SOUND BITES

It's a little bewildering to me that Brand New is still commonly referred to as an emo band; while the tag can't be disputed on their early material, by the time they'd signed with a major (just over a decade ago) they were forging their own, defiant path. With 2006's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me , they created a dense and combustible soundtrack that held only faint echoes of their past; it's a darkened, haunted classic, and now sits solidly in my top five records of the century. Their fourth album (2009's Daisy ) was a victim of circumstance more than anything, bearing the unenviable burden of following up such a dizzying masterwork; its reliance on uglier, grittier tones combined with a less consistent batch of songs made it feel like a worse album than it was, and I feel like it's destined to go down in history as the band's most overlooked work. Why it has taken so long to figure out what comes next (and, if the cryptic messages are t...

7 GOOD It's better than nothing at all, but having two new songs from Brand New in as many years while we wait for the full-length follow-up to 2009's Daisy is kind of a cruel tease. That said, I Am a Nightmare takes on a completely different flavour from last year's hard and spiky Mene ; it has an almost pop-punk lean that sounds kind of like the band's early material (although sprinkled with a little Interpolesque indie spice). It sounds good, though, and feels good too. If this ends up being the only music we get from Brand New this year, I suppose it'll tide me over until that long gestating fifth LP finally sees light of day.

EXPLORING A FEW OF ROCK'S GREATEST CONSPIRACY THEORIES. In honour of the return of The X-Files (one of my all-time favourite shows, and source of the rock-referencing pic above), I figured this would be a good time to talk about a side of music that doesn't get a lot of attention but has provided plenty of intrigue among dedicated fans.  What follows is a list of some of my favourite "rock n' roll X-Files"; intentional or coincidental, these musical mysteries all lend themselves to a fair amount of credibility, but have proven impossible to outright confirm. Whether you want to believe or prefer to only deal with facts, there's no denying that these wild theories are at least a little plausible.

One of the year's most anticipated releases has to be the upcoming third album from New Yorker art-rockers Vampire Weekend. Their light, unassuming style of indie rock has endeared them to bloggers and TV ad execs alike; their sophomore album, 2010's Contra, actually debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts upon release (not a smash hit as it was released on a quiet January Tuesday, but a #1 nonetheless). Now, as we near the third album's spring release, a few buzzwords are being thrown around in relation to it. Darker. Organic. Nocturnal. Whether this bodes well for the sound of the record is to be determined, but it got me thinking. Throughout modern history, bands have often made bold moves, twists in their artistic story arc that have polarized fans, critics and label heads. For many bands, this act of commercial defiance happens at a certain specific point in their careers. The "difficult" third album.