Long Away From Long Island

The emo alt-rockers known as Brand New have come a long way since their pop/punk roots in Your Favorite Weapon. Every band aspires to truly evolve and change with each new record, but none do it with quite the style like Brand New. Jesse Lacey, frontman and lead writer on their first three albums, takes a backseat to Vin Accardi in Daisy. And from beginning to end you can feel the stark difference from this album compared to the other three.

From "Vices" to "Noro" this is Brand New's heaviest record yet aiming its sights on prog/heavy metal rock. Jesse and Co. self admitted that they wanted to create a record that would be fun to play live and scheduled many days off for fear of the toll this record would take on their voices. If The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was the band in quiet contemplation Daisy finds them in angry resolution. With buzzing guitars, this record is loud -- really loud.

Jesse channels his best Kurt Cobain impression in "Bed." Strangely dark and cryptic, Vin writes the framework for this dark masterpiece. "I don't know what you feel like/Ambushed on the root, stole your gold and you laugh/Everything that you own starts to pile up/Like bones make the walls of your prison." And perhaps the lack of redemption in the lyrics is the main difference between Vin and Jesse. Jesse wrote songs that were drizzled with sadness, but you always felt the tiny vein of hope poking through for air.

Above all things, this is Brand New's most experimental album as well. In "You Stole," Brand New finds itself exploring and experimenting with a surf rock sound. "Be Gone" features a sitar-like imitation with Lacey's voice distorted as if sonically being projected through a body of water. Also they bookcased the album with a gospel hymn called "On Life's Highway" written by Bertrand Brown. Above all though, many will think this album plays up the guitars, but this is album shines due to the drummer, Brian Lane. And producer Mike Sapone, who produced their first album Your Favorite Weapon, gave this album a continuity like none before it.

Only 40 minutes long, the album is quick. Straight to the point. There have been allusions that this may be the last Brand New album, at least with this same lineup. Four albums that altogether are very different yet strangely connected. It's been a decade for these boys turned men and they take nothing for granted. This album is their most creative, cohesive work ever. Deja Entendu may be their crowning achievement, but Daisy takes every opportunity that album gave them and churned out a fiery force that resonates long after the first listen.

Heading a tour that will pack arenas, these guys are a long way from their underground punk roots, yet you never really feel they've ever lost a sense of who they are and what they aim to convey.


9/10


This. Is. Truth.

So many thoughts.....

This is what I frequently end up doing. Create a successful month or two of blogging to follow it up with a half-year hiatus til the point that I have so many thoughts, I can't focus it into a streamlined article. Over the past month, I think I have downloaded about 10 albums, read that Thom Yorke is starting a new band with Flea, Pavement is back, Alice In Chains has re-formed with William DuVall, reached a new zenith for my love of "Poker Face" by Lada Gaga, finished the first season of Dexter...err...and seen the rebirth of the Wu! Let's get down to this.



I hate to start with the dude, but how can I not? Kanye West. The dude is a titan. A superstar. He may be the last of his kind. So self-absorbed and egotistical I'm not even sure he can escape his own gravitational pull -- but neither can we. And he finally achieved his ultimate goal with 808s and Heartbreak, he has transcended hip hop and is a true music star. He can work with anyone, anywhere, anytime and be accepted for truth. Karen O? Coldplay? Freaking Elvis Costello? He is in true charge of whatever music he wants to make and we will continue to support him in the process because the man is a genius at crafting a hook. He has opened to the door for acts like Kid Cudi and Lupe Fiasco to go out and fuse hip-hop with indie alternative and still stay mainstream to the hip-hop heads out there. We are reaching a point in music where there is no one where to go but back. Starchy synths, hooks straight outta the 80s, and glam rock is pumping through top radio stations everywhere. Kanye has a hand in that. Truly a visionary, he may be one of the most repugnant figures in music, but damn if I can't smile at his kid genius.


AND he may have done the unthinkable. He might have had a hand in delivering Hov his worst album...maybe ever.

Back to the Blueprint?

I wasn't sure if it was just me as I was listening to the Blueprint 3, but I was actually bored. This was my second time to FYE and they had just gotten the shipment in. I broke the seal and started the third installment of the landmark series. The dude sounds tired. His rhetoric is so repetitive it's hard to imagine this is one of the best rappers ever to walk. All this elder of rap stuff is getting old and his hooks didn't help much. Jeezy's feature, "Real As It Gets" goes downhill right as the homage to "Public Service Announcement" ends. Even up-and-comers Drake, J. Cole, and Kid Cudi can't keep this product fresh (Let's not even get to the Kanye track, "Hate"). The fact it was released around the same time as Raekwon's stellar hip-hop follow-up Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, made it even more apparent that Hov's lost some edge. He's lost some connection for the game and the hustle. Three weeks later, the album has already fallen out of my daily rotation. And perhaps that's the most alienating offense -- it's completely forgettable.

Do It For the Kids

We are a week away from Spike Jonze's chronicling of childhood favorite, "Where the Wild Things Are," and I think the only thing better than this movie might be the soundtrack. Karen O (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) has composed and co-produced this whole soundtrack. Officially the artist is listed as Karen O and the Kids. However the "Kids" constitute of Deerhunter mastermind, Bradford Cox, YYYs members, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase, Dead Weather/Raconteurs' Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence, Liars' Aaron Hemphill, The Bird and the Bees' Greg Kurstin, as well as a children's choir. If you can't wait a week for the movie (and who can?), skip on over to your music store and pick up a copy of this. Another check for Karen O and her undeniable quest to become alt-rock's demi god.


Finally, I find myself renewed with vigor and vim (P.s. I looked up vim finally -- now I truly understand what it means) for the last quarter of music that will come hurtling its way this holiday season. I rededicate this blog to the notion that good music comes in all shapes, sizes, accents, and instrumentation. I specialize in nothing. Just have a thirst for trending music that makes me happy. Feel free to share, critique, or compliment. This week I'll get a review up for the new Alice in Chains record, Monsters of Folk, AFI, Paramore, Brand New, and Raekwon. As well as highlight a project I'm pretty pumped about: Blakroc.


This. Is. Truth.