Brand New - Science Fiction (August 17, 2017) [ARCHIVED] Album • Page 1713

I probably have my t-shirt lying around or my ex-gf kept with some other TBS ones I had.

 

Sure ok it’s hard, but the dude has victimized and assaulted people. They are going through/have gone through something far more tragic than the removal of an artist’s discography. In the end, its the right thing to do—cut the financial support, draw a line in the sand, and align yourself with the survivor.

Obviously everyone has a choice and I’m not going to demonize anybody who chooses to continue to listen to their music, but i mean I don’t know how one can listen to Jesse’s autobiographical lyrical catalogue of the pain hes caused others and say “i can separate art from artist.”

 

uh i mean the whole point of art is that everyone interprets it differently. i haven't listened to the band since the allegations came out, but when i eventually start listening to them again it won't be from an "oh this lyric is jesse talking about being an abuser hell yeah" pov, more so from a position that "listening to this album is therapeutic/cathartic for me"

 

Pretty much this post. I am glad that I was able to shrug it off as easily as I did. I'm not judging who keeps listening to this, it's just that to me, whatever was there once, it just isn't anymore. It's meaningless. I have memories, but these memories are way better than whatever the songs once meant to me. I can't separate Brand new from Lacey's acts, but I definitely can separate myself from them.

 

Hey, to each their own. I’m just saying I wouldn’t be able to listen without returning to that thought. It’s been tainted. Going through a similar thing with Pinegrove— one of my favorite bands of the last few years, but im retiring them (for now at least) and am having immense trouble doing so. But for me, that internal struggle is just not enough of a reason to try and reconcile art from artist. I can find hundreds of other artists that are just as good and even resemble brand new or pinegrove’s sound without them being abusers.

 

Appreciate all the feedback. I guess to me I continue to take away from this music what I always wanted it to be. I still love to listen to it and think about what it means to me and what it has meant to me in the past. This hasn't ruined that for me. So even if the lyrics are autobiographical, and there's nowhere saying that they are...they take on a different meaning to me and mean what I want them to.

 

I’ve had a different song of theirs stuck in my head pretty much every day since Jesse’s abuse first came to light. I think that speaks to how much this situation has been running through my subconscious.

I still haven’t listened to any of their music since, though I know I will eventually. I have my own meanings and interpretations attached to the lyrics, but right now I imagine this is all too fresh not to think about when listening. But who knows if the former meanings I had attached to the music will stick, or if this will be the lasting memory.

 

I echo whoever said that I’m not actively not listening, rather I just have no desire to do so right now. It just feels off.

I have listened to songs from SciFi since the news and have enjoyed them, but when other songs have come on shuffle I’ve hit next pretty quickly

 

None of us can control how we react to art. Brand New songs make me think about what Jesse did, which make them unlistenable to me. Maybe that will change with time. I don't know. I also don't know why I can sit through Annie Hall. Not that I'm not thinking about Woody Allen and the despicable person he is, I just get wrapped up in the movie and enjoy it in spite of myself. Right now I can't do it with Brand New. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, it's just something we can't control when we consume art. Sure, we can refuse to consume the art anymore even if it brings us involuntary positive feelings, but I don't necessarily think there’s a perfect way to consume the art of someone who has done horrible things, as long as it’s on a small, personal level not providing monetary or vocal public support. Turning it into positive productivity is probably the best you can do. Woody Allen was one of my favorite writer/directors growing up. I gave up his work for awhile post-Blue Jasmine when I read Dylan Farrow’s account, then watched Cafe Society. I torrented it, donating the money I would have spent to RAINN. I justified seeing Birth of a Nation in theaters despite Nate Parker’s history because it had already flopped and, again, I matched the ticket price with a donation to RAINN. It’s hard to find a personal balance, I don’t begrudge anyone who is at least trying to work through their connection to a problematic artist’s work productively, even if they still consume the art.

 

I am glad to hear the differing opinions. That was really what I wanted to hear. Overall, everyone just has to do what they are comfortable with. It was frustrating for a while to see extreme opinions on both sides.

 

Wasn't big on the band before, but I can comfortably say I'll never listen to them again

 

The only thing I know for sure at this point is this needs to remain part of their legacy. It’s important to me it doesn’t get forgotten or washed away with time. I still don’t feel like I need to answer the “will I listen” question because there’s so much music out there right now that I never find myself caring to even try.

 

All valid points. I don't personally feel like listening to their songs endorses what Lacey did, and I don't plan on financially supporting the band in any way down the line. A few brought up the different interpretations of the lyrics, something that is totally fair - again, my only having listened sporadically for a few years (and heavily with Science Fiction) gives me more of a muted or casual perspective I guess. Everyone is entitled to do what they feel is sufficient in responding to what Lacey did. There is no one right answer IRT listening/not listening from here on out.

 

While there is certainly a lot of music out there for me nothing has been as good to me as there's has been.
As for their legacy this may be a part of it but how big anyone wants it to be a part of what is remembered is going to be individual by individual.

 

I disagree completely.

 

Disagree with your last point. I mean this absolutely should not be swept under the rug. This happened and it won’t be forgotten. As far as for those who want to continue listening, that’s fine, but you can’t really paint over this as if it’s a small detail in Brand New’s history.

 

My vinyl pre-order finally came this week, and listening through it was difficult. It was the first time I listened since everything came to light. I suspect in time I might still listen to Brand New, but just not as often, and never without the guilt. I'm not going to sell or burn my albums, I feel like that's a feeble attempt to redeem my complicity in supporting this band over the years. As a fan I empowered Lacey to do this and get away with it. I need to own up to that, admit to it, and also remind myself to never again put anyone on a pedestal like that. I'm keeping the records for now as a reminder of those failings, even if I don't return to them in a while.

 

I'm not saying sweep it under the rug. I'm just not choosing to define the band by this

 

real nice you get to do that.

 

If some of you still want to listen to Brand New, that's fine. But if you spend money on them from here on out, that's a different story. Don't give them your money.

 

I know that at some point, I will return to TDAG, Daisy, and Science Fiction, because they all contain some of my favorite music and are extremely important albums to me. It's going to be a long time before I feel like revisiting them, but I assume that the time will come for me some day. However, if I do continue listening to the band, financial support is out of the question and acknowledgment of Lacey's actions will always be a must. That's where I'm at right now.

 

My decision to stop listening to them, maybe forever, is not because of how the music makes me feel. I won’t judge anyone who can still listen. That decisions is theirs to make.

Personally, I just don’t need the work of a predator to be something I enjoy. I am sure if I put on Science Fiction I would still enjoy it and the songs meaning to me would be the same. But I just choose to not engage with the art of someone like Jesse. It was oddly an easy decision for me to make.

But, to be clear, I haven’t sold or thrown anything out yet. I have the first four CD’s and then Deja/SF on vinyl. I’m too lazy to sell anything. So I don’t know what will become of it. Maybe I’ll listen many years from now. I don’t know.

Also, as someone said above, it’s not all clear to me how far to take it. Baby Driver was my favorite movie of the year. Spacey is in it. It’s a small but vital role. I don’t want to watch it right now, but since it’s far more of an Edgar Wright movie than a Spacey movie I can see myself being able to watch down the road. Where with Brand New, the majority of the lyrical content is from Jesse. How important the person is within that art seems to matter to me. I don’t know if that’s good or not, tbh.

With the Screen Junkies thing, I still watch their stuff now that they are back. But a massive difference is that SJ/Defy Media fired Andy and the day the allegations came out literally every major player spoke out in support of the victims and called for action to be taken. As well they didn’t shirk away from addressing it upon their return and explained actions being taken within the company to ensure this type of thing didn’t happen again.

This is all so complicated.

 

The rest of the band still hasn’t said shit, have they? Assholes.

 

I'm in the maybe one day camp, but slowly moving out of that the longer we go without an acknowledgement from the rest of the band.

 

I don't see Lacey's and Brand New's situation as the same as Spacey and Baby Driver, for example. I think my ultimate hero and idol, the single person alive on Earth that I'd like to have an autograph but mostly just talk and say thank you like I did with other heroes that shaped me is Stan Lee. Stan Lee created most of the characters, worlds and mythology that I love, but it's not like even him isn't yet another part of a bigger engine, regardless how much he is probably the most important engine, several creators contribuited to shape the characters that I love and I'm inspired of, going all the way back to Schuster, Siegel, Kirby and Simon.

Spacey is just a small part on several films that I liked. Brand New and Lacey is different because Lacey did the unspeakable, regardless how much the songs had different meanings to me and still have different meaning to others, in restrospect it's everything very much straight forward. He abused the victims and profitted on his messiah impersonation, using that as a shield. My sentiments aren't of feeling betrayed, but feeling stupid for not realizing earlier that something was incredibly off.

When everything about the band's catalogue go back to his "muses" and how he preyed upon them and fucked up their lives, I do feel the guilt for speaking positively about them in the past, for falling for the myth and fan fiction that Lacey and the rest of the band allowed to happen around themselves. I would have really liked to see the band speaking up if anything for an attempt of getting their fans to get a hold of themselves, but mostly because I'd really like to believe that they didn't knew.

We are almost one month out of when this broke, and the feeling I get is that I feel like an idiot for not realizing before, and if I couldn't piece together back then, I don't see how the other band members didn't. They were their accomplices through the whole fucking thing and nothing they'd say now would make me think otherwise. It's obvious now to me, it should definitely be obvious to those that were close to him.

So yeah what I'm saying is, in Brand New's case, forgiving isn't an option from me. I can understand those that still need their music, but while those have my understanding, I'd encourage to not give them money in any shape or form, not even by listen to their songs on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube and etc.. We all know how to circumvent this type of thing. I can understand not being able to stop listening to their music because what it means to anyone else other than me, but I definitely can't understand to keep giving them monetary support.