Plug/Short Review

Very solid latest release by Brand New. While it may not go down as their best yet (it's going to be very hard to beat Devil and God), they yet again throw in a bit of a new flair, this time in the form of a harder sound. Should appeal to those who maybe thought they were a little too emo (a la Deja). The tradeoff is slightly worse lyrics, but I won't feel like a big pansy rocking to this one in the car.

Not that it ever stopped me from rocking to Deja really... just saying...

CD is out today, go grab it.

I'm On a Roll Tonight

Can you tell it's the first weekend with just me and the 'rents? Not that there's anything wrong with that....

If you follow the blog you know that I have a way out of character fondness for Brand New. I say out of character because usually I don't harp on a single band this much (Exhibit A: they have their own tag, with multiple entries). I was going through their website checking for when they planned on putting out some new music ('09 looks good) and looking at some of the old news posts they had.

This entry caught my eye. While every band harps on the "it isn't for the money" line, I think this may be one of the most poignant forms of saying that I have seen yet:

We would like to express our gratitude to anyone of you who has ever spent a nickel on this band, whether it was getting into a show, or buying a sticker, or a t shirt, or a record. It takes money to tour, and feed a band and its crew, or to record an album (after the label has spent all of yours). You all make these things possible, and in turn keep Brand New a band. But the bottom line is that we would rather this band didn't become something we felt like we were constantly selling to you guys. The only thing we as a band will ever claim authenticity on is our music. Just because all that other stuff comes from us, just because you bought a shirt on our website, or at a show, or got a lyric book in the mail, it doesn't mean it's any more unique or authentic then something you could do yourself. In fact it is less. It's just merchandise. The only "official" part of the band is what you hear on our records or at a show, the sounds we make. Write BRAND NEW on your knuckles or on a wall and it's just a good as some sticker that has an "interscope" logo on it. If you're feeling up to it, save the twenty bucks you were gonna spend on our merch site and write "The Devil and God are Raging Inside me" in marker on your dad's old t shirt. It will scare your parents, cost you nothing, and be about the most limited edition thing anyone will ever own... unless you make two.


What we are trying to say is that the important thing is that you are listening, and not so much buying. Spread it around. Share us with your friends. We thank you for supporting our band, and appreciate that you continue to do so, especially by playing our albums and coming to shows to watch us play. We hope everyone has a good holiday and a joyful new year. We're brushing up on our German and Gaelic.

This is why I don't mind waiting two years for them to release a new album. They do it for the right reasons, and if it doesn't sound right, throw it away and do it again. The candor - or honesty, or whatever you want to call it - is nice.

Brand Nizzle.

Talk about a "it's finals week and I don't want to write about music in films anymore" post... but anywho. A Behind the Music of sorts, if you don't mind...

Brand New (band name) rocks. No, they aren't new. No, they don't have a CD coming out anytime soon, though I did find some new singles/b-side tracks, one of which is youtube-d at the bottom. What they are though, is really good.

You want to talk about a band that reinvents itsself? How about one that gained popularity for its pop/punk single (Jude Law and a Semester Abroad) back in 2000, and has since come to a song called "Jesus Christ," about...well... who the hell knows what.



^^Listen to these two bad boys. Just the first 30 seconds even and you'll get the idea, even though both are solid in their own right.

Seriously, give them a chance. It kind of surprises me that they haven't had more wide spread popularity, maybe the "emo" tag wards them away from mainstream fame. Some of their songs are crap, sure, but not many. Especially as you progress forward, just check the allmusic reviews for each album, clearly one reviewer is sold.


Just to give you an idea of the evolution, I'm going to separate bits of each album into three separate seeqpods

Your Favorite Weapon:

SeeqPod - Playable Search



Deja Entendu (The whole album, expect one song, which is live...):


SeeqPod - Playable Search

The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (winner: most Badass album title of all time, only selections here again):


SeeqPod - Playable Search


Lots of stuff here...and I'm sure you will all for the most part be like "wow, this sucks ass" the first time you listen. Just give it some time if you are curious. A lot the draw is lyrical.

And yes, Your Favorite Weapon is a very average album, I know.