Brand New have released their first new track in nearly six years. “Mene” is currently available for download (for free) over at Brand New’s website. The band’s homepage also features a video accompanying the song—it’s a music video of sorts, but entirely comprised of old performance footage from the band.
The past couple weeks have been absolutely riveting for fans of Brand New—who have, in the past decade or so, demonstrated a categorical unwillingness to play anything but huge festivals and arena shows, acted wholly reticent with respect to any and all press or promotional activities, and taken their sweet time in releasing any new recordings.
At the beginning of April, the band started mailing fans lyric booklets to their 2006 opus The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me—booklets the band were supposed to send out roughly nine years ago. Alternative Press sums up the situation rather succinctly, writing: “In case you’re not familiar, the booklet that actually comes with the physical CD version of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me doesn’t actually contain any lyrics, but rather a handful of seemingly random photos and phrases. Near the end of the pamphlet, however, there is a sentence that contains an address, which reads: ‘Please send $1 to *address* for a complete copy of the lyrics.’”
Then, last Wednesday, the internet exploded with two new tidbits of Brand New reportage: first, the band had wiped clean their Instagram account, leaving nothing but a fresh, new promo picture (with singer/noted Jesse Lacey’s face ostensibly deliberately obscured). Second, that morning, music journalism outlets from all corners of the internet also began posting footage of the band’s first live performance of “Mene,” setting the online music-going world ablaze in febrile speculation. As Brand New’s behavior is notoriously erratic, no one can quite say what will come next for the outfit, though they’ve been teasing a new record, which many presume will be released later this year.
Like so much of the material from The Devil and God, as well as Brand New’s last studio album, Daisy, “Mene” draws heavily from biblical inspiration. Both the title and lyrics refer to the common idiom “the writing on the wall,” or Mene Mene. According to Wikipedia, “‘The writing on the wall’… or ‘Mene Mene,’ is an idiom implying that a (usually) negative event is easily predictable based on the current situation… The expression originates from the Book of Daniel (Old Testament), Chapter 5, from the handwriting on the wall that was witnessed at a banquet hosted by King Belshazzar. As those at the feast profaned the sacred vessels pillaged from the Jerusalem Temple, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the palace wall the words, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.’”
FDRMX Eyes: Blame it on Sean is an experimental rock band from Virginia. They have released a music video titled “Core.”
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