Brand New

In 2003 an Album came out that had a truly tremendous impact upon my life. In the same vein as Deja Vue translating into seen before, Deja Entendu describes the sense of being heard before and while the Brand New album of this very name builds on pop punk sensibilities that were quite common at the time, this CD, which I listened to on my state of the art disc man from Thirroul to Sutherland on my train ride to school everyday, resonated with an adolescent me like no other.

While I had heard of Brand New before and their lyrical content was obviously more sophisticated and advanced (much like Thomas Robinson was advanced for his age) I hadn't really paid much heed to their music beyond the odd song on the pop punk compilation CD's I used to shralp up for my journeys to school each day. This was until the Wollongong premiere of one of the most glorious boogie boarding films of all time, Vague Opportunities, which to this day still has one of the greatest and most inspiring soundtracks of any ocean based film I have ever seen. One particular section that was documenting some of the shralping that went down in Hawaii that season, including Rawlins being an absolute hero, was based to Brand New's Latest single, The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows. Thus began my love affair with the aformentioned album and the result was me listening to this CD in full at least once every two or three days for about 2 years and I still probably find myself lying in my bed allowing the words of Jessie LAcey Circa 2002 to be the guiding lights in my life about once a week. I would have to approximate that 93 percent of the neg sessions I have endured have been driven by the sounds of this little band.

So you could imagine my unbridled delight when Thursday rolled around and I was able to see a band I had been pining over for several years on stage for the first time, in the intimate surroundings of the Enmore Theatre. I was fully doiging the show and while even though their latest album has not had the same impact on my heart and mind as those previous, I could still appreciate the energy and mental anguish that is poured into each and everyone of Jesse's pieces. Their were a couple of highlights for myself in particular. The first was when they smashed out "OK I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't", which had the whole house negging/losing their minds/singing in unison. The other was when they closed with "Play Crack the Sky", an emotive ballad that uses the unpredictable and deadly nature of the oceans many moods as an extended metaphor for a doomed romance, may sound semi lame but when writted by a genious word smith is absolutely out of control. Knowing full well James Dixon's fondness for the tune I rang him just to remind him that I was listening to it live while he was at home studying for a University Midterm. I think he was actually quite pleased and his only qualms extended from the fact that I hung up before the the lines "I know this is what you want, a funeral keeps both of us apart", which he considers to be particularly poignant.

The only down side for me was the lack of encore and the fact they failed to play the very song that got me involved in them in the first place. Here is a version they played on one of those dumb American Talk Shows back in 06.



Here is an acoustic version of the song that pretty much made my life dreamier than it has ever been