe one day they will play another show.
Brad Armstrong moved to the Hudson Valley after he ended 13ghosts but while the Dexateens were still touring. He took 5 AM flights out of Albany International enough to know the name of the shuttle driver. He no longer remembers it so don’t ask.
Brad Armstrong made a record called Empire, which was the first record he had released under his own name. It had a few good syncs, which got him some streams on Spotify, which account he does have access to, sort of, so that’s good, in that a) the tens of dollars are mostly going where they are supposed to, he guesses, and that b) he can privately look at the actual amount of streams, which amount is vastly improved, relatively speaking, because of the popularity of the show, which was called Kingdom and starred Nick Jonas, which is important because Nick is very popular and works out to the song in question with weights and he looks good doing that, much teeth gritting and determination, and also later in the series finale Nick Jonas is spread out over the ocean in the form of ashes to the very same song, which is very emotional since he is dead at the time and since it was his “working out” song. This use of Brad Armstrong’s song "Brothers" (which ties in to the plotline, Brad Armstrong is told) led to a relative dirth of Spotify streams (relative to his previous number of streams), which is less embarrassing than having not a lot of streams, in the popular streams section of your Spotify account. No one wants to look like they aren’t taking this seriously.
Brad Armstrong made another record called I Got No Place Remembers Me. It was good but no syncs were sold. There are many reasons why this is so. None of those reasons will be listed here. Suffice to say it was a critical success.
Last year, in Covid times, which are not over, Brad Armstrong made his newest record. It is called Heart Like a Sigil. Like all the others, he recorded, mixed and produced it in a room in his house. This is no longer uncommon. When he started making records in a house, in the 1990’s, it was very uncommon. In fact, it was frowned upon. Now it is the norm. That may be good. Hard to say yet. Anyway, it is most definitely his best record. He asked one of his very closest friends in the world to sing harmonies on it as much as she wanted to. She sang harmonies on 10 out of 12. Her name is Maria Taylor. You may know her from such bands as Maria Taylor, and also Azure Ray. That is how you know the singing is very top notch and awesome. Also, the songs on Heart Like a Sigil are good because Brad Armstrong was convinced he was making the last record that he would ever make before Covid ended society. So he definitely went all in. It came out pretty good. He definitely feels like you should disregard everything else he has made in his career and just listen to this only.
Brad Armstrong lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and two daughters and his dog and cat, and his chickens and his garden which is frankly very half-assed this year and all this goddamn rain is not helping his tomatoes one bit. He mostly slings a hammer to make money, and is no longer interested in trying to project the image of success in the music industry in order to attain success in the music industry. As it turns out, that is not a thing.
Press
"Brad Armstrong sings like Richard Buckner at a closed-casket viewing and favors intensely Book of Revelations imagery. 13ghosts continue to reinvent themselves with every song, trying on new sounds and styles to see what fits…The Strangest Colored Lights is a persistently somber, mostly humorless album, but it's so musically vigorous that you wouldn't mind if they dwelt on death for the rest of their lives."
-Pitchfork on “The Strangest Colored Lights” (7.6)
“Cicada is chockablock with ideas, encompassing an impressive breadth of styles and sounds-- sharp Southern rock, drowsy gospel, laidback 1970s pop, buzzing indie lo-fi, Sparklehorse-style self-destructive folk, percolating lounge rhythms, threadbare Americana, a little country, a little blues, a few drum machines and some George Harrison-style guitarwork-- all jammed together in 21 tracks with unusual arrangements, jostling transitions, and abrupt endings that musically enact the lyrics' obsession with untimely death and departure.”
-Pitchfork on Cicada (7.8)
“Armstrong makes graceful DIY folk that incorporates ramshackle blues (and) slow dancing country…And when he leads the bruised “Carry Your Head High” to its rousing finale, he makes every triumphant note sound wholly and beautifully earned.”
-Uncut on I Got No Place Remembers Me (8/10)
“Cicada remains a two-part record that at times feels like a pair of separate but harmonious song cycles playing side by side, successfully challenging conventional notions of album cohesion.”
-San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Armstrong casts his line into the pool of Americana alt verity to deliver stories chipped from rock, hewn from Bald Cypress, dug from dirt, ploughed in the fields -and infused with rock n roll poetry and grit.”
-Americana UK on I Got No Place Remembers Me
“Empire…is a beautifully constructed record, comprised of intricate acoustic guitar, raw lyrics, and powerful instrumentals…its complexities unravel to reveal a profound and delightful album.”
-No Depression
“Brad Armstrong is an auteur of atmosphere. On his newest release (Empire), the guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist of the post-Southern rock band the Dexateens is working in the darker areas of the human psyche and the relationships and culture it forges to cast those shadows.”
-Twang Nation
"Authenticity is a word that is often thrown around in music circles, and while it’s hard to pin down exactly what quality it is that makes a band authentic, you know it when you hear it. 13ghosts are a band that possess that indefinable quality. They have been around for a long time, and they sound like it."
-Wireless Bollinger
“Garland (of Bottle Flies) sounds more like their previous albums, fraught with unsettled conflicts and sundered relationships. The fruit of (Armstrong’s) perseverance is an album that sounds both enthrallingly messy and meticulously constructed, setting up camp in a bleak landscape where few other Southern rock bands will even set foot.”
-Paste Magazine
“…(13ghosts) displays enough offhand soul and talent to last a half dozen bands a long run.”
-Pop Culture Press
"The band may be haunted by the past and by things which are lost, buried, or hidden, but the creativity recorded on The Strangest Colored Lights assures that 13ghosts will not languish unheard and unseen. It’s more than a whisper. It is alive."
-PopMatters
“Alabama’s 13ghosts have long been known for a unique brand of dark, atmospheric rock ‘n’ roll, but Garland of Bottle Flies easily stands as its most unified vision yet...It’s an impressive work that stands as one of 2011’s best albums.”
-PopMatters (9/10)
“13ghosts’s music acknowledges the realness of death but at the same time exposes the wonders of life…Underneath the band’s haunting vocals and incredibly textured, atmospheric sounds, its soul and story creep out of a layer of mourning and beg to be heard.”
-Vice Magazine
Highlights
Brad Armstrong has a third solo LP planned for 2022 release
He has supported John Moreland, Charlie Parr, Centro-matic, Jason Isbell, Drivin' N' Cryin', Maria Taylor and Azure Ray
He co-fronted the Birmingham, AL band 13ghosts who released 6 albums and two EPs and has released two solo LPs
His music has been featured on the shows "Nashville" and "Kingdom"
He has been a contributing songwriter and guitarist in The Dexateens since 2009. During that time, The Dexateens supported Alabama Shakes, John Fogerty, Meat Puppets, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Lucero, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and Drive-By Truckers
