Brand New :: Daisy

Daisy breathes, through the chaos of its construction, a juxtaposing elemental vitality; the coherent whole is built out of contradictory parts. There are some of the catchiest pop tunes the band has ever written, residing in grooves right next to abrasive and psychedelic tracks that will have you likewise yelling along. Sometimes it even happens in the same song. It’s an album of experimentation, something unexpected around the corner of each song’s end. It seems to be working for the band as it’s their highest ranking album, the soft->loud dynamic getting them Radiohead comparisons left and right.

The album cover is by Peter Sutherland and it follows the trend from their last album, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, of deliberately odd and obscure photos. The pictures included in the jacket are a mesh of colors, simple patterns and dark band photos. The vinyl version of the album that saw limited release only on the internet, comes with one additional photo as an insert: a big aqua manatee. The photos serve the same purpose as post-modern paintings, being intentionally misdirecting and ambiguous in order to convey only an emotion with no associations. The small yellow fox on the front somehow is the perfect image to hold hands with the sound of Daisy.

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Brand New's brand new album (i make no apologies for puns)

Brand New have announced that their latest album will be called Daisy, to be released on September 22.

With their last album from 2006, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, the band took great strides to claw themselves away from a certain blasphemous genre which they helped to define. Influences and homages to Neutral Milk Hotel, The Velvet Underground and even The Jesus Lizard are present on the album. The result was an extremely unified psychedelic and intense sound, with unconventional song structures and honest, troubled lyrics. The album showed promise for the band to defy the fleeting trend of hot topic shopping from the early aughties.

Daisy was originally going to be called And One Head Can Never Die (perhaps a Herculean, seven headed serpent reference?). It'll be out on their own label, Procrastinate Music Traitors!...with the help of DGC/Interscope. Their official press release states that the album will "delve into new musical territory that will astonish both critics and fans alike." Maybe this means the album will sound like their UK only surprisingly playful piano single "Fork and Knife."

Jesse Lacey told Kerrang! that the new album may be "exhausting" and "dense," because the songs "don't always go in the most obvious direction" and may "require you to put some work in." He gives some examples, "sometimes we’d do something in a minor key where you’d expect something bigger" or "have feedback instead of something that might be more pleasing to the ear." The reason for this is the band wanted to write songs the way they'd want to play them live.

It sounds like an experimental, anti-pop, intellectual album conceived to replicate the spontaneity of a live performance. So...it should be amazing.

Lacey also said "I’d almost like to release it like an old school vinyl album, have two number ones through six," so that the listener could have an intermission. I wish they would and can't see why they don't.

No statements were made about this being the last album, but Lacey said, "I think a lot of the record is about us trying to make decisions about how long the band should go on. When I listened back to it, I realized how many songs are about something coming to a close, or knowing when it's time to put something away and move on." ...wink, wink...

www.fightoffyourdemons.com

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Brand New Live at the Avalon, Boston, MA, April 24th 2007

The minute lead singer Jesse Lacey stepped out to the microphone to accompany the opener, Manchester Orchestra, any suspicions that Brand New is a tragedy factory riding the current trend of sin surplussed musicians were banished from the stage. He was unshaven, donning a dirty white t-shirt and a black beanie that seemed the attire of a crazy hobo more than a hipster or a rock star. Jesse’s words few and his actions subtle, seeming to suggest he was possessed likewise. It almost appeared as if he hadn’t noticed the crowd of adoring fans, but thought he was back in a basement on Long Island playing music for and with friends. His guitar and voice came from another world inside his own head, the torture within his lyrics immediately legitimized. At one point Jesse lay down on an overturned drum, supine and playing guitar for the ceiling.

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