The Brand New Heavies are an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing, a suburb of London, England.

Biography

The group came up with the Heavies name after signing their first record contract, borrowing from a liner note on a James Brown single declaring the artist "Minister of New Super Heavy Funk". As The Brand New Heavies they gained a cult following in the London club scene and soon signed to Cooltempo as acid jazz replaced rare groove in clubs. The band issued a debut recording for Eddie Piller's Acid Jazz label in 1990 with Jay Ella Ruth as lead singer.

A single, "Got to Give", came out on Cooltempo before the Brand New Heavies signed to Acid Jazz Records and released ''Brand New Heavies'' to critical acclaim. The band signed to a division of Chrysalis Records in the UK, and American distribution was picked up by influential label Delicious Vinyl, and N'Dea Davenport (who had signed an artist development deal with Delicious Vinyl) joined the group. A revamped version of the first album with vocals by N'Dea Davenport was then released, and the singles "Dream Come True", "Never Stop" and "Stay This Way", all with Davenport on lead vocals, became hits on both sides of the Atlantic, with the latter becoming a music video directed by Douglas Gayeton that saw heavy rotation on MTV.

The group's appearance with MC Serch (formerly of 3rd Bass) and Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) at a performance in New York City, inspired the group to incorporate elements of hip hop music. Their next album was the critically acclaimed ''Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol. 1'', which included collaborations with Guru of Gang Starr and The Pharcyde, among others, but lacked any female vocals.

While under management by Colin Lester's and Ian McAndrew's Wildlife Entertainment, The Brand New Heavies released ''Brother Sister'' (1994) which was the last album for a while with N'Dea Davenport, who had left to complete her solo album (which she had put on hold to join the Heavies). The album spawned more singles, though one of them, a cover of Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis", was popular only in the UK because it was not included in the US version of the album.

Siedah Garrett joined the group for their next album, ''Shelter'' (1997). It contained the minor hit, the Carole King-penned song "You've Got a Friend" that was originally made famous by James Taylor. Again, though, this song did not appear on the US version of the album. The album also contained the hit "Sometimes". The remix of "Sometimes" included the rap vocals of Q-Tip.

The Brand New Heavies then released their greatest hits album, ''Trunk Funk - The Best of The Brand New Heavies'' (2000) with Carleen Anderson on vocals for some newly recorded songs, followed by the Japan only album ''We Won't Stop'' (2003) featuring a variety of vocalists and ''Allaboutthefunk'' (2004) featuring British singer Nicole Russo on vocals.

In April 2006, the Brand New Heavies reunited with N'Dea Davenport and former label Delicious Vinyl. A new album, ''Get Used to It'' was released on 27 June 2006 via Starbucks and more traditional music retail outlets. The album was recorded in New York and London; and the lead single "I Don't Know Why (I Love You)" was issued in early May. The single was notable for being one of very few late releases to feature the trademarked A Tom Moulton Mix, as he had been asked to contribute remixes. Later that year, their song "Jump 'N' Move" was featured on the soundtrack for the 2006 computer animated feature film, ''Happy Feet'', and the in-game soundtrack for 2004's ''NBA Live 2005'' and 2009's ''NBA 2k10''. The band toured at the end of 2006.

The Brand New Heavies released a live album in October 2009 - ''Live In London'' - and announced plans to record two new studio albums in 2010-2011. The first likely to be released is "Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 2", which would be a follow-up to 1992's "Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 1". Dizzee Rascal and Roots Manuva are rumoured to be contributing to this project. The second new studio album is to be the true follow-up to 2006's "Get Used To It", with N'dea Davenport once again on vocals. No release date for either album has been mentioned by the band or its record label.

Members

Discography

Studio albums

Live, remix collections and compilations

Singles

References

External links

Category:Musical groups established in 1985 Category:English dance music groups Category:Musical groups from London Category:Delicious Vinyl artists Category:Acid jazz ensembles

Brand New is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. Formed in 2000, the band currently consists of vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Jesse Lacey, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, drummer Brian Lane, and guitarist/keyboardist Derrick Sherman.

In the late 1990s, Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney, and Brian Lane were all members of the band The Rookie Lot. They eventually split off from the other members of the group, and in 2000 formed Brand New in Merrick, New York. The band signed to Triple Crown Records and in 2001 released their debut studio album, ''Your Favorite Weapon''. Their second album, ''Deja Entendu'', was released in 2003 and marked a stylistic change for the band. The album's first two singles, "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" and "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades", both received airplay on MTV2 and Fuse TV, entering the top 40 on the United Kingdom Singles Chart. ''Deja Entendu'' was eventually certified gold in the United States.

Brand New moved to Interscope Records and released ''The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me'' in 2006. "Jesus" became their highest charting single in the US, peaking at number 30 on the Alternative Songs chart. In March 2008, the band started their own record label, named Procrastinate! Music Traitors. Their fourth album, ''Daisy'', was released in 2009 and became their highest charting album in the US, reaching number six on the Billboard 200.

History

Formation and early releases (2000–2001)

All four members had backgrounds linking into their local Long Island independent and hardcore music scenes, but with influences from an array of artists ranging from Buddy Rich to the Archers of Loaf. They eventually formed Brand New in 2000, in a basement in Merrick, New York. Their initial intention was always to "move outside of whatever notions they felt inclined to when they were making music as younger people." The band gained exposure in the local scene through playing shows with alternative rock contemporaries Midtown and post-hardcore bands like Glassjaw, whilst also self-releasing a four-song demo. They signed to Triple Crown Records just after their second-ever show.

Debut album: ''Your Favorite Weapon'' (1998–2002)

The only single released from ''Your Favorite Weapon'' was "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad". The song has been described by Allmusic as a "semi-hit", after it received airplay on both MTV2 and Fuse.

''Deja Entendu'' and acclaim (2003–2004)

Brand New's second studio album was written in "the year and-a-half or two years" that they were touring the material off ''Your Favorite Weapon''. According to drummer Brian Lane, "Jesse [Lacey] wrote a lot of the lyrics about different things than 'I just broke up with my girlfriend' for the new record," as Lacey had written the songs on an acoustic guitar in his bedroom. Lane also explained that the band was now influenced by a range of different artists, "All of us got exposed to a lot of different music that all of us were listening to. For the first [album] we weren't in such close quarters for 24 hours a day. I think that has a lot to do with it." Unlike their first album, it was said that a lot of time and concentration went into making the album.

The band released ''Deja Entendu'' through Razor & Tie/Triple Crown Records in June 2003, with it being issued in Europe and Australia in October 2003. The album's title, ''Deja Entendu'', is French for "already heard." It was explained as "very tongue-in-cheek," by singer Lacey. Elaborating on the title's meaning, he told MTV, "No matter who you are or what your band is about, you can't put a record out without people saying it's derivative of something else. So by saying the record's already been heard, it's kind of like saying, 'Yeah, you're right. We're doing something that's already been done before.'" Also reinforcing, "We're not trying to break new ground in music. We're just trying to make good music." The album was described as a "stylistic leap" from ''Your Favorite Weapon'', with a "decidedly matured" sound. In an interview with ''Billboard'', Lacey said that although ''Deja Entendu'' does offer a different sound, the album "doesn't seem like we're departing from anything, really. I think we always knew that we had a lot of potential and there's a lot of different stuff we were able to do, and a lot of different sounds we wanted to make. Not too long after we recorded the first record, we were already wondering where we were going to go from there."

''Deja Entendu'' debuted at number 63 on the Billboard 200. After just seven weeks, the album's sales were at more than 51,000 copies, already closing in on the total figure of its predecessor, ''Your Favorite Weapon''. In May 2007, four years after its release, it was certified gold for surpassing 500,000 sales in the United States, by the Recording Industry Association of America.

''Deja Entendu'''s first single, "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows", impacted radio airplay in July 2003, a month after the album's release. The song was said to be about regret, or "How there can be problems in a relationship and they get ignored. And how that often ends up as a broken home or some kind of bad situation down the road. It's kind of something that if it wasn't overlooked in the first place, you can kind of get through it." The song's music video chronicles the moments after a severe car accident, where a mortally wounded Lacey cannot depart for the next world until he knows that his girlfriend, also injured in the crash, is safe in this one. He says it "is about death or losing someone and it's those moments that you kind of look back on your life and realize all the regrets that you had, and all the things you wish you could change". They also made a music video for the second single, "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades", where Lacey acts like a human voodoo doll; discovering that when he moves a particular body part, it is mimicked by the target of his action. "Since the song is about taking advantage of someone else," he said, "there's a pretty strong correlation between the video and the song." Both music videos gave the band exposure in the mainstream where ''Your Favorite Weapon'' went "virtually unnoticed", with the videos finding "constant" airplay on MTV and the band making its live television debut on ''The Jimmy Kimmel Show''. Furthermore, both singles entered the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, whilst "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" peaked at number 37 on the Alternative Songs chart.

Three shows of the band's 24-date headlining US tour with Moneen, Senses Fail, and The Beautiful Mistake had sold out prior to even having released a single, with much of the buzz surrounding the band being produced by just word of mouth, touring and Internet message boards. ''Deja Entendu'''s success also earned them tours alongside New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, Dashboard Confessional, and Blink-182. The band went on to headline The Bamboozle festival with My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, Thrice, The Starting Line, Fall Out Boy, The Bouncing Souls, Straylight Run and Flogging Molly. They also made their second trip to the UK in 2004, their first as the headline act, the tour completely sold out.

After being pegged as an act to watch in ''Rolling Stone'''s annual "Hot Issue", topping punk critics' year-end lists with the "genre-defying" ''Deja Entendu'', with it also becoming a "landmark album of so-called 'emo-punk'" and the band's notable underground following; Brand New found itself in the middle of a bidding war from record labels. At the time, Lane protested the label of "bidding war", but conceded, "There's a few labels that are definitely interested. We've been talking to a lot of people for a while and we're narrowing it down." The band eventually signed with DreamWorks Records, which was then taken over by Interscope Records.

''The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me'' (2005–2008)

In late 2005, Brand New started recording their highly-anticipated third album in Oxford, Mississippi with producer Dennis Herring, but later dropped him in favor of Mike Sapone with whom they had worked on their first album.

In January 2006, nine untitled demos recorded for the album were leaked to the Internet. In response to the leak, Garrett Tierney stated "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." However, Lacey was not so upbeat when asked, saying, "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."

In the following months, with Brand New doing their first tour dates in over 18 months, a few songs from the demos were performed with a full band, some were fleshed out and had new lyrics. New songs had their debut as well during the summer tour dates. Brand New began their first tour in years on June 20, 2006, where Lacey stated that the album had been completed the previous day.

''Alternative Press'' published a preliminary date of October 10, 2006, as the album's release date, this was later corrected on the band's official website, when it was announced that the new album would be released on November 21, 2006 in North America, and the day before in Europe. Soon after, a track listing and cover art were revealed, as well as new information regarding the release of the first single - "Sowing Season". Having previously been leaked as a demo, the completed song began airing on radio on October 19, 2006, and appeared on their MySpace page a day later. According to Lacey in a radio interview from the UK (BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe), the title ''The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me'' is taken from a conversation he had with his friend about the musician Daniel Johnston, who has bipolar disorder.

In late December 2006, an unusual video was released for the instrumental track "Untitled", also known as "-", which mainly consists of a man spray painting a wall with "evil and good are raging Inside me" and correcting it to give the album title. On January 16, 2007, "Jesus" was announced as being the official first single from the album. On January 19, the band performed the song on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. They performed it again on February 26 on the ''Late Show with David Letterman''.

From January to June 2007, the band toured the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, including a headline slot on the UK's Give It A Name festival and playing the main stage at The Bamboozle festival. Despite the band's reluctance towards the press around the time of the release of the album, they were featured in ''Alternative Press'', a cover story for ''Rock Sound'', ''Kerrang!'', and ''NME''. The band went on tour for the fall of 2007, with openers Thrice and MewithoutYou. In early 2008, Brand New toured Australia and New Zealand on the Big Day Out festival.

In October 2007, the band announced via their official website that a new song, entitled "(Fork and Knife)", would be released online on October 23, 2007. "(Fork and Knife)", a rerecorded version of the track formerly known as "Untitled 7" from the leaked demos, was released as a non-album digital download.

In March 2008, Brand New started their own record label, named Procrastinate! Music Traitors. The first act signed to the new label was longtime friend Kevin Devine. The first release from the label was a reissue of the 2006 Kevin Devine album, ''Put Your Ghost to Rest'', in April 2008.

''Daisy'' (2008–present)

In June 2009, UK music magazine ''Rock Sound'', claimed on their website that they had received a copy of the upcoming album, though it was, according to an image later posted by the editor, "incomplete". The site published a "tentative" track listing and reported the incomplete version that they had received to be roughly 30 minutes long.

In an interview with ''Kerrang!'', Jesse Lacey commented on the upcoming album's content, "It's a pretty exhausting record. It's quite dense and I think some of the decisions we made don't always go in the most obvious direction. We were thinking a lot more about what we'd want to play when we were up onstage rather than actually what you'd want to hear on a record." He then questioned the future of the band, saying, "I think a lot of the record is about us trying to make decisions about how long the band should go on. When I listened back to it, I realized how many songs are about something coming to a close, or knowing when it's time to put something away and move on."

On July 7, it was announced that the album would be titled ''And One Head Can Never Die'' (to be typeset ''and one head can never die'') and would be released through Interscope Records on September 22, 2009. However, on July 9 it was announced on the band's website that the album title had been changed to ''Daisy'', still being released on the same day. The album's first single, "At the Bottom", was released through digital outlets on 11 August 2009. Daisy" saw vocalist Jesse Lacey step back from songwriting and giving the role to guitarist Vincent Accardi along with the other members of the band.

''Daisy'' debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 in the US, selling 46,000 records in what was their first top 20 entrance on the chart after ''The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me'' had reached number 31.

Brand New announced they will be bringing along Manchester Orchestra, Thrice, Glassjaw, Sybris, The Builders and the Butchers, and Crime In Stereo on selected/rotating dates of their headlining Fall North American tour.

On 23 January 2010, Brand New played their largest UK headline performance to date at London's Wembley Arena in front of 12,500 people. Support came from Glassjaw and Thrice.

When asked if rumours were true that ''Daisy'' would be the band's final release, Lacey replied "I don't think that will be true. It might be our last full-length record for a little while, but we've got a lot of things lined up that we want to record, so I think that will happen pretty soon." In early 2010, drummer Brian Lane stated that Brand New were unsure about how they plan to release music in the future with technology being a factor; "I don’t know if there’s a point to releasing records if they’re not physical releases, if we're going to release a lot of things digitally then I don’t see why we couldn’t release a song a week or a song a month or just put out what we like from whenever we record." Lane also discussed the way the band may release their records in the future, "We’re talking about recording another album but we don’t know whether it’s going to come out on a label or whether we just release songs in batches."

On April 28, 2010, at their show in Clifton Park, NY, it was announced that the band fulfilled their contract with Interscope Records, and were now unsigned.

In mid February, 2011, Brand New updated their website with a background change, along with releasing 5 new tour dates from their Facebook feed. This is the first public activity shown from the band since the early days after the release of their album, ''Daisy''. On April 26, Lacey announced at their Baltimore show that they have been writing material but have had difficulties as they are "tired of bumming you guys out. We’re trying to write something happy."

On June 16, 2011 Brand New stated that they will be touring the West Coast in September 2011.

Style and influences

The band share a strong interest in a wide variety of bands, from classic rock such as The Beach Boys, Squeeze and The Cars, to more contemporary acts such as Lifetime, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Sunny Day Real Estate, Neutral Milk Hotel and Radiohead. Frontman Jesse Lacey is also known for his fondness of The Smiths and Morrissey.

Band members

Discography

References

External links

* Category:Musical groups from Long Island Category:Alternative rock groups from New York Category:American indie rock groups Category:American emo musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 2000 Category:Interscope Records artists

Biography

In 2009, Grand Puba released his fourth solo album, ''Retroactive'', featuring production from hip-hop veterans like Q-Tip, Large Professor, Kid Capri as well as his fellow Brand Nubian's. Puba also appeared on the heavy posse-cut "Fresh" together with Cormega, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, DJ Red Alert and Parrish Smith of EPMD.

On the song "Old School" by Tupac Shakur Grand Puba was sampled and used in the hook. The sample originates from Grand Puba's verse on the song "Dedication" by Brand Nubian.

Discography

References

External links

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:African American rappers Category:Members of the Nation of Gods and Earths Category:Musicians from New York Category:Elektra Records artists