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Show ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Tuesday, December 5,2006 A war of worlds Brand New lopes quietly back onto the scene with an important new record—just don't call it 'emo' Brand New manship and precihad little in common The Devii and God sion on The Devil (sonically) aside are Raging Inside Me and God's riffs) and from an undeniable Interscope Records Lacy's ever-spectral Jesse Lacy—the reclusive lead sense of earnestness Four out of vocals. Truthfully, singer of New Jersey's Brand and necessity. frve stars Lacy's voice is that of This usage stopped New—just masterminded the the haunted: These applicable best record to be mistakenly being •••• are not sounds made classified as "emo" (The Devil around the time '— by a man who can't and God are Raging Inside Me) Brand New released since...the last time he master- its last record—2003's spacey, escape some trauma, but rather minded the best record to be contemplative, brave expedition by a man who can't escape himmistakenly classified as emo out of its parents' basement, self. Included in the album's con(2003's acclaimed Deja Enten- into the real world—and abandoned the now watered-down tradictions is that of being redu). Does this make Brand New genre for greener, more ambi- peatedly mislabeled and misunderstood. Lacy dwells on the tious pastures. the best emo band in America? appropriation What happened to Brand inappropriate Maybe. But if it does, the title has ev- New when it made the shift is of suffering by those who seek erything to do with the fact that that the band began to form a company in misery—if there Brand New does not—repeat legitimate, distinct, individual is a message on The Devil and musical identity...one that ex- God, it's that there is some s*** DOES NOT—make emo music. ists outside the generalizations in this life that one goes through Hasn't for some time. by one's self. Period. Such a distinction deserves of genre. Brand New became an autonclarification; By emo, I mean the Lacy excavates this existenincarnation of the genre that has omous band. tial realization in a variety of This independence is ex- ends, arriving ultimately at the been wildly popularized/bastardized by MTV and its Clear plored further on The Devil and solace that, while no one can Channel ilk since about the year God are Raging Inside Me—an understand another's sadness, 2002. Think whiny, victimized, appropriately titled release that everyone is alone in proximity vacant, performative, angsty, grapples with a spectrum of in- to everyone else. formulaic junk a la Yellowcard, ternal contradictions facing the And there is bravery in this Thrice, Something Corporate, self as it struggles to find foot- sentiment. ing in a transient world. Hawthorn Heights, et al. Brand New makes a kind of I do not mean emo as it origiThis grappling is set to a robust rejection of idealistic nally existed—as a term used to soundtrack of adventurous identification in The Devil and vaguely denote a varied and di- guitars (power-chord fans will God: It's hard not to hear Lacy verse assortment of artists who be disappointed by the crafts- addressing the clingy throngs Eryn Green The Daily Utah Chronicle of wet-blanket Brand New fans and critics when he sings, "I am not your friend / I am just a man who knows how to feel / I am not your friend, I'm not your lover, I'm not your family," on "Sewing Season (Yeah)." And this stubborn (read: adult, realistic, objective) independence gets right at the heart of why Brand New matters in ways that 99.9 percent of emo bands don't and never will. Brand New recognizes its own evils, is not really OK with any of them and makes no apologies for the paradox. Never on The Devil and God do listeners get the feeling that a sense of sadness is being performed. For Jesse Lacy, grief is not manufactured for effect. Self-loathing on Brand New records is genuine—as such, it is distressing and worrisome, not sexy or compelling. When Lacy sings on "Jesus," "I know you think I'm someone you can trust, but I'm scared/ I'll get scared/ And I swear I'm trying...We all have wooden nails, we sleep inside this machine," he is not asking for sympathy from someone outside himself, but rather inside. And therein lies THE important distinction: The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is not a record that asks for anything from its listeners. Just itself. The Devil and God doesn't have time to care about how an audience will feel—Brand New has more intimate, immediate problems to address. This doesn't make it a callous or inconsiderate CD, but it makes it an honest one. Here we have been given an almost journalistic account of the trials facing a man and a band, fumbling desperately for some semblance of stability. ' It's remarkably powerful in this way. And that alone makes The Devil and God anything but emo. e.green@ chronicle.utah.edu Delicately layered French demigod Gerard Depardieu returns from hiatus for 'Changing Times' "Changing Times** Aaron Allen The Daily Utah Chronicle At the beginning of Andre Techine's "Changing Times"—a . wistful mosaic of frustrated relationships between lovers, friends and cultures—French actor Gerard Depardieu surveys the construction site of his latest architectural project, climbs down into a waterlogged ditch and is suddenly buried beneath an avalanche of loose dirt. So that's where he's been all these years. Actually, that's an inaccurate thing to say—after all, Depardieu, a fine actor, had a small but memorable part in Queen Latifah's brain tumor humor-fest "Last Holiday" earlier this year as a prestigious French chef. Other than that, however, he's been conspicuously missing from theaters. You might . have gone into hiding, too, if most American audiences knew you as the dopey, water-skiing dad in "My Father the Hero." V Koch Lorber Films Directed by Andre Techine Written by Techine, Laurent Guyot and Pascal Bonitzer Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu. Gilbert Melki, Malik Zidi, Lubna Azabal and Tanya Lopert Not Rated/98 minutes Opened Dec. 1,2006 Three-and-a-half out of four stars ••••* "Oh, how I've missed you, Gerard. Your coffee? Maqniflque! But I've had better. Cold. You and I. Cold." Catherine Deneuve looks pensively at the ground in "Changing Times." Forgetting about that, Depardieu is quietly effective here as Antoine, a lovesick architect on business in Tangiers hoping to reconnect with Cecile (Catherine Deneuve). She was his first and only love 30 years ago, and she is now married and living in Tangiers with her Moroccan husband, Natan (Gilbert Melki), a doctor who spends more and more time sleeping until noon and swimming in his pool than seeing patients. His son Sami (Malik Zidi) is in town from Paris with his Moroccan girlfriend, Nadia (Lubna Azabal), who has been shunned by her traditional twin sister (also Azabel) because...well, it's never See C H A N G I N G Page 5 ARTS Tuesday, Dec. 5 Concerts Jazz Combos Free 7:30 p.m. Dumke Recital Hall Kurt Bestor $17 to $35 8 p.m. Abravanel Hall (123 W. South Temple) Saliva $16 in advance/ $18 at the door 8 p.m. The Depot . (13 N. 400 West) |
