Strange Pains teams with Empty Country/Cymbals Eat Guitars’ Joe D’Agostino for new LP

Strange Pains is the project of Ted Bradley, who plays in Empty Country‘s live band (including on this year’s Live in NYC live album), and Joe D’Agostino from Empty Country/Cymbals Eat Guitars produced, mixed, played, and sang all over Strange Pains’ new double album The Diamond District. From the band’s new bio:

The album’s sonic identity is inseparable from Joseph D’Agostino, whose work with Cymbals Eat Guitars and Empty Country shares a similar sensitivity to emotional architecture. Bradley and D’Agostino met over a decade ago, bonded over songwriting, and eventually found themselves playing together in Empty Country’s only live shows. Their shared instinct deepened into a kind of creative shorthand: weekends tracking guitars and vocals at D’Agostino’s house, reimagining “Boomerang,” insisting that “Everyday Is The Same” belonged on the record, pushing each other toward choices neither would have made alone. D’Agostino’s role as producer, engineer, mixer, and collaborator wasn’t about perfection – it was about clarity of intent.

The album’s first single is “Boomerang,” a propulsive indie rock song with big hooks and big guitars that’s not too far removed from Empty Country/Cymbals Eat Guitars. If you’re into those bands, or forebears like the back-in-action Sugar, check this out.

Ted says, “I’m curious about the private negotiations the mind makes with itself — the place where longing and risk overlap, strike bargains, and play the odds. Boomerang, to me, is partly confessional but more so an observation of those interior weather patterns: the drift, the pull, the return. In the end, the song settled into a shape that felt both familiar and uncanny, like something half-remembered from a dream. It lingers on the kinds of nagging obsessions that follow their own loops, resurfacing when they choose to.”

Listen to the new song below, along with the poster for Strange Pains’ upcoming New England shows this month. The album is expected in 2026, but exact release date is TBA so stay tuned.

Boomerang by Strange Pains