They initially had a pop-punk sound, with stirring lyrics, and an unusually intricate sound for a band of this genre. Their second album showed a matured lyrical direction and a departure from their earlier pop-punk sound. Their current sound has more in common with indie-alternative bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate and Machester Orchestra. They became part of the Long Island, New York indie/hardcore scene with the likes of The Movielife, Glassjaw, and Taking Back Sunday, whom they are supposedly close friends with, but have had their share of misunderstandings. They have released four full-length albums and two EPs. Their first album, Your Favorite Weapon, is their only album which captures their early pop-punk sound. It was supported by a stint on the Warped Tour. The song Seventy Times 7 from Your Favorite Weapon comes from a verse in the bible (Matthew 18:21-22: “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”), and is a shot at Taking Back Sunday’s John Nolan, who has been rumoured to have slept with Jesse’s girlfriend at the time. The Taking Back Sunday song There’s No ‘I’ in Team is a response to it. After a reconciliation both bands have performed these songs with one another. The band also acknowledged that Your Favorite Weapon wasn’t their best work, and they re-recorded the single Jude Law and a Semester Abroad and placed it on their site as a free download. The second album, Deja Entendu, saw a change in the band. When Brand New recorded Your Favorite Weapon, they were still very young (lead guitarist Vin was still in highschool), which explains the album’s teenage, angst ridden tendencies. But with Deja Entendu, both the lyrics and the members were decidedly matured, scripting instead lines about meeting girls at bars, regret, family sickness/fear of a loved one’s death, and self-mockery. The band came into the mainstream with their song The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows which fell into heavy rotation on many radio stations during the summer of 2003, while they were on the Vans Warped Tour. The band’s videos have also previously been on Fuse TV, MTV, and MTV2. It was at about this time that the band received the false “emo” moniker. That single was followed up with the decidedly moodier single, Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades. Both singles cracked the UK top 40, making them more successful in the UK than in the US. Between May 2004 (with the release of the UK Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows CDS B-Sides) and June 2005, no new material was released by Brand New and no new information was publicly released to fans. During that time however, the band was signed by Interscope Records, a major label. In June 2005, Brand New launched a new official website (which they promised to update more often) and announced they had been recording. They also confirmed rumors that Jesse Lacey had been “sick”, “had surgery”, that there “were multiple things wrong with [him]” but stated that “most of them have been fixed”. In early 2005, Jesse was admitted to the hospital where upon it was learned that he had appendicitis and had surgery to remove his appendix before any further trouble could occur. In 2006 they teamed up with producer Dennis Herring (previous work has included Elvis Costello). His studio, Sweet Tea, is a house/recording studio filled with vintage instruments and recording equipment. In January 2006, nine unmastered, unnamed demos were leaked to the internet. These nine demos suggested a new expansion of the Brand New sound, a recognisable progression from Deja Entendu. One of the songs on that demo, untitled 8, is an earlier version of the song Sowing Season(which would appear on a later album). The mellower mood is fashioned with an expansion of instrumental features, such as the introduction of piano on untitled 7, and whilst the lyrics tend towards bleakness there are also occasional shining moments of optimism. Some of the original demos have been adapted and played live in the shows of the band’s Summer 2006 tour, along with a new song “Take Apart Your Head”, now officially titled Degausser. The first single was originally going to be Sowing Season but Interpunk featured an article that named “Jesus” as being the single, which was later somewhat confirmed by Brand New featuring live performances of it on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on January 19, 2007. Both songs appear on their third album entitled The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. In Late 2006, Brand New played a one off concert at the Brixton Academy, London. At which some of the “Untitled” songs were played, and showed a much deeper side to the band. At the same time, confirming some songs that were later used on the album. The long anticipated 3rd album, The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, was released November 2006 . Though Jesse initially felt that the songs stolen and released early were no longer usable, the leak focussed the band into working harder and going the extra mile to make the songs on it the best they could possibly be. Tracks 6 and 8 from the demos ended up on the album, both expanded and with intricate rock riffs that across other tracks show a newfound musical maturity. Indeed, Limousine (MS Rebridge) recalls OK Computer while songs like the instrumental Welcome To Bangkok have been compared to Mogwai. Lyrically, TDAGARIM themes are stronger - love, loss, adjusting to a world without a father figure. The accompanying artwork shows a distorted collage of random images - the Scream masks, a blurred wolf, a guitarist from 1983 - and the liner notes dedicate the album to all those “who left between the start and finish of this recording”. They appear to leave answering phone messages in a hidden track before Sowing Season, and references to the recording or the recording process crop up several other times. Overall, the album represents a definite departure from Brand New’s earlier sound - many fans have found it hard to adjust, especially those coming to the band through Your Favorite Weapon. Preorders of the album came with the “Sowing Season” single, the B-side to which was demo number 3 and called “aloC-acoC” to avoid any copyright issues. A mastered version of the demo recording of “Luca”, the Reprisal version, was also included in UK versions of the album. Brand New headlined the London branch of the “Give It A Name” festival in 2007. It took place on April 28th. On September 21st 2009 (UK) / September 22nd 2009 (US) Brand New released their fourth studion album, Daisy which was preceded by the release of the single At The Bottom Official website:http://fightoffyourdemons.com |
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