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March 09, 2008 by Stephanie L. Grant
I have a love/hate relationship with Dashboard Confessional. His albums are great – perfect for when I’m depressed or feeling down, but he is VERY whiny and his concert was the only one I ever walked out of. Clarification: I didn’t leave early, I WALKED OUT he was so terrible. Terrible isn’t the most accurate word – fake is.
About a year ago, my then boyfriend and I went to The Verizon Center in Pennsylvania to see Brand New open for Dashboard Confessional. I admit that the point of buying the tickets was to see Brand New (for the third time). I liked Dashboard’s music and especially his lyrics but wasn’t in love with him, I just liked his music and enjoyed it when I felt the same way. I was really thrown for a loop when it took him about 45 minutes to set up this elaborate stage with lighting that cost more than my parent’s house (I’m sure) and this huge platform so that he could be front and center.
He came out wearing an ‘Nsync style microphone set (think stylish Skype headset), tight spandex pants, and his hair greased back and started jumping around. He got up on the platform and started swaying and singing like an Evangelical preacher. Although he channeled Dr. James Dobson quite well, that’s not for me. He often took off his headset and let the crowd sing huge portions of the songs. According to Chris Carrabba, front-man for Dashboard Confessional, this “fosters a bond between concert-goers, and helps him and the audience connect on an emotional level, making all his shows intimate, personal experiences.” What lovely bull. They teach us to write that in high school and college. I don’t know about the rest of the audience, but if I’m paying $65 for a concert ticket, I expect the artist I am seeing to sing the songs. Something little, I know…
After the first three songs were mostly audience led, I grabbed my then boyfriend’s hand and ran, not walked, to the exit. We had really good seats too – we were right in front of the stage and viewed an awesome Brand New performance, but why they would open for Dashboard Confessional is beyond me…
Dashboard Confessional is the name of a band led by Chris Carrabba, although most people think he himself is Dashboard Confessional. A similar mistake is usually made with Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes. Their most famous song is probably “Screaming Infidelities,” the first single off of their 2001 album, The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most.
Their studio albums rock. The acoustic guitar playing is a notch above other artists currently recording and Chris Carrabba can sing! It would just be nice if he did so once in a while!
March 07, 2008 by Stephanie L. Grant
I was introduced to Coheed and Cambria when I was a freshman in high school by my friend Tim. They were a perfect way to get through fourth period (end of the day) honors Geometry class or to pass the time with Chrissy and Sophia in first period chorus (but only when our section wasn’t singing). Coheed is also highly addictive. I turned them on about 15 minutes ago and totally forgot I was writing this!
Claudio Sanchez, Coheed and Cambria’s front man, is lovechild of Rush’s Geddy Lee (wailing vocals) and Brand New’s Jesse Lacey (brilliant lyrics). The pounding bass (but not too hard) and crazy CRAZY hair definitely help the comparisons to Geddy Lee too.
Before Coheed and Cambria were Coheed and Cambria, they were called Shabutie and released two EPs as Shabutie, Plan to Take Over the World and The Penelope EP. They released The Second Stage Turbine Blade in 2002 (when I was a freshman in high school).
My favorite song off their first full-length album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, is called “Neverender.” I was instantly captivated by the lyrics:
“when the hand reads 7:30
and your night begins to sink
in the short but faster fall
anxious but calm retort
to a mirror that frames your face
bearing the finest swell
when the day begins to break
like the tears that run across your cheek
stand straight and imagine you then
in the things and the way they could have been
when the thoughts they race across your chin
here in the Neverend.”
Sigh… I swoon every time. Be glad swooning isn’t popular… I would definitely swoon ALL of the time : D
The coolest lyrics of the album are on the last track, “God Send Conspirator” and go:
“Hold in your last breath and stare.
Assure me your metronome's left arm stick shift
is stuck on the right words in your ear.”
Damn. Damn is all I have to say.
One short year later, Coheed and Cambria released their second full-length album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. This album has obvious Rush references and allusions: (1) the space, post-millennium atmosphere, (2) the year 2113, the year after 2112, of the Rush album by the same name, and (3) the songs with parts one, two and three. That could ONLY be a Rush thing!
The catchiest song on In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 is “A Favor House Atlantic” with its cool lyrics:
“good eye, sniper I’ll shoot, you run.”
Two years after their second album, Coheed released Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness. Try saying that three times fast! Two years after that, Coheed released their latest album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow. The crazy and VERY CONFUSING thing about Coheed and Cambria and trying to make sense of their songs is that the albums have been released backwards so that The Second Stage Turbine Blade is the end of the planned tetralogy. The yet unreleased fifth album will be the untold first chapter of The Amory Wars, Claudio’s comic book series that has appeared online and in book form that detail the story of Coheed and Cambria, two fictitious characters. The two Good Apollo albums are considered as part of the same episode.
Check out Coheed and Cambria if you haven’t. Start with The Second Stage Turbine Blade. It’s the most accessible of all of the albums and the, shall we say, least violent…
January 16, 2008 by Stephanie L. Grant
Until Brand New releases another album, this will, regrettably, be the last entry in the Brand New section of the album review category. : (
The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is Brand New’s latest album, released in late 2006. They toured extensively throughout the first half of 2007 and began touring in fall 2007 with dates continuing into 2008.
The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is the most tormented and contemplative of Brand New’s three albums – fitting, as their fans have grown up right alongside the band. For example, a friend of mine discovered Brand New when he was 15, an angst ridden teen suffering through the fun that is high school. Now he’s 22 and actively questioning life, death, and to be vague, everything else.
For me, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me was slightly disappointing at first because I had heard all of their Untitled tracks (demos) that had been leaked onto the internet and was madly in love with them and quite sad that many of them didn’t make the album cut. After a week, I got over myself and realized the genius of the songs and their lyrics on The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me and adopted a new attitude, one that appreciated the extra nine Brand New songs that I got to listen to that no one should have ever heard in the first place.
Personally, my favorite song on The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is Luca. The most brilliant lines of the song are:
“So they fixed you with cement galoshes
And no one can save you now
Unless you have friends among fish
There’ll still be no air to breathe
You could drink up the entire ocean
We’ll still find someone to be everything we know that you’ll never be.”
My favorite song of the Untitled tracks is Untitled Number 4 with these evocative lyrics that capture the feeling of loss magnificently:
“I, I am feeling like a veteran
Overall, The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me is an instrumentally accessible album that keeps the element of “what makes Brand New Brand New,” but exhibits their maturity – lyrically (if that was even possible), content-wise, and physically (Jesse Lacey has always been so gorgeous and just keeps getting hotter!)
January 13, 2008 by Stephanie L. Grant
This is the second blog entry in a group of three about Brand New, one of the best (original) emo bands around that like wine, only get better with age. Deja Entendu was Brand New’s second album and was released in 2003. With song titles like “Good to Know That if I Ever Need Attention All I Have to Do Is Die,” “Okay I Believe You, but my Tommy Gun Don’t” and “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot,” Deja Entendu seems to be overly dramatic but ends up being some of the most comforting music I’ve ever heard – fitting, as “deja entendu” is French for “already heard.”
“You are calm and reposed.
Let your beauty unfold
Pale white like the skin stretched over your bones.
Spring keeps you ever close.
You are second hand smoke.
You are so fragile and thin.
Standing trial for your sins.
Holding onto yourself the best you can.
You are the smell before rain.
You are the blood in my veins.”
Like Your Favorite Weapon’s last song, “Soco Amaretto Lime,” Deja Entendu’s last song, “Play Crack the Sky” comments on the travails of love. The most ambiguous song on the album, “Play Crack the Sky” is hard to interpret. Some say it is a metaphor for love and others say it is about a breakup. This is the chorus:
(This is the calm.)
Calm me and let me taste the salt you breathed while you were underneath.
(We are the resin)
I am the one who haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the sea.
(After the storm.)
I spoke the words but never gave a thought to what they all could mean.
(Rest here with thee,)
I know that this is what you want.
(Washed up on the beach.)
A funeral keeps both of us apart.
You know that you are not alone.
I need you like water in my lungs.
(this is the end.)”
January 10, 2008 by Stephanie L. Grant
I remember the days, fondly (blasting it in the car), of angry lyrics from Brand New’s first album Your Favorite Weapon from 2001. Much of the album’s anger was basically Jesse Lacey’s retaliation to his ex-best friend, John Nolan, a former guitarist of Taking Back Sunday (now currently in the band Straylight Run). From what I’ve heard, Nolan cheated with Lacey’s then girlfriend, stabbing him in the back – your best friend cheating on your girlfriend. Pretty crappy I would say.
The most recognized song of the album is, hands down, “Seventy Times Seven” whose title references the Biblical verse in Matthew 18:22 where Jesus says that one should forgive their enemy seventy times seven times. Memorable (angry) lyrics excerpted here:
“I hope there’s ice on all the roads
So you can think of
me when you forget your seatbelt
And again when your
head goes through the windshield.”
Other songs on the album also display anger towards an ex-girlfriend such as “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad,” excerpted here:
“Tell all the English boys you meet
About the American
boy back in the states.
The American boy you used to date.
Who would do anything you say.”
The last song on the cd is entitled “Soco Amaretto Lime.” It is a beautiful ballad grasping onto the ever-changing whims of youth, lyrics excerpted here:
“I'm gonna stay eighteen forever (cut me open)
So we can stay like this forever (sun poisoned)
And we'll never miss a party (this offer...)
cause we keep them going constantly (...stands forever)
And we'll never have to listen (new haircut)
to anyone about anything (new bracelet)
cause its all been done and its all been said (eyeliner)
we're the coolest kids and we take what we can get (wait forever)
(you're just jealous cause I'm young and in love)”
You’re just jealous cause we’re young and in love. You’re just jealous cause we’re young and in love. You’re just jealous cause we’re young and in love.