1. A popular rock band
2. A funk… Read Full Bio ↴There are two artists with this name
1. A popular rock band
2. A funk group
1. Brand New is an American rock band that formed in 2000 in Merrick, New York. The band consists of Jesse Lacey (lead vocalist/guitarist/lyricist), Vincent Accardi (guitarist/lyricist),Garrett Tierney (bassist), Brian Lane (drummer), and Derrick Sherman (guitarist/keyboardist).
Formation (2000-2001)
Prior to Brand New's official formation, in the late 1990s Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney, Brian Lane were all members of the post-hardcore band The Rookie Lot, along with Brandon Reilly and Alex Dunne of Crime in Stereo. After the band's split and not playing together for a while, Lacey, Lane and Tierney started to rehearse again. They then recruited guitarist Vincent Accardi, who had been playing in a band called One Last Goodbye, since Reilly had joined The Movielife.
All four members had backgrounds linking into their local Long Island independent and hardcore music scenes, but with influences from an array of artists ranging from Buddy Rich to The Archers of Loaf. They eventually formed Brand New in 2000, in a basement in Merrick, New York. Their initial intention was always to "move outside of whatever notions they felt inclined to when they were making music as younger people." The band gained exposure in the local scene through playing shows with alternative rock contemporaries Midtown and post-hardcore bands like Glassjaw, whilst also self-releasing a four-song demo. They signed to Triple Crown Records just after their second-ever show.
Your Favorite Weapon (2001–2002)
Brand New's debut studio album Your Favorite Weapon was produced by friend and practical fifth member of the band Mike Sapone. The album has been described as being "bitter about ex-girlfriends", with an excessive concentration on "post-breakup angst", receiving relatively positive reviews, with Allmusic awarding it three out of five and Popmatters also being favourable. It became a moderate success, selling over 50,000 copies. The record deal gave Brand New the opportunity to tour, playing alongside the likes of Taking Back Sunday and touring the UK in support of Finch, to a "great response" from the crowds.
The only single released from Your Favorite Weapon was Jude Law and a Semester Abroad. The song has been described by Allmusic as a "semi-hit", after it received airplay on both MTV2 and Fuse.
Deja Entendu (2003–2004)
Brand New's second studio album was written in "the year and-a-half or two years" that they were touring the material off Your Favorite Weapon. According to drummer Brian Lane, "Jesse [Lacey] wrote a lot of the lyrics about different things than 'I just broke up with my girlfriend' for the new record," as Lacey had written the songs on an acoustic guitar in his bedroom. Lane also explained that the band was now influenced by a range of different artists, "All of us got exposed to a lot of different music that all of us were listening to. For the first we weren't in such close quarters for 24 hours a day. I think that has a lot to do with it." Unlike their first album, it was said that a lot of time and concentration went into making the album.
The band released Deja Entendu through Razor & Tie/Triple Crown Records in June 2003, with it being issued in Europe and Australia in October 2003. The album's title, Deja Entendu, is French for "already heard." It was explained as "very tongue-in-cheek," by singer Lacey. Elaborating on the title's meaning, he told MTV, "No matter who you are or what your band is about, you can't put a record out without people saying it's derivative of something else. So by saying the record's already been heard, it's kind of like saying, 'Yeah, you're right. We're doing something that's already been done before. We're not trying to break new ground in music. We're just trying to make good music." The album was described as a "stylistic leap" from Your Favorite Weapon, with a "decidedly matured" sound. In an interview with Billboard, Lacey said that although Deja Entendu does offer a different sound, the album "doesn't seem like we're departing from anything, really. I think we always knew that we had a lot of potential and there's a lot of different stuff we were able to do, and a lot of different sounds we wanted to make. Not too long after we recorded the first record, we were already wondering where we were going to go from there."
Deja Entendu debuted at number 63 on the Billboard 200. After just seven weeks, the album's sales were at more than 51,000 copies, already closing in on the total figure of its predecessor, Your Favorite Weapon. In May 2007, four years after its release, it was certified gold for surpassing 500,000 sales in the United States, by the Recording Industry Association of America
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Deja Entendu's first single, The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows, impacted radio airplay in July 2003, a month after the album's release. The song was said to be about regret, or "How there can be problems in a relationship and they get ignored. And how that often ends up as a broken home or some kind of bad situation down the road. It's kind of something that if it wasn't overlooked in the first place, you can kind of get through it." The song's music video chronicles the moments after a severe car accident, where a mortally wounded Lacey cannot depart for the next world until he knows that his girlfriend, also injured in the crash, is safe in this one. He says it "is about death or losing someone and it's those moments that you kind of look back on your life and realize all the regrets that you had, and all the things you wish you could change". They also made a music video for the second single, Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades, where Lacey acts like a human voodoo doll; discovering that when he moves a particular body part, it is mimicked by the target of his action. "Since the song is about taking advantage of someone else," he said, "there's a pretty strong correlation between the video and the song." Both music videos gave the band exposure in the mainstream where Your Favorite Weapon went "virtually unnoticed", with the videos finding "constant" airplay on MTV and the band making its live television debut on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Furthermore, both singles entered the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, whilst The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows peaked at number 37 on the Alternative Songs chart.
Three shows of the band's 24-date headlining US tour with Moneen, Senses Fail, and The Beautiful Mistake had sold out prior to even having released a single, with much of the buzz surrounding the band being produced by just word of mouth, touring and Internet message boards. Deja Entendu's success also earned them tours alongside New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, Dashboard Confessional, and Blink-182. The band went on to headline The Bamboozle festival with My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, Thrice, The Starting Line, Fall Out Boy, The Bouncing Souls, Straylight Run and Flogging Molly. They also made their second trip to the UK in 2004, their first as the headline act, the tour completely sold out.
After being pegged as an act to watch in Rolling Stone's annual "Hot Issue", topping punk critics' year-end lists with the "genre-defying" Deja Entendu, with it also becoming a "landmark album of so-called 'emo-punk' and the band's notable underground following; Brand New found itself in the middle of a bidding war from record labels. At the time, Lane protested the label of "bidding war", but conceded, "There's a few labels that are definitely interested. We've been talking to a lot of people for a while and we're narrowing it down." The band eventually signed with DreamWorks Records, which was then taken over by Interscope Records.
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (2005–2008)
Following their signing to Interscope, Brand New stopped touring to work on their third album and major label debut. In this time, little to no interviews or updates came from the band. In 2004, Jesse Lacey told Chart magazine that he had written a "few songs" for the next album, commenting that "the other guys love it already". He made mention of the pressure he felt with the "loads of anticipation building up on my shoulders," saying that he even felt depressed because of this; "I'm getting depressed with all of the anxiety about the album and they say I write my best stuff when I'm in that state. Great, I'll spend the next six months all depressed and the rest of band will be excited, so that some good (material) might come out. And then I have to contend with how it's received." Lacey also said that the album would "move into new territory for Brand New".
In late 2005, Brand New started recording their highly-anticipated third album in Oxford, Mississippi with producer Dennis Herring, but later dropped him in favor of Mike Sapone with whom they had worked on their first album.
In January 2006, nine untitled demos recorded for the album were leaked to the Internet. In response to the leak, Garrett Tierney stated "I would say it did it in a good way 'cause so many people were curious to hear what we have been doing--and for the most part, the record tracks don't sound anything like the leaked demos." However, Lacey was not so upbeat when asked, saying, "For me it was different. It had me pretty down for a while. No one likes to show their creation in mid-process, and those songs weren't done. They were like blueprints. Just the plan, right? It put me in a state where I was under the impression that those songs had been wasted or something—that we had to go and write new things because those had been heard. Now, in retrospect, I want those songs to be on the album and many of them aren't, and I'm probably more to blame for that than anyone. This record already feels incomplete to me without those tracks and probably will forever."
In the following months, with Brand New doing their first tour dates in over 18 months, a few songs from the demos were performed with a full band, some were fleshed out and had new lyrics. New songs had their debut as well during the summer tour dates. Brand New began their first tour in years on June 20, 2006, where Lacey stated that the album had been completed the previous day.
Alternative Press published a preliminary date of October 10, 2006, as the album's release date, this was later corrected on the band's official website (http://www.fightoffyourdemons.com/), when it was announced that the new album would be released on November 21, 2006 in North America, and the day before in Europe. Soon after, a track listing and cover art were revealed, as well as new information regarding the release of the first single - Sowing Season. Having previously been leaked as a demo, the completed song began airing on radio on October 19, 2006, and appeared on their MySpace page a day later. According to Lacey in a radio interview with BBC Radio 1s Zane Lowe, the title The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is taken from a conversation he had with his friend about the musician Daniel Johnston, who has bipolar disorder.
In late December 2006, an unusual video was released for the instrumental track Untitled, also known as "-", which mainly consists of a man spray painting a wall with "evil and good are raging Inside me" and correcting it to give the album title. On January 16, 2007, Jesus Christ was announced as being the official first single from the album. On January 19, the band performed the song on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. They performed it again on February 26 on the Late Show with David Letterman.
From January to June 2007, the band toured the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, including a headline slot on the UK's Give It A Name festival and playing the main stage at The Bamboozle festival. Despite the band's reluctance towards the press around the time of the release of the album, they were featured in Alternative Press, a cover story for Rock Sound, Kerrang!, and NME. The band went on tour for the fall of 2007, with openers Thrice and MewithoutYou. In early 2008, Brand New toured Australia and New Zealand on the Big Day Out festival.
In October 2007, the band announced via their official website that a new song, entitled Fork and Knife, would be released online on October 23, 2007. Fork and Knife, a rerecorded version of the track formerly known as "Untitled 7" from the leaked demos, was released as a non-album digital download.
In March 2008, Brand New started their own record label, named Procrastinate! Music Traitors. The first act signed to the new label was longtime friend Kevin Devine. The first release from the label was a reissue of the 2006 Kevin Devine album, Put Your Ghost to Rest, in April 2008.
Daisy (2008–present)
In October 2008, it was stated that Brand New was in the studio winding down their new record and were currently recording vocals. Then in December, an update on Brand New's website announced that they had been in and out of the studio since about March, with roughly fifteen tracks to choose from. The album was recorded over a 12 month period from March 2008, with the band announcing in April 2009 that they had commenced mixing with Dave Sardy and that they hoped to release their fourth studio album in the summer of 2009, with potentially, a summer tour to follow. The release date was then delayed to October 2009, which was announced during a live performance at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival, where Brand New played two new songs, tentatively titled "Bride" and "Gasoline".
In June 2009, UK music magazine Rock Sound, claimed on their website that they had received a copy of the upcoming album, though it was, according to an image later posted by the editor, "incomplete". The site published a "tentative" track listing and reported the incomplete version that they had received to be roughly 30 minutes long.
In an interview with Kerrang!, Jesse Lacey commented on the upcoming album's content, "It's a pretty exhausting record. It's quite dense and I think some of the decisions we made don't always go in the most obvious direction. We were thinking a lot more about what we'd want to play when we were up onstage rather than actually what you'd want to hear on a record." He then questioned the future of the band, saying, "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."
On July 7, it was announced that the album would be titled And One Head Can Never Die (to be typeset and one head can never die) and would be released through Interscope Records on September 22, 2009. However, on July 9 it was announced on the band's website that the album title had been changed to Daisy, still being released on the same day. The album's first single, At the Bottom, was released through digital outlets on 11 August 2009. Daisy saw vocalist Jesse Lacey step back from songwriting and giving the role to guitarist Vincent Accardi along with the other members of the band.
Daisy debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 in the US, selling 46,000 records in what was their first top 20 entrance on the chart after The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me had reached number 31.
When asked if rumours were true that Daisy would be the band's final release, Lacey replied "I don't think that will be true. It might be our last full-length record for a little while, but we've got a lot of things lined up that we want to record, so I think that will happen pretty soon." In early 2010, drummer Brian Lane stated that Brand New were unsure about how they plan to release music in the future with technology being a factor; "I don’t know if there’s a point to releasing records if they’re not physical releases, if we're going to release a lot of things digitally then I don’t see why we couldn’t release a song a week or a song a month or just put out what we like from whenever we record." Lane also discussed the way the band may release their records in the future, "We’re talking about recording another album but we don’t know whether it’s going to come out on a label or whether we just release songs in batches."
On April 28, 2010, at their show in Clifton Park, NY, it was announced that the band is no longer signed to Interscope Records.
In mid February, 2011, Brand New updated their website with a background change, along with releasing 5 new tour dates from their Facebook feed. This is the first public activity shown from the band since the early days after the release of their album, Daisy. On April 26, Lacey announced at their Baltimore show that they have been writing material but have had difficulties as they are "tired of bumming you guys out. We’re trying to write something happy."
On August 17th 2017 Brand New released its 5th - and possibly last - studio album, entitled "Science Fiction". The 12 tracks long album features themes like religion, depression and an imminent nuclear war. It's already been said to top the band's most renowned albums Deja Entendu and The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me.
2. Brand New was a funk group active during the 1970's.
Could Never Be Heaven
Brand New Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can you speak my secret name and fix me?
I have no heart, I have no brain
Lord I have no courage
Can you get me home again?
Could never be heaven without you
Could never be heaven without you
I was drowning in the lake, damned
Over a dead mining town
The cars and the homes lay still in the water
The deeper I sank, the less I died
The trees swayed, slow in the tide
There were people I love below me singing
And all of the songs were about you
And all of the songs were about you
And all of the songs were about you
The whale is well-rehearsed
Swimming circles in the church
A Cardinalfish says, "God is dead"
The whale says, "Get out of my head
Get out of my head
Get out of my head"
You are not alone
We are not separate
My daughter's shoulders are my shoulders
My son's hands my hands
My wife's heart my own heart
I've heard the outer darkness is really nice this time of year
Could never be heaven without you
Never be heaven without you
Never be heaven without
Could never be heaven without you
Never be heaven without you
Never be heaven without you
You've got so many things that you do believe
You've been conditioned to believe in
Mmhmm
And then if you try and break away from your conditioning
And try and be sort of individual and, in least in our day and age right now
You start to think, "Well, am I really doing this because I really want to be different?
Am I doing it because there's such an emphasis placed to"
I don't know how to break through this contradictory mess
And really find your own authentic individuality
The song "Could Never Be Heaven" by Brand New may seem cryptic at first, but upon closer inspection, the lyrics reveal a deep yearning for connection and purpose. The first verse asks for a guide who can help the singer navigate through life. He feels lost and disconnected, and needs someone who can "speak [his] secret name and fix [him]." The reference to "no heart, no brain, and no courage" is reminiscent of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, emphasizing the need for a companion on this journey.
The chorus emphasizes the importance of this connection, declaring that "could never be heaven without you." The repetition of this phrase underscores the intense desire for companionship and belonging, without which life feels empty and incomplete. This sentiment is echoed in the second verse, which describes the singer drowning in a lake amidst abandoned buildings. Despite the bleak surroundings, the singer finds solace in the love of those around him, who are "singing all of the songs" about the person he longs to be with.
The final verse takes a surreal turn, portraying a whale swimming in a church and a Cardinalfish declaring that "God is dead." These images highlight the disorientation and confusion that comes with feeling adrift and alone. The repetition of the plea to "get out of [his] head" conveys the singer's desperation for a way out of this state of mind. However, the song also offers a glimmer of hope, as the singer realizes that "we are not separate" and the love of others can help overcome feelings of isolation.
Line by Line Meaning
Do you know the words that make the hidden door open?
Do you understand me well enough to know what I truly desire or need from you?
Can you speak my secret name and fix me?
Are you able to see me for who I truly am and help me become a better version of myself?
I have no heart, I have no brain
I feel empty and lost, like I have no emotional capacity or intellectual capability.
Lord I have no courage
I lack the bravery and strength to overcome my fears and face the challenges ahead.
Can you get me home again?
Can you guide me back to a place of safety, comfort, and familiarity?
Could never be heaven without you
My life is incomplete and unfulfilling without your presence and love.
I was drowning in the lake, damned
I was overwhelmed with feelings of hopelessness, unworthiness, and guilt.
Over a dead mining town
My despair and suffering was exacerbated by the desolate and forgotten surroundings around me.
The cars and the homes lay still in the water
The material possessions and possessions of others are now stagnant and forgotten.
The deeper I sank, the less I died
The more I delved into my own despair and misery, the more I discovered my resilience and fortitude.
The trees swayed, slow in the tide
Nature kept moving and persevering, even in the midst of my own turmoil and suffering.
There were people I love below me singing
Even in my darkest moments, the thoughts of my loved ones provided me with a sense of hope and comfort.
And all of the songs were about you
In every moment of my life, you are ever-present and always on my mind.
The whale is well-rehearsed
The religion or belief system you follow has been practiced and perfected over time.
Swimming circles in the church
Religious institutions and structures can seem stagnant and cyclical.
A Cardinalfish says, 'God is dead'
Someone within the religious community has questioned the existence or relevance of a higher power.
The whale says, 'Get out of my head'
Sometimes, it can be difficult to reconcile personal beliefs and the doctrines of organized religion.
You are not alone
There are others in this world who share your fears, anxieties, and struggles.
We are not separate
Despite our internal struggles and external differences, we are all connected through our shared humanity.
My daughter's shoulders are my shoulders
We bear the weight of those we love and those who love us, carrying their burdens as our own.
My son's hands my hands
Our actions and choices matter, both for ourselves and for those we leave behind.
My wife's heart my own heart
The love and emotional bonds we share with others become a part of our own identity and being.
I've heard the outer darkness is really nice this time of year
Sometimes, it's tempting to escape from our own problems and difficulties, but ultimately, we must face them head-on.
You've got so many things that you do believe
You hold a multitude of opinions and ideas that have been instilled in you over time.
And then if you try and break away from your conditioning
If you attempt to question or challenge your established beliefs, you may feel uncertain and uncomfortable.
And try and be sort of individual and, in least in our day and age right now
In today's society, there is a constant emphasis on individuality and standing out from the crowd.
You start to think, 'Well, am I really doing this because I really want to be different?
You may wonder if your attempts to be unique or original are influenced by societal pressure or a need for validation.
Am I doing it because there's such an emphasis placed to'
You may feel conflicted about whether your actions are truly authentic or simply conforming to cultural norms.
I don't know how to break through this contradictory mess
You may feel overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, thoughts, and beliefs, unsure of how to reconcile them.
And really find your own authentic individuality
Ultimately, only you can determine what your true beliefs and values are, and how to live accordingly.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Jesse Lacey
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind