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Bands to Watch: Brand New

WHO: Recently signed to Dreamworks, this emo foursome, ledby acid-tongued Jesse Lacey, has springboarded from an opening sloton the last Dashboard Confessional tour into the bruised hearts ofAmerica’s youth.

SOUND LIKE: Second album, Deja Entendu, sloughs off the pop-punk blitz of their 2001 debut, Your Favorite Weapon,and wades into murkier territory, with the reverb-drenched lunar dirgeof “Tautou” and the moodily anthemic MTV2 favorite “The Quiet Things NoOne Ever Knows.” Lacey details his relationship dramas with rapierlines like “I hope you come down with something they can’t diagnose.”

HOME IS WHERE THE HERD IS:Spawned in the fertile punk ground of Long Island, also home toGlassjaw, the Movielife, and Taking Back Sunday (with whom Laceybriefly played bass), Brand New won’t be shilling for the tourismboard. “That whole thing has been kind of beaten to death,” saysdrummer Brian Lane. “People are like, ‘Oh, this band is from LongIsland, they’ve probably got some potential,'” adds Lacey. “No, theydon’t!”

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: A few years ago, a tiff over agirl between Lacey and Taking Back Sunday guitarist John Nolan (sincepatched up) escalated into a lyrical rivalry, with unintentionalresults. “It turned into this huge, Jay-Z/Nas-type thing,” Laceyrecalls. “When kids found out we were touring together, they’d comebecause they thought we’d kick each other’s asses onstage.”