Don't get me wrong - I've done my share of wallowing in my life, although nine times out of ten, it was about a girl that had dumped me. My current situation is - to my mind - entirely different. That said, being laid off from one's job is hardly a unique predicament. Anyone reading this has probably gone through it at least once in their life. It happens, and it sucks, but it's not the end of life as we know it. I'm not feeling great about it, but life does continue. Moreover, given my responsibilities (feeding my kids, etc.), I simply don't have the time to curl up into a fetal ball and mope myself senseless. Also, when you have two giggley little moppets skipping around your home saying things like "I'm tired about it" and "When is my money going to come true?" ( a sentiment I can certainly identify with at the moment), it's very hard to stay frowny.
So, yeah, I'm depressed but fortunately for me, there are people who are more depressed, and some of those people are songwriters. As Sir Reginald of Dwight sagely sang during a dark period of his otherwise distinguished career, sad songs say so much. Who doesn't love a great big, gushing downer of tune when you're feeling low? This week, as I strode through midtown in between job interviews, this particular song arrived in my headphones, and its deep, resonant strains of introspection and existential dread totally fit the bill. "Jesus Christ" by the Long Island band Brand New - as its title might suggest - is no giddy pop ditty. A grave rumination on death (pardon the pun), loneliness and the tenuous foundations of faith, "Jesus Christ" is a slow paced, thoughtful track that is cheerlessly intense without feeling overbearing. It's also one of the most stirring pieces of music I've heard it a long while.
Most of the time, the stuff I highlight here dates back from at least a decade (i.e. back when I was young and foolish and the only cares I had in the world were having enough money to pay for beer and Cop Shoot Cop records), but this is a piece of music I was introduced to during my relatively recent tenure at MTV News. I heard plenty of new music while working there, but most of it was insipid pop crap and rote, staid Hip Hop (a genre which to my mind - with very few exceptions - creatively ran aground ages ago). I'd heard of Brand New prior to working there, but had written them off as just another band of anglophilic teenagers with derivative haircuts. They started off as a by-the-numbers emo-punk outfit, playing earnest paeans to lost love with bug-eyed, screamy ferocity, but they've since grown into something far more interesting. Last year's The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (how's that for an ambitious title?), found Brand New abandoning well-worn genre trappings in favor of dense, layered songs that matched the emotional intricacies expressed in the lyrics. They're still acutely earnest and wrought, but at least now they sound genuinely inspired as opposed to contrived.
In any case, I became a quick fan of The Devil And God...., warming to both its moments of vein-popping fury and its more subtle, poignant moments. Again, this particular song moves at a somnambulistic pace, but when lead singer/songwriter Jesse Lacey changes gears from deceptively frail to tensely taut in his entreaty to ol' J.C. (at specifically 03:10 into the song), later to belt out that signature scream ("WE'VE ALL GOT WOOD AND NAILS!"), you can really feel the conflicting angst and Catholic guilt oozing out of his tortured pores. In short, dude means it.
I don't pretend to be grappling with a similar crisis of life-meaning and faith as poor young Mr. Lacey, but I'm heartened to know that he was brave enough to write it down and yell it out (the last time I tried to yell like that, I probably had to sit down for ten minutes afterwards). And if he can get through his bad patch, I can assuredly get through mine.
My Trusted MOGs
Having just gotten working again after a three month period of unemployment I feel your pain man. great song wish I'd had it on my semi fetal depressed days. oh well better late than never. you should really get a royalty you sold me a record.
My Trusted MOGs
I thought the name sounded familiar, these guys are from my hometown, in fact the guitarist is the (much) younger brother of a high school friend of mine. They seem to have grown a bit musically since I first heard them. Thanks for the track but for some odd reason I am now feeling a bit depressed.