WHO: Recently signed to Dreamworks, this emo foursome, led by acid-tongued Jesse Lacey, has springboarded from an opening slot on the last Dashboard Confessional tour into the bruised hearts of America’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 dirge of "Tautou" and the moodily anthemic MTV2 favorite "The Quiet Things No One Ever Knows." Lacey details his relationship dramas with rapier lines 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 to Glassjaw, the Movielife, and Taking Back Sunday (with whom Lacey briefly played bass), Brand New won't be shilling for the tourism board. "That whole thing has been kind of beaten to death," says drummer Brian Lane. "People are like, 'Oh, this band is from Long Island, they've probably got some potential,'" adds Lacey. "No, they don't!"

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: A few years ago, a tiff over a girl between Lacey and Taking Back Sunday guitarist John Nolan (since patched up) escalated into a lyrical rivalry, with unintentional results. "It turned into this huge, Jay-Z/Nas-type thing," Lacey recalls. "When kids found out we were touring together, they'd come because they thought we'd kick each other's asses onstage."