Brand New Band • Page 97

Same thing happened with "At The Bottom."

Hence the "sounds like modest mouse" thread.

 

Hoping they just accidentally throw the album up tomorrow.

Oopsy... "We're releasing our fifth LP 'Kevin360' immediately due to us being bad at roll outs."

 

I can tell you from constant personal experience, every month at my job, that Amazon is a very, very tricky service to manage and sync up with release dates + announcements. Things are posted early every single month for reasons that I don't care to detail

 

It was set to release Friday. Usually means Thursay stream and announcement. One day of it up then put it up for sale.

 

Man I still remember seeing people on Twitter and the forums freaking out the first night they played Mene live.

"THEY'RE OPENING WITH A NEW SONG"

 

I remember seeing stuff like that over the years: "New song being played!!!!!"

An hour later: "Was just a NIN cover."

 

I guess they're a lot bigger but I still can't believe Radiohead kept their new album tracklist/title/art a secret until an hour and a half before the release with the unreliability of these websites...

Could never see Brand New doing a sudden drop album release like some people wanted haha

 

Reddit seems to think this is official.

Which is hilarious.

Edit: That thread has to be sarcasm. Haha.

 

Glad they've done a video, brings a lot more clarity to the song that you just don't get from the mp3.

Don't listen to the haters, this is a proper return to form.

 

Yeah, I totally missed the intricacy of the instrumental work even in lossless. This highlights it well.

 

The thread is most definitely sarcasm lmao

 

I have never understood the Modest Mouse comparisons other than maybe very few moments on Daisy.

 

Daisy is such a rad album and it was a pretty cool experience listening to it for the first time. Was a bit of a curveball

 

Jesus was the first song where I saw that influence come through--Jesse's guitar parts in particular (e.g., And IIII, will diiie).

 

After spending a day with the new song, I have to say it's grown on me a lot. My fiance and I have had found ourselves humming the chorus without consciously thinking about it.

When I first heard the 30-second preview and saw the art that went along with it, I thought it was a joke or mistake--like the hip-hop artist called Brand New that has material lumped with them. However, my fiance insisted that it was Jesse's vocals, even on my phone's speaker.

What struck me the most was how it didn't sound anything like what I was expecting for their first single from the new album. Not sure what I expected considering their history, but just not what we got. As @KennedyBN so eloquently pointed out, this isn't a group of guys that would release anything that they were less than psyched about.

I remember Jesse saying in at least one interview that he wished to write songs that caught fans off guard and could reach new ones. In essence, writing songs that sounded nothing like the Brand New sound we've come to expect and have fans question if it was the band or not. By that measure, I'd say they've accomplished that with this song more so than Daisy, Mene or Sealed to Me. Not to say that Deja, the leaked demos or TDAG were giant leaps by themselves, but those to me exemplify the sound widely attributed to them. Daisy, Mene and Sealed or Me all carry elements of that sound, too.

If I had to pinpoint anything that elicited the kind of reaction this song gave me initially, it'd have to be the vocals. They just don't sound like Jesse on first listen, in my opinion. He's channeling Paul Banks instead of Morrissey or Isaac Brock, and the vocals are lower in the mix than usual. Not that that those are bad things--just different, which is good. The bass and guitar lines are infectious and the drums serve their purpose of driving the song. You could argue they're some of the catchiest bass and guitar lines they've written.

They took a risk and it seems to have paid off. The coverage Mene received was shocking, yet they managed to get even more press this time around. Again, it's the band that manages to get larger without doing much of anything, especially press. I'm excited to see what ends up on the full release. If this is any indication, we're in for a surprise.

 

I wonder if we will get any kind of other annoucement soon/before they start touring. I really hope we do. I mean if we compare this new song to Mene things were happening even after the song dropped. New merch, lyric booklets went on sale, lyric sheet for Sealed to me, etc. Hopefully the trend continues this time around.

 

I would've said, yesterday, we're not getting anything else this week. But they've since pulled everything from their merch store, which makes me think something else could be happening tomorrow. Maybe. At least some new shirts or a new Zine perhaps. Expectations are not high, I'm okay with whatever.

 

I mean since everything is now gone, I'm expecting a few shirts and a zine. I don't think they would take everything off if they were just gonna put one or two new things. "Out with the old, in with the new....soonish"

 

They usually do it before new tour merch.

 

I'm also ok with whatever but yeah tomorrow or Friday it would be cool to get some new merch or something but who knows when it comes to BN. I really wish the new Thrice was coming out this Friday. Ah well at least there's the new Saosin. I'm just really craving new music lately with all this talk about new Brand New.

 

My thought as well.

So I've listened to Nightmare around five times now. Forming an opinion on it is difficult, as it takes time to remove myself from the hype, from the "this band can do no wrong" mentality (I'm already not a huge fan of YFW).

It's always hard to look at anything Brand New or Thrice does in an objective way. Both bands and their music mean so much to me, they're a part of my personality and have influenced and been a part of shaping my taste in music, and honestly have shaped big parts of my life.

After my first listen of Daisy, I remember feeling so strange. I kept asking myself if my liking it was a result of blind fandom or genuine enjoyment. It has always been an exhausting and difficult album to listen to, and that's something the band has acknowledged themselves. Seven years later I can actually say I love that album, but I've been wishy washy on it at several points, especially in the moments I considered the possible reality of it being the last set of songs I ever got from my favorite band.

Last year when Mene dropped and things started happening, them playing Sealed to Me, I was just so taken aback by the sudden explosion of happenings from the Brand New camp. Loved Mene the moment I heard it. Sealed to Me still needs a studio version to win me over.

Nightmare surprised me in the sense that I didn't just categorize is as "love it" on first listen as I have convinced myself I would no matter what they put out. Lacey could spend three minutes clicking his tongue to a generic beat and I thought to myself I'd think that was brilliant. I didn't want to be part of blind fandom. I want to see the music for what it is. Or at least find a balance between trusting my favorite artists and looking that what they produce is material that can be flawed, it can be critiqued.

Didn't set out to write an essay. Lots of thoughts swarming around about my expectations of Brand New, knowing that nothing they will ever do can surpass what TDAG is to me. Perhaps my mind set has always been that I'd like to see them try. Though on the other end, I enjoy that each of their albums feels like a reinvention, something that feels so "brand new" and borrows some elements from previous work that you'd expect a maturing and growing group of people to create.

Five listens of Nightmare and it is difficult to form my thoughts separate from reading other opinions. Separate from the negativity and positivity, the polarization I expected.

I want to hear it in the context of the album more than I desire to keep listening to and analyzing it.

 

I remember you questioning lines in "You Won't Know", so you are probably right.

 

So let's go outside and we'll play William Tell
Take your time drawing a bead
I'll stand as still as you need
'Cause you're so good at talking smack,
You heart attack

Well, that's still pretty bad.

 

I don't think the William Tell line is bad, I actually like it a lot but yeah the heart attack but isn't good

 

Song is fantastic, that lyric sucks.