Brand New's Storm Is Coming In

On June 19th, the band Brand New announced a 20th anniversary tour for their album The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. The responses on social media were swift and severe. “If you go to this tour you should consider redecorating your house with your brain matter,” is one tweet that the algorithm has surfaced multiple times, and the general sentiment has been echoed by a few people in the Twittersphere and Reddit.

Brand New is one of my favourite bands, and for a good chunk of years, I couldn’t listen to them. They were not a band with whom I had a parasocial attachment, I know the band members’ names, but I never really read interviews or dug into their dynamics.1

This was a result of allegations that surfaced in the #MeToo era, as encouraged by a former guitar tech on Facebook.

The woman who commented about meeting him as a teenager at a show was featured in a Pitchfork piece that covered the allegations. As soon as I read about masturbatory Skype sessions, I knew it was real because I had seen those screenshots2, but I never knew about the context. There have since been attempts to debunk the specific allegations that surfaced, but I’m not really interested in nitpicking. Because the thing is: it really isn’t surprising that the frontman of a band would be picking up underage fans. It’s actually pretty damn expected, especially in that scene.

What was unexpected was Lacey addressing the matter head-on with an apology on Brand New’s official Facebook account. I can’t really think of any other bands in the scene who apologized for their behaviour and actions. While I read the statement at the time I don’t think I really absorbed it. It was a confirmation of wrongdoing, an acknowledgment of harm done, even if it also included regret and accountability. Revisiting it now, with distance, I’m kind of surprised I didn’t clock that he expressed that this was something he had been working on for years to address. That is to say: this is apparently not a case of a public figure accused of active, ongoing wrongdoing who hasn’t reckoned with it, but of someone who came to terms with having harmed others years before it was ever made public.

“Years ago, after admitting my habits and cheating to my then soon to be wife, I began to approach my problem in a serious way. I entered professional treatment, both in group therapy and individual counseling, and revealed the realities of what a terrible place I had gotten to in my life, and what a terrible impact my actions had on people.

“In sobriety I have changed my life and my mind in real and important ways. I have also revealed the truth of my behaviors to myself and to others.

“The fact remains that none of us get to put a wall up between who we are and who we were. I need to earn forgiveness. Concepts like repentance, compassion, and love, are made real through actions, and it’s through my actions that I need to prove change. I hope I can show humility, and that the pain I have caused people can heal. I am not above reproach, and no one should be.”

And when you add to that the lyrics that he had actively been writing over the years, the self-loathing, romanticized self-harm and suicidality, the darkly vindictive lyrics, the focus on death and salvation and the difficulty thereof: are we actually surprised that he was hurting women and girls? That he wasn’t being hyperbolic about what a fucked up asshole he was, but was actually telling us exactly who he was? It’s incredibly boring to realize that that’s the case, but that’s part of the disillusionment.

What hurt me, personally, was that their music gave me so much comfort and made me feel less alone. But Lacey seeking out young female fans who had the same connection to the music made me feel like I was simply a sitting duck. Someone reduced to whether she’s sexually appealing and available. It felt dehumanizing, that the music that made me feel more human than anything else I’d heard was simply dangled to ensnare vulnerable targets. Is that a pathetic overreaction? Perhaps. But that is what it felt like. And it’s a sentiment echoed from other fans who’ve been disillusioned.

After the allegations surfaced, Brand New’s farewell tour was cancelled and their planned disbandment was moved up a few months. They retreated, and this retreat felt important. There was no public apology tour and public rehabilitation attempt. This absence and silence is what allowed me to eventually revisit their music, and to do so with eyes-open, absorbing it at face value.

And it’s still affecting, raw, emotionally resonant and amazing.

In a way, I appreciate that I can listen to this music and realize that my self-loathing really wasn’t similar to that he sang about. This is probably also a facet of growing up. As much as I enjoyed screaming along to Seventy Times 7, there wasn’t actually anyone I felt so much disdain for that I’d hope they drive drunk on icy roads and forget their seatbelt. When Lacey screamed about fearing judgment, it wasn’t about snapping at your mom and forgetting to do chores. When he sang about a mother trying not to see their child as their worst mistake, it probably wasn’t because the child in question took an extra year to graduate and didn’t know what to do with their life. These sentiments are still relatable, but it hits differently.

Even still, Lacey resurfacing in the public eye grated on me when I heard about it. He first made his way back to the stage in 2024 for a charity concert, and the charity shows continued, with the whole band eventually. Last year, they went on a month long US tour, with a ten day UK leg.

They had been gearing up to returning to the public eye, and that chafed. The reason I had found my way back to them was because they had receded. My hackles were up because I feared a rehabilitative publicity blitz. A return felt inappropriate, too soon, and unearned.

That is, until I learned that Lacey’s son passed in 2022. At a one of the charity gigs he performed at in March, 2025, he addressed his son’s death publicly for the first time and credited him with driving him back to the stage:

“Grief is a very hard thing to navigate, and I have found that for me, music lessens the poison of it. And I have found that being with people… Grief’s like this thing, this super, super heavy weight you carry on your back all the time. When I’m with people, when they can listen to the story of what my family has gone through, it’s kind of like they take some of the weight for you for a little while and they carry it with you. I feel like music has done that for me as well. I just wanted to extend my gratitude to you because I feel that tonight. I hope that me being up here helps you carry some of it, and thank you for helping me carry some of it.”

It’s a realization that gave me pause. And while I couldn’t absorb Lacey’s original statement at the time, it now reads as someone who was in recovery doing what he could to take accountability publicly. It’s more than most people who have been accused of misconduct have done.

I don’t blame those who don’t take his statement at face value, those who still are nauseated at the thought of their music, their fandom memories tainted. I have no idea how Lacey feels about it, but he did say he was not above reproach, and I have no interest in shielding him from it. While my own relationship with the band’s music remains strong, I’m also hyper-aware that I do not know Lacey or the other band members. I don’t know how I feel about seeing them live, but as long as those who do don’t deny the harm that was done, I don’t feel right about judging them for it.