... The latest band to emerge as part of this scene are New York's the Bravery, consisting of Sam Endicott (vocals/guitar), Michael Zakarin (guitar), Mike H. (bass), John Conway (keyboards) and Anthony Burulcich (drums) This is their self-titled debut release. It's not very good.
Oh, there's ... Read review
The Bravery - The Bravery
Like their fellow New Yorkers The Strokes, The Bravery recycle the music of their youth ... more
and add a modern sensibility (as well as a pin-up swagger). But whereas The Strokes focussed on the guitar-rock of the Velvet Underground and Television, The Braver...
The Bravery - The Bravery
Like their fellow New Yorkers The Strokes, The Bravery recycle the music of their youth ... more
and add a modern sensibility (as well as a pin-up swagger). But whereas The Strokes focussed on the guitar-rock of the Velvet Underground and Television, The Braver...
favourite film, film star, music icon or celebrity. High quality photography that you can be proud to display in your home cinema/theatre, living room on your o...
There appears at the moment a move towards the revival of the new romantic era (yikes) with an extra bit of rock 'n' roll swagger (phew), with lush keyboard melodies beefed up with frantic guitars. Duran Duran have never been so cool. The latest band to emerge as part of this scene are New York's the Bravery, consisting of Sam Endicott (vocals/guitar), Michael Zakarin (guitar), Mike H. (bass), John Conway (keyboards) and Anthony Burulcich (drums) This is their self-titled debut release. It's not very good.
Oh, there's a decent tune or two on this album. But over-riding this is the fact that it's all just so calculated, so studied and therefore so lacking in any kind of passion and integrity that this makes this album quite a dispiriting listen. The Bravery are simply a Xerox copy of bands that have come before them, borrowing quite liberally (and unashamedly) from other 'now' bands of the moment, such as the Strokes, Hot Hot Heat, Fischerspooner and more. It is taking a certain template (and a successful template at that) and photocopying it ad infinitum until there exists very little originality. But the biggest band that the Bravery have hijacked are the Killers, a rather smart and savvy band who are the current darlings of the music media.
The Bravery are the Killers, but a Killers devoid of wit, charm and sophistication. Yes, they've got the up-to-the-minute clothing and the eyeliner, but they haven't got the special 'x factor' which makes the Killers a rather important band, and makes the Bravery a bunch of dim-witted no-hopers who will be forgotten about by the end of 2005. Love or hate the Killer (and I love 'em), you cannot deny their ability to write a decent chorus or two. The Bravery can't do this. The choruses on this album are remarkably dull and completely unmemorable. It's as though the Bravery have approached being in a band from a marketing point of view, looking at the aesthetic before the musical, as if they had decked themselves out in their latest charity shop finest before sitting down to write a decent tune or two. For the Bravery, artifice is everything and unfortunately, when you scratch the surface, there's very little substance.
'No Brakes' is an effective demonstration that this is a band with no artistic roots of their own, everything they possess, from the tunes to the lyrics to the brand of clothing they wear has been borrowed from somebody else. 'No Brakes' could be anything by any number of bands at the moment: bands who did this kind of thing first, bands who did this kind of thing better. Lead single 'An Honest Mistake' goes one step further, taking Duran Duran's classic 'Planet Earth' and, um, not doing very much with it. It has exactly the same tune, beat and structure, only the words are different (unfortunately, the Bravery demonstrate that they cannot even better the awful lyrics of Simon Le Bon). If I were Le Bon, Nick Rhodes or one of the unrelated Taylors I would be consulting my lawyers. But, then again, Duran Duran are probably loving the fact that somebody, somewhere actually thinks they are worth something more than pop fluff and use them as a reference point. The song is just about the only moment on the album where you feel that the band are actually putting some effort in, and consequently it is the sole highlight, leaving no surprises as to why it was chosen as the lead single.
The album has been designed with a specific audience in mind: the wannabe's and tryhard's who fall for this kind of 'this band will change your life', 'most important band of the year' nonsense peddled by the music press, a pulpit in which the NME is the usual preacher. It's for people who want to be hipsters, who are convinced they are hipsters but sadly aren't. These aren't wannabe's but more like never-will-be's. We should pity such people instead of mocking them, for they know not what they do; to mock such a tragic species of record buyer would be like pulling the legs of a bird that has hurt its wings. Let them pump 'Honest Mistake' from their stereo, thinking that they are the coolest creatures to tread this beautiful planet, because soon enough they'll find another 'now' band to follow.
Lyrically, the band aren't up to scratch as awful couplets like "I wonder why I never wonder why/The easiest things are so hard" ('Unconditional') prove. 'Tyrant' further proves this thesis, the song serving as an ultra-lame quasi-political statement. It makes a change from the usual reliance on sex, drugs and debauchery, but it is handled so poorly you wonder why they bothered. 'Swollen Summer' has a wonderful title but fails to live up to this early promise (the early promise, that is, of seeing the track listing on the CD cover). The song has good, frenetic guitars but, crucially, it lacks a decent melody upon which the song can be built. This is true of the vast majority of songs here, songs that have had any life battered out of them in the attempt to box them into a certain formula.
The vast majority of the songs here are forgettable in the extreme. Dull, anodyne songs with no distinction between one song and the next. If they were ice cream flavours they would be paler than vanilla. It's such a turgid exercise in mediocrity that you wonder if the band can actually be bothered to drag themselves away from the sex and drugs that they are enjoying to indulge in some actual rock 'n' roll and write a tune or two worth listening to. It's background music of the worst possible kind, modern day muzak with no chutzpah, rock 'n' roll minus the rock and the roll, a weak, flimsy record with no testosterone.
The discovery that Sam Endicott once sported dreadlocks and was in a ska band by the name of (get this) Skabba The Hut (stop giggling) effectively proves that this is a band with very little artistic integrity, the Bravery are true bandwagon-hoppers (though we can forgive Endicott somewhat for the comedic value of the band name, possibly the worst name for any band ever). Endicott is a singer who is completely free of charisma, unable to inject even the slightest hint of passion into the material he is singing, so no matter how good the tune might be, this vague, uninteresting vocal is off-putting. It is such an obvious rip-off of the halfway meeting point between Phil Oakey of the Human League and Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, but devoid of the charm and wit of either. Endicott also sounds so miserable, when the debauched lifestyle led by the band (which they openly boast about) leads you to believe that this is certainly not the case, a quite insincere lyricism which makes you wonder what on earth he is moaning about.
Bandwagon jumpers in the worst possible sense, the Bravery should be given a wide berth. The band have acted like thieves in the night to jump onto the current vogue. It's not a new thing, it has been going for years. When clapped-out old drab-rockers the Stranglers saw the way the tide was moving, they suddenly became a punk band (and while it got them the necessary exposure, it didn't actually make them any good). When new wave came along, suddenly the Knack (those 'My Sharona' guys) came along and jumped upon the bandwagon. The Bravery are the latest in a long, long line of bandwagon jumpers and this should be kept in mind.
When the collective erection that the music press is sporting for this oh-so-fashionable band subsides, a balanced and objective look at this 'album of the moment' will reveal it to be shallow, insubstantial, false and, quite simply, crap. Ignore this band, and hopefully they will go away.
'The Bravery' is available from Amazon.co.uk for £8.99. Buy it at your peril.
Advantages: Electro-pop brilliance, some real anthems including 'Honest Mistake' and 'Unconditional' , the first half of the album Disadvantages: The Killers vs The Bravery feud, the last half of the album
The bravery are one of the many bands circulating the narrow minded writers of NME and Radio 1 DJ's. The bravery were mostly a newbie band lurking in the back of my mind stuck in the cobwebs perhaps that's where I should have left them although the opening track of this song made me change my mind slightly. Until some one of my mates at Uni. put 'An honest mistake' on the halls bar jukebox one night together with New Orders 'Blue Monday' anthem was ... ...begin with and it later transpired that the opening drum beat from New Order had been ripped off and stuck onto a Bravery song. Although slightly fuming I gave the song a chance and boy I was glad I did 'An honest mistake' is seriously addictive, everytime I entered the bar I slapped it onto the jukebox. Ironic how at the same time I was really getting into New Order and Joy Division perhaps this band played a minor role in that craze.
The year ...
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Advantages: Absolute ear candy Disadvantages: VERY unoriginal!
...and take notice of The Bravery, an aching rocker about loneliness. It seems like Sam Endicott is a fan of Bono, and you can tell by the way he wrings every last drop of emotion out of his vocal chords, like his idol. Endicott's understated lyric of wanting 'something for nothing' hints at a great songwriter lurking below the tongue-in-cheek cock-rock exterior. Opening with beautiful twinkling keys and a bassline that sounds like a motorbike being ... ...verses, before a fury of drums and guitar duke it out on the bridge, before an epic chorus, led by that gorgeous keyboard melody. A masterfully constructed synth-pop song.
"I'm a beggar and a chooser, I'm accused and accuser, but nothing's unconditional"
10) 'The Ring Song'
Not the best follow-on from the brilliance of its predecessor, this nevertheless has its own charms. It's a welcome change of pace from the high-paced syth-pop explosions of ...
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Advantages: The fresh, deep sound of the guitars and synthesizers Disadvantages: Maybe for some it brings back those 80's hair nightmares?
...filler. THE BRAVERY by, The Bravery, is one of these.
I decided to buy this album, more or less, on the basis of a single song - HONEST MISTAKE. First released I think, around February/March 2005, it was definitely the best song I'd heard so far that year. The tune, combined with the raw sound of the guitars made it powerful and distinctive. It was certainly different to much of the 'indie' genre I normally listen to.
I'll come back to that guitar ... ...unique tones of the different guitars break in at just the right moment, always adding something to the whole piece. The chord changes are perfect and it all rolls together into one beautiful track. If I had to describe the sound, it's almost like the raw grating of metal in an echoing warehouse, only orchestrated perfectly.
This track alone is certainly worth hearing, even if you don't like average 'indie'.
The third track, FEARLESS, is the only ...
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Advantages: Excellent work by lead singer Sam Endicott and Synthing by John Conway Disadvantages: Only 11 songs on the album
I first heard of the Bravery when watching the Friday Night Project a while back. Not the best of programs to appear on really didn't really like it myself. The one good thing to come out of watching that program though was that I heard about The Bravery. The Bravery made a name for themselves playing the small clubs around NYC. The songwriter Sam Endicott teamed up with John Conway who synthed up the songs that Sam had written. Slowly a band was ... ...wrote the songs before he met up with the rest of the group.
You really can see that Sam is enjoying himself during performances and, with his striking hair, he is the image most people have of the band. John has done some excellent work to match up the synth to Sam's voice.
There are some great tunes on the album that I really enjoy. One of these is the song that I first heard, "An Honest Mistake." It kicks off with a great pumping line on the ...
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Advantages: A very Eighties feel with some rock thrown in, excellent musicianship,a refreshing change, Disadvantages: The cover, the inside pics but they can be forgiven
Well I first learned of "The Bravery" when I checked out a copy of "Rip and Burn" at Asda one early morning and thought "are these guys for real?" or words to that effect. I thought it was an initial Ramones meets A Flock of Seagulls with Oasis and The Clash thrown in. As usual I dismissed The Bravery out of hand-without a second thought.
Now the saying goes-"Don't judge a book by it's cover".
And a modification should be "Don't judge a band by ... ...on Radio 1 "Fearless", I was forced to re-evaluate my hasty decision and charged out to HMV
and paid £9.99 for the album as I was on my dinner break and couldn't wait to listen it.
Well the Bravery are a New York based band who have a very Eighties style to them with some rock thrown in-so possibly a new catergory of music has come about called "Electro-Rock"
This is a band at the beginning of their career and I haven't been so excited with what ...
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...So Indie Britain (perhaps even Mainstream Britain) are in the midst of a love affair with Mr Flowers et al. And Casablancas and co. are back in the studio and only (reportedly) five weeks away from completing their much anticipated third album. So how dare these quiffed, kohl-eyed upstarts charge in and upset the momentum!
But, that's The Bravery all over. Bigged-up by the music press and hailed as the new Indie darlings in late 2004, The Bravery have stormed into Britain claiming every bit of the hype surrounding them is true! And if you choose to disagree, they'll see you outside, round the back, sharpish!
A classic case of 'all mouth, no trousers' then?
While this eponymous debut is never going to be hailed as one of rocks' finest first offerings, it certainly gives the current competition a run for its money. Let's be clear...
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Advantages: If you like the Killers you'll like this Disadvantages: If you dont like the Killers you wont lol!
...The Bravery are being heralded as the next big thing. They are also being heralded as The Killers Mark II so do they offer anything different?
From the opener (current single) ?An Honest Mistake? you get the electro pulses that Suede or Blondie would be proud of. I love this song. Yes ok so it?s very Killers but they in themselves are genius. I really go like the mix of electro synths and vocals with rock/indie guitars and beats. Blondie should do this sorta stuff on their next album. This song is apparently about post 9/11 the bands lead singers bird cheating on him thinking the world was gonna end? hmmmm ok! Good tune though!
More indie sounding ?No Brakes? has a U2 and Red Hot Chilli Peppers feel. Its retro in the simple 60?s beat that runs through through the whole song! This song lacks electro of before but makes up for it in...
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Advantages: Catchy, upbeat, semi-nostalgic. Disadvantages: Some tracks are a little dull.
...The Bravery's debut is reminiscent of the 80's, and has a strong opening track, the first single 'Honest Mistake'. This sets a benchmark for the band to live up to, in order to avoid the one-hit-wonder label. I liked this song as it is a whirlwind of sounds, but due to my own personal cynicism about the music industry, I was prepared to sit back and wait for a follow-up to see if this band had credibility. However, a friend of mine purchased the CD, and took to it like a cat to milk, lapping it up greedily, and enthusing about it day in, day out for at least a week. After the initial gushing, she eagerly passed it on to me, convinced that I would react in the same way.
When I got round to hearing the songs, I noticed how up-beat and poppy they were, and saw shades of The Cure and The Smiths in the lyrics and song style, whilst...
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Album Notes: Debut album features the bonus track "Hot Pursuit." There's a long history of American bands hitting it big in the UK before they become known at home, so the Brooklyn-bred, NME-feted Bravery is part of a hallowed tradition. While the Bravery is solidly in the mold of mid-2000s groups worshipping at the altar of the 1980s, they manage a canny syncretism on their self-titled debut album. While the Rapture, Out Hud, Interpol, and other NYC brethren may have picked up on specific aspects of the Cure, New Order, et al, the Bravery manages to craft an all-inclusive sound that incorporates the most infectious aspects of the aforementioned influences and more. Bleeping Depeche Mode synths, twanging New Order basslines, Robert Smith-inflected vocals, Duran Duran-tinged dance-rock beats, and effects-laden Echo & the Bunnymen-via-Smiths guitar riffs all vie for space here. The Bravery boys are clearly frothing with enthusiasm for the glorious era they're too young to really remember, and their passion for the sound of those halcyon days of eyeliner and synthesizers is bursting from the seams of this disc.
Album Reviews: Rolling Stone (p.70) - 3 stars out of 5 - "The Bravery do a jockier version of the New Wave competition, pumping the drums in straight-ahead tunes..." Mojo (p.94) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]his is a swaggering, unashamedly fun pop record that should fast-track The Bravery to radio ubiquity." Uncut (p.115) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[T]hey make a gritty New Wave noise that is a suspiciously precise fusion of Duran Duran and The Strokes....This album really is just too good to be true."
Titles on disc 1
1.: Honest Mistake
2.: No Brakes
3.: Fearless
4.: Tyrant
5.: Give In
6.: Swollen Summer
7.: Public Service Announcement
8.: Out Of Line
9.: Unconditional
10.: Ring Song
11.: Rites Of Spring
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