Accardi's role as a lyricist increased on the band's fourth album Daisy (2009), which debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and featured a more post-hardcore and noise rock sound.

In the late 1990s, Jesse Lacey, Garrett Tierney and Brian Lane were all members of the Levittown, New York post-hardcore band the Rookie Lot, along with Brandon Reilly and Alex Dunne of Crime in Stereo.

[7] All four members had backgrounds linking into their local Long Island independent and hardcore music scenes, but with influences ranging from Buddy Rich to Archers of Loaf.

In response, Lacey immediately wrote "Last Chance to Lose Your Keys" at the label office to serve as their single, but Warner Bros. declined to make an offer and Brand New ended up with Triple Crown instead.

[19] Brand New released the first song about the incident in 2001, "Seventy Times 7", named after the number of sins Jesus said one should be forgiven for, where Lacey wished death upon Nolan.

[21] Taking Back Sunday responded on 2002's "There's No 'I' in Team", where Nolan and frontman Adam Lazzara alternate vocals and directly quote lyrics from "Seventy Times 7".

[21] Brand New then released a shirt reading "Because mics are for singing, not swinging", insulting Lazzara's signature stage antics which once injured their bassist to the point of needing stitches.

Taking Back Sunday guitarist Eddie Reyes told The New Yorker in 2004 that he was dissatisfied with his band being considered second-place to Brand New in the Long Island rock scene.

According to drummer Brian Lane, "Jesse [Lacey] wrote a lot of the lyrics about different things than 'I just broke up with my girlfriend' for the new record,"[25] on an acoustic guitar in his bedroom.

[20] Before the album was even released, the band sold out three shows of a 24-date US headlining tour with Moneen, Senses Fail, and The Beautiful Mistake solely off word-of-mouth and Internet message board hype.

However, Lacey did not believe Rickly, as he noted how the label had told Thursday to rewrite their album War All the Time in order to placate the executives and did not want that happening to Brand New as well.

Vagrant Records made a hard push, but Brand New wanted total creative control in order to distance themselves from the emo scene following the success of Deja Entendu.

[10] In 2004, Jesse Lacey told Chart magazine that he had written a "few songs" for the next album, commenting that "the other guys love it already", and acknowledged suffering from depression because of the pressure to deliver on the anticipation surrounding the band.

In a BBC Radio 1 interview with Zane Lowe, Lacey explained that the album's title came from a conversation he had with a friend about the musician Daniel Johnston, who suffered from bipolar disorder.

[45][46]In late December 2006, a music video was released for the instrumental track "Untitled", also known as "-", which consists of a man spray-painting the phrase "evil and good are raging inside me" onto a wall before correcting it to read the album title.

[65] Brand New performed at the Glastonbury Festival on June 28, 2009, debuting two new songs tentatively titled "Bride" and "Gasoline" and delaying the release of their album to October.

[73] Brand New announced a North American tour to promote Daisy, with opening acts including Coheed and Cambria, Manchester Orchestra, Thrice and Glassjaw.

[74] The band played its largest UK concert yet on January 23, 2010, headlining London's Wembley Arena in front of 12,500 people supported by Glassjaw and Thrice.

[77] Drummer Brian Lane said in early 2010 that with the rise of digital music releases, the band could put out a new song on a weekly or monthly basis instead of via full albums.

[78] On April 28, 2010, Brand New announced at their show in Clifton Park, New York that the band had parted ways with Interscope Records and was independent for the first time in their career.

[81][82] In June 2013, the band cancelled their upcoming European summer tour, including a main stage performance slot at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, due to "insurmountable personal issues".

[98][99] In June 2016, Brand New began a co-headlining United States tour with Modest Mouse, which included a stop at New York City's iconic Madison Square Garden.

[120][121][122] Aside from a few meetings at guitarist Accardi's Joshua Tree home and at a Texas studio, they have remained publicly inactive since November 2017, neither confirming nor denying the break-up of the band.

On December 31, 2018, a track rumored to be titled "Simple Man", alleged to have been made prior to The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, was leaked onto the internet.

"[141] Lacey criticized mainstream pop punk in a 2003 Rolling Stone interview, referring to it as music "about how we've been wronged and got our hearts broken and nobody understands," and said that Brand New would be following in Radiohead's footsteps rather than Good Charlotte's.

[145] During the Daisy era, Lacey was influenced by Polvo, Archers of Loaf, Fugazi and Modest Mouse,[146] Accardi cited Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots[147] while Tierney's bass playing emulated Hüsker Dü and The Jesus Lizard.

[149] Alternative Press recalled watching Brand New guitarist Vin Accardi play Modest Mouse's "3rd Planet" prior to a show in August 2001, before the band even released their debut album.

"[150] Lacey has publicly expressed his fandom for artists that did not directly influence Brand New's sound, such as Radiohead, Björk, Bloc Party, Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky and Mew.

[156][157] Stereogum noted in 2015 how the indie rock community began to critically reappraise Brand New by detaching their image from the emo and pop punk scenes that they were "shepherded and pigeonholed into" as a result of their debut album.

[158] Steven Hyden praised the band's unique evolution from the "conventional pop-punk" of Your Favorite Weapon to the "emo Abbey Road" of Science Fiction.