#brand new the devil and god are raging inside me you will always be famous

[millionsknives]

picrew yaaaay

[dearly]

The band have seen more than their fair share of people through turbulent times, tending to collect the vast majority of fans in the throes of adolescence and carrying them through from there. Considering how different each album sounds – from the wounded, cutting pop-punk of Your Favorite Weapon to the self-aware, sex-obsessed Deja Entendu; the desperate soul-searching of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me to the abstract chaos of Daisy – it wouldn't have been surprising to see their fanbase splinter into factions defined by era, like those of Conor Oberst or Manic Street Preachers. But Brand New have continually reinvented themselves while fundamentally providing the same thing on each album – namely confirmation that, yeah, being alive is quite difficult if you think about it to any meaningful degree, and that undercurrent of dread which you feel most days is probably justified, and here are 50 minutes worth of relatable reasons why plus some new ones you hadn't even considered. That's what stops them from being lumped in with all your other favourite bands from back when you had snakebites and a fake ID.

Before we get into the meat of things, it's worth mentioning that Jesse Lacey has always been the kind to wear his influences on his sleeve. The man performs in front of a mic stand wrapped in flowers; make no mistake that he worships Morrissey. I once watched him have a go at a festival crowd for opting to watch Brand New instead of Explosions in the Sky, who were playing at the same time. Brand New named one of their lead singles after a famous quote from Rushmore, another after Audrey Tautou, another after a line from a fictional gangster film in Home Alone 2, and another after a short story written by a character in Stephen King's Secret Window, Secret Garden. "I Will Play My Name Beneath The Spin Light" borrows lines from "Chumming The Ocean" by Archers of Loaf, and several bootlegs of Jesse Lacey's solo sets have become cult essentials for containing covers of Jawbreaker's "Accident Prone", Built To Spill's "Car" and Neutral Milk Hotel's "Oh, Comely" or "Two-Headed Boy". The list of references goes on and on. Such direct nods were largely abandoned on Daisy and replaced by samples from reel-to-reel tapes that Jesse bought online from an estate site, leaving fewer dots for fans to connect on Reddit. So, it's both unsurprising and a welcome return to form that Science Fiction appears to be assembled on touchstones.

Ahead of it's release online, Science Fiction was mailed to everyone who preordered the vinyl, as a CD containing one long track called "44.5902N104.7146W" – the approximate coordinates for Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming (also the setting for Close Encounters of the Third Kind). It came with a booklet featuring quotes from the fictional Poole vs HAL 9000 chess match in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The number plate on the car in the cover art reads "SOS 666", while the photograph itself, shot by Swedish photographer Thobias Fäldt, originally appeared in a VICE fashion spread about intelligent textiles. The two girls jumping off the roof are wearing clothes designed to turn stiff in response to impact, making it much harder for them to get hurt.

There are two ways of reading this. You could go deep on Stanley Kubrick and try to connect his juxtaposition of imagery with Jesse Lacey's lyrical content in a Charlie_Kelly_At_Pinboard.jpeg approach to deconstruction. Or, you could set that aside and grab the common thread of dread and dissociation that runs through it all. Both have value; the title itself speaks to that. "Science Fiction" is a tangible element of pop culture. We know what to expect from science fiction, we're familiar with the concepts it deals with, we "get it" – hence the Close Encounters and Space Odyssey references. But it's also inherently oxymoronic. If you strip away the context, it says more about a disconnect between fact and perception, reality and the surreal, understanding and fabrication – things that are much harder to grapple with in a definitive way. If you go further down that path, Science Fiction becomes a question of perception. The cultural references extend branches to grab onto, but they don't root anything down. That's the point. The world may be made up of concrete things that exist – the people you know, the moon, a laccolithic butte composed of igneous rock in northeastern Wyoming – but the only reality is the one you make for yourself based on how you view them.

Trauma can manifest in many ways: avoidance, anxiety, depersonalisation, hallucinations, self-harm, dissociation. The lyrics allude to pretty much every single one as we hear from Jesse Lacey as well as various fictional narrators and real strangers (like the therapy patient) attempting to understand themselves by reconciling the internal and external forces around them. Some of those forces are a bit on the nose; it's impossible to ignore the political context of "137" and its playground-esque chant about nuclear war, but it's hardly a political song. It romanticises an event in which we're all "vaporised" at once and nobody has to deal explicitly with loss. Equally, "In The Water" references each Brand New album – including the making of this one – in a swan song that writes anxiety, writer's block and expectation directly into the band's history before tethering it to tragedy. It ends with a line from Daisy's title-track, followed by the words "seven years" looped seven times in reference to "Limousine" – a track from The Devil and God about a girl called Katie Flynn who was killed in a car accident when she was seven years old. It's an odd callback to put at the end of a song that's ostensibly about Brand New's own career, but in the context of Science Fiction as a whole it feels symbolic of the endless and universal nature of pain as a significant part of the human experience.

Unsurprisingly there are multiple allusions to death and rebirth, but they feel much less linked to questions surrounding religion or the afterlife. Now, those allusions mostly appear within images of water or the body, which – while formless and temporary, respectively – are easier to hold on to than a belief system. This re-focus on the tangible makes sense when you consider that, for all the obvious external forces on the album that either make themselves apparent or offer themselves up for projection, it's the internal ones that feel most threatening. "Could Never Be Heaven" ends with audio of someone in a therapy session questioning, quite manically, the degree to which conditioning has influenced their beliefs and decisions. It's the voice of someone desperate to know who they really are, like it's the key to understanding why they have such a hard time existing and, maybe, if they had that understanding it wouldn't be so hard anymore. Of course, the more you interrogate yourself like that, the deeper you will fall into an existential hole where everything about yourself and the world splinters into infinite different timelines and you lose yourself among them. A different voice cuts in, saying, "You don't know how to break through this contradictory mess and really find your own authentic individuality," emphasising the word mess. The track that follows is generally about flawed human nature and specifically about someone trapped in a cycle of self-loathing and self-harm.

Brand New albums have a timelessness that's missing from those by most of the bands they came up alongside. After The Devil and God, a certain level of trust had been established that whatever they did next would be "right" even if nobody could be sure how it would sound. But as the years went silently by after Daisy – the distance between the band and their fans widening as both grew older, and possibly apart – doubt set in. There wasn't just the matter of whether a new album would ever materialise after they announced their impending breakup, printed a run of T-shirts that read 'Brand New 2000 – 2018' and then released several new Very American Rock songs that never went anywhere. There was the matter of whether Brand New would still be recognisable, or even relevant. A statement by the band later confirmed that a new album was coming, and would be their last. "What's left should be a strange demise, but hopefully one as loud and as fun as the rest of our time together has been," it concluded. "Please send flowers."

Science Fiction feels like a fitting ending, and parts with the same sort of advice an older sibling or a mentor might give to you before they fuck off to college or otherwise move on with their life. "Batter Up" reflects on the self-referential world that Brand New have built for themselves over the last 17 years and resigns itself to the fact that existing is just really bloody hard. Depending on what mood you're in, it could either feel like an inspirational mantra or the kind of depressing truth that knocks the wind out of you. It could either be, "Batter up! Give it your best shot!" to which you say: "Hell yeah, thanks Jesse, I will!" Or it could be, "I tried, someone else have a go," to which you take a deep breath and silently brace yourself.

I imagine it's the latter. If someone you may well have turned to over the years to do all your articulating for you couldn't make much progression in all this, then the fact that he is purposefully leaving you with the image of him offering you the bat to take your own swings in the dark is very bittersweet. We spend so much time clinging to the idea that things are moving towards some sort of logical conclusion, that there is forward momentum in all we do, but there is a quiet beauty in the fact that, for the most part, everything is cyclical and almost maddeningly simple. If you strip away all the hows, whys, wheres and whats that we spend our time preoccupied with in hope that the answers will ascribe some concrete meaning to being alive, there's really nothing to do besides step outside and hope for the best. That's basically the gameplay, in a nutshell: you give it your best shot and then you die. If you're lucky, someone might send flowers.

[setthejet]

day 219: charleston, sc

My blogging has gotten way too far and in-between, in regards to my posting. When I created this blog, I had every intention on blogging at least every two days - maybe even more - but definitely no longer than a week in between posts. That has obviously not happened, so if you don’t mind then I’ll be happy to catch you up on things around these parts.

We successfully completed an overnight sail from Southport, NC to Charleston, SC last Saturday morning; I made a video depicting that experience, which I posted the link to in a previous post; I’ve been to twelve step meetings every day; I’ve made some new friends; and I went to see Brand New in concert at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center with a guy that I met while we were in NC.

The other day before the concert, Mom and I decided we needed to have a day trip into Downtown Charleston to see all of the historic mansions and whatnot. I must say, I was getting slightly envious that she and Steve got to go into the city and explore twice while I stayed home with Gus and remained on puppy patrol duty. But at the same time, they are very understanding of my need to go to meetings when they’re available so in the end it was all good. Anyway, when we parked in the parking garage and made our way down to the main strip - which is Market Street, and believe it or not, they actually had a market! - we came into contact with those who were taking a tour around the historic city… in horse ’n buggies! Mom and I did that thing we do when we look at each other with mischievous grins that basically say, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” and trust me, we were thinking the exact same thing. So we made sure to keep a look out for a vendor that was selling tickets for the carriage tour. The tour itself definitely needed some amping up, i.e. Mom and Steve had gone on a walking tour, which sounded cool because you stopped at literally everything that was important and you were up close so you could take pictures while the guide was talking. The carriage ride was non-stop, which was kind of understandable because we were holding up traffic otherwise. The driver was also Miss Chatty Cathy, and included everything from the horses’ ages to the design work on the houses. I got some great pictures though, I must say, all things considered. Must be that new iPhone 8 Plus that I upgraded to the other night, on the way to being dropped off at a nearby meeting. The one thing we didn’t ride by on the tour that I was deadset on seeing in person was Rainbow Row. Now, I’m not going to say that I know what you’re thinking, but if you are thinking that it’s some sort of Gay Rights historic movement center or something then you’re incorrect. Don’t get me wrong, despite SC being in the middle of “the Bible belt”, Charleston seemed to be a very hipster-chic up-and-coming kind of city. All of the buildings were painted different colors, most of them simply being restored as opposed to being torn down and rebuilt. It was quite beautiful, in all honesty. Rainbow Row was really no different from the rest of the city, except for the fact that it had a very unique story behind its name and “rise to popularity” if you will. You can read all about it on www.rainbowrowcharlestonsc.com. We also passed by the Calhoun Mansion, which was on my list of priority visits, but as we rode by in the carriage the mansion happened to be on the opposite side of where I was seated therefore I could not really get a decent view out of the lens of my camera. However, Mom and I went to check out the prices of the tour of the mansion and seeing as how they were only $16/person, we said, “Oh what the hell?” and into the mansion we went. Downside of taking the tour inside the Calhoun Mansion: no photography, not even non-flash photography. When I asked the woman about the rule, she said that it had something to do with photography ruining the artifacts and how in Europe you can’t take any photos in the museums there. Let me just take this moment to inform you who may not had previously known this little fact: I have been to Europe, specifically France and Netherlands, and I happen to have photos of some of the world’s most prized pieces of art by some very very VERY famous artists. So the latter part of this tour guide’s explanation in regards to taking photos in the mansion just didn’t make sense to me at all. Otherwise, it was a beautiful house! 

Later on that evening, Mom dropped me off at a vape shop in North Charleston that was right across the street from the venue where Brand New was playing. If you’ve never listened to Brand New, please do yourself a favor and listen to Your Favorite Weapon in its entirety. Then you can happily move on to Deja Extendu then The Devil and God are Raging Inside Of Me, and so on. Basically just listen to their entire discography, is what I’m really trying to say. I’ve been to a lot of concerts, and I really do mean a LOT. We could easily just say I’ve been to, uh, a shit ton of a lot. But Brand New is not on that list, whatsoever. I can’t say that I haven’t had opportunities, because I’ve had plenty. And I can’t say that I didn’t want to, because throughout my childhood Brand New was a band that always knew the right things to say when I was blasting them in my bedroom so needless to say I definitely wanted to. So okay you get the point and I saw them with this guy that I met at a meeting in NC and it was so amazing. You’ll find some shots I took below, and I’m not sure how I ended up in the eighth row from the stage  because I kind of vaguely remember choosing a seat further away. The lighting was perfect, the singing was mesmerizing, and the crowd was so beautiful as some of them belted out along to the newer hits from their latest album Science Fiction, while the rest of us seasoned fans practically cried when Jesse Lacey came back on stage for a solo acoustic encore which happened to be “Soco Amaretto Lime” from Your Favorite Weapon. It was a beautiful evening and for once I wasn’t that guy who basically had his phone glued to the stage, recording every moment of it. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate those people who post entire concerts on YouTube but for me personally it’s about being in the moment and enjoying every second. I got the verse and chorus of my favorite songs, and the only one I recorded the entire thing was the encore. They announced their future breakup happening in 2018, but other than that they just played music for us for about an hour and a half. That’s probably the only concert I’ve been to where they spoke so little to the crowd. Again, it was so beautiful. 

I’ve met some of the coolest, laid back, funniest people here in Charleston. They’ve been so loving and kind and people aren’t lying when they reference the southern hospitality. The other night this fabulous human being that I came into contact with invited me to her 1 year celebration, and the dinner that occurred afterwards. Seriously? What an honor! It was so great and it always warms my heart when I meet people who are coming up on a celebration. 

Tomorrow we continue our adventure down the east coast at 7:00 in the morning. Information has gotten a little bit confusing, but I believe if I’m not mistaken our next stop is Beaufort, SC but it could also be Hilton Head, SC - I’m not entirely sure. So I guess I’ll leave you hanging in a tiny bit of suspense awaiting our next stop... Thanks for reading!

[robbiefarlow-sidequestfitne-blog]

New Post has been published on Side Quest Fitness

New Post has been published on http://sidequestfitness.com/61-life-lessons/

61 Life Lessons I Would Deliver to Younger Versions of Me (And Wisdom You'll Find Useful as Well)

They say it’s important to reflect on your birthday; to ponder what you’ve learned during your latest orbit around the sun and to contemplate how you can make the next year of life better.

Well, I don’t know who the hell “they” are, or why they’re telling me that I should do anything on my birthday other than eat ice cream, play video games, and drink whiskey. But fuck looking back, I’m looking forward. (To the steak I’m going to eat and the sex I’ll be having with my wife.)

Pfft, who am I kidding, of course I’m going to look back. I’m an introspective kinda guy. And it’s fun to imagine traveling through time to deliver messages to younger versions of Robbie Farlow.

So if I could travel through a wormhole and deliver some life lessons to the younger, dumber, and far less attractive version(s) of myself, what life lessons would I attempt to upload and save in my adolescent cranium?

Copyright: Image by StockUnlimited

Originally, this article started as a letter to my younger self. But that quickly (d)evolved into a listicle. Because,

a) people like lists. And,

b) the future is on mobile and I’m trying to crush that game early on.

So since it’s my 31st birthday, and I’m doing what “they” suggest, which is really an excuse for me to attempt to leave a mark on the world should I cease to live in 2017 and humanity is denied witnessing another four or five decades of my wisdom, here are the 61 Life Lessons I Would Deliver to Younger Versions of Me (And Wisdom You’ll Find Useful as Well).

61 Life Lessons I Would Deliver to Younger Versions of Me (And Wisdom You’ll Find Useful as Well)

1. Never mix Budweiser and Mountain Dew. I know, at the time it sounds like a good idea because 1) Bud tastes like moldy cat piss and, 2) you’re 17 and think that Mt. Dew will blunt the taste of the beer (and it will), but you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

2. You’re never going to stop being an emo kid. So fuck the haters. Turn that shit up and scream your heart out.

3. Henry Rollins was right: “Half of life is fucking up, the other half is dealing with it”. And you’re probably gonna fuck up and then have to deal with it more often than not. But that’s life.

4. It doesn’t matter whether you wanna be an actor or not, get some fucking cool ass tattoos.

5. Life is like a buffet: try everything you can and find what works for you

6. You have time. Barring an unfortunate accident like getting hit by a truck or some other unforeseen act of God, you have time to achieve things in life. Stop wishing for it to happen when you’re 25. It could. (It won’t because I’m 31 and writing this to you) But stop getting upset that you’re not famous, rich, or living the good life when you’ve never lived outside of the same state you were born in.

7. You can want a lot of things. But if you don’t understand why you want them, what good are they?

8. Flying isn’t that terrifying. Unless your first flight is on the same model of plane that crashed at 2 am in Buffalo, NY while you were up playing video games instead of sleeping because you were nervous about flying for the first time. (gulp).

9. Quitting is sometimes the best decision. Not because you don’t have the strength to continue, but sometimes, it’s just what’s best.

10. Buy less stuff. Buy more experiences.

11. People aren’t inherently evil. 99.9% of people will do what’s right. But they’ll do what they feel is right. We’re selfish and will protect our own interests before we think of others.

12. You can’t change the world—or even love other people—until you change or love yourself.

13. Be more aggressive in your decisions. Just make a choice and go. If you fuck up, fine. Apology later and make it better.

14. If you’re not willing to make sacrifices, you can’t complain about how the world isn’t changing; because it’s you that refuses to change.

15. Everything is about sex. And a majority of our issues in life revolve around feeling like we’re not good enough to continue the species. And that’s why rejection sucks.

16. You’re not as cool as you think you are.

17. Read more books.

18. Acting isn’t about what you’re doing as a character, it’s about how that character reacts to what others do to him. And that’s what life is as well: a reaction to others (or nature). You can’t control what other people do, but you can control how you react. So, will you choose actions that make the world better, or worse?

19. Chill. The. Fuck. Out. Take (some)things a little bit less serious. Stress is a silent killer. Learn to deal with it now before it kills you in your 40s or 50s.

20. The sweat of your brow doesn’t have to mean manual labor. Work is what you find passion and meaning in. And I’m sure, even if your grandfather had no idea what you were doing, he’d be proud of you. And he’d feel proud of the “work” you put in.

21. You’re actually pretty cool and should stop telling yourself you’re some lame loser who sucks at life. Because the more you say that shit, the more you believe it, and then it becomes a self-fulling prophecy.

22. South Carolina sucks. Avoid it at all costs.

23. You’ll search the world for the one thing your hometown has that no other can match: the best goddamn queso on Earth.

24. Sometimes your biggest mistakes turn into your biggest blessings.

25. Who you surround yourself ultimately determines your road in life.

26. Your heroes aren’t infallible or indestructible. They may even let you down from time to time. They’re human, forgive them and move on.

27. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is a much better album than you thought when it was first released.

28. Time is the one resource you can’t regain. Stop trying to do things the hard way because you think you’ll learn more from it, be better, be more efficient, and stop wasting time on useless shit.

29. Astrology is bullshit. But you’ll notice some weird things about being a Gemini. Specifically, that you’ll notice this weird ebb and flow where one minute you’re the gregarious center of attention to the lonely wallflower in the corner. At 31, I still haven’t figured it out. But just be prepared for it.

30. You don’t find meaning; you make it.

31. Don’t feel bad for letting go of connections that could hold you back, even if they’re family. Blood may be thicker than water. But you can drown in both.

32. “Your success is predicated on the number of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have.” – Tim Ferriss

33. Also, you may eventually look like AC Slater, physically. But you’re always going to be Screech.

And a side note on that: you’ll never be Gaston. You are Lafou. I mean, I’m not saying you can’t play Gaston. You can do anything. But you’re a ginger. People look at you and see a goof ball not Gaston. (Then again, fuck those haters who say you can’t be Gaston. You be the best goddamned Gaston ever. But add some more muscle, that always helps.)

34. Patience, Robbie. Fucking learn to be patient.

35. There are a few select, awesome, people who are still trying to make fetch happen. (It hasn’t happened in 2017. But it might. Never give up.)

36. Okay, you won’t really get this for a long time but, tip more than $2. People have to make a living off of that shit. And speak to them like a human being, maybe they’ll give better service because you greeted them with a smile and a joke and not eyes that scream, “Oh gee, I’m glad I’m not you and got knocked up at 16 and had a kid in high school.” Be a better human being fuck face.

37. Some day Robbie, you’ll find people who love comic books, video games, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, and who dance around like idiots when Madonna’s Ray of Light comes on. So yeah, you’re not the only one. And you’re not strange. Fuck being “normal.”

38. Write. Don’t stop at the age of eight. Keep writing. Every day. And write about anything. Trust me, it’ll benefit you more than anything else in life.

39. A tailor made suit will increase confidence by 1,000x. (And it makes your ass look amazing.)

40. Not every girl who looks at you, or in your direction, is eye fucking you. It is possible that she looked at something else; actually, it’s likely she wasn’t looking at you. But just in case, you should probably go to the gym and rep out countless sets of bicep curls and bench presses just in case.

41. I know that hypocrisy is the one thing you can’t stand. But you need to accept that everyone is a hypocrite. Not only will it make life easier for you, but you’ll forgive people more often because you realize that, at our core, we’re all selfish beings.

42. Words without action are just another wasted exhale.

43.Changing your body, truly changing how it looks via strength training, will be the one key you realize that has given you the confidence to start a podcast and business, the humility to know you can always improve no matter the task, and you’ll discover it was the catalyst for taking charge of your life.

44. Southerners did a lot of fucked up shit. But don’t be ashamed of where you’re from. Be a better version of what you think a Southerner should be.

45. Know this: once you start fighting your demons, they will punch back ten times as hard. And you’re gonna be fighting them the rest of your life. It don’t get easier kid. Sure, it, and you, get better, but it ain’t no cakewalk.

46. Robbie, I hate to tell you this, and really I feel like I should just let you keep thinking what you’re thinking. But; no one will really give a rats ass that you have a six pack.

47. Your dad made a lot of mistakes. Get over it. He’s a human being. And if you keep striving to be the perfect version of him that you were told he could never be, you’re going to drive yourself into madness and end up doing some of the same shit. Then guess what? That goddamn guilt and shame will consume you and you’ll never escape. You’ll wind up in a darkness that would make dark matter shudder.

48. Put nothing past anyone. Everyone is capable of acts you’d never imagine—even you.

49. No matter what anyone tells you, it’s absolutely okay to workout because you want to look better naked.

50. 95% of the time, the problems people have with you, aren’t about you, it’s about them.

51. Don’t prove yourself, or your self-worth, to others—prove it to you.

52. Love is messy; it’s painful; it’s magical; it’s stressful; it’s fair; it’s unfair. It is nothing like what the hopeless romantic inside of you thinks “real love” looks like—it’s not a goddamn movie.

53. Fight for things that have great purpose. Fight for what matters for the betterment of mankind. Fight because you want to leave the world a better place than when you came into it.

54. Practice where you want to be.

55. You’ll always feel restless. Be prepared to never be able to turn your brain off. But that may be the price you pay for greatness.

56. Pain is the harbinger of truth.

57. Maybe it’s because you were conceived while your parents were on acid (which really explains so much about you), but you’ll find yourself drawn to psychedelics and crazy instrumental guitar riffs that make you feel like you’re riding the winds of the universe. Enjoy that stuff.

58. You have an addictive personality. So, you’re gonna have to keep an eye on things and make sure they don’t consume you.

59. Talk less. Listen more.

60. Kid, look. I wish I could tell you that at 31 I’ve got it all figured. That you’re in a good place in life. And in some ways, you are. But there is no “I’ve got it all figured out.”

61. Two people will tell you in different chapters of your life that they do not teach (or coach) mediocre people. Listen to them. Because if you rest on your laurels, you’ll half-ass everything. Fuck mediocrity.