Brennan McFarley is a Motern Media No-Jokes band featuring Doug “Froggy” Brennan and Matt Farley.
They have released three EPs and one single, starting with Wednesday Night Chronicles in 2019. Both Brennan and Farley share songwriting and composition responsibilities.
History
Brennan and Farley had performed together in several projects since their friendship began in childhood, including Projection From The Side with Chris “Pete” Peterson. In 2017, the two of them along with Peterson and Tom Scalzo (of Moes Haven, etc.) had formed The Big Heist, and put out a three-volume work called MO75.
In the summer of 2019, Brennan was ready to record a new album with The Big Heist, but Peterson and Scalzo were not. Farley was preparing to go back to writing novelty songs, an effort which was making him a good amount of money at this point in his career.
However, not wanting to turn down an opportunity to record music, Farley decided to work with Brennan and create a new songwriting partnership, Brennan McFarley. They originally wanted to call themselves “Brennan/McFarley” with the slash in between the last names, in honor of the famous songwriting duo Lennon/McCartney. However, streaming services disallowed them from doing so. Apparently, Farley also chose the moniker “McFarley” as a nod to Brennan’s grandmother who would call him that.
Wednesday Night Chronicles (2019)
Songs for Brennan McFarley’s first record stemmed from ideas that Brennan had for the next album by The Big Heist, which was to be called Tightrope. Farley also sent thirteen music recordings to Brennan, which he had intended to use for Tightrope as well. Brennan picked four of Farley’s recordings to which he added drums and guitars, then sent Farley two of his own recordings for Farley to add his contributions.
The six completed tracks became Wednesday Night Chronicles, the first EP from Brennan McFarley, which they released on September 2, 2019. The duo decided not to push themselves to record a full album, settling instead with enough songs to fill one side of an album. They intended on calling it Side One, and planned to record and release Side Two later. However, streaming rules once again prevented them from using “Side One” or “Side Two” as record names.
While there is no major theme to the record, Wednesday Night Chronicles forms the second part of the three-part Ancient Forces Trilogy, in between Matt Motern Manly Man’s I Forgot What I Was Gonna Say and Caniko Tucci’s These Are The Forces.
After releasing Wednesday Night Chronicles, Farley continued to work on other No-Jokes projects and novelty songs, and Brennan returned to his daily life for a bit. The two would join back up with Peterson and Scalzo in January 2020 to record Tightrope, the second album by The Big Heist, which came out that April
The Beyond (2020) and “Evil Jalvis” (2021)
After Tightrope, Farley realized he had several leftover recordings from those sessions. Not wanting to leave anything unfinished, Farley left the demos alone for several months while working on novelty songs. (The release of Tightrope also coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, making recording with other band members difficult.)
Eventually, Farley and Brennan were both able to record together, and they used the existing Tightrope demos for inspiration for their next album. Around this time, Farley and Motern Media filmmaking partner Charlie Roxburgh were working on new ideas for movies, and Roxburgh brought up his theory that every town has an evil spot and a magic spot. Farley would take inspiration from this concept to write the lyrics for The Beyond, which came out on September 27, 2020. The concept would also go on to inspire several Motern Media films, including Magic Spot, Evil Puddle, and the upcoming Evil Spot.
Brennan McFarley would release the single “Evil Jalvis” on February 28, 2021 without much announcement. On February 24, 2021, Brennan tweeted “Evil Jalvis.” On March 1, 2021, Farley tweeted the same message along with the single cover. Despite the lack of fanfare for the song, it seemed to resonate with fans.
After The Beyond and “Evil Jalvis”, Brennan and Farley worked mostly with the other members of The Big Heist on what would become The Fifty, a collection of five albums which were released between May and June of 2023. Throughout 2024, the duo was mostly dormant.
February Files (2025)
In November 2024, Brennan visited Farley in Massachusetts, and they recorded a series of tracks for Farley’s project of putting out one release per month. Four of those tracks appeared on the duo’s eventual third album, February Files, which Farley released on February 9, 2025. Brennan and Farley would write the other three tracks for the album right before release, using the Internet to send files back and forth to each other.
Brennan’s son Aidan also contributed to the record on the track “Brennan’s Mood”. Peterson contributed lyrics to “Fearless Girl”, and Scalzo wrote lyrics for “Time To” and “Sweet Genevieve”. Chris Sleison provided lyrics to “Standing There”.
Future
Farley announced on Twitter that he would not be releasing any more No-Jokes songs in June 2026. Therefore, while not impossible, a new record from Brennan McFarley is highly unlikely.
Discography
| Year | # | Album | Tracks/Run Time | Release Date |
| 2019 | 1 | Wednesday Night Chronicles | 6 (21:27) | September 2, 2019 |
| 2020 | 2 | The Beyond | 8 (27:15) | September 27, 2020 |
| 2021 | “Evil Jalvis” (single) | 1 (3:11) | February 28, 2021 | |
| 2025 | 3 | February Files | 8 (18:22) | February 9, 2025 |