| Brand New – Welcome to Bangkok Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I have to give props to Gillianizmo or whatever their name is on pg. 2 of these comments. Although most of it is largely speculative, I like those random comments that get your wheels turning. Has anyone considered the use of Bangkok in the title? I listened to this interview (http://vwgreenroom.com/bands/Brand_New/music/07%20Interview.mp3) on the VW Greenroom sessions, and Jesse mentions both that Vinnie wrote it and that they all feel "pretty strongly" about the song. He says it's the last song they'd play if they had to pick one. I wonder what that would mean, to feel strongly about it. My opinion is that due to a lot of the attention paid lately to the sex trade and prostitution going on in southeast Asia and other places, this song may be addressing that. Bangkok is one of the world's largest hotbeds for the illicit sex trade. Perhaps this issue caught Brand New's attention and this song is a response to the injustice being done there. Think about the tone of the song. It starts with a mellow intro, some lonely guitar (or bass) lines, and slowly increases in volume until the fearsome chords and drums come in. It's a little bit of anger, a little bit of helplessness, a little bit of confusion, and a lot of pain. Maybe this song is communicating the fear and trepidation a new "recruit" to the brothels feels upon their arrival to this scary new world. The "cadet" could be like an underage girl in a couple ways. Inexperienced and innocent like some cadet at an academy or school, or cut off and drifting like a cadet in space, away from earth and safe ships. The cadet is a symbol of a lonely and afraid individual. Dictionary.com gives a few diverse definitions for cadet. Trainee, younger sibling, and officer in training are a few of the key ones. Apparently cadet is even slang for "pimp" in some cases. I don't know if you can infer conclusions this broad from such little lyrical material, but the overall tone and title of the song lead me to believe it's a way of mourning for the loss of innocence or worse. |
|
| Brand New – Jesus Christ Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
A lot of people have been quoting this interview from allschools.de, but I'm not even sure if that's a legit interview. There's so many grammar mistakes in there that it looks like it was written by fervent high school-aged Brand New fans skipping class to throw their thoughts online... I digress. I want to highlight some of the real solid posts that have been made so far. I don't feel like anyone came remotely close to analyzing the meaning of the song until page 3, where no_anesthetic provides a long but effective look into some of Jesse's literary tools. Like the idea that Jesse as a writer is not writing EVERY song from first-person experience, and may be utilizing contrast, comparison, and characterization. no_anesthetic also was the first to really provide a working analysis of the "machine" image. It's a valid guess, and might not be far off. That the songs themselves may have "narrators" is another idea that's been hinted at. Right on! How naive is it to assume that Jesse Lacey is personally spitting out every single one of these lyrics through heartfelt personal struggle? What if he's asked these questions through a character/object he's created to speak in the song and project his ideas? He does this frequently (ie-Degausser, Play Crack the Sky). What if these are dillemmas that a close friend is dealing with? Don't assume straight up that everything he's ever sung is a close-held personal belief. Could be, could not. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the ship and/or sinking metaphor. This is a typical theme for Jesse to use, like in Play Crack, Milestone, or Luca. In this context, however, you could compare it to the scripture in Luke 8:22 where Jesus is in a boat with the disciples and the boat almost sinks in a storm (in sight of land) but at the last minute Jesus gets up from his nap and calms the water. It seems as though it's proclaiming failure in some respect. In the scripture, the ship stayed afloat, but Jesse has it sunk. What do you guys think? The gold chariot reference is to 2 Kings 2:11 in the Old Testament, where Elijah is taken up to heaven by chariots of fire while in conversation with his apprentice Elisha. It's mixed in with other New Testament metaphors, so I think the imagery can get confusing if we take it too far. I don't think this song is so singular in subject. There's a lot going on here. Alongside these questionings, it appears to some like there are admissions of faith and guilt for sin. So we can't decide so easily that Jesse's a one-track mind, and fit his lyrics into any sort of constrictive box. This song isn't one of grand conclusions, and perhaps the album isn't either. It's grand, though. And the scope of it is found in the exploration and questioning that this and the other songs go through. |
|
| Brand New – Luca Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
First off, they DO count to eight in verse 2. Second, the Luca Brasi thing is typical of Jesse's metaphorical style. There's a frequent use of folklore, pop culture, and characterization. In "I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light" they sing "The harpoon's loaded/the cage is lowered/the water's red" like a Discovery Channel shark special (or Jaws). In the fifth Demo, the song's 1st person speaker is part of a gang of marauding criminals or thieves. In "Play Crack the Sky" he and his lover are ships on the ocean. All this to say that he'll pick a story or vivid picture and then speak from one (or more) of the characters' perspectives. In Luca, somebody has done wrong, and is getting their 'just desserts' by getting fixed with cement galoshes and cast into the depths. It is definitely a Godfather reference, I don't think the song's actually about Luca Brasi. What this means to him, it's hard to pinpoint. The "touch me or don't" interludes and the second verse tell me that the song's speaker has been betrayed by somebody. And past that, the speaker after having his emotions tread on by "Luca," gets revenge by fixing the offender with cement galoshes (aka concrete tennis shoes), and sending him to "sleep with the fishes." To me, it's a song of hurt and angry retribution, payback for heartache or worse. What do you guys think? |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.