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Brand New

From Long Island Music Scene Wiki

Brand New is a band from Merrick, Long Island, New York. It was started in 2000 by Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney, Brian Lane, and Vincent Accardi. It's roots trace back to the shortlived Melodic Hardcore band, The Rookie Lot. Since their debut 2001 release, the pop punk tinged Your Favorite Weapon, Brand New has toured with such bands as Thrice, Crime in Stereo, Dashboard Confessional, and mewithoutYou.

Contents

[edit] Early History

In the late 1990s, Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney, Brian Lane, Brandon Reilly, and Alex Dunne were all members of The Rookie Lot, a melodic hardcore band influenced by bands like Lifetime. (see: The Rookie Lot) Brandon Reilly went on to join melodic hardcore band The Movielife, and Alex Dunne went on to play in hardcore punk band Crime in Stereo. The members wanted to continue playing and found Vincent Accardi who was then 17 years old. He decided to join the band after hearing the trio play "The Shower Scene". They decided on "Brand New" after a friend's band of the same name disbanded. Brand New then released two demo CDs, the first of which was available as a free MP3 download on their website. Both demos contained songs that were rerecorded for Your Favorite Weapon.

[edit] Your Favorite Weapon

Brand New then signed to Triple Crown Records for a one album deal to release their debut Your Favorite Weapon. The album included old songs as well as some new ones. The songs written on the record were written within their teenage years, and many are noticeable evolutions from songs written and performed by Melodic Hardcore band, The Rookie Lot. Some of the songs were written two or three years before the record came out. They were produced by Mike Sapone and during their recording sessions, the band picked up Vin Accardi every day after school to take him straight to recording. The band recorded with their good friend, Mike Sapone in his Bethpage based studio. During the recording and initial release of the album, Sapone acted as a third guitarist/fifth member of the band. Unfortunately, the band lost the hard drive containing the entire recorded album, then had to rerecord it. When the record was sold, the band sold 50,000 copies.

The band then toured nationally and internationally for 14 months supporting bands like Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Less Than Jake, Glassjaw, Incubus, and Finch. When the band ended their tour, they played a hometown show to a crowd of 5,000.

They released their first and only single, "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" and it received airplay on both MTV2 and Fuse.

In August 2002, Iodine Recordings released Your Favorite Weapon on 12 along with the extra track, "...My Nine Rides Shotgun", a demo from the band's early days. 500 copies were pressed on clear blue vinyl, and 100 copies were pressed on white. Because of high demand, Iodine Recordings repressed Your Favorite Weapon in early 2003 on clear vinyl, limited to 300 copies.

Soon after the release of Your Favorite Weapon, the band released two songs on a Split EP (see: Brand New/Safety in Numbers Split EP) which contained the tracks "Moshi Moshi" and a cover of Love Spit Love's "Am I Wrong". "Moshi Moshi was also later available as a B-side on the UK "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad" single.

[edit] Deja Entendu

After the band had returned from their fourteen month touring schedule that had taken them all over the world, the band began to write new songs. The band recorded a number of songs with Mike Sapone to demo out their new material. (See: Deja Entendu Demos). When the time was right, they entered the studio of producer Steven Haigler (Pixies, Quicksand, Local H), who was said to be "unamused" with their material, and caused "tension heretofore unseen in the history of recording." During the recording sessions, which included the recording of twelve songs, bassist Garrett Tierney's car was stolen. Guitarist Vin Accardi videotaped parts of the recording process for their fans to see. You can watch it here.

The record was released in June 2003, and received much acclaim. The songs, although retaining much of their Pop Punk wrotes includes slower, deeper, and more thought out songs. They called the record "Deja Entendu", which translates from French to literally mean "already heard", which is a comment on the band's opinion of modern music sounding similar. Jesse Lacey got the name while he was watching an episode of Jeopardy!.

The band stated that the most of the songs weren't demoed (although the leaking of their Deja Entendu Demos proves that this is not true), and that eleven out of the twelve songs appeared on the record, ("Flying at Tree Level (Version 1.0)" was left off and featured on the Beer: The Movie soundtrack)."Play Crack the Sky", whose title refers to Jesse Lacey's friend yelling out "play 'Crack the Sky'!" at another band's concert, was a late addition to the mix.

The song, "Guernica" (track nine on the album), was written about Lacey's grandfather and his struggle with cancer. The song, "Good to Know That If I Ever Need Attention All I Have To Do Is Die", is about the corruption of the business side of the music industry.

When the album was released in the summer of 2003, the album debuted at number 63 on the Billboard 200.

The band released their first single off of the album, "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" through Eat Sleep and Sorepoint Records. They then released their second single from the album, "Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades", which is a shortened version of the common Latin phrase sic transit gloria mundi ("Thus passes the glory of the world") and is a reference to a line from the movie, Rushmore. The video was shot by the director of Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue music video, . Both of the singles were top 40 hits in the United Kingdom, and their videos were featured on MTV2 and Fuse TV. The third single, "I WIll Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light" was released solely for radio play.

During 2003, their debut album was also remastered and re-released, and the band was finally introduced to Australia (through Sub Par Records) and Japan in early 2004. In late 2003, the band released a limited edition EP, "The Holiday EP" and was available to Street Team members only. It contained demos from Deja Entendu, album art by artist Brian Ewing and a new song; a cover of the Christmas song, "O Holy Night." The EP was only available for the price of postage, and it sold out quickly. It is extremely rare.

On December 28th, 2003, New York Times music critic, Kelefa Sanneh ranked Deja Entendu number five on his Top 10 albums of the year. Brand New were also named Alternative Press' Artist of the Year in their annual Reader's Poll. Between May 2004 and June 2005, no new material or information was publicly released to fans. The band signed to the major label, Dreamworks, which was quickly bought out by Interscope Records.

[edit] The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

After the release of their 2003 album, Deja Entendu, toured extensively. However for over a year, the band did not update anything and didn't tell anyone about anything that they were doing. In late 2005, the band started recording their highly-anticipated third album in Oxford, Mississippi with producer Dennis Herring, but later dropped him in favor of their old friend, bandmate, and producer, Mike Sapone.

On January 24th, 2006, nine untitled demos which were recorded as "blueprints" for the new tracks on the new album were leaked onto the internet. The demos were cited by the unknown source that leaked the album as being "nine demos that probably won't be on "Fight Off Your Demons", which was at that time speculated to be the name of the band's mysterious third album. The band had mixed feelings about their material being leaked onto the internet, however, when the album was released there were only a few songs from the demos that made it to the album.

Brand New began doing their first tour dates, and a few songs from the demos as well as other new songs that were never heard before, were performed with a full band. Lacey would introduce the songs just as the demos had; by number, rather than any title. The songs when performed live were altered versions of the demos, and many had different lyrics. The album's progress was cloaked in mystery, until June 20th, 2006 at New Jersey's Starland Ballroom, where he announced that the album had been finished the previous day.

Alternative Press announced that the album would be released on October 10th, 2006. However, Brand New quickly corrected this and said that the album would be released on November 21st, 2006 in North America, and the day before in Europe. Soon after a track listing and cover art were revealed. Their first single off the album, "Sowing Season" was released on October 19th, 2006, and appeared on their myspace page a day later. According to Lacey in a radio interview from the UK (BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe), the title The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is taken from a conversation he had with his friend about the musician Daniel Johnston, who has bipolar disorder.

In late December 2006, an unusual video was released for the instrumental track "Untitled", also known as "-", which mainly consists of a man spray painting a wall with "evil and good are raging Inside me" and correcting it to give the album title. On January 16, 2007, "Jesus Christ" was announced as being the "official" first single from the album. On January 19, the band performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. They performed it again on February 26 on the Late Show with David Letterman.

From January to June 2007, the band toured the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, including a headline slot on the UK's Give It A Name tour and playing the main stage at The Bamboozle festival. Despite the band's reluctance towards the press around the time of the release of the album, they were featured in Alternative Press, a cover story for Rock Sound, Kerrang!, and NME. The band has announced another Stateside tour for the fall of 2007, with openers Thrice and mewithoutYou. In early 2008, Brand New toured Australia and New Zealand on the Big Day Out festival.

On October 19, 2007, the band announced via their MySpace and their official website that a new song, entitled "(Fork and Knife)", would be released online on October 23, 2007. "(Fork and Knife)", a rerecorded version of the track formerly called "Untitled 7" by fans from the leaked demos, was released as a single track download. The song has, thus far, been exclusively an Internet download and has yet to see a physical release. The song was released in Japan on October 31, 2007.

On March 21, 2008, Alternative Press reported that Brand New started their own record label, named Procrastinate! Music Traitors. The first act signed to the new label was longtime friend Kevin Devine. The first release from this label will be a reissue of the 2006 Kevin Devine album Put Your Ghost To Rest.

[edit] Members

[edit] Former Members

[edit] Discography

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External Links

  • [http:www.fightoffyourdemons.com Official Website]
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