Violent Things is the fourth studio album by the Brobecks, an American rock band formed by lead vocalist Dallon Weekes. It was independently released on May 18, 2009, and produced by Casey Crescenzo.
In contrast to the Brobecks' previous three albums, Dallon Weekes is the sole writer of Violent Things.[1] Weekes recorded the album's 15 songs over a week-and-a-half period with producer Casey Crescenzo in his home basement studio in Boston, Massachusetts. It was published without mixing or mastering due to budget constraints, leading to a retroactive dissatisfaction with the album.[2] Although the album had little success upon release, it became a trend on TikTok in the early 2020s.[3] The song "Better Than Me" received particular attention for its self-deprecating content,[4][5] amassing over 75 million streams on Spotify.[6]Violent Things is currently the only album by the Brobecks available on streaming services.[7]
In 2011, "Visitation of the Ghost" was re-recorded for a planned Brobecks EP, but this was scrapped after Weekes joined Panic! at the Disco as a bassist. It was later released as a single.[8] Re-recorded editions of "Love at First Sight" and "Second Boys Will Be First Choice" were leaked on multiple occasions under an EP titled This Is Heavy along with a demo for "Far Too Young To Die," used later on the Panic! at the Disco album Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! (which was leaked on SoundCloud prior). Weekes has stated that these were released without his consent, by a third-party, to make money off of his old songs and demos, and requested they not be streamed online.[citation needed]
After the formation of I Dont Know How But They Found Me between Weekes and Ryan Seaman, the duo initially had a short catalog of music. They chose to perform cover songs to lengthen concerts, including songs originally by the Brobecks.[9] Three of these are from Violent Things: "Visitation of the Ghost",[10] "Boring",[11] and "Clusterhug". The latter was proposed as a demo to Panic! at the Disco, but the band declined. It would eventually appear re-recorded on I Dont Know How But They Found Me's debut album, Razzmatazz (2020).[12]
