By RYAN CARR
Staff Writer
When’s the last time anyone can honestly tell me they’ve enjoyed a new rock song? Any kind of rock will do, as long as it’s not Nickelback. We live in a day and age where music is more accessible than ever before. There are so many different styles and genres that I can’t seem to keep up most the time.
Where’s the rock? Where has it gone? It has been dwindling out of the mainstream and beyond for almost a decade now, and I think it’s time for everyone to get a little in touch with what a few minds, with a few instruments can do when they are intertwined.
Let’s start this off right with a proper introduction. Brand New is an alternative rock band from Long Island, NY forming in 2000. I stress the word rock, because every album they have made is a different genre, which I believe to be brilliant. Some people may know the group Taking Back Sunday, of which Brand New’s lead singer and guitarist Jesse Lacey was once a member, and then moved on after some personal differences and helped create what is now Brand New.
Brand New is a four-piece group with four released albums to date and a fifth upcoming. Their most recent release, “Leaked Demos 2006” is actually a collection of demos and B-sides from their original recording sessions for the 2006 album, “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.” The demos were leaked online before the band could even finish the album; therefore, the original recordings were scrapped, and new sessions would become, “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.”
This latest release is a set of nine songs that vary from simplicity to a spark of brilliance. This marks the band’s first release of new material (not counting a few singles) since their 2009 release, “Daisy.” The opening track, “Good Man,” is a simple acoustic guitar riff that relaxes the mind and takes you on a journey of self-discovery. I am extremely curious what this might have sounded like if it had made the final cut.
The following track, “1996,” opens with a semi-western tune and takes it up a scale or two to an upbeat chorus. There’s even a nice little disco dance riff in the bridge that brings the song back full circle. “Brother’s Song,” probably the most powerful song in this collection, touches the heart and soul to a point where I want to leave this song on repeat for days.
“Missing You” starts out with a synth track I would rather ignore, but quickly transitions into a nice little pop rock anthem that keeps me intrigued for the almost-five-minute song. “Luca and Yeah (Sowing Season)” appeared on their 2006 effort, and the two tracks here are broke- down acoustic versions, without the complicated layers that appear later on. “Battalions” and “Nobody Moves” are decent enough in their own un-mastered ways. “Battalions” seems like it’s the demo version of “Archers (Devil and God)” which I find exhilarating to listen to, as “Archers” is a favorite of mine on their 2006 release.
Their most commercially successful song that appears on the leaked demos is “Fork and Knife.” A drum beat starts us off and is quickly followed by a sweeping piano melody that blends nicely with Lacey’s vocals. “Fork and Knife” was previously released as a single back in 2007, and it makes sense, because it’s so good. It really makes me sit back and wonder what this creative force could have done if their work wasn’t released before its completion.
With the ever-changing record industry that we have today and the way we stream music more than any other source (besides radio), a band that may not be in the immediate spotlight still has an outlet to release a selection of songs such as these.
Brand New was and still is one of my favorite bands that are out there. I don’t know, maybe it’s the deep lyrics, the hard guitar riffs, the blend of several instruments harmonizing together to make a piece of art that only the audience member can describe to you as, mesmerizing.
As it is not a full-length album and technically does not have “new material,” I may have to rate this one a little differently. I give this one a 7/10 with the fact that these are not all completed works, yet I am still intrigued to see what might have been. The fact that I find this band amazing is an understatement. If you have not checked them out yet, please do. Especially with all the free music sources out there, there’s no real excuse not to.
Educate yourself musically, expand your mind past auto-tuned artists that take other music and re-work it as their own. Brand New offers a little bit of everything for music lovers in my eyes. They have soft piano-led songs, and they have fast hard rock, screaming to the gallows songs! Catch them this summer when they are on tour with Modest Mouse.
