The Batlord

Not to mention the chick is somehow attractive and fugly at the same time.

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butthead aka 216

Glad to see my journal seems well-received so far. I'll keep this post music-related because it's likely to be long and it will be in a little different style than previous posts.


It's really been a shame that I've waited so long to ramble about probably my favorite band of all time: Brand New. They were the first band I started really listening to... and I mean really listening to. Like the type of band you name your Myspace profile after. The type of band whose lyrics you use as your AIM away messages. Yeah dude, it was that serious back in the mid 2000s. Shit was real.

I can't remember how I first got into them, but I know I started by listening to their second album, Deja Entendu, which is considered their classic album by most people. Before this time, I'd read reviews about a band "maturing" or "growing into their sound" or whatever other overused, cliche, music reviewer term you wanna pick out of the hat, but never really understood what it meant. After going back and listening to their 1st album, Your Favorite Weapon, I was able to grasp that concept for the first time. Your Favorite Weapon is an up-tempo, teen-angsty, energy-filled piece of "this is my life as a high school senior" and Deja Entendu broke through that wall and into something else. Something better than "I just broke up with my girlfriend and here's what I think about it." It felt more like a composition and less like a weekend writing session in a garage.

But let me start at the beginning:
I'll keep it brief because in my heart of hearts I don't think anyone cares about a band's background, plus I want this journal to be more about my personal connection with the bands and less about their Wikipedia entry. They started in the early 2000s, developed through the Long Island post-hardcore scene. Them and Taking Back Sunday, probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite band, kind of came up together with TBS obviously soaring a bit higher eventually. There's more to this story that I might get into later.

So they release their first album, Your Favorite Weapon, and it's not really super mainstream popular. They have one semi-hit, Jude Law and a Semester Abroad, which is the only single from the album. The album kind of puts them in a dim limelight for the Emo revival that followed through the mid 2000s (the one that all Emo purists and originators hated). I don't think it was really appreciated until later down the road when it became a nostalgic album for a lot of teenagers in the early 2000s. To me, it's still a really fun album that's pretty light-hearted and makes you remember all the stupid feelings you used to have. My favorite from the album:

Logan To Government Center (Your Favorite Weapon)


Deja Entendu (2003ish)

So, Your Favorite Weapon sort of opens a few people's ears and gives fans reason to listen to their second album, Deja Entendu. Like I said, it's easy to see the progression from album one to album two. There's still the up-tempo aggression, but there's much more focus on the lyrics and style. I think this album showed they weren't a one-trick pony and after The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows music video was released, it brought them to a larger audience as well as gaining fans who were still on the fence. Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades was also semi-big I believe. This is about the time I started to really listen to them obsessively pretty much every day. I wish I could just add the youtube videos of every song off the album, but I won't. Because I'm a good boy and don't want the journal to freeze upon opening, so I will just add one. But really, kill 45 minutes some night listening to the whole album on YouTube or something. It's one of maybe a handful of albums that is a must-listen the entire way through. Skipping a song would be doing only yourself a disservice.

I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light (Deja Entendu)


FGHT FF YR DMNS

I remember in like 2006 or 2007, there was a rumor going around about a new album coming out, tentatively called FGHT FF YR DMNS. I remember buying the T-shirt.





Somehow, a group of songs got leaked to the internet. Now, Jesse Lacey (lead singer) is a big fan of Morrissey and The Smiths, though I would have never guessed it from Brand New's first 2 albums. These leaked songs, named Untitled 1, Untitled 2, etc, made his fanhood evident. Long story short, the tracks leaked and had a totally different sound than anything they had ever done. Jesse's voice was different and the songs had a much different tone to them. One of depression and sorrow in my opinion. It was kind of a cool departure from their pop-punk songs and I loved most of them immediately, but at that point I was such a fanboy that I would have loved horse shits recordings. I grew to appreciate them more after processing that these were unfinished songs and far from their intended destination. You can find songs on your own if interested.


TDAGARIM

So with the 9 "demo" tracks leaked onto the internet, Brand New scrapped most of their ideas for their next album, feeling the leak tainted the ideas for their next release (you can still hear some striking resemblance in a couple songs though). In 2006, Brand New released The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. It caught me off guard, but shouldn't have given the sound of the leaked demos. This wasn't a slight variation of sound like Your Favorite Weapon to Deja, this was a massive change in everything.

Sowing Season (TDAGARIM)


It sounded like a new band, and maybe I was hoping for them to recycle their old stuff, but I wasn't into it at first. After a week or two though, I just started loving it. I saw them live a handful of times over this period and the new songs just started clicking with me. I understood they were getting older, as was I, and the subject matter was going to change accordingly. I don't hold it next to Deja, but a lot of people would say it's better than Your Favorite Weapon, something I usually disagree with.



Daisy

After that, they never released another album. Actually, they released Daisy, but I just pretend it never happened and you shall do the same.



That's it for now. Stay tuned, folks

Dr_Rez

Will confirm you got me to listen to both of those Brand New album a few months ago and they are now reguarly played. The Devil and God is probably one of my favorite albums I have ever heard, I really love it and think it is undoubtedly Brand News best.

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*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*

Isbjørn

Anyone know for how long Butthead will be banned?

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Taxman

I thought that account disabled mean forever? At least when I speak about bans it means " banned foreverly?" Ain't shorter bans are just penalties? Then again, I'm not so familiar with that site so I don't really know

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butthead aka 216

Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is butthead aka 216! I debated for several minutes on the Jay-Z homage or the Eminem "Guess who's back" opening, decided neither was very funny, so just went with Jiggaman anyways.

I will keep the ban-talk brief. Judge Vanilla, with the help of an advisory committee, sentenced me to musicbanter.com jail for a period of 2 weeks for "reporting posts that don't qualify as insults." My goal is to be the walking, talking face of the musicbanter jail program and show that rehabilitation is possible even for the worst offenders. I will be a template for success. I wish there was a more juicy reason for my ban, but basically I reported posts that I found offensive. Mods didn't find them as offensive as me, so they banned me. Some might say I used the report function in the exact and only way it was intended, but those people aren't the mods and they make the rules. Sorry there isn't a hilarious story to be told.

So that's out of the way. During my ban, while I wasn't sulking, I was listening to some new tunes and dicking around in Plug in-between bouts of self-reflection and remorse for my actions. But, the music can wait for another time, and in the miracle of an event that anyone besides Trollheart has read this far, I am still looking for suggestions. Samiam has been a band I've been listening to a ton lately, but I am looking for some good emo-pop type stuff. Oddly enough, I don't really like most of the emo stuff I've been investigating because it's a little too depressive and slow.

There were times in the last couple of week where I saw an article, or Reddit thread, or stupid stuff here that I wanted to rant about here, but I can't remember them right now. So basically, consider this my re-entry to the musicbanter.com population. Expect a journal update tomorrow and this weekend sometime.

Isbjørn

Dude, I got scared! Glad you're back!

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The Batlord

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butthead aka 216

So, now that I'm back (u mad???) I want to give a few shoutouts and thanks to certain members. Thanks to the group of guys who were happy to have me back in the community, especially Neo and Benteke. No offense Briks/Batty/Rezz/whoever else, but these fellas took the time to blow up my visitor wall with bonerrific babes and I feel like their efforts need to be mentioned here. Thanks guys. Also, thank, Karma! I come back, and Herm is banned. It was like a late Christmas gift so thanks to all those involved with that.

Also, thanks to our Journal Lord, Trollheart, for hosting the 2013 Journal Awards. TH does so much work on this part of the forum, and I appreciate it and I know everyone else does as well. The awards were especially cool for me because I didn't expect to win anything, but won 2 awards.


Though "Most Improved" means "Was Once Shitty, Is Now Less Shitty, I assume it really means "Wow, I am surprised you can actually form coherent sentences." Either way, I came into the journal game late and I am not sure I deserve this award. But, Maccaulay Culkin didn't deserve Mila Kunis either, and I don't see his gaunt ass whining about it.


I also won "Most Commented On" which is kinda weird since most journals have more comments than mine, but whatever. Like I said, no complaints here. For that, I can only thank other members who have commented on this journal as well as Dr. Phil.



So, as far as music goes, I plan to do an album review of a Midtown album. I've been going through a lot of different bands, listening to a few songs as a trial period, and then either ditching them or continuing my exploration of their music. Midtown was a band I saw a few times on different sites, so I decided to give them a listen and I've enjoyed the few songs I've heard. Like I said, I've been looking for emo-pop music and Midtown seems to fit the bill nicely. I also want to go back and search for more of The Movielife.

Oh, and I listened to The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die's new album. First off, shorten your band name bro. Secondly, I listened to the Whenever, If Ever album while playing video games. I can't think of who they reminds me of, but I feel like it's on the tip of my tongue. I enjoyed the album, and if a loaded Beretta was to my temple and I had to grade it, I'd probably say 8/10.

One band I thought I would like judging by my music tastes and various things I have read here and elsewhere, is Sunny Day Real Estate. I can say, after listening to about 10 songs, that I don't really understand the circlejerk over them. I found the music pretty boring, but I do love this song:

Dr_Rez

I give this a:

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*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*