Reports: Brand New Perform Live With New Music • Page 2

I think it’s totally fine if people want to never listen to this band again.

I was a casual fan at the time and have listened more since the break up, so I also understand that I had the privilege of interacting with the art with that prior knowledge and that others probably felt a lot more disappointed/hurt by everything back them.

Personally, I think Jesse’s apology statement felt like it meant a little bit more than the usual due to him having taken steps to deal with it personally before it blew up and had “mainstream” consequences. He knew he had a bad relationship to sex, that it was hurting those closest to him, and was already in individual/couples therapy (IIRC) before anything was in the public eye.

Did that mean his “apology” really openly admit/address his actions? Not really.

Am I just doing mental gymnastics? Idk. Maybe. I don’t want to convince anyone to change their mind on this band. I guess I just wanted to share a perspective.

 

I mean I can only piece this together from rumors and innuendo from years ago, but I feel like once the allegations dropped, it became very apparent that the big gap in music from Brand New between 2009 and 2017 seemed to have a hell of a lot to do with band strife and not just them being mysterious or whatever else. Like given what happened with Jesse's cousin, his comments at one show that seemed to be along the lines of "i'm a terrible person, thank you bandmates for enduring me over these years", etc. Like maybe I'm just reading into stuff but it certainly felt like 1. The band knew what he was up to for a while, if not found out sometime around Daisy, 2. He then apparently sleeps with his cousin's wife, his cousin who was playing touring guitar for the band at that, or whatever that exact allegation was, and 3. This basically led to the band continuing to do live shows/tours as a business decision/for the money, but had no interest in recording with this guy again.

And it seemed like, again just based off reading into comments made at shows and rumors on the internet, that somewhere in that year or two after the stuff happened with his cousin's wife, that a tipping point was reached and he went into therapy and started trying to fix all his fucked up relationships with his wife and band mates, because I feel like it was around that time you started getting those "sorry to my bandmates for being me" comments at shows and that song Sealed to Me and shit. If I'm not mistaken, this was also around when his kid was born. And then 2 years later they finally put out another album.

All this to say--yeah I really definitely believe there was a lot of strife there, and I think it took some years of therapy and tons of apologies before they decided to make music again with SF. Whether Jesse Lacey deserves that redemption....I don't know. That's for them in his life to decide. I know, for me, I would maybe have been more inclined to give him a 2nd chance if we had gotten anything more than that "apology" that seemed very uhh legally jargoned. Like, sorry dude, you don't get to just go back into your shell. You need to be out advocating for a change in how "the scene" has treated young girls, do support groups, give speeches and be an activist, etc. That to me is how you redeem yourself to the point where I might be willing to spend money to see a show. It just isn't fair IMO for him to throw that apology out there and disappear into the abyss. Great that he worked on bettering himself for his family and friends, and they can do with him what they will for that. But, again just my opinion, he owed more than just that apology to all the band's fans and, more importantly, to the girls who are going to be fans of bands with creeps in them going forward. Maybe having his own daughter will make him realize he needs to do more in the future. Not hard to read into some of those lyrics on SF to see he's uhhh realized he's now raising a daughter in a world he personally knows can be cruel to young girls especially. But feeling guilty and bad about that isn't enough.

Saying all that--if they're playing a show for charity, good on them. I saw the news about their kid's death a while back but never saw it was from cancer. If those guys get together to play some music to raise some money for that, Im not going to begrudge them. Good cause and a horrible thing to deal with. New music? Eh, maybe I'll download it for free if it ever drops.

 

No thanks.

 

IG post from Jesse’s wife:

 

no the point was and why I said I was fine with it is because we’re about to have a felon running this country again and tomorrows never guaranteed and as we learn every day the entertainment industry is filled with vile humans making hand over fist in money. I’m just not going to get worked up over Brand new playing a charity show for there son who passed. I’m not using anyone else’s morals it’s how I feel. Sorry you don’t agree and overreacted

brand news never coming back it’s a pointless argument anyways.

at the end of the day the show was for loved ones and for a great cause not for fans.

 

not going to lie, I absolutely love this post and "private is not secret" comment. Makes total sense and seems that fans are blowing it out of proportion.

 

I would say non-fans are blowing it out of proportion even more lol

 

It's one thing to keep listening to them. Like, live your life. I can't stop you.

When people are justifiably turned off by the idea of a band led by a creep mounting a return, going out of your way to talk about how you're "all in" to try to show how ridiculous you think they're being is just...weird, man. I don't know.

 

Happy that you're owning it.

 

It's naive to think they're never coming back.

 

Yeah, the vibes in this thread are fucking bizarre

 

Maybe they can release some demos of new songs as Republic of Wolves.

 

It’s seriously uncomfortable to read. It’s like they see Jesse coming back as “owning” those who are very justifiably against any attempts at a comeback. It really feels like being given the middle finger, by minimizing and trivializing what he and his bandmates, who again showed their true colors by remaining silent, have done. It’s gross.

 

Let’s be honest, the music industry is a shambles right now. All the money is in established artists with an existing fan base so I’m not surprised at any band getting back together regardless of the circumstances (Pink Floyd would be a shocker but that’s it). I imagine Brand New have been receiving offers for years.