BRAND NEW (the band) (day of rant: March 03, 2025)

TW: Sexual Misconduct with minors!
Brand New are one of my favorite bands of all time, but it's very hard to ignore the major obvious issue with them: Jesse Lacey. To give context, Brand New are a third-wave emo band from Long Island, New York, released five studio albums, most notably Deja Entendu and my personal favorite The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. They formed in 2000 and they disbanded in 2018. They planned on disbanding anyway, but a major reason for their disbanding was the vocalist, guitarist, and frontman, Jesse Lacey.

Jesse Lacey was formally accused in 2017 for sexting minors, two women, one aged 15 around the time of the incident and the other an undisclosed age, spanning a few years in the early 2000s, sent nude pictures to Jesse Lacey, and he masturbated to the young girls on Skype calls! This is probably only the tip of the iceberg as well! Now, I'm defiinitely one for defending victims, but what's the other side of the story? Well, Jesse all but admitted to this in his response in a Facebook post stating "I was selfish, narcissistic, and insensitive in my past, and there are a number of people who have had to shoulder the burden of my failures. I apologize for the hurt I have caused, and hope to be able to take the correct actions to earn forgiveness and trust," and "I am sorry for how I have hurt people, mistreated them, lied, and cheated. I am sorry for ignoring the way in which my position, status, and power as a member of a band affected the way people viewed me or their approach to their interactions with me. And I am sorry for how often I have not afforded women the respect, support, or honesty that they deserved."...

Yeah, so he's a total piece of shit person. People often say "separate the art from the artist", but like, when you listen to the music, you can definitely hear questionable lyrics earlier in their discography, and later, guilt and fear of eternal damnation for his actions in albums such as The Devil and God.... While he technically did not admit to sexting minors, this is a clear response to the allegations, and the "allegations" are pretty damning.

My issue is the fact that Brand New are a band that I've connected to deeply and really got me into emo music when a friend of mine showed me their music. We both started to really get into emo music at the same time, and it's a real shame that music that we both greatly enjoy and connect with came from such a fucked up place. I know I keep bringing this album up, but The Devil and God... is one of my favorite albums ever, and generally Brand New's discography is incredible, but it's really hard to stomach for the most part because I often feel guilt for listening. My issue is that I can't let the music go. While for some artists, it's easy to not support them by just boycotting their music, but Brand New are a particular case where I don't want to live in a world without their music.

Why do I bring this up?

I mention this because recently Brand New did a private show for charity, and people in the emo community are very excited for a Brand New reunion... Guys, are we just forgetting the reason they broke up in the first place? There's a reason it's been radio silence from Jesse Lacey for the last 8 years. I get that forgiveness is important, and that rehabilitation is something I believe in, but like, where's the accountability? He left for a few years, comes back and all of a sudden it's like nothing happened? If he actually showed genuine growth sure, and I get that it was a long time ago, but he's shown ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY for his actions. He just said that he did bad things 20ish years ago, what the fuck kind of apology is that?

As it stands, we have no idea about the situation going on with the band, and the charity show could be a one-off, but acccording to people who were at that show, there might be more to come. It's really disturbing how people don't seem to care about the allegations anymore and are instead quite excited for new music. I get it, Brand New is not only one of the best emo bands, but arguably one of the best bands of all time, but at the same time, it's hard to ignore Jesse Lacey's history.

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