"BRAND NEW WANTS TO DIE JUST AS MUCH AS YOU WANT THEM DEAD"
Table of contents:
Pre-Brand New
Brand New
(More to come later...)
Taking Back Sunday:
If you're on this website, there's a good chance you already know who this band is, and this is 100% going to feel like it's about to turn into the comprehensive history of Taking Back Sunday but I promise it all relates to the early lore of Brand New. Before everything else, Jesse Lacey was in a band with John Nolan during their sophomore year of high school called Gudmunder Bjornsen, whose EP was uploaded online by John after someone was trying to sell a copy of the CD on ebay.
These two go way back, as in like, attending private Christian schools from third grade until high school graduation. After Gudmunder Bjornsen, Jesse and John joined the very first incarnation of Taking Back Sunday, with Jesse on bass and vocals, and John on guitar. A highly embarrassing demo is released that I'm sure everyone involved would rather forget about. This friendship also led to Jesse Lacey's ownership of the black telecaster he occasionally played throughout the entire span of BN's career, which has an origin story of being stolen from John's church.
Taken from The Complete Tell-All Oral History of TBS in July 2011:
Antonio Longo: We were outside at a Sense Field show, brainstorming can get to join the band. Eddie said to me, "This is it, man— after this band, I am done. I'm going to make this one work." John Nolan, Jesse Lacey and I grew up together in the same private school, and John was like a member of my family. So when Eddie and I needed a guitar player. I wanted John to be a part of it.
...
John Nolan: Jesse wasn't too into the idea of being a bass player in a band. But he played bass, and I'd played with him before all through high school, so we just kind of asked him if he would play with us. It was a casual, open-ended kind of thing. He did the first three demos, including the backup vocals, and that was within the first three or four months of starting the band. I think he gradually just got more into the Brand New project and just kind of phased out naturally.
...
Shaun Cooper: I saw them play one show with Adam singing and Jesse playing bass and I was like, "That kid can't play bass for shit, and Adam's going to be a great singer. This is going to be the shit, I know it. I'm going to get in there and try out. I'm getting in this band— I don't care if I have to kill someone. I'm going to play so well, they're not going to be able to pick anybody else."
very far from the TBS most people know today
THE FEUD
NOTE: This section is kind of rough because I'm in the process of rewriting it since I decided to originally use LIVEJOURNAL as a source, which obviously isn't entirely accurate. This covers all of the Jesse/John stuff just to get it out of the way, this section ends in the mid 2000's, but the section after it starts in 1998.
One of the most hilariously over-dramatic emo drama of the 2000's and it still gets brought up well over two decades later. There are several different versions of this story that you may find on the internet, as well as several Pete Wentz and Mikey Way 'summer of like' style conspiracy theories (thanks, livejournal.) This all takes place in the spring of 2001.
ANYWAY, So comparing all the different accounts and retellings of this story, it's generally known that the most tame version is that John made out with a girl that Jesse liked at a party, and the most dramatic version is that John slept with Jesse's girlfriend. Listening to all the songs that spawned from this situation, you'd think that there was some sort of Judas level betrayal, when it's really just... typical angsty relationship drama. Shaun Cooper's version of the story is "John and Jesse liked a girl, John made out with her before Jesse did. Jesse got bummed about it. All these songs happened because of it."
According to the livejournal summary I originally got this all from, apparently Jesse freaks the fuck out immediately after and breaks up with both his girlfriend and John. R.I.P.
So, Spring of 2001, this is where The Songs start being written. You know the ones. Seventy Times 7 and There's No 'I' In Team, marking Jesse and John's falling out and the point where they stop making music together. Before this, they were still playing shows together, John had worked on the Brand New songs Magazines and My Nine Rides Shotgun. In between the writing of these songs and the actual releases of TBS and BN's debut albums, Jesse and John end up becoming besties again and tour together.
Another quote from the TBS oral history regarding their falling out and later rekindling:
Nolan: There were a lot of different things I kind of processed in the writing of [Tell All Your Friends]. I'd had that falling-out with Jesse, the whole "feud in the songs" thing got started. We'd been friends for basically our whole lives. That experience, of going through this intense parting of ways with someone who'd been a huge part of your life, affected how I felt and what I was trying to work through in my writing... After Jesse and I had our falling-out, we didn't talk for about a year. Towards the end of that year, Brand New got in touch with us about being direct support on their summer headlining tour. I took that as a good sign for the future of our friendship. I figured that if he felt okay about seeing me on tour every day, then something must've changed for him. We didn't sit down and have a big discussion or anything— I think we both were just ready to be in each other's lives again, and we gradually started reconnecting. A week or two into the tour we decided that I would join Brand New onstage for "Seventy Times Seven," and he would join us for "There's No 'I' In Team." There was a lot of venting of frustration and anger onstage for both of us. It was pretty strange, really. We didn't discuss much about what had happened, but every night we'd get onstage and relive it together. I think it helped us both to move on.
Around this time, John had also written the song "Your Name Here", which would eventually be released a few years later after he left Taking Back Sunday.
John wrote about the song here in March 2010:
"As many of you might know, I was involved in a much talked about and much sung about feud with Jesse Lacey of Brand New around that time. The short version of the story is that we had been best friends for most of our lives, and then had a falling out over a girl that we both liked(I know! It’s ridiculous.) He wrote a song called 70x7 about it and Taking Back Sunday wrote a song about it called There’s No ‘I’ In Team. The two of us didn’t talk for almost a year after that, and then gradually we reconnected and became friends again.
Somewhere in the midst of the ridiculous drama of it all I was overwhelmed with the simple feeling of missing my friend. That was what led to me to write Your Name Here. The first verse was actually written to the listener, using “Your Name Here” in place of any direct reference to Jesse. The chorus was written to Jesse and it was sort of an invitation. The lyrics were actual directions to my apartment on Long Island at the time.They were fairly accurate, but had to be altered slightly for the purposes of rhyming and general lyrical flow. It was Carman’s road that I lived off of. You also had to take the first right after the the first stoplight, there was no traffic light on my corner. I figured I’d be specific about that since I’ve talked to a few people from Long Island that actually tried to follow the directions with frustrating results."
The Rookie Lot
Jump back to January of 1998. At this point, Jesse starts The Rookie Lot with another childhood friend, Garrett Tierney, as well as Brain Lane, and Alex Dunne and Brandon Reilly (who ended up joining Crime in Stereo and The Movielife respectively). Listen to their demo EP here, their 1999 split EP with Yearly here, and watch one of their shows here:
I believe this is their ONLY recorded show. I may be wrong, but I've spent a stupid amount of time researching this band and have only ever seen this one.
One Last Goodbye:
Another pre-Brand New band that never got the same amount of attention as The Rookie Lot. Go listen to their EP! I think I'm the only one to have uploaded it to Youtube This band features Vincent Accardi on guitar and vocals, as well as three other kids from Long Island named Jarrett Boglioli (guitar), Brendan Hastings (bass), and Rob Granelli (drums). Unlike everyone else previously mentioned, I don't believe these three ever joined any other well-known bands because it's impossible to find any information about them. Their EP was only released on a couple cassettes, which I've only ever seen about 1 or 2 lucky Brand New fans own.
It's been 23 years, when's One Last Goodbye coming back?
BRAND NEW
1,500 words in and we're finally to the actual band! Is anyone still reading this???
YOUR FAVORITE WEAPON:
Out of The Rookie Lot and One Last Goodbye's ashes came BRAND NEW. In the year 2000, they form with Jesse on rhythm guitar and vocals, Garrett on bass, Brain on drums, and Vin on lead guitar.
The holy grail...
After a few demos, they put out their debut, Your Favorite Weapon, in 2001 on Triple Crown Records. At this time, they were writing catchy pop punk songs full of adolescent bitterness (in the best way possible).
These were up on brandnewrock.com from February 2001 until ~January 2003
2000-2001 also brings a very overlooked side project from Brian Lane and Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw (♡♡♡♡). Brian would produce beats and Daryl would sing over them, their first song was Midwestern Stylings. This song was later recorded acoustically and was recorded again as a demo for Worship and Tribute. “The Number No Good Things Can Come Of” by Glassjaw was another song originally from Beat Scientific. Their album, Students of the Drums, was set to come out in January 2001 but was never finished. (Information taken from longislandmusicscene wiki, so who knows if some of this stuff is at all accurate)
Ready for more Taking Back Sunday? This is where all those songs about the drama come in, specifically Seventy Times 7.
Lines later used in TBS's song "There's No 'I' In Team"
brandnewrock.com , late 2002
After YFW comes Taking Back Sunday's debut, Tell All Your Friends, which features the songs There's No 'I' In Team, which is definitely about Jesse, and Timberwolves At New Jersey, which is possibly about the situation but I'm not entirely sure if that was ever confirmed. From There's No 'I' In Team:
...
"Autographs? Just come see us play some music. It's free! And get the cd! It's on sale ya know.
Brand New will be playing an "in-store" acoustic performance at the Tower Records in Carle Place, NY on December 7. Please come down and support, it will be a lot of fun. And if it's not, then you can read magazines, or shop for other cds. Also, on December 14 at the Babylon American Legion Hall in Babylon, NY Alkaline Trio is playing. And so is Brand New. And so is Taking Back Sunday. That is one hot show. If you miss it, we think you're a little weird. Details on advanced ticket sales and such are coming soon."
(Said December 7th show seen here ^)
(interview from same day here)
Deja Entendu
At this time Jesse was dating Sherri DuPree of Eisley and then cheating on her. Wtf? And then she dated, married, and divorced Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory. And then she dated, married, and had a bunch of kids with Max Bemis of Say Anything and I'm not too sure if I can say they're living happily ever after. Taking Back Sunday was also having issues, with John and Shaun leaving the band, but more on that later.
Due to BN not having a website during this time, it's harder to keep track of everything that happened (as opposed to their website being constantly updated by them in 2002). There's at least two televised interviews (although I can't find any footage of the second one besides a few screenshots), a couple magazine interviews, and probably a lot of other content that's been lost to time. A lot of people (aka BN haterz) refuse to acknowledge how well-liked this album was and how Sic Transit Gloria and The Quiet Things were literally EVERYWHERE. Whatever...
Part 2, Part 3. I think this interview went fine, but a lot of people in the comments seem to disagree... This is pretty much the only time in BN history where they did televised interviews
Three other shows from 2003:
(Click a photo to see it in higher quality in a new tab)
Now jump back to the whole John Nolan and Taking Back Sunday thing. Again. This is the part where TBS is going to go on tour with BN, but TBS cancels shows and John and Shaun leave the band. This all happens in May, Deja Entendu is recorded previously in February, and later comes out in June. The rumor this time is that "Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't" is about John and Adam, but Deja was recorded before that situation so who knows. John later does a cover of Tommy Gun.
Jesse at some point shares a story about where the title of "Play Crack the Sky" comes from:
[Jesse spends the first two or so minutes talking about these Christian metal bands and being in a band with John Nolan and all this stuff]... "One day we were set up in this huge parking lot. It was probably 200 square yards, really gigantic, and there wasn't a soul in there and it was like noon or one and we just finished working, so me and John just walked out to the middle of this parking lot and sat down and looking around at how funny it was that there was no one within a mile of us and this band was setting up on stage, and so years back, Mylon LeFevre's greatest hit was 'Crack the Sky', and as this band is setting up, John's looking at them and he's all 'I recognize that guy for sure', like he was setting up his amp, and I was like 'I don't know who that is, that doesn't look like anyone I know', and he's like 'No, I definitely know this guy', and the guy gets up, and as soon as he gets up to the mic, John's like, 'that's Mylon LeFevre', like he totally recognized the guy, but the guy moved on and was obviously onto his adult contemporary thing and left his past behind him. So the guy gets up to the mic and he says 'hey we're so and so', and John stands up in the middle of this parking lot and screams 'PLAY CRACK THE SKY!' like as loud as he could, and you just saw this guy's spirit break. There was no one for two miles except the one kid who recognized him from his old life, and he just kind of like turned around and slumped down for like a few minutes, and then he came back and played the song. At the time it was about the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life."
brandnewrock / fightoffyourdemons:
brandnewrock.com: Feb. 2001 / Nov. 2001 / March 2002
(The three month span of the website having ONLY that stupid Christmas picture and nothing else kills me.)
In late 2003/early 2004, brandnewrock.com goes offline. It isn't until May of 2005 when it's updated with the note: "Under Construction. Stay tuned for a new site in the next few days."
An actual screenshot of their website. Whoever made it is a CSS god. 44caliber.net could never.
In June of 2005, a new website goes live: fightoffyourdemons.com. Instead of the homepage being made up of diary entries from the members and tours, it was forty-seven links, then just seven links and a picture of Jesse, and then the same seven links with a cryptic photo that later ended up being the cover of their next album.
fightoffyourdemons.com: Sept. 2005 / Dec. 2005 / Feb. 2007
This site had a lot of pop-ups that were just walls of text. Usually these would be either quotes or rambling, or genuine updates on the band.
From an article by Newsday Long Island:
THE DEMOS:
Note included in leaked demos cassette, released in 2016
In later 2004, Brand New announces that they will be working on a new album. However, this is delayed by a year due to various issues. In late 2005, the band goes to Oxford Mississippi for an unsuccessful writing and recording session. They return to New York and begin working with Mike Sapone, who they had also worked with for YFW.
In late January of 2006, nine untitled and unmastered demos are leaked to the internet. How these got leaked is still unknown and the source only said that the songs "probably wouldn't be on Fight Off Your Demons".
The demos were only released on cassette, with 3 remastered demos being released on vinyl. Black variant / red variant
From a street team interview:
Garrett: If it affected anything, 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.
Jesse: 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.
Vin: I can relate to both of those sentiments. In one way it was kind of refreshing and motivating to know that people were still so interested and curious as to what we were up to in that period where we sort of disappeared. But I was also worried that it would derail the process because the four of us had created a pretty safe place where the only critics were ourselves. As much as we tried to shield ourselves from letting the leak affect us, it definitely did. There was a feeling of being robbed, after keeping everything so close to ourselves and then having it heard before it was completed. As Jesse said, I wish some of those songs were on the record. But they do exist on a certain plane, so people do know that we were working and creating.
Jesse: 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.
Vin: I can relate to both of those sentiments. In one way it was kind of refreshing and motivating to know that people were still so interested and curious as to what we were up to in that period where we sort of disappeared. But I was also worried that it would derail the process because the four of us had created a pretty safe place where the only critics were ourselves. As much as we tried to shield ourselves from letting the leak affect us, it definitely did. There was a feeling of being robbed, after keeping everything so close to ourselves and then having it heard before it was completed. As Jesse said, I wish some of those songs were on the record. But they do exist on a certain plane, so people do know that we were working and creating.
Page to be continued..