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Drum roll please……

Brand New

Watching Brand New perform live a few weeks back, cemented for me, their status as the best band of the decade. Every song they played felt instantly incredible and utterly amazing. From the harder, dirtier new songs to the moment they closed the show with the haunting Play Crack The Sky, I was enthralled and mesmerized.

Emerging from the over populated Long Island scene in the beginning of the decade, Brand New – vocalist Jesse Lacey, guitarist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garret Tierney, drummer Brian Lane and multi-instrumentalist Derrick Sherman – set themselves apart with their brilliant live show and their constantly evolving sound that has run the gamut from angry pop-punk to experimental alt rock. All the while, maintaining the same line-up and building their reputation as a band that doesn’t waver from their vision and “don’t believe in filler, baby”.

Your Favorite Weapon

Released in 2001, Brand New opened the decade with an opus of angsty pop-punk songs that went beyond the formulaic style of many other bands of the time.

It’s impossible to talk about Weapon without mentioning BN’s side of the Taking Back Sunday feud. The bitter and berating Seventy Times Seven recounts the story of the jilted ex-boyfriend who’s lady love has taken up with his former best friend, who, according to urban myth, or actual fact, who really knows, is said to be founding member of Taking Back Sunday John Nolan. The songs scathing 3rd verse, “Have another drink and drive yourself home/I hope there’s ice on all the roads/And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt and again when your head goes through the windshield .” became an instant classic amongst fans who felt a kinship with the band, and with the songs sense of loss and betrayal.

The album’s only single, Jude Law and a Semester Abroad shared Seventies sense of loss and anger and recently made Alternative Press’s list of top singles of the decade, with them referring to it as their Creep, a comparison to Radiohead’s early work.

Weapon was a solid album for a young band trying to find their footing, and gave a good indication of where of they were headed.

Brand New – Seventy Times 7
Brand New – Jude Law And A Semester Abroad

Deja Entendu

Where weapon was poppy, scathing, and fast paced, 2003’s Deja Entendu slowed Brand New’s pace down and found them diving into experimental waters. Showing a greater level of concentration and planning, songs like I Will Play Mt Game Beneath The Spin Lights and Me vs. Elvis vs. Maradona showed lyrical growth and lent a poetic elegance to the album.

The second single, Sic Transit Gloria, found itself in heavy rotation on radio and on MTV2, and helped propel the album up the charts and helped to truly established the bands place in the musical community. Telling the story of rushing into sex from the point of view of a boy who isn’t ready for it, Sic Transit defined Entendu, connected with “emo” kids everywhere and became a staple in the bands live performance.

Entendu also set the stage for what was to come.

Brand New – Sic Transit Gloria (Glory Fades)
Brand New – I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Lights

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

2006 saw the long anticipated follow up to Entendu in the form of Brand New’s magnum opus, the Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Building of the experimental sound of Entendu, BN crafted an album that was poetic, moving and effortlessly flowed from soft to heavy and used tempo changes to control the emotion in songs like Sowing Season, building up and tearing itself down, providing climaxes and crescendos.

Songs like Jesus Christ and Milstone, showed incredible growth in Lacey’s lyrical ability as he continued to delve into the more personal aspects of his life and feelings with the reckless abandon that had long been an asset and a calling card for the band.

Brand New – Millstone
Brand New – Jesus

Daisy

2009 saw Brand New’s fourth release of the decade, the dark, dense and stripped down Daisy. Never seeming to be wholly content with their sound and always striving to make different records the band crafted an album that upon first listen felt like a re-visited 90’s alternative album that had nothing in common with the lilting and thoughtful songs found on Devil and God.

The more times you spin the album, the more you realize that it was just the next step in the progression and the depth of what BN have released truly begins to sink in. Daisy is raw, dirty and in your face. Songs like At the Bottom and Sink seem, at first, to be miles away from Brand New’s other work, but in reality seem more like a response to the thoughts, feelings and emotions the band have already expressed.

Brand New – At The Bottom
Brand New – Sink

Like Deja Entendu and The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, Daisy is an instant candidate for album of the year and helped to cement Brand News place, for me, as the best band of the decade.

It’s often dangerous to hold a band you love up. To put so much stock in what they do, and so much hope for what they will do next, but at each point in the evolution of Brand New they have lived up to and surpassed those expectations. It could simply be that me, and the others who dwell within the cult of Brand New happen to come upon the band at a time when their music spoke to us, when it was really what we needed to hear. It could be that over the last ten years, as we matured, they matured and as we grew deeper, they grew deeper. No matter how you slice it, longevity is the hardest thing for a band to accomplish, and while a decade might pale in comparison to some of the dinosaurs who still trot themselves out on tour for a massive payday, to a generation with an ever shortening attention span and a constant pipe-line to what’s new and next, Brand New’s music has managed to make genuine connections with people, and in the end that is the most you can ever get out of any music.

Tags: Aaron Long, band of the decade, Brand New, Daisy, Deja Entendu, Jesse Lacey, Taking Back Sunday, The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, Thrice, Your Favorite Weapon