Titus Andronicus

MONDAY NIGHT!! OWS BENEFIT @ SHEA STADIUM!! TED LEO/RX! TITUS! SO SO GLOS!

2011-11-20T13:39:00.001-08:00

BECAUSE we are now at war
BECAUSE our dear Mother Earth herself screams out for justice
BECAUSE our beautiful Declaration of Independence and our sacred Constitution have been dragged through the dirt by those sworn to protect them
BECAUSE we can no longer depend upon the authorities to defend our basic human rights
BECAUSE they worship a god of greed who feeds the rich while poor people starve
BECAUSE the most devastating blow to the cause of freedom and liberty in New York City since September 11 has been dealt from within
BECAUSE the Earth is a common treasury for all
BECAUSE in the America promised to us by our founding fathers, everyone gets a fair shake
BECAUSE in the America we were promised, there is no limit to how high you can rise with hard work, discipline, and ingenuity
BECAUSE with that freedom comes great responsibility
BECAUSE the freedoms that we wish for ourselves must be shared by all if they are to be enjoyed by any
BECAUSE until the table is large enough to seat us all, we shall all starve
BECAUSE that promised America can, and must, be made real, by whatever means necessary
BECAUSE no one person can do it all, but because every person must be called upon to do all that which they can, with the strength, resources, and tools they have, however great or small

MONDAY NIGHT
NOVEMBER 21st
SHEA STADIUM
20 MEADOW STREET, BROOKLYN NY
8:00 PM

TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS (NJ)
TITUS ANDRONICUS (NJ)
THE SO SO GLOS (BK)

FIFTEEN DOLLARS
BUY TICKETS AT MAIN DRAG BUSHWICK SUPPLY ANNEX
268 MESEROLE ST, BROOKLYN
BEGINNING AT NOON, MONDAY

TICKET SALES WILL BE CAPPED AT 200
THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS AT THE DOOR
I REPEAT, ABSOLUTELY NO TICKETS AT THE DOOR

ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT
THE NATIONAL LAWYER'S GUILD
http://www.nlg.org/occupy/

ALL AGES
ALL RACES
ALL CREEDS
ALL CLASSES
ALL SEXUALITIES

FAQ:

"How are you going to act like you are all righteous? All yr doing is what yr managers and booking agents tell you to do!"

Actually, no. I just got out my cell piece, buzzed my man Ted Leo, told him that war had broken out, heard him say that he saw it also, pooled the strength and enthusiasm of Titus with that of him and his Pharmacists, quickly came upon an agreed course of action, and that was it. No managers, no booking agents, no handlers, no advisers, no publicists, no nothing. Just some Jersey boys seeing that the world is fucked up and pledging to devote whatever meager strength and energy we may have to its correction, as is the charge of every person who has enjoyed the birth right which is our beautiful Earth.

"How can you have this show at Shea Stadium? This bill could fill a bigger place. Why are you denying people who would want to see you play, or, for that matter, turning away more money?"

Because real, sustainable change will only ever begin at home, amongst communities of people who know each other, who trust each other, and who love each other. I like the people who keep, say, the Music Hall of Williamsburg open for business - I like them very much - but I do not love them. They are friends, for sure, but real change must be made with family.

Furthermore, a solitary evening at Shea Stadium demands administrative costs of zero dollars. If there was any other place in town that could maybe make a promise like that, that would be one thing, but I somehow guess that, because they are legitimate businesses (and I respect capitalism in the context of local business), there would have to be some kind of overhead. Because the times are so dire and the urgency of the situation so serious, to allow even one dollar to get mislaid is poison to our hearts.

Besides that, Shea Stadium is, bar none, the best venue in New York. It has all the charms and righteous virtues of the DIY scene and the technology to compete with any place in town sonically. Done.

"Why are you giving yr money to the National Lawyer's Guild? Aren't they all working pro bono anyway?"

Well, yeah, but the fact of the matter is that human rights need to be defended by someone, and it has become excruciatingly clear that the NYPD lacks both the ability and the wherewithal to even attempt to do so. If the police will not defend our rights, we will find someone else who will. These lawyers have been massively generous, and we will look forward to putting three thousand dollars into their pockets, so that they may eat, be sheltered, be clothed, and so forth, while they are putting aside their own capitalist dreams for a cause bigger than themselves. We should all be so brave and so generous as these lawyers.

Also, my father was a lawyer for many years, a corporate lawyer, and it was this work that paid for the many privileges I enjoyed as a youth (most relevantly, the privilege to devote much of my mental faculties to my own development as a musician, rather than say, the toilet scrubbing I may have had to do to keep myself alive had I been born to different circumstances). Basically, no lawyers, no Titus. Admittedly, much of my father's work involved moving money around from one massive corporation to another, but he is a truly righteous man, and has since left the law to work as Principal of the economically depressed catholic high school from whence he graduated way back in 1966. I might not think all that much of money changing for my personal tastes, and it is near certain that I will never pursue a career in any field of law, but I kiss my father's feet for the way he busted his ass to make a better life for me. He grew up poor, but he grew up in an America where a man like him, born into poverty, but hard-working, smart, determined, could rise up as high as he wanted, and build a better life for his children. He fought and clawed his way out of Roselle Park, NJ, to the ivy-covered walls of Princeton, to Columbia,
through decades of unending exertion, grunted and sweated through the ranks of school administrators, through another degree (this time law, at Rutgers), up through the ranks of two law firms, all the way to two senior partnerships, and all the way to a life where his son could be given every advantage his own father never could have given him. This was the America my father made himself in. This was the promise that brought my Irish ancestors to America, and this is a promise that I WILL make to my own children, because I REFUSE to let it die, or should I say, to stand idly by and watch it as it is murdered.

"Are you pumped to be playing with Ted Leo/Pharmacists? What about So So Glos?"

FUCK yeah. They're the two most righteous punk bands I know! Besides Bomb the Music Industry, of course. Shouts out to those guys.

ALL RIGHT, WELL, THAT'S IT
SEE YOU TOMORROW
DESTROY POWER
NOT PEOPLE

Yr brother,
Patrick

Amy's Greatest Hits

2011-10-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of Amy's recent graduation, let us talk a quick look back at some of her most sterling contributions to the life of Titus Andronicus.

Firstly, here is a world premiere music video for the song which shall tragically stand as the totality of Amy's contribution to the Titus Andronicus canon of recordings as guitarist and vocalist. It isn't even our song! It is Nirvana's "Breed," recorded at the request of Spin magazine for their 20th anniversary celebration of Nevermind. In this video, you'll also get to see Amy's talent as an extra, in her scene-stealing performance as "The Ghost."

In our live set, Amy would occasionally sing the lead vocal on a cover song when the feminist content of the lyrics would suggest a woman's touch to be prudent. Here we are playing "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" by X-Ray Spex at the Black Cat in Washington, DC this past April.

This video, filmed in Chicago in the summer of 2010, should do much to display Amy's skills on both the guitar and violin. Playing the harmonized guitar solo at the end was always a favorite of mine during our time together. The song is "The Battle of Hampton Roads."

Titus Andronicus | FOR NO ONE from FOR NO ONE on Vimeo.

Something a lot of people don't realize is, while Amy did not play on the Monitor, she did play on The Airing of Grievances, contributing her distinctive electric violin to two tracks. Sounds like a good enough reason to reinvest in the video for "Upon Viewing Brueghel's 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,'" and keep an ear cocked for that high and lonesome fiddle.

As I said yesterday, when there was business to be done, Amy would let nothing stand in the way of her smacking it down. Watch the music video below and marvel at Amy performing through a recently-sustained concussion. The song is "No Future Part Three."

I wanted to embed a video from Amy's second show (and David's, for that matter), an office party at Pitchfork headquarters in Brooklyn in February 2010, but the embed code is sassing me and I don't really know anything about HTML, so here is a link. The song is "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ."

Lastly, it's another world premier. Earlier this year, when we toured as the opening act for Okkervil River, Amy would sometimes join the bosses on stage to play her fiddle on their song, "The Valley" (funny, isn't it, that Amy has a song of her own with that same name?) Her is that very thing going down on the last night of the tour, at Jake's in Lubbock, TX.

Yeah, we really did have some good times. Obviously, I could go on and on, but now is the time to look into the future! For punks, the past is prologue, and I am already late for the first practice of Titus Andronicus 6.0. Let's get it!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Still yet another fond farwell

2011-10-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

As many of you may have already heard, Amy Klein is no longer a member of Titus Andronicus. Shocking, I know, but true. Even I can barely comprehend it; she has become that vital a part of the band's very identity. Strange, and sad, to think that never more may we warm ourselves by the fire of her endless enthusiasm, or that she takes with her the dream of a Titus Andronicus album complete with her certain kind of magic. Anyone who has seen her on stage can speak to this intensity, the passion for rock and roll, as those who have met her know she has for life, that has inspired many of us, within the band organization and without. Yet, with this admiration must come respect, and it is dutiful respect that we will show to her decision to leave Titus Andronicus behind to devote her considerable energies to her ever-growing list of projects and passions.

Why was Amy compelled to make this decision? Probably best to let her tell you herself, via her Tumblr, which would probably be a good place to keep up on her various doings in the future. To be frank, knowing what I do about her prose style, I was expecting 4 or 5000 words more on the topic, but there you have it. Brevity is the soul of wit after all, I suppose, not that I'll let that stop me when my turn comes.

I've noticed a lot on the internet lately that when people allude to other blogs and such, they often quote a piece of the text. I'll try that here.

I just got back from my last tour with the band Titus Andronicus. Yes, it’s true. As of today, I am no longer a member of the band.
No, there was no big fight or anything—no wild partying, drug, or alcohol addiction leading to me getting fired—no dramatic story—nothing like that. It is just time for me to move on.
read more

For my part, and as a representative of the organization, I more than reciprocate Amy's feelings of gratitude. Having her in the band has been an enormous blessing, as she is a rare and visceral talent. Onstage, she can rock more thoroughly and with less fear than most anyone I can name, and to stand next to her night after night and try to not be totally swallowed up by her light has been one of the greatest challenges, and privileges, of my career. Many was the time when I wondered at a transformation the likes of which an indie rocker's eyes had rarely seen, when Amy, sick and weary from life on the road and ready to crawl off into some hole and die (as any sensible person would be), would plug in her guitar and reach inside herself and always find the strength to deliver the goods; if there was an audience, any audience, she would never fail to give them everything that she had, and I mean never. Her contributions as a musician, whether playing guitar or violin or singing, were exemplary, and her value as a friend was greater than gold (amidst many changes, the latter remains true). We wish her the fullest success on all of her future endeavors, though she needs no one's well wishing; such is the strength of her talent and her conviction and her character that we are sure she'll do just fine on her own.

If you still believe that this is a place to spare words, consume information like a greedy, hungry pig, then shit it out and on to the next, feel free to navigate to any of the other fine pages that the internet has to offer, for I must effuse, as I am both sentimentalist and symbologist. Come back tomorrow though, and I'll reassure you about Titus Andronicus' future (we have a new guitarist and everything and we have lots of grand plans), or just follow the Twitter account I today created in an attempt to fill the void left by the former @AmyAndronicus.

As a lover of serendipity, which is to me like the bird to a birdwatcher, I recall a night in 2009, the 24th of October, when I attended a concert at Death by Audio in Brooklyn. The future of my musical career was uncertain at the time (ok, the future is always uncertain); Titus Andronicus had recently completed an American tour with our great friends the So So Glos, which, while fun, and rich with memories I wouldn't trade for anything, didn't really reflect the growth that perhaps we thought the band had made earlier in the year during the promotional exercises for The Airing of Grievances. It also didn't help morale when Titus Vandronicus, then known principally as Blue Thunder, had blown out one of it's piston's fifty miles outside of Austin, calling for a whole new engine to be installed to the tune of some five thousand dollars, for Titus Andronicus to limp home with half of it's membership sweating it out in the back of a Budget truck, and for the psyche of long-suffering “responsible one” Ian Graetzer to endure yet another devestating blow via the punishing 1,750 mile drive from Austin to New Jersey following the completion of the repairs some weeks later (you recall that he would hold out for about another 14 months, plus another four for tax season, before devoting himself full time to his career in the visual arts). My anxiety was further compounded by the fact that I was still reeling from the loss of my Guitar Dream Team of Andrew Cedermark and Ian O'Neil earlier in the year, not long after thoroughly crushing their spirits with said promotional exercises via The Tour That Wouldn't End (January-March 2009, 63 shows in eight countries in 72 days). The band survived with the helping hands of erstwhile guitarist Liam Betson, and of Dinowalrus mastermind Pete Feigenbaum, but I was still short two first-class guitar slingers. Such was the state of my on-again/off-again love/hate affair with the beautiful and intoxicating and infuriating spirit of Independent American Rock and Roll as I passed through those well-consecrated doors on S. 2nd Street.

The band was Double Dagger. I had first seen them in 2007 at the now-long-gone construction worker cafeteria beside the then-in-construction Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, now looming over northeastern industrial Greenpoint, recalling nothing less than the Death Star in it's sleek and foreboding futurism (learn more about the creek and the plant here). The crudely hewn shack had been appropriated into one of those all-ages DIY-type spaces you always hear about and christened Uncle Paulie's. I was there to see a Japanese post-hardcore/psychedelic band called Green Milk from the Planet Orange, whose album, City Calls Revolution, I had been enjoying thoroughly the past few months after seeing them at 3rd Ward, and playing their ten-to-twenty minute jams frequently on my college radio show on 95.3 WRPR (perfect for cigarette breaks). I never saw them again after that night, but the opening band made an impression that would last to modern day. The singer screamed in my face (MY face! Personally! Still a shocking thing to a green boy from New Jersey like me) about (I would later learn) typography and modern art and their place in modern life, whilst pulling the hood of my sweatshirt up over my head without my consent. The beats and riffs were pure punk ass-whupping, a drums-and-bass duo that helped shape ideas of who was really disposable in the classic power trio setup (better luck next time, regular guitar!). Titus Andronicus would later play with them and the So So Glos later that year at Dead Herring in Brooklyn, the night before I was to take the GRE's, which would deliver me from rock and roll into the next stage of academia, and onto a sensible, sustainable life path. It was early the next year when, by chance, this insane frontman turned out to be the very same Nolen who had set up our very first show in Baltimore at the Charm City Art Space, during Titus Andronicus' second ever tour, dubbed “The Deep Freeze.” The night of hospitality that followed cemented the friendship, and over the next 18 months, I (along with others in TA) became a bigger and bigger fan of the band, and their concerts in New York were never to be missed. In describing them to the uninitiated, I would throw around terms like Best Working American Punk Band and Best Frontman in Rock and Best Live Band, and probably would have gotten around to Best Punk Rhythm Section of All Time as well, had I not only recently coined that term to throw around whilst describing contemporary Fucked Up. I was so enthralled that, just a few months earlier, I had asked Nolen to both design the album art for our album The Monitor, and also act on the record, reading a passage from William Lloyd Garrison. My enthusiasm for them became synonymous inside me with that same fire I had spent my entire adult life up to that point chasing. They were the very spirit of rock and roll, which, as it were, happened to be the very thing I was looking for.

There amongst the crowd was a face I recognized from the past, almost like a ghost. I had known Amy Klein in my college days, when she was classmates and musical collaborators with my then-girlfriend at their place of study, the noted President machine and Galaxie 500 incubator (not a small consideration for a G5C superfan like me, considering I had gone so far as to consult Dean Wareham via e-mail to seek his counsel on the quagmire of rock and roll dreams vs. graduate school, which I knew his seminal band struggled with – nice guy!) of Harvard University (just to give proper context, I was at the time studying at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a fine school, but most noted for ranking #2 on Men's Health's list of “Fattest Small Colleges”), and had been impressed by the energy she displayed in her punk band, Plan B for the Type A's, a refreshing antidote to the self-conscious half-rocking common of most college-age guitar slingers; her ability to play a sharp-looking, blue, electric violin, and her distinction of being from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, also stuck with me. I had not seen her for two years, however, as she graduated and moved off to Japan (to make a documentary film about underground rock music, particularly psychedelia, as it were); equidistant between that event and this night in 2009 was the dissolution of the relationship which was the lifeline of our friendship. While she had certainly made an impression on me, it wasn't her face that I expected to come across amongst my brothers and sisters in the thrall of the Baltimore renaissance (Future Islands also played this show, beginning Nolen's greatest challenge yet for the Best Frontman title – his own pal, and now mine, Sam). Still, there she was.

Turns out she'd moved back to America, Brooklyn, as it were, Fort Greene, and she was working busting crooked cops for the city, racking up an office-best 50% completion rate. She was there on a date with a fellow she hadn't known for long, but was certainly handsome, and definitely a good dancer. Now, I wasn't the temperate teetotaler that I am today, so invincible with grape Four Loko, the spark of remembering that she could play guitar was enough to light my desperate powder keg, and I eagerly let out an invitation for her to join Titus Andronicus, along with a sloppily detailed rundown of the band's plans for the next year, as well my current fixation, the 100 Show Guarantee (if you do 1, you have to do 100). Most folks probably would have taken one look at a display like this and ran for the hills, or at least the bathroom, but Amy wasn't most folks; if she were, I wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with her, as a fellow who deals in trying to bottle that fire that we were all there at Death by Audio that night chasing, in one form or another. She told me she'd think about it. That night, I cooked Double Dagger frozen waffles at my still-unfurnished apartment on Greenpoint Avenue and wondered what the future held. A third of a mile to the east, the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant glowed an eerie purple.

She thought about it, and further discussion and careful consideration followed, and on the evening of November 5th, what remained of Titus Andronicus gathered at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, including, for the last time, Pete Feigenbaum, to open for leading Canadian punk gods Fucked Up, yet another bright beacon whose light is of that oft-mentioned fire, who were performing their Polaris-Prize-winning masterpiece The Chemistry of Common Life in it's entirety, with no less a supernova of rock and roll exuberance than Andrew WK on keyboards, and our old buddies, a great band besides being a shining example of the strength of women in indie rock then and now, the Vivian Girls on backing vocals. It was here that I bent the ear of my assembled comrades and told them I had found the guitarist we had been looking for, or should I say, the benign indifference of the universe delivered her unto me. Ian remembered her from when she played that electric violin of her's on The Airing of Grievances; Eric had to go on my strongly worded recommendation.

It wasn't long after that, we were back in the pool house behind Ian's parents' Spanish-style residence in Glen Rock, with Amy and David, Eric's friend and former roommate from their days at Bloomsburg University, going over the chords for “Titus Andronicus” the song with yet four more new hands. Titus Andronicus 5.0 played it's first show at New York's United Palace on January 17th, 2010, opening up for Extra Large Recordings' golden geese, Vampire Weekend, who counted among their members Montclair, NJ's Ezra Koenig, who, as a child, was given piano lessons by the same teacher as the young woman from nearby Glen Ridge, who stood on that stage that night for the first time as a member of Titus Andronicus.

On Thursday night, October 20th, Amy Klein played her penultimate show with Titus Andronicus, opening for the Thermals at the Olympic Community Hall in Halifax, Novia Scotia, Canada, as part of the Halifax Pop Explosion festival. 866 long highway miles away, Double Dagger played their last show in Brooklyn, back one more time at Death by Audio, having decided to break up after nine years (almost exactly nine years) saying goodbye to old fans, and, I'll bet, turning on some new ones as well; hey, maybe there were even a couple crazy kids by the bathrooms starting to cook up a plan for what would turn out to be the greatest adventure of their lives. Double Dagger was that sort of band.

On Friday night, October 21s, Amy Klein played her last show with Titus Andronicus, a “secret” performance at the bar Tribeca, also part of that Pop Explosion. Down in Baltimore, Double Dagger played their last show at Ottobar, where a couple years earlier, dear, sweet Nolen had watched us play amongst an audience of maybe 15, whose echoes, rattling around all that empty space, threatened to overpower the band, and told us we were a “powerhouse.” Happily, more people than that came out on this historic evening.

If you live in the greater New York area, yr first chance to see Titus Andronicus with our new guitarist (secret identity forthcoming), and to peer into our crystal ball, will come on November 11th, when we will be the opening act at Le Poisson Rogue for Fucked Up performing their album David Comes To Life in its entirety (unless you don't already have tickets, because it is sold out). Hopefully, it will be a good night to take a chance again (wow, ok, that was too much). Fucked Up, of course, being the headlining band on the night when I saw Double Dagger for what turned out to be the last time, at NYU in February of this year.

Tomorrow's October 24th, and that'll be two years since Amy Klein walked back into my life that fateful night at Death by Audio. What do these numbers all mean? Nothing, of course. They're only coincidences, as everything is, but as Amy's brother in existentialism, I am bound to remind you that the world has never held beauty but for that which eager eyes willed themselves to see, and it is each of our duty's, even in hard times, or especially then, to search for meaning and majesty and mystery wherever we may find it. If numbers be a way to remind myself of that, if I can find some glimmer of hope in their strange grace, then they are beautiful indeed.

Two years. Two years in a young person's life is a gift that you can only give a precious few times, and it only gets more precious as time passes. Amongst everything else, Amy gave this gift to Titus Andronicus, and can word or deed every repay such a blessing? If they do, I doubt I have the brain to find the words or the strength to do the deed, but I do thank you, Amy. You are forever our sister. I wish you good journey, and hope that we should meet again, if not in this life, then in Valhalla.

Yr friend,
Patrick

TALLC PRESENTS: Andrew Cedermark, Dustin Wong, Family Trees and Zombie Orgy @ Shea Stadium 7/23/2011

2011-07-19T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hey gang! Remember back, oh, about two months ago, when I was telling you about this awesome concert with Diarrhea Planet, Liquor Store, and Battle Ave? And about how it was the first of an ongoing series of concerts presented by Titus Andronicus (LLC) at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn? And how it was part of our efforts to show respect to the musicians that we so admire? Sure, you remember. It was an awesome time for everyone. Best of all, it was punctual.

Anyway, here it is, two months later, and it is time for the next installment of "TALLC PRESENTS" at Shea Stadium! It's going down this Saturday, July 23rd, and this time, it is a summit of guitar geniuses unseen since the original G3.

The guitar virtuosity of ANDREW CEDERMARK has captured my imagination and my admiration for more than a decade now, and with the release of last year's Moon Deluxe (still available from the good folks at Underwater Peoples), many more have come to see the writing on the wall. With angelic beauty and visceral terror emanating forth in equal measure from his Jazzmaster, and the hearty support of his band of cohorts BUFFALO WILD WING, Cedermark is a true juggernaut. Below, find Andrew and BWW performing "Ad Infinitum" at Random Row Books, in Thomas Jefferson's old stomping grounds of Charlottesville, VA, the town this modern master calls home.

There are not many guitar slingers who would be up to the challenge of sharing a stage with such a titan of the instrument, but then again, Baltimore, MD's champion DUSTIN WONG need shrink from no challenge, or challenger. He has been melting faces around the globe since first coming to prominence with seminal '00s spazz rockers Ponytail. Since that outfit's untimely demise, Dustin has been performing loop-based music under his own name and releasing albums such as last year's lovely and immersive Infinite Love. His ever-wandering, dare I say, picaresque guitar leads grab hold of you tightly and take you for a wild ride, as he constructs massive sonic sculptures so dense you get lost in them. In listening to Dustin build his loops, one almost gets the feeling of being guided through a dense and mysterious wilderness by some sort of benevolent shredding Pan-type creature or something. Sounds crazy, I know, but this guy really has to be seen to be believed. Check out this video, and you will see, sort of, what I mean. This is Dustin performing at the Silent Barn (more on them later) back in May.

[I couldn't resist posting this video of Dustin performing in front of projections of Mario Kart 64, considering Andrew C. and myself used to always love playing that game back in the day in our buddy Doug's basement. Man, those were the days.]

When this show was first being conceived, way way back, Andrew Cedermark's right hand man (whether that hand is plucking a bass or tickling the key of a synthesizer) Jacob told me that they were down with a band from Brooklyn called FAMILY TREES. That cosign was all it took to get me psyched to see them play at this show. I can't claim to be any kind of expert on this band, but it seems like they should please fans of the hazy, mellow side of modern garage rock. Watch the video for the song "No One Will Ever Know" to learn more.

FAMILY TREES no one will ever know from amanda finn on Vimeo.

Finally, a special reunion of the band that lit up the Ithaca, NY punk scene with its unique blend of the jubilant and the grotesque, ZOMBIE ORGY. Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear such classics as "EYES (They're Eating Your Eyes)" and "Teenage Zombie Love" in the [rotting] flesh. The video for "Coffee >> God" should illuminate things even further, should you have the daring to look below.

All this for the low, low price of seven dollars! I think you'll agree that you won't find a better offering on Saturday night anywhere in the greater Metropolitan area. It all kicks off at 9 PM at Shea Stadium, located at 20 Meadow Street, near the Grand Street L train. RSVP at this convenient Facebook invite!

So, just to recap:

TALLC PRESENTS:
ANDREW CEDERMARK
DUSTIN WONG
FAMILY TREES
ZOMBIE ORGY
SATURDAY JULY 23RD
AT SHEA STADIUM
20 MEADOW ST, BROOKLYN
9 PM! $7!

All right, that sounds great. See you there!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Tour photo dump

2011-07-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey gang. Our tour with Okkervil River wound down about a week ago, and I am now feeling suitably decompressed as to share with you some media that will enhance yr understanding of what it was like. Firstly, here is a video of us in Toronto doing our thing - this should be a reasonable enough representation of what our performances were like on this tour. This video was taken from the blog of one Chris Eclectic, who has got some more videos and nice pictures and a summary of the concert and all that.

Yep, that's us, all right. Below, you'll find a video of OR's mouthpiece Will Sheff performing "A Stone" from that perennial '00s classic Black Sheep Boy. Man, I'll tell ya - back in the day, that record was my jam. Freshman year of college, I was as big an OR fan as you'd be likely to find. In fact, most of the good ideas on that old Airing of Grievances album were lifted straight from BSB - listen to our song "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" and you might see what I mean. "To Old Friends and New" is another OR-influenced song from that era (even if it was released on an album later). Damn, if only that confused little man could see me now. Anyway, here's Will singing "A Stone" in Seattle. A full-band performance might be a little more representative, but this clip has got good audio and video quality for ya.

Of course, I have to also give mad props to Julianna Barwick, the supernaturally gifted singer who rounded out the bill for a little while. I've been enjoying her great record The Magic Place since we've been home - highly recommended for the next time you want to space out and float off into supreme relaxation. Also, you might not necessarily guess from her music, but she is a wonderfully light-hearted and affable pal who is great to goof around with when off the clock. Sounds like a winning combination to me! Here she is doing her thing at the beautiful Bluebird Theater in Denver (big shouts to my cousin Janelle who came out to this show - hey Janelle!).

If you seek to be still further illuminated, this time with words, head on over to Amy's blog, where indie rock's pluckiest journalistic investigator took the time to interview Okkervil River's primo guitar slinger, one Lauren Gurgiolo, as well as Iowa rock heroes the Poison Control Center, with whom we played a few dates on our way home. Neat! Informative!

So here's something crazy. I had a camera with me on this tour, for the first time (OK, I had a camera on the last tour we did, but I abandoned it in Milwaukee - some employee of the Riverside Theater is making some good-ass home movies). Now, I am no great photographer, but the machine did allow me to capture some magic moments. Let's start with funny t-shirts. One kid was wearing a shirt of a "Communist Party" - tee hee. Here it is.

Then this other time, this kid was wearing a t-shirt with our guy Abe Lincoln fighting a gang of tough looking bears. No sweat for Abe, who, as a young man, won the trust of the people of New Salem, IL with his supreme wrestling skills. Doubt not the gangly rail splitter, for he was strong as an ox.

That is tight. Then there was this other kid in Minneapolis who made this funny t-shirt, which tried to bridge the cultural divide between our latest hit single and the latest rap music phenomenon to sweep America. I respect this guy's ingenuity, even though I am no fan of blindly hateful music. We DO need to escape from that bullshit, know what I'm saying? Here's the cool shirt.

There is little in the world I love more than walking into some Titus Andronicus concert and seeing a homemade TA shirt. What a great way to show love! Never fails to warm my heart. Hey! Next time you come see us play, why not wear a homemade t-shirt? That's fun, and it sticks in the craw of the evil t-shirt industry. Also, I'd like to go on the record and say that wearing a Titus t-shirt to one of our shows is definitely NOT a lame or stupid thing to do - we welcome "that guy" with open arms. Homemade, or bought from us, whatever! Let the colors fly! Show us, by yr shirt choice, that you are ready to get down!

On our Photobucket page, you can see full body shots of the guys who modeled these shirts. Handsome boys!! Loving it!!!

Now, where my dogs at? First, here is an awesome painting that now hangs on the wall of my old friend Lucie's house in Seattle - apparently, this masterpiece was found face down in the street! No respect! Thank heavens a goodly art patron happened upon it at the right time. I mean, look at this thing - it's great!

Then there was this one other time, when we were at a coffee shop or something (I do believe it was in Omaha, Nebraska), when tied up outside there was this dog. Look into the eyes! They're two different colors, baby!! Big props to this dog for being a most excellent and cooperative model - my furry friend allowed me to take lots of good shots with the wild eyes staring right into my camera, and indeed, into my soul.

Later on, we were graciously invited to spend the night at the home of Lauren Gurgiolo's parents in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth region. Great folks, remarkably generous and inviting - no suprise that young Lauren is such a pleasure to be around. Anyway, they had some dogs too, including this little rascal, who also had those crazy eyes! This pooch wasn't as much of a photo shoot pro as his Nebraska counterpart, but it's all good. Man, I love dogs. Great animals!

Here's yr boy stunting on a dinosaur, at the great rest stop in Little America, WY.

Here I am again, doing it big on a pink elephant. I forget where this was.

Later on in the tour, after these pictures were taken, I came upon a pink dinosaur near the club we were playing - I think this may have been in Arizona? Who knows. Anyway, I said, "Man, if I get a picture with that, it'll be the perfect thing to complete my series with the other dinosaur and the pink elephant! YES!" Then I forgot about it, or did some other shit, and soon, it was too dark to take a picture. Oh well!

One of the ways in which Okkervil River showed us kindness and respect was by letting us sometimes spend the night in their hotel room. You see, fancy bands like OR often spend the night tearing up the highway in their tour bus, so the hotel rooms they might get to shower, or to let the bus driver sleep, or whatever, would otherwise end up going to waste after the show. Naturally, we in Titus Andronicus were always most grateful to make sure each bed was full of happy, sleepy bodies. Thanks, OR! One night in Boise, I observed that there was some other kind of weird mirror by the more traditional mirror, and so I set it up to take this crazy photo - does this freak you out at all?

Lastly, here is a "class picture" taken on Future Islands' last night with the tour, when we were partying big time outside of Minneapolis. These guys sure are great - can't wait to kick it with them again at the Hopscotch Festival in their native North Carolina! Look at us having fun:

By the way, second from the left in the back row is our main man Joel, brother to FI singer Sam and the man to talk to if you want to get one of their hot-ass t-shirts. Getting to know him, and taste the sweet fruit of his friendship, was an unexpected treat. Even less expected - my man can straight up RAP. Check out the music he makes under the name Plucky Walker.

All right, well, that's probably enough for now. I'll be back on here soon, maybe with some videos for y'all! That'll be fun, yeah? Great. See ya then!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Future Islands: The Movie

2011-06-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL CERA as GERRIT WELMERS

JACK BLACK as SAM HERRING

and ZACH GALIFANAKIS as WILLIAM CASHION

COMING SOON FROM TALLC STUDIOS

From an Omaha Coffee Shop

2011-05-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hey gang. It is yr old buddy Patrick here, writing you at the end of a short break from the daily grind in Omaha, NE, following the completion of the first leg of our tour with our new best pals Okkervil River and Future Islands. Wow, what fun we have all been having. Okkervil River are pros without being total assholes (yes, it can be done), and Future Islands have been keeping us in stitches whenever they aren't cutting us to the bone with their razor-sharp sincerity. Good times. Future Islands are headed back home now, and they'll be dearly missed. Shout outs to Balkans and Spider Bags for hooking us up with places to sleep along the way. You guys haven't been e-mailing us with invites to come over to yr houses - what's wrong? Don't you want to come to the show for free? Do you want Titus Andronicus to have to sleep in some horrible motel and probably get bedbugs and/or murdered?

All right, so what else is happening? This is going to be one of those times when I ignore the by-now-well-established rules about internet content turnover (I prefer an apple turnover), and tell you guys about some shit that pretty much happened a hundred years ago. What is up with the internet? It is like informational bulimia - you take in more of it than you can handle, and then you have to regurgitate it right away, and none of it does any good or makes you any healthier. Whatever! I like my old-fashioned schedule of letting things settle for a week or two and then writing about it. It is charming, dammit!

So yeah, what I mean is, about a week or a month or a year ago, we had the distinct pleasure of participating in Our Band Could Be Yr Concert, an event celebrating ten years of Michael Azzerad's seminal indie rock text, Our Band Could Be Yr Life. Our contribution honored the Replacements, who taught TA much about the spirit of rock and roll and its many freedoms and attendant dangers, and how drinking too much is stupid and wasteful and not really cool or romantic at all. RIP Bob Stinson - that man should still be shredding! Having a few beers is okay, though. Learn more, and listen to the whole thing, here. Below, find us performing 'Kids Don't Follow' and 'Raised in the City.' Shouts to our boy Craig Finn for representing Minneapolis.

Before I show you a video of us playing the quintessential Replacements theme tune, 'Treatment Bound,' you have to know that this most recent performance is only part of the story! For years now, this song has been beloved by yr boy and revered as probably the best song about being in a rock and roll band (not for want of trying on the part of O. River, who sure do have a lot of songs about being in a band - damn, baby). I first tried to use some of this magic for my own sick, selfish purposes back at the record release show for The Monitor way way back on 3/6/2010. I had hoped that the beautiful song might say something about the adventure the young TA 5.0 was then gearing up for. Listen up!

Titus Andronicus - Treatment Bound (3 6 2010) by titusandronicustheband

Props to the other #1 website NYC Taper for furnishing this mp3. Don't download the recording of the show it's from, though - that shit was abominable. Totally my fault, for the record - I didn't know how to keep a guitar in tune in those days. NYC Taper has a good recording of a show we did some six weeks later at Maxwell's in Hoboken that has got all the same songs and more and guitars that are mostly in tune. That's what's up.

Here is a recording of us rehearsing the song in the apartment where David and I live. This is myself on guitar, harmonica, and vocal, Amy on guitar, David on keyboard, and Julian on bass and vocal. Eric wasn't there because our apartment is a no-drum-set zone.

Titus Andronicus - Treatment Bound (5 19 2011) by titusandronicustheband

Julian did a fine job singing the harmonies on those choruses, but he did a pretty crappy job of showing up on time to this rehearsal. As such, here is a free form jam in good old E that we did whilst waiting for him to arrive. Yes, folks - we are a jam band now.

Titus Andronicus - Jammin' in E (5 19 2011) by titusandronicustheband

So yeah - after all this, TA was ready to perform the song for real. Look!

The Replacements. What a band. Honoring them in this way was a great dream come true. So was having our picture taken by our new buddy Daniel Corrigan when we were at First Ave in Minneapolis back in April with Bright Eyes. You might remember Daniel as the man who took the iconic cover of Let It Be. I hate to reduce him and his long and illustrious career to one snapshot, but damn if I didn't spend plenty of my youth looking at those boys goofin' off on that roof and wondering. Here is one of those pictures that Daniel took.

The internet's number one website has got some pictures. They also make this worthwhile point to stick in yr craw:

"I think it says something about Michael's curatorial intent (and the state of indie music currently) that 9 out of the 14 acts featured women playing the very male-centric music of the original bands. Still, that thoughtfulness doesn't necessarily stop guys in the audience from catcalling when a woman takes the stage at a punk/indie-rock show, as was the case here. Azzerad points out the disconnect between bands and their audiences in the book (Black Flag vs. its fans is a memorable one), so perhaps this echoes that, and I guess it's not really a surprise that male rock nerds still have a problem dealing with women artists, but alas - one bummer of the otherwise inspiring night."

If this makes you mad, yet you are drawn to reading it because of its relation to yr interest in indie rock, then you are probably ready to start reading our beloved Amy's Tumblr, where you can find all the fuel you need for that fire. Good website, this one - especially considering the essays there are generous in size, ready to have yr teeth sunk in, not the sort of in-one-ear-and-out-the-udder web nonsense. The internet is so massive!! Why does everything need to be teeny tiny? So yeah, check it out. There's other topics discussed besides feminism and indie rock too - you'll see.

Speaking of Amy's ongoing crusade, did you all see this feature in leading feminist periodical Bust? That shit was pro. Also, the writer is named Amy as well - a real house of mirrors. Look at it now:

If this Permanent Wave sounds like something you could be interested in learning more about, they have got a Tumblr as well. Dig it!

Speaking of Tumblr, Amy's not the only employee of TALLC who is making waves on the web in their spare time. Have you seen Eric's comic blog? It is sure to make you laugh until you cry. Here is a cartoon he drew about a very annoying and bewildering passenger-seat-driver. Did I choose a cartoon by our drummer Eric involving a car in tribute to the late KISS drummer Eric Carr? You bet yr ass I did.

All right, speaking of members of TA gone wild on the internet, it is time for another installment of HIT LIST/SHIT LIST, wherein stuff that is cool goes on the Hit List and stuff that isn't cool goes on the Shit List. Got it? Great.

On the HIT LIST this time is the scorching hot Nashville, TN punk scene. Over the course of this tour, I have been hooked on the new album We Are The Champions by reigning kings JEFF the Brotherhood, as well as the new heat 1971 by Natural Child (I gave these dudes props once before, and that was even before I could've known they'd go on tour with the homies Liquor Store). Sick bands both, but my favorite is still Diarrhea Planet. Man, I love that band. Listen to their recent NYC debut at Shea Stadium, organized by none other than Titus Andronicus LLC, right hurrr. Nashville is straight BURNIN right now!! It's worth noting also that Tennessee is one of the most beautiful of the United States. Rolling through it's natural majesty is a soothing balm that likes of which my soul has very rarely known. Too bad it is also pretty much the most homophobic state going. That reminds me -

It hurts me deep inside to mark down onto the SHIT LIST my one-time favorite TV comedian Tracy Morgan, whose homophobic ravings are old news to all of you by now. I don't know what part of this story is the most disgusting, whether it's the horrible rant itself, the pathetic back-pedaling and bending-over-backwards T.Mo is doing to cover his ass now that he sees that nobody is going to have his back when he wants to act like a total shithead, trying to pass off straight up hate speech delivered with no comedic merit or visible humorous intent as "just joking," or, of course, the classic, and classically FUCKIN' BULLSHIT, move of trying to pass off hate as "being a good Christian" or whatever nonsense they're trying to sell us.

Man, what the fuck is going on with the world nowadays? Are we so bored and desperate for "edginess" that we are looking at basic respect and decency between humans as boring milquetoast? I don't care if you are the star of 30 Rock or the hottest rapper on the best record label XL Recordings (yeah, I said it) - using homophobia, or any kind of blind hate, to sell yr shitty product is straight up loathesome and dispicable. Even if yr "just pretending" or it's okay because "words don't mean shit," don't get it twisted - yr hate speech validates real feelings in the hearts of real Americans who might only need the littlest bit of validation to take their madness to the horrid next level, whatever that may be.

And hey! All you studious white bastards who look at this kind of bile as a return to "authenticity" or "real danger in art" or whatever the fuck, you are just as big idiots, and worse, yr a bunch of chickenshits who want to get off vicariously without getting yr hands dirty with all yr "think pieces" and so on. Shame on thee!!

Also on the SHIT LIST, for much the same crime, is bastion of decent journalism TIME Magazine, who kicked off their interview with Chaz Bono with the question, "Changing genders - are you crazy?" Fuck you, TIME Magazine! What kind of invalidating nonsense is that?

Damn, yr boy is getting riled up. I am going to need some pro-queer fire to get me smiling again. With that in mind, find below the official summer anthem "Imma Homo" by Rainbow Noise, and the big homies Free Energy performing their uplifting classic "Hope Child" for the website the New Gay (I did an interview with these dudes too - lots of love).

All right, well, that is probably enough for now. We must be getting over to the concert anyway. Let's speak again soon, all right?

Yr friend,
Patrick

Tom Scharpling Strikes Again

2011-05-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hey gang. By now, you have all seen our new music video for our song, "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future," a loving tribute to TA's homestate of New Jersey, directed by Garden State lifer Tom Scharpling. What is that, you haven't seen it? Well, here it is.

"Huh, I don't get it! What was that supposed to be exactly?" Well, I thought it was pretty clear, but okay - here's an article that ran in a serious, adult newspaper around the time of the shoot, the same great newspaper that broke the news about Selective Eating Disorder, but that is a story for another day. Point is, I received this cryptic message from Mr. Scharpling earlier with instructions to pass along to you guys, so read on, if you dare.

He writes, "I have in my possession a live clip of Titus Andronicus performing an AMAZING version of "A More Perfect Union" shot in New Brunswick during our one-day tour of New Jersey as documented in the "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future" video that we dropped a couple weeks ago. You can watch the "No Future" video by going HERE.

I will put the new clip online if we can get the "No Future" video to 100,000 views before Titus Andronicus play New York City on June 7th. But if we don't get to that goal, the only video I will release will be one of me DELETING THIS VIDEO FROM EXISTENCE.

I am not joking about this - on June 8th you will either get a video of Titus Andronicus rocking out, or you will get a video of me sending this footage to the great trash icon in the sky. The choice is yours, and if you want to see some new Titus Andronicus action, you need to get the "No Future Part Three" clip to 100,000 views by June 7th!"

Well, there you have it - a chilling vision of things t come, as it looks like old T.S. wants one more jewel for the crown as far as this whole music video project goes. I can't deny that we at Titus Andronicus LLC have at times lusted after the prospect of internet fame, as you remember from "Kanye on a Plane," which we expected to have well over One Million Views by now. "What's Kanye on a Plane," you ask?

Besides, would Scharpling really be so diabolical and senselessly cruel to delete this innocent video when the internet is so vast, it's embrace, so inviting? Has any entity ever lived up to the promise of the Statue of Liberty as much as the internet? Why deny this video the same love? With a man such as Tom Scharpling, you can never be sure what is really going on, so to be on the safe side, we better go along with what he says and just do whatever it takes to blast this music video into the next echelon of online dominance. If it sweetens the deal, in this video, I will be wearing a sweet t-shirt of Glen Rock, NJ's all-time greatest punk band, VCR.

Okay, well, that's all for now. Let's speak again soon.

Yr friend,
Patrick

TALLC PRESENTS: Diarrhea Planet, Liquor Store, Battle Ave @ Shea Stadium 5/23/2011

2011-05-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Okay gang. Remember a few weeks ago when I told you about the ongoing series of concerts that Titus Andronicus LLC is going to be putting on at Shea Stadium? And how the first one was coming up on May 23^rd? Well, with that date approaching ever faster, I felt it behooved me to dash out a few words to remind you guys of all the pertinent information about the show and share some of the many reasons why it is going to be so great.

Firstly, the facts. The show is going down this coming Monday, May the 23^rd. Shea Stadium is located at 20 Meadow Street in Brooklyn. The easiest access route for a lot of you will probably be taking the L Train to Grand Street, which is a short walk from the spot. Check out this Google Map for more info. The price is seven American dollars, and it all starts at 7:00 PM.

Why is Titus Andronicus doing this anyway? Well, there are a lot of reasons. For one thing, we recognize that we are in possession of a certain amount of “cultural capital,” on account of us being Young Gods of this indie rock game. We know that this sort of capital, like any other, is as Dolly Levi described it – similar to manure in that it is worthless unless it is spread around, encouraging young things to grow. It is our hope, with this concert series, whatever love you may have for Titus Andronicus will persuade you to open yr heart to some bands who have touched ours, so that you may learn to love them as we do. Thusly will the love spread and grow and cover the Earth.

What's that you ask? Just who are these bands that could inspire such flowery speech? Well, our featured attraction upon this eve will be the New York City debut of one of the hottest bands yet to pop out of the ever-expanding-in-awesomeness Nashville punk scene, Diarrhea Planet. These young guns run four electric guitars deep and specialize in the sort of life-affirming, fist-pumping jock jams that would be equally suited to scoring yr next kegger or yr next Iron Man Triathalon; call it “Posi-Party-Punk” - I do. Or call it “American Oi,” or “Yeah Rock” - just don't call 'em on Tuesday, because it'll be too late and you will look (and feel) like a dumbass. RIYL: Japandroids, JEFF the Brotherhood, Misfits, Andrew WK.

Check out their blogspot for all the info you could need, and find the video of the band playing at Glenn Danzig's House below. Also, check out the TA YouTube channel to find playlists of two complete DP concerts in Nashville.

[UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that a video with the focus more on DP's songcraft and singing and stuff might be more persuasive, so here they are playing another awesome jam, "Babyhead."]

Keeping with the “scuzzy” and “lotta guitars” theme is Liquor Store from Glen Rock, NJ. Hardcore TitusHeads (aka Andronikids) will recognize frontman Sarim Al-Rawi as our original drummer, but when he left the band to pursue a college degree, we knew it was only a matter of time before he burst back onto the scene like Zeus out of his own head, a thunderbolt for every hand. Liquor Store is his golden chariot, featuring survivors of Glen Rock scene kings Above All Hope and Motown rockers the Mahonies at the core of their constantly expanding/contracting lineup (expect at least two electric guitars – prepare for as many as five). They recently completed their debut full-length record under the watchful eye of producer Kevin McMahon (TA, Swans, Real Estate, the Walkmen) and are sure to grow in the hearts of scumbags and scoundrels across Long Island, Jersey, and beyond. RIYL: reading websites like Terminal Boredom or the Goner Records message board, genres whose names include the word “stoner.”

Here is Liquor Store's MySpace page and blog. A video of them hacking it up to their generation-defining anthem, "Showdown at Wookie Lake," at Death by Audio is below. More such videos can be found as “Favorites” on the TA YouTube.

Finally, kicking off the festivities will be a promising young group out of the Catskills region calling themselves Battle Ave. Their twisting, turning tunes will drag you along a windy and wild road, from quiet, desperate singer-songwriter ruminations, to math-y workouts, to shimmering crescendos that will split the sky even as they split yr skull. They too have recently completed a record with that guy Kevin McMahon (Liquor Store), which promises to make “post-pop-punk” the next “swag.” RIYL: Frog Eyes, Explosions in the Sky, Cap'n Jazz, Say Anything.

Here is their Bandcamp page and learn more about the band and their mission from the Kickstarter video below.

Whatever you do though, don't let yr jaw drag on the floor for too long, as you will need it for laughing at the comedy stylings of our master of ceremonies, Mr. Matt Miller. Matt will keep the festivities moving and the funny bones a-ticklin' throughout the evening with his observations on the madness of modern life and the freaky foibles of the American Family. Learn for yrself why people are already calling him 'the half-black Seinfeld.' [FULL DISCLOSURE: In addition to being the original keyboardist of Titus A, Matt is also my cousin, and I am the only person yet to call him the 'half-black Seinfeld,' but that doesn't make it less true]

So, that pretty much covers it as far as the entertainment is concerned. At this point, you may hear yrself saying, “I am a NYC-DIY vet – now that I know the bands playing, I know this show like Bo knows baseball.” Guess again, smart ass – this time around, we are putting the DIY scene on notice and letting everybody know how it is done FOR REAL. Okay, maybe that is over-stating it but we are taking the hard line on one particular issue. That's right, folks – TALLC is hereby putting the “Punk” back in “Punk-tuality.” Unlike any all-ages show you have ever been to, this one is going to start and end at a reasonable hour. The doors will open at 7:00 PM and the first band will begin promptly at 8:00 PM, with bands to follow at 9:00 and 10:00. “Man, that is so lame,” you may say. “BK doesn't party on that old-person schedule! This ain't Florida!” Well, friend – let me explain to you why you are a doofus.

For too long now, the DIY scene in Brooklyn has been accused (often rightly so) of being insular and classist, and nothing more clearly exemplifies this issue, in my eyes, than the lax, downright irresponsible attitude towards scheduling that is so pervasive. I can't tell you how many times I have gone to an all-ages DIY space to see a band I love or am especially psyched on, only to either have to leave before they play or feel so beat by the time that they do get on stage that fully enjoying the performance is no longer an option. Implicit in this is the belief that the people who are deserving of a solid evening's entertainment are the ones who can stay out until all hours of the night. This may sound to some of you like the romantic, glamorous ideal of the City That Never Sleeps -- well, maybe the city doesn't sleep, but people need to, especially when those people have jobs. If we really believe that art, particularly the great American art form of Punk Rock, is really and truly for “the people” rather than a play-thing of the kept children of the ruling class, who use it to fill the holes in their lives where “responsibilities” or “obligations” would usually go, then why let a show run until the wee hours hours of the morning, when a working person must be in bed to get the rest necessary for their continued survival and prosperity? Punk Rock should be an inclusive and an adhesive agent, it's spirit a common treasury for all to share. By letting their schedules run wild as a wicked weed, the leaders of the DIY scene are submitting to the preconceptions held by so many on the outside – that inclusivity and righteousness are no more than a different set of clothes that these brats throw on like it just came off the rack at Beacon's Closet, that we could really give a fuck about reaching out to those of the community who don't fit the typical “trust fund baby” model. To this, TA LLC says, “No more!” We call for a new commitment to punctuality on the DIY scene that will allow for all of those who would seek to warm themselves by the fires of independent art to get a fair chance to do so, whether they be a millionaire transplant from Connecticut or a born-and-bred Brooklynite getting up at the crack of dawn to clean some toilet. On the punk scene, which takes such pride in the rejection of society's basest values, these two should be equals. By embracing Punk-Tuality, we can take a step closer towards making that possible. Sounds nice, right? We think so.

With the music wrapping up by eleven or so, you may go home, or hang out to shake yr whatevah to Titus Andronicus Superstar DJ Soundsystem Yadda Yadda Yadda Rocksteady Ruffinready Crew, spinning the hottest jams until those wee hours we were talking about before. Okay, maybe for like, one hour.

To reward you for yr Punk-Tuality, we will be having a Happy Hour from “doors” (7:00 PM) to the start of the first band (8:00 PM), where you will be able to buy an ice cold beer (Miller High Life, pending further notice) for ONLY A DOLLAR. A GOD DAMN DOLLAR. How many nightlife options include THAT? What's that you say, virtually none? I thought not. I know you guys are going to be drinking responsibly, but you may as well do it for cheap, right? I'll say it again: BEER FOR A BUCK. Get there early and get yr money's worth!

Speaking of money, the show is only seven bucks. Two Georges and an Abe get you three great bands, a steady stream of laughs, access to the cheapest beer on the scene, and the option of a good night's sleep to follow. If you find a better deal on this Monday night, then please wake up, because you are in a dream world, and we need you back in this one.

So, to recap:

DIARRHEA PLANET, LIQUOR STORE, BATTLE AVE.
COMEDY BY MATT MILLER
SHEA STADIUM – 20 MEADOW ST – L TO GRAND ST
SEVEN DOLLAR ADMISSION
DOORS AT 7:00, MUSIC PROMPTLY AT 8:00
HAPPY HOUR 7:00-8:00 = ONE DOLLAR BEERS
MONDAY, MAY 23RD

Sound okay? Feel free to RSVP to this here Facebook event. All right, great! See you then!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Getting involved with our music video, plus general Tour Spiel

2011-04-17T14:24:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody. Titus Andronicus is out in the desert right now - we're trying for a vision quest, or something LOUD I can feel through all the Chantix. We're doing this sort of thing and just generally having an awesome time.

This tour has been awesome so far. We did it big in upper New England and southeastern Canada with the big dogs Dinowalrus, and made fast friends with a great band from Portland, ME called Brenda. Damn, that was sick.

We continued to get down with the sickness in Toronto, when we were blessed with a surprise appearance by the reigning Greatest Punk Band on Earth, the young gods of Fucked Up, who melted everyone's faces with a set full of songs from their new record, David Comes to Life. This instant classic has since sustained Titus Andronicus on many a long and soul-crushing death drive. The blessings kept rolling when Damien, or "Pink Eyes" as he is sometimes known, joined us on stage for the uplifting punk classic, "If the Kids are United" by Sham 69 - a touching moment of Canadian-American punk solidarity. Behold:

At this point, we thought our lives couldn't get any better. Little did we know we were about to be taken under the warm wing of the chillest band of all time, muthafluffin' Bright Eyes. Jesus Christ, was there ever a group of people (band, crew, the whole scene) who were kinder, more gregarious, more generous of spirit? Though we were strangers, from the get-go, they made us feel like family, that we mattered, that we were deserving of the decency and respect and consideration that is the lifeblood of any productive human relationship. I can't tell you how affirming it is to see an indie rock band doing it big, pretty much as big as it gets, without getting a giant stick up their ass - yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It was all so validating, that I couldn't say no to getting up in Big C's grill on our last night together in Portland, OR - dig it.

This shit was heavy for me, and here's why: this jam, "Old Soul Song," is about that famous protest that popped off right around the start of the war in Iraq - learn about that immortal day here. I attended this event as a young teen who didn't really know shit about shit (I still don't, but I'm not a young teen anymore), but I did know that my brother, a pilot for the US Navy who, in those days, specialized in the deactivation of anti-aircraft missile launchers, was very possibly not coming back. You can imagine how fortunate I felt watching this show with him at my side - he now lives in Anacortes, WA with a wonderful wife and two beautiful babies, but man, all those dreams could have been erased in a fucking second! Life is crazy. Check out dear Brendan (who also taught me to play the guitar, BTW) with his sleepy son Jack (born 25 years to the day after myself, FTW) before Bright Eye's guitar stash.

Speaking of that historic day, it was that night that I was first properly introduced to the spirit of Punk Righteousness at a concert by the dearly remembered Sleater-Kinney, which remains, to this day, the most inspiring and exciting concert experience of my life - read a little about that here. Guess what? They're from Portland! (Olympia?) Serendipity doo dah.

All right, well, enough babbling. Let's get real for a second. Remember when we told you about making that music video for our song "No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future?" Well, we did it. Big shouts to everybody who came out to contribute. Were you one of them? No? Wow, you must be pretty upset. Don't fret though - you can still be a part of this epic adventure.

These days, when bands put out a video, it goes up on some blog or some music website or some such shit - BORING!! Titus Andronicus can't be doing no dull-ass thing like that, and you can help save us. As you may know, the music video celebrates the New Jersey heritage of our band/brand. In keeping with this theme, we are inviting any citizen of that great state to premiere the video on April 29th. If you have got a NJ-positive website, if you've got a basement rec room with a big flatscreen, an awesome independently owned and operated record store, whatever you've got, we want to enable you to host yr own premiere and join in the fun of bigging up our home state. If you e-mail TitusAndronicusVideo@Gmail.com, the good people at Extra Large Recordings will hook you up with a DVD or a Quicktime file or an embed code or whatever you might need. We will cap off this day of Nu Jeruz love with a performance at our favorite NJ venue, Maxwell's in Hoboken. Sounds fun, yeah? We think so too - so get involved please!!

Okay, one last thing just! You know that Titus Andronicus down 'til death with Shea Stadium. You also know that TALLC is always looking for new ways to expand the brand. Thusly, we put two and two together, found four, and now we are ecstatic to announce the first installment of "Titus Andronicus LLC Presents" or whatever we will call it. It will hopefully be a semi-regular series of shows at Shea where we can swag out some bands that we know you are going to love, and we are kicking it off on May 23rd. The bands are Diarrhea Planet (Nashville posi-party punk on their first trip to NYC), Liquor Store (NJ stoner punk featuring original TA drummer Sarim Al-Rawi), and Battle Ave (post-pop-punk epics str8 out the Catskills), and maybe one more to be announced soon. I am not going to let you forget about this sure-2-b-magical evening, so stay tuned for more updates. Watch a video of Diarrhea Planet slamming their hit single "Where Are You?" and get ready to party the shit out of yrself.

All right, we gotta get back out to the Polo Field (uhh... what?). Be safe.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Music video shoot this Sunday!

2011-02-18T11:11:00.001-08:00

DISCLAIMER: The below information can be found in much more condensed terms here, if you, like, have something better to do (you don't).

Hey gang. I've got something important to tell you. I wanted to tell you a couple of other things before I told you this, because there are still some things to discuss, but the speed at which this modern world moves is forcing me onto a new schedule. I might have wanted to reveal certain things to you in a nice linear fashion, but you know these blogs - everything has to be new and up-to-the-instant and yesterday's news isn't worth lining birdcages with. Right? Anyway.

Remember all those great music videos we have made over the years? Yeah, me neither. Something about Titus Andronicus pretending to rock out in some kind of cool environment? Well, point is, it is that time again, time for us to once more pretend to rock out in some kind of cool environment. This time, though, the power is in yr hands to take our pretend rocking out and make it real. How can you help yr beloved Punk Pinnochios? Here's how.

This coming Sunday, February the 20th, we in Titus Andronicus will submit ourselves to the will of famed NJ independent radio fixture and up-and-coming music video director Tom Scharpling in the interest of making some moving pictures to go along with our song, "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future." This our song about how you will always be a loser, remember?

The concept of the video is quite simply a one-day tour of the great state of New Jersey, a place that Titus Andronicus is often wont to sing about, and somewhere much beloved by Tom Scharpling to boot. We will run around the state in our van, hop out to rock out, and then on to the next. Get it? Our fondest dream is that when we get to our various locations, you will be there, chomping at the bit to jump up and down in some approximation of punk-ish enthusiasm. Chances are, once we get there and see that you are really nice, we'll probably play a couple other songs for real, just because we live to entertain you. Is that okay? Will you be there?

"Where is there?" Fair question. "There" is here, at these times:

11am
11 Pinewood Drive
Little Egg Harbor, NJ

3pm
Asbury Park Boardwalk Casino
1150 Boardwalk
Asbury Park, NJ

8:30pm
Roof Of The Iron Monkey
97 Greene Street
Jersey City, NJ

So you will come? You will? And all yr friends too?!? Wow, thanks so much! Just one more thing though - can you go to this Facebook event page and RSVP? Tom and his elite squad of producers are hoping for an "accurate head count." Thanks so much.

Now, some of you little bastards may be saying, "Who the hell is this Tom Scharpling guy? Some radio DJ? What does he know about directing music videos?" Okay, first of all, check that attitude. If that is how you approach life, we don't even want you to be in our video! Secondly, what rock have you been trapped under where you haven't seen the two videos embedded below, both directed by Mr. Scharpling? Cut off that arm already and watch these things - they are hilarious!

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bottled in Cork

The New Pornographers - Moves

So yeah, that is basically the scoop. Please find it in yr hearts to get jazzed about participating, tell all yr friends, then RSVP and show up! Then in a couple weeks or something, you can watch the video in question and know that you helped in its realization. Should be good times.

Although, truth be told, I don't even know why we are making a video for this song - these guys already did it!

Okay, I guess that is it. See you on Sunday, yes? Great!

Yr friend,
Patrick

New Tour Dates! Plus: For The Love of Pete

2011-01-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

"It's time for us to grow up and be men, not little boys... I'm going to California. You know, I've got the bug."
"Yeah, I think I've got a touch of something too."

Hey gang. What's going on? That's cool. Me? Just hanging out at home, watching some Seinfeld on DVD. We're going to be heading over to the Mercury Lounge in just a few minutes, to play that benefit concert for Willie Mae's Rock Camp for Girls that everyone has been talking about, but before we do, there were a couple of things I wanted to tell you real fast.

First things first: we are going on tour! Why are we doing that again? Shit, didn't I tell you guys that we are playing that Coachella festival everyone is always going on about? No, I didn't? Well, we are - big time. Thing is, that festival is really, really away, so we might as well make a month long adventure out of it, wouldn't cha say? As long as we are doing that, we might as well take a couple days and open for the man himself, the Big C, Conor Oberst, aka Bright Eyes, and demonstrate once and for all that his music and the music of Titus Andronicus really don't have that much in common (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Sounds like a plan, yeah? It'll all go down something like this:

03-29 - Portland, ME - Space Gallery
03-30 - Burlington, VT - Club Metronome
03-31 - Montreal, Quebec - Il Motore
04-01 - Toronto, Ontario - The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
04-02 - Gambier, OH - Kenyon College, Horn Gallery
04-03 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theatre
04-04- Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
04-05 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
04-08 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom *
04-09 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *
04-10 - Seattle, WA - Vera Project
04-12 - Reno, NV - Holland Show Space at Rainshadow
04-13 - Oakland, CA - The New Parish
04-14 - Santa Cruz, CA - Crepe Place
04-15 - Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04-18 - Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
04-19 - Santa Fe, NM - Corazon
04-20 - Dallas, TX - Club Dada
04-21 - Austin, TX - Emo's
04-22 - New Orleans, LA - Circle Bar
04-24 - Atlanta, GA - The Earl
04-26 - Norfolk, VA - Jewish Mother
04-27 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-28 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
04-29 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
04-30 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg

* opening for Bright Eyes, baby

I am pretty pumped about this tour, because it is getting us a few big steps closer to completing our dream of visiting all the lower 48 United States (What up, Maine! How you feeling, Vermont? How's tricks, Nevada? What's new, New Mexico?). The biggest pothole in that road, as ever, remains the great state of Wyoming - why is it so hard to play there? We'd love to make a stop in the northern part of the state on the 6th or 7th of April - does anyone set up shows around there? What's the punk scene like in Cody? Gillete? Sheridan? Has Yellowstone got, like, a bandshell or something we can play in for a while? Please e-mail TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com if you can help. Please don't e-mail us saying that we should come to Laramie though - I know it's the popular opinion that Laramie is the rock capital of the state, but it is just too far out of the way! If you are in doubt, do some Google mapping and know that we in TA can't add too many hours onto the trip from Minneapolis to Vancouver. Let's do this!!

Hmmm, so what else is going on... oh yeah! Remember that time Titus Andronicus had that guitarist named Pete Feigenbaum? It was a blink-and-you-missed-it sort of thing, but memorable, and he was a great sport about driving the Budget truck that was our vehicle when the van broke down in Austin that one time. Anyway, after that one magical tour, he went back to his day job, being the brain behind face-melting futurists Dinowalrus. They have been kicking ass all over town lately; I just saw them crush it at Shea Stadium in the middle of a blizzard. They are recording a new record (their 2nd) as we speak, and it is sure to garner much acclaim, both critical and commercial. Pete hasn't stopped contributing to the Titus cause though - behold below, the first ever TITUS ANDRONICUS REMIX! On this banger, Pete takes "A More Perfect Union" some twenty-five or thirty years into the past and three thousand or so miles to the east.

Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union (DINOWALRUS factory mix) by titusandronicustheband

Whooo! If you like that, dig this remix of a song by Yvette that Pete also did, or check out Dinowalrus' recent live performance on WFMU here.

If you like the second of those links, maybe you will like hearing our main man Julian Lynch hack it up on the very same radio station! Like it right here, right now. Remember how great he was on New Year's Eve? I do.

You know who else loves WFMU? My man Ted Leo. He is always performing on Tom Scharpling's Best Show and what not. Well, guess what, guys - I learned recently of a performance that TL and his Pharmacists did on a radio station in Boston called WERS. Holy shit, do they murder it on this one. Don't believe me? Check out this version of that Tyranny of Distance classic, "Stove by a Whale," where Teddy and Jimmy achieve Celtic guitar nirvana.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Stove By A Whale (live on WERS) by titusandronicustheband

You love it, right? Download the entire set (half full band, half TL solo)
here.

You will notice that I have embedded these mp3s using this "Soundcloud" website everyone is using. I noticed that the Greatest New Alternative Rock Music Website of the Decade So Far, LiveAtSheaStadium.com, was using it, and so I made an account for us. I will be posting some awesome, great, wonderful stuff on there, so check it periodically if you are looking for something to do.

Jesus Christ, is it 7:38 already? I gotta go!

Yr friend,
Patrick

"You're not really going to go to California, are you?"
"Up here... I'm already gone."

Titus TV: Ted Leo Strikes Back

2011-01-17T11:40:00.001-08:00

Hey gang. This is just to say that the final episode of Titus TV, 'Ted Leo Strikes Back,' is now available for yr viewing pleasure over at our YouTube channel. Enjoy it alongside such modern classics as 'Kanye on a Plane,' or simply watch below.

The shocking truth about NYE and yr jacket

2011-01-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. Remember the other day when we were talking about our show on New Year's Eve at 285 Kent? Yeah, that was a blast, except for the part about a lot of people losing their coats! It was originally believed to be the work of some burglar, you know, one of those bad apples that ruins the scene for everyone, but now it seems that the threat to yr warmth might be even closer to home! Right under our noses, as it were.

I received word from Todd P, the fellow who organized the show, that despite all these rumors of coat plundering, there remain a great surplus of unclaimed outerwear still at 285 Kent. Don't believe me? Behold this picture, and know the truth:

Is one of these yr coat? Is it possible that you thought it was stolen but maybe you went a little too far with the hooch and probably couldn't find yr nose let alone yr jacket? I am not judging you, but could it be so? Even though many of you judged Todd P or the DIY punk scene which maybe you think he represents, mercy will be shown unto you - this Friday, January 7th, there will be an "open house" at 285 Kent between 5:30 and 7:30 PM for anyone who lost their coat/jacket/sweater/gloves/whatever to come and claim them. That should close the issue once and for all, no?

There are a lot of lessons here, I feel. For starters, people getting drunk, doing something stupid, and then trying to pass the blame onto someone else - is there a more tired story than that? Come on, folks, this is 2011. That weak shit isn't going to cut it anymore! I know how it is - on New Year's Eve, everyone feels like they have a license to kill (their brain), and man, they've got Four Loko, and this could be the last chance to drink it, and wow, it is pretty loud and dark in here, isn't it, and hey, where's my coat anyway? Shit, is it really three in the morning? Okay, fine, that's yr prerogative. When that doesn't work out for you, though, it is a shitty move indeed to turn around and try and pin all the blame on Todd P, who sticks his neck out on the reg so that everyone can have a good time that is good for you, and has taught a whole generation of NYC punks how to do the same.

Todd P is a great American. He offers his punters levels of freedom that more traditional NYC promoters wouldn't dare or dream. Ticket prices are always extremely reasonable, ditto drink prices, all ages are always welcome (standing up against an obviously discriminatory practice that few seem to be at all concerned with), and people are generally made to feel that they can be themselves and act accordingly. Maybe you feel this manifests itself most apparently in practices like indoor smoking and beer smuggling, but what it represents is important. He, and those who follow his example, invite us to participate in a grand experiment, to be a part of a community, even if only for an evening, where it is believed that we don't necessarily need a bunch of rules and regulations, that a night of music can be more than an opportunity to sell marked-up alcohol, that old-fashioned capitalist infrastructure is not necessary or even advisable for rock and roll. What people fail to recognize a lot of the time, it seems to me, is that with this freedom comes a lot of responsibility! If people are assholes, then an asshole with more freedom is a bigger problem than one with less. If a person can practice responsibility and accountability, however, then granting them greater freedom can be a beautiful and wondrous thing, especially when punk rock is involved, with draws all of its strength from that freedom and the power of which I need not explain to you. I guess the system that Todd P and his acolytes offer us a stake in is just the same as any other system - it will be as good or as a bad as those who chose to participate in it. If we continue to approach the scene with our usual sense of entitlement, then we will continue to fail to recognize that we are accountable for its success or failure and it will just be a failure.

You see what I am getting at here? I feel like I could articulate myself a little better, but I don't want to start talking in circles either. I will assume you guys get my drift - basically, don't talk shit about Todd P or anybody else who creates this opportunities for us to get together and celebrate punk and all of its freedoms, but rather show yr gratitude for the trust and respect they afford you by deserving it and taking pride in yr contribution to the scene! This need be nothing more than a conscientious concert-goer who looks after his or her business and the business of their friends and doesn't start running at the mouth behind the warm anonymity of the internet when things fail to go their way. I hate sounding like some grumpy old dad, but fuck, man - this is a good deal we have got here. Let's not mess it up!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Another fond farewell

2011-01-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. Happy New Year to all. I hope that it is a healthy and prosperous one for you all, thus far. We were fortunate enough to ring in our new year on a positive note with all of our old Jersey buddies this past Friday night - thanks to all of you who came out to that show, and our sincerest apologies to those who had their belongings tampered with or carried off by unseen malefactors. There is some lesson here about personal responsibility and looking after the good of the community, but I will leave it to you to decode - smart kids like you shouldn't have too much trouble.

If you were at the show, you also maybe heard me saying something about how it was our dearly beloved bassist Ian Graetzer's last show with the band. Well, the reason that I said that was that it was true - Ian isn't in the band anymore. Shocking, I know, considering that Ian has been in the band since the very beginning (in fact, he and I were the two guys who decided to form the group) and been present for every glorious victory, every bitter defeat, and all the innumerable, interminable hours in between. Not anymore, gang.

"What is the deal?" you may be asking, "Do you guys, like, hate each other now or something?" No, we don't hate each other. In fact, the months since Ian announced his departure plans (yes, the months!) have been some of the happiest and friendliest in all of our organization's history. The simple fact is that Ian is a man of multitudinous passions, a man who is full of ideas and ambitions and who is always generating plans and schemes and million dollar ideas, a man for whom the road of life is going to be long and carefully, considerately trodden, with many rewards and adventures for the picking along the way. For the past five and a half years or so, we were blessed to have the use of this brain, to be the beneficiaries of these passions and this unstoppable iron will. Ian gave more to our organization than most any band could ask of most any man, but now the time has come for him to spread the wealth around, give some of his other interests and aspirations a chance. Between his future plans (which is not for me to speak of, besides that I don't fully understand them, but I can say that they have something to do with the world of visuals rather than sounds) and his ongoing position of power and responsibility at the venerable Kingsland Printing, there just aren't going to be six months of this new year where Ian can put all of his concerns aside and sit around the van like we have always done - at this, his heart would make a mighty protest, and far be it from Titus Andronicus to make another protest at that protest. Know what I am saying?

I guess what I am trying to say, for the record, is that we still have great love for Ian, and the appreciation we feel for his efforts over the years would be slighted by any attempt to condense them into a pithy, internet-ready sound byte. We are still friends, though - in fact, he has agreed to continue making our t-shirts, so you need not fear going to any TA concert in 2011 and being made to feel like you should be a t-shirt that wasn't Ian Graetzer quality. We shall continue to peddle these shirts because we shall continue to believe in the man, and offer him our sincerest support and best wishes for all of his future endeavors.

What does this all mean for the future of Titus Andronicus LLC? Well, it certainly does raise a lot of questions, most of which are presently without answers. Besides being the bass player, Ian historically handled the lion's share of our business operations, so his departure leaves two rather gaping holes. We will take moves to fill them swiftly and expediently in this new year, but I don't have any particulars to share with you now. Soon enough.

How soon? Well, I can tell you this - it has recently been revealed that we, Titus Andronicus, will be playing a concert on February the 10th, 2011, at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, a benefit for Willie Mae's Rock Camp for Girls. Our Amy has been involved with this organization for a while, and it will surely be a great pleasure for us to lend our support to this most worthy of causes. I mean, come on - taking young kids who maybe have been taught their whole lives that they shouldn't be loudly expressing themselves and giving them the tools and the support to loudly express themselves? Sounds awesome to me! Also appearing will be Care Bears on Fire, Toy Sugar, and Deux Chattes. Tickets are twenty bucks, and rightly so, because hey - teaching the young ladies to express themselves isn't free (it will be when I am president, wait and see)! You can buy them here. This will be yr first chance to see Titus Andronicus' new bass player in action, whoever that turns out to be. We are sorry to reveal that this show is 21+ - never a fun thing, but shit, it is for the money. Really, this time, it is!

All right, so. To summarize: Ian is not in the band anymore because he wants to do other stuff, and we hope that doing all that other stuff brings him a great deal of happiness and success and fulfillment. We shall continue to think fondly of our time together and remember all the things he did for us with considerable gratitude. For our part, Titus Andronicus will stride boldly into the future. Stay tuned to see us doing that.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Important New Year's Eve Update

2010-12-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. Are you ready for a New Year's surprise? Tonight's show has been moved! It WILL NOT be happening at the Ridgewood Masonic Temple as previously advertised. It WILL be happening at 285 Kent Avenue. This is in Williamsburg, at the intersection of Kent and S 1st street. This is the same block that Death by Audio and Glasslands Gallery are on, if you have been to those places. If you are taking the subway, this place is closest to the Bedford Avenue L train or the Marcy Ave. J-M train. All the tickets for this event have been snatched up, so apologies if you wanted to come! So yeah, to recap -

TITUS ANDRONICUS! REAL ESTATE!
JULIAN LYNCH! ANDREW CEDERMARK!
NJ IN NYC FOR NYE! NOW HAPPENING AT:
285 KENT AVENUE!
8 PM! ALL AGES! SOLD OUT!

For more info, visit ToddPNYC.com. See you tonight!

Yr friend,
Patrick

A+ Gold Star

2010-12-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. My brother brought this video to my attention - an exercise in 'kinetic typography' made by a young man named Andy Gattis for his course, 'Motion Graphics,' at the University of North Florida. Pretty cool, I say! Bravo, Andy! Check it out.

A More Perfect Union by Titus Andronicus - Kinetic Typography from Andy Gattis on Vimeo.

That was awesome! Okay, that's it.

Yr friend,
Patrick

The Final (Half) Hour Approacheth

2010-12-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hey folks. As you may have heard, if you really have yr ear to the ground on this crazy internet, there is forthcoming a new episode of universally acclaimed web series Titus TV. The final chapter of the series from hot young filmmaker/master of the library sciences Alex Tretiak of Glen Rock, NJ, it is called 'Ted Leo Strikes Back.' Here is the bone-chilling trailer:

It is fitting that this should be the final episode should chronicle our June 2009 tour with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, as the very first episode of the show detailed a tour that we did in Autumn of 2008 which was intended to be with TL/RX, but ended up being lonely and soul-crushing - here is the trailer for that saga.

Coming very full circle, no? Episode five should be online within the next couple of weeks. Keep yr eyes on this site for further info. Embedded below is the first episode of Titus TV, "Absolute Zero," conveniently divided into three manageable parts, to bring you up to speed. Enjoy!

Yr friend,
Patrick

TITUS TV EPISODE ONE: ABSOLUTE ZERO

And one more thing - NYE

2010-12-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

Remember how I told you guys we would announce more shows soon? Well, that day came a lot sooner than I thought - in fact, it is today. So, we hereby invite all of you to help us ring in the New Year with an indie rock blowout at the Ridgewood Masonic Temple in Brooklyn, NY with the greatest all-star cast of upper Central-Western Bergen County, New Jersey ever assembled. Besides ourselves, Titus Andronicus, we will be joined by Glen Rock's own Andrew Cedermark; Ridgewood will be represented by the twin pillars of modern relaxation excellence, Real Estate and Julian Lynch. Jesus Christ - Jersey is TAKING OVER, baby! People from all these bands went to high school together, you see, but these particular four bands have never, ever played a show together, so perhaps it will be good for us to look back to the early '00s as we stride forward confidently into the teens. This show will be presented by Todd P.

So yeah, to recap - NEW YEAR'S EVE! RIDGEWOOD MASONIC TEMPLE! BROOKLYN, NY! TODD P PRESENTS TITUS ANDRONICUS/REAL ESTATE/JULIAN LYNCH/ANDREW CEDERMARK! FIFTEEN BUCKS! ALL AGES! 8 PM! WOW!!!!! JERSEY ROCKS!!!!!!

Coming Up Threes, plus Viva Ybor City

2010-12-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. We are back home now after a very magical and memorable weekend in Florida at the Tampa AM skateboarding extravaganza, but more about that later. The previous weekend was yet more magical, as we made our first visit to Ireland and took in its many charms. We got to ride a boat as a band for the first time, most certainly a great rite of passage (literally). We had our spirits stirred by news of one of Ireland's largest ever demonstrations, where some 50,000 citizens took to the streets to demand more equitable treatment from their government, or so I understood it. We emerged from the musty heat emanating off of the rowdy and lovely Dublin audience to the bitter cold of that city's lowest recorded temperatures ever, a triumph of Old Man Winter punctuated with a heavy snowfall just as we had to make our departure from the club. Wild stuff. A scenic drive through the majestic Irish landscape followed the next day, as we journeyed to Cork. Still more warm friendship and generosity to be found there. The less said about our arduous journey back to America the better, but certainly a memorable experience, to visit the land of mine and Dave's ancestors, and a place whose musical spirit has been a constant source of inspiration.

Speaking of beloved music from Ireland, we are thrilled beyond words to reveal that in March of the New Year, we will embark on a short tour supporting The Pogues, culminating in a St. Patrick's Day concert in NYC. Wow, what to say about an impending honor such as this? I have read a lot in the papers that Titus Andronicus might very possibly get many of their ideas from the Pogues, and their is no denying a certain truth to these allegations. So yeah - pretty fucking psyched about that! The dates are these:

3/3/2011 - Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre
3/4/2011 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Theatre
3/7/2011 - Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head
3/8/2011 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
3/11/2011 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
3/12/2011 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
3/15/2011 - New York City, NY - Terminal 5
3/17/2011 - New York City, NY - Terminal 5

Yes, very exciting prospect indeed. Why not join me in my excitement about this seminal band and check them out in the below video, playing "I Fought the Law" with yr boy Joe Strummer. Neat!

It is convenient for me that March 10th happened to be a day off on this schedule, for that night, a band calling itself 'Crass' is going to be having a concert at Santo's Party House. Further research has shown that while Steve Ignorant is the singer of this band and they do play Crass songs, the other four members weren't members of 'Crass' as such from 1977-1984, the time period which is the focus of the current group's repertoire. Is this going to be good? Probably! I mean, come on. The music of Crass is no artifact, not something to gather dust in some stuffy punk museum - we should all get together and enjoy it and listen to this guy sing it! Right? At the same time, Crass always had kind of a "fuck-the-past" sort of attitude, which may have been a big part of what made them great - can a version of the band looking to the past have the same effect? Or does the appearance of a band like this really demand that we take pains to contextualize it, or is it possible for us to accept the performance on its own merits, as songs about human issues being sung in an effort to increase critical thinking? Or are we so jaded by this point that any sort of revisiting (or revising?) history tour that we have to dismiss it outright as just another 'crass' [tee hee] capitalist money-grab?' Is that something that somebody like Steve Ignorant would do? Would that take away from the power of Crass' songbook if it was? I dunno, lots of questions, not a lot of answers. All will be revealed though, and I am pumped.

Speaking of bands that have returned after long hiatuses (hiati?), one of the most magical elements of our Florida getaway was the presence of the seminal indie rockers Superchunk, with whom we played, along with Florida punks New Bruises, at a place called Czar Ybor. These folks really knew how to kick ass, and we were fortunate to get to hang out with them a little bit and food them a quite good-hearted and amicable sort. Another band that I was thinking about this weekend was the Hold Steady, who, as you may know, set a lot of their greatest songs in Ybor City, which appeared to us this weekend as sort of a Florida version of the Jersey Shore, a true party paradise. Anyway, with all these thoughts swimming around, upon arriving back home, I spent yesterday afternoon recording this song, a cover of a Hold Steady song in the style of Superchunk. Sounds sensible, no? This particular song is called 'Crucifixion Cruise,' from their 2005 album Separation Sunday. I know that this is the internet and you guys like up-to-the-minute content, so please enjoy.

Speaking of people whose integrity was apparent, at the skate contest, a group called Girls Riders Organization had a table at the event, and were hard to work trying to make the skateboarding world a more inclusive place, besides providing resources for some fun arts and crafts. Perhaps you could look at their website, GirlRiders.org, to learn more, if you are so inclined.

Okay, I guess that is all for just now. We shall have some more announcements soon, about shows and stuff, and there are plenty of others things to discuss too. Until then!

Yr friend,
Patrick

New viral video, housing update

2010-11-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. By now, you have surely heard about Kanye West's "secret show" at Brooklyn Bowl a few weeks back, and were impressed to hear about how Titus Andronicus played at the show also (since immortalized by the good people at Pitchfork.com in six fancy angles)? I know what yr thinking - "Man, I thought Titus Andronicus was cool before, but playing at a secret Kanye show? That is cooler than a polar bear in a refrigerator."

Yes, I thought so too, but then I learned about another surprise Kanye performance, this time on a plane . Titus Andronicus did not perform on this plane - in fact, we weren't invited to participate in any way! All right, Kanye - you thought that Titus Andronicus wasn't going to get a piece of this action? Guess again!

Truth is, this is the perfect opportunity for us to throw our hat into the viral video ring, so please, check out the below video, produced just this morning by Eric and myself, and marvel at the grace and ease with which Titus Andronicus navigates disparate corners of our modern media. Feel free to "tweet" or "like" this video or whatever else in our quest to reach one million views!

As long as we are talking, let me take the opportunity to thank all the good people who have offered to put us up during our forthcoming UK travels. We still have a few holes, though - we desperately need shelter in NEWCASTLE, SHEFFIELD, and CORK! Can you help please? Let me remind you, that if you agree to invite us to yr house as yr guest, YOU will be invited to the show as OUR guest, that is, FOR FREE! You can bring a couple friends too. What a deal! Please e-mail TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com if you can help.

Okay, great! That's all for today - you guys take care now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Overseas

2010-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

We seriously need places to stay, Please email us Titusandronicustheband@gmail.com

Whoever invites us over to sleep at their house gets into the show for free

Upcoming northeast shows

2010-10-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

In Recognition of Labor Day

2010-09-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of our friends at PBS

Reminder: NAG Benefit @ Glasslands tomorrow

2010-08-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hey gang. This is just to remind you that we will be performing tomorrow night at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, near the intersection of s 2nd and kent, just around the corner from Death by Audio. The concert is a benefit for a very admirable organization of local activists called Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, or NAG for short, who have been protecting North Brooklyn from the cruel march of "progress" for sixteen years now, whether taking the form of their legendary battle with and victory over a garbage incinerator to the contemporary concern of greedy over-development and so forth. A very worthy cause indeed, say we. Learn more about the group at their website, nag-brooklyn.org. We will be performing with Bad Credit No Credit, one of the scene's very finest up-and-coming bands, and Bottle Up & Go, who I don't really know anything about, but I am sure they are very good. As this is, for all intents and purposes, the first show of our Fall 2010 North American tour, it will be yr first opportunity to observe our up-to-date repertoire; forgotten favorites will abound, the perfect antidote, we hope, to all you who grow weary of the same old T. Andronicus setlist. Tickets will be fifteen dollars, the entire proceeds going to NAG. You can buy tickets here if you are really feeling saucy. The show is for people twenty-one and over - sorry, we know that is lame, but that is the rule at Glasslands, and if you underagers really want to see us, there are still plenty of tickets left for our show at Webster Hall on the 25th of September. Okay, great. See you tomorrow night!
Yr friend,
Patrick

TV Party

2010-08-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. It is with great wonder that we announce to you now that our humble rock and roll band will performing this Thursday night on reputable network television program Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Yes, for three and a half glorious minutes, Titus Andronicus will invade the living rooms of America, sweep out all the cobwebs of our bankrupt society and replace them with the seeds of a glimmering punk utopia. Right? The show will air on the National Broadcasting Company, which was Channel 4 the last time I checked, at 12:30 am - also appearing will be "Rescue Me" star and singer-songwriter behind perrenial classic "Asshole," Dennis Leary, a man as smart and funny as Dennis Miller and as subversive and challenging as Timothy Leary, or something like that.

So yeah - that should be pretty interesting. You can be a part of this historic event too, if you so please. There is such a thing on the show as a "band bench," I have learned - the musicians perform on a stage which is unlike the stages we usually perform on, in that there is standing room for the audience above, rather than below, the performer. It can be you that has this bird's eye view on the proceedings, if you follow the instructions at this here website. I encourage strongly all of you Titus Andronicus fans to join in, lest we be surrounded by ambivalent tourists fresh out of Mars 2112 or the ESPN Zone or whatever it is.

I'll say this about Jimmy Fallon. He was never exactly my favorite Saturday Night Live cast member (though he certainly got his share of chuckles out of me) and I don't like how he made fun of my favorite local coffee shop, Cafe Grumpy (where I sit even as we speak), when they made available a $12 cup of coffee (as though he had never spent as much or more on an equally or more frivoulous item, but I guess that's comedy, right?). He did do one thing, though, that I thought was pretty remarkable. Remember the big fuss back in 2008 when the race for the White House was in full swing, Tina Fey did her seminal impression of Sarah Palin, and a lot of people theorized that this impression, as it was so convincing, did much to sway the public's perception of the real Sarah Palin? And remember how this raised so many questions about our post-modern condition and the ever-widening gap between public perception and reality and all this? Well, that was certainly an impressive feat by Tina Fey, but I believe that Jimmy Fallon did it first, albeit on a smaller scale - think of him as John the Baptist to Fey's Jesus. I am referring, of course, to the classic Celebrity Jeopardy skit wherein Fallon played Adam Sandler. This is a post-modern quaqmire to begin with, as Sandler too was an SNL cast member, and it could easily be argued that Fallon was his aesthetic successor. What made this skit, and Fallon's performance, so special was how, to my friends and I, at least, it successfully inserted itself into the "Sandler canon," if you will. I speak not of his films or his many great sketches on SNL or even his underrated and still-enjoyable comedy albums, but rather, the long, rich succession of one-liners and catch phrases, which have been repeated ad infinitum by youngsters for decades now. There are too many to list, but you know what I am talking about - "That's something that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!" "That's quacktastic!" or even the humble, "GOOO!" In today's world, where Twitter and Facebook and all of our "youth technologies" scramble to compress our Earthly existence into bite-sized, instantly digestable nuggets, perhaps it is this sort of canon that will be the greatest indicator of an "artist's" success. Anyway. Fallon, as Sandler, had two dynamite moments - the first was when he said, in a voice which began in a bumbling mumble and crescendoed into a manic bellow in classic Sandler fashion, "One time I was out with my friends on a boat and this guy on the boat was, like, 'COME TO THE BACK OF THE BOAT!'" The second was his answer in Final Jeopardy - "Abby dooby." Both these things are funny things to say, in their own right, and can stand alone as funny things, but in the years that followed, as my friends and I indulged in our favorite Adam Sandler quotes, it was easier to insert these particular "Sandler" quotes, even though Sandler himself had never spoken them - they became as common as "Nudie magazine day!" or "He spit in the cooler." I guess the point I am trying to make is this - when James Bond says something like, "You know what I can do with my little finger," it doesn't really matter that much whether it is Daniel Craig saying it or Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery or whoever else, in much the same way that when "Sarah Palin" says something foolish on Saturday Night Live, it might not make much of a difference to the public whether it was Sarah Palin or Tina Fey saying it, just as it didn't matter whether it was Sandler or Fallon doing "Sandler." Is it true that actors, or any public figures, though they are human beings, are becoming characters? Becoming recognizable "brands" that are not necessarily attached for all time to their human progenitors? It would seem that Jimmy Fallon proved it was so, by doing "Sandler" as well as Sandler, by the standards of the "canon" discussed above. Whoo, kind of a roundabout way to say that, no?

Speaking of Tina Fey, there is something I have been meaning to tell you for a while. On an episode of "30 Rock" from last season, entitled "Argus," the Jenna Maroney character describes a new boyfriend, saying that he "works for a bankrupt circus." This immediately brought to mind the Silver Jews song "Horseleg Swastikas," from their great 2001 album Bright Flight
, wherein David Berman sings of "working for a bankrupt circus on the wrong side of Saturday Night." Of course, I immediately reached out to my pal Andrew Cedermark, who is as much of a Silver Jews fan as myself, and pointed out that David Berman and Tina Fey had in common the distinction of having graduated from the University of Virginia, he in 1989, and she in 1992, making for one year of them sharing the campus. Did they ever meet? Ever develop a friendship? Or perhaps even a romance? Or did Tina Fey learn of Berman as a common UVA grad and develop a long-lasting appreciation for the Silver Jews that would result in such an allusion? Maybe none of these things, and it is just a coincidence. I dunno, just something to think about.

Okay, so, what else is going on. Thanks to all of you for snatching up all the tickets to our show with Free Energy at Maxwell's on the 19th of August. With luck, we'll soon surpass Luna as the Band to Have Sold Out the Second Most Shows at Maxwell's (no sense in trying to compete with Yo La Tengo). There are still tickets available for our August 18th show at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, where we will play with Bad Credit No Credit and Bottle Up and Go. The show is a benefit for Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, so please come and support this very worthy cause.

Still more tickets are available yet for our show at Webster Hall on September 25th. This show is also with Free Energy, and the last show where we will potentially be selling a limited-edition, tour-only seven inch, which has us on one side and Free Energy on the other. Our contribution is a cover of "Anixety Block" by Television Personalities, from their wonderfully rewarding record They Could've Been Bigger than the Beatles, while Free Energy gives us their version of the highly underrated Bruce Springsteen tune "I'm Going Down," from the nigh-perfect B-side of Born In the USA (Sorry, Sarim, but "My Hometown" is just not it). I think there are going to be, like, three to five hundred of these things. Surely no record collection will be complete without one. This is an exciting prospect, though listening to our side makes me a little sad, for it is one of just two recordings made by the short-lived Titus Andronicus 4.0, which included Andrew Cedermark and Ian O'Neil on guitars. Man, imagine what that group might have accomplished. Oh well, onward and upward.

All right, I guess that is all for now. Must go and meet my friend Kevin, for an afternoon of playing Guitar Hero. Woo hoo! See you soon.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Summer Wears Pt. 1

2010-07-07T16:28:00.001-07:00

The untold story of last nights Wavves' afterparty @ Shea Stadium

2010-06-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, gang - if you guys keep up with the blogs that talk about indie rock and the like, maybe you have heard about how last night's party at Shea Stadium, celebrating the success of the performance by Wavves, Dom and Cloud Nothings at the Knitting Factory earlier that evening, hit an enormous snag when some rascal threw a bottle off of Shea's scenic balcony and shattered the back window of a police car. Believe it or not, I was scheduled to act as a DJ at this party, sharing wheels-of-steel duties with Ryan Schrieber of Pitchfork Media fame. I arrived late due to various public transit mishaps, as the police were seemingly just cooling down from their earlier rage(and who could really blame them?), and were on their way out. It looked at this point like the party might be DOA - the organizers were unsure if there was going to be any sort of DJing at all, which was annoying to me because I had schlepped all of my pedals and my four track and so on (I use these when I DJ, for reasons that are still unclear) all the way from Greenpoint, which isn't the end of the world or anything, but not the sort of thing I do at one am for my health. Whatever the fate of the party, those few who were still in attendance seemed to be in a big hurry to get out. Before long, Shea Stadium held probably not more than ten or twelve humans, myself included, and Ryan Schrieber was nowhere to be seen.

Once things were quiet and peaceful enough, Adam Riech, the great guy who runs the space, allowed me to set up my stuff, probably mostly out of pity, and I did my thing for about twenty minutes to an audience of maybe four or five. Ryan Schrieber turned up again too, and spun a good mix of 80's and early 90's indie classics, leaning heavily on ethical punk - "Merchandise," "Rebel Girl," "This Ain't No Picnic," etc. The six or seven people listening to him looked to be having a great time, and even I couldn't deny it when he dropped "Self Esteem" by the Offspring at around 4 am or so. That song is just timeless.

Adam, Alex from the So So Glos and I talked for a long time that night about how much it sucks when people try and do good things for the kids, only to have one of those kids end up pissing all over it and ruining it for everybody, and I suppose I could go on and on about how the kids are all such dumbasses and want nothing more than to act as such and start trouble even though they have great guys like Adam doing so much to entertain them, but, well, hasn't that already been said time and again? [Also, wow, what a run-on sentence! Been reading too much William Faulkner, or just a dumbass myself?]

So, in the name of focusing on the positive, let me share with you some of the happy memories I have of that evening - clicking the link below will allow you to download a recording of my set which I did on the aforementioned tape recorder. Music by Professor Green, Ben Kweller, Surfer Blood, Weezer, EMF and Barenaked Ladies, spoken word by Tracy Morgan, from his awesome audiobook, I Am the New Black. Live "remixing" by yr boy. I also included, as a special bonus, a cover version of "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC that I performed this afternoon at Shea for an audience of just two - Eric and Sean, two of the people behind the great internet TV series The Flavorpill Fix.

Patrick Stickles Live @ Shea Stadium

Point is, don't be afraid of Shea Stadium! It is a great place to hang out and enjoy yrself, and we can have it to enjoy if only we show the minimum of necessary respect to Adam and all the other people who help run the space, the neighbors, and the fuzz. It isn't that hard, you dumb kids! Why not let the healing begin tonight? The So So Glos, the Beets, Asa Ransom and Electric Tickle Machine are all playing, and one other band too, I think. Don't forget either about seeing our main man Andrew Cedermark play there tomorrow night, along with our other big bro Ducktails. Go there with an open heart and even the littlest bit of basic human decency, and you will have the time of yr life, believe me.

Okay, that's it for now. See you tomorrow at Newtown Barge Park, right?

Yr friend,
Patrick

The MONITOUR Phase Four: "A New Birth of Free(Energy)dom," plus Phase Three and other Friendship Updates

2010-06-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

Hello dear friends. It is our distinct pleasure, this day, to announce what will likely be the last leg of the proper "Monitour," the ongoing promotional exercise behind our latest record, The Monitor. Monitor + tour = "Monitour," remember? Thus far, it has taken us all over these United States, and over a reasonable chunk of Western Europe, and this Autumn, we will fumble across the beautiful American landscape once more to entertain you. A daunting task, we know, for yr palate is sophisticated and yr standards elevated. You deserve the best, and happily for us, we have been able to enlist five of the most entertaining and straight up party rocking young people in all of rock and roll to travel with us and spread the good news about the electric guitar. Who could I be referring to but Philadelphia's number one neo-classic rockers Free Energy?

Our relationship with Free Energy goes all the way back to the Autumn of 2009, when we had just completed our "Bring on the Dudes" tour with our BFFs the So So Glos. We agreed to tack on a show at Georgetown University in DC at the end of the tour. Naturally, after forty or so days of slugging it out on the American indie rock circuit (and putting up with all the SSG's antics), we were dead tired and ready for an evening of zombie-esque behavior. This was until the opening act at the show, a group we had never heard of before and assumed must have been made up of Georgetown students who tinkered with guitars between their Poli-Sci midterms or whatever, began kicking out the tastiest grooves and melting our faces with the sort of badass guitar wizardry that we had always assumed to be only the stuff of legend.

Mutterings of, "Hey, these guys aren't bad," quickly turned into MySpace visits during personal time, which turned into the Free Energy MySpace becoming the official party playlist of me and my roommates, to breathlessly anticipated concerts at Brooklyn Bowl, to show-flier-on-the-refrigerator declarations of superfandom. Next thing I knew, I was waiting on line for the bathroom at the Rolling Stone SXSW showcase gushing to Paul, their singer, about how much Free Energy, and especially their self-titled anthem, had taken over my music-listening life. That night, Titus Andronicus 6.0 forged our friendship forever in the fires of a Free Energy dance-a-thon. Here's a video of them doing their thing that magical night, along with an informative interview.

Soon, an advance cassette of their fantastic debut, Stuck on Nothing, was on permanent rotation in Blue Thunder, a rare-consensus builder in the often highly partisan world of Titus Andronicus Van Music Selection. Endless debates about the true meaning of the lyrics to "Bang Pop" (Suicide? Achieving long-sought sexual nirvana by doing it with an alien? Innocent popcorn making?) ensued, and before long, I would put money on the Titus Andronicus chapter of the Free Energy Fan Club being among the most active and enthusiastic. Stuck on Nothing was indisputably THE soundtrack of the first phase of our MONITOUR, and now for the last, we have the men that made it. Absolutely fantastic. Here are the dates - those were Free Energy will join us are marked with an asterix.

08-21 Boston, MA - Royale *
08-22 Montreal, Quebec - Il Motore *
08-23 Ottowa, Ontario - Mavericks *
08-25 Ithaca, NY - Castaways *
08-26 Columbus, OH - Summit
08-27 Toledo, OH - Mickey Finn's
08-28 St. Louis, MO - LouFest
08-29 Memphis, TN - Hi Tone
08-30 Little Rock, AR - Rev Room
08-31 Dallas, TX - Sons of Hermann Hall
09-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - Biltmore Cabaret *
09-11 Portland, OR - Backspace / MusicFest NW
09-12 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
09-13 Boise, ID - Neurolux *
09-14 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
09-15 Denver, CO - Bluebird
09-16 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room *
09-17 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
09-19 Newport, KY - Southgate House *
09-20 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
09-21 Durham, NC - Duke Coffeehouse *
09-22 Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theatre *
09-23 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *
09-24 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel *

We have some more of these to announce soon, so don't get yr knickers in a twist if it doesn't seem like we are coming to yr town - it is definitely within the realm of possibility that we have a few more tricks up our sleeve, and we are just unable to talk about it right now for whatever silly reason that probably doesn't have anything to do with indie rock. Soon enough, my pretties.

Information about any age restrictions on these shows can be found on our MySpace. The shows in Atlanta, Boise and San Francisco are 21+, a fact of which we are not proud and somewhat ashamed, but I am afraid there is very little that we can do about it. Underagers, don't worry - we are going to half ass those performances big time (Hey, legal adults - I am just kidding, we are gonna rock), so don't sweat it. Any other age restrictions would be in the 18+ category, or 19+ in Canada. The shows in Toledo, Newport, and Durham can all be yrs for less than ten dollars. I put the ticket prices up on MySpace as well, but they are all for the advance sales - if you buy yrs the day of the show, it may be two dollars more. I don't know, man - data entry is pretty soul-destroying, and the new interface for entering show info on MySpace is way shittier than the old one was. Also, isn't it funny that the only way I can think to make a difference in that sphere is to start a FACEBOOK group called "Bring back the old MySpace show info entry interface" or something? The world, circa 2010, is a bizarre and often frightening place.

Well, as long as we are talking about tour dates and bands that we love, let's speak a little bit about the little-blogged Phase Three of the MONITOUR, which doesn't really have a funny name like the other three did. I can only be so funny, you know? Anyway, this leg of the tour is going to be an especially short one, but especially epic in spite of its brevity, for we are going to be joined by some of our oldest associates, Boston's finest indie rock band Hallelujah the Hills. We have been tight with Jah Hills for a few years now, and various members have made considerable contributions to both The Monitor and The Airing of Grievances, but we've only played together a handful of times - at South Union Arts in Chicago on our first tour ever, at a Brooklyn DIY space called Loftasaurus Rex, a bowling alley in Jamaica Plain, and twice at Great Scott in Allston, MA, once in 2008 with Times New Viking and earlier this year with the Babies. Thankfully, this year's Pitchfork Festival gave us just the push we needed to correct this flaw of history. All the below dates will feature Hallelujah the Hills both as the opening act (save for the P4k Festival itself), and as auxiliary members of Titus Andronicus, helping to give a touch of class to our sound by means of cello, trumpet, and additional luxurious keyboards. Whoa, that is gonna be sick.

07-10 New Haven, CT - Lily's Pad
07-11 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
07-12 Albany, NY - Valentines
07-13 Buffalo, NY - Ninth Ward
07-14 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
07-15 Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection Lounge
07-16 Chicago, IL - Subterranean (Pitchfork Music Festival Afterparty)
07-17 Chicago, IL - Pitchfork Music Festival

It is fitting for Jah Hills to join us for these dates, as they have long been ardent supporters of and allies to our cause. On a personal note, you may have heard that the narrative of The Monitor deals in part with a period in my life when I lived in Somerville, MA, a town typically lumped into Greater Boston. Well, this is true, and when I lived there, the men of Hallelujah the Hills were very literally my only friends. It was actually pretty pathetic. Actually, it was awesome, because they are great guys - they even allowed me to play some relatively un-classy guitar on their fantastic song "You Better Hope You (Die Before Me)," on their most recent album, Colonial Drones, recorded at the Soul Shop in Medford, where bits of The Monitor was recorded and... well, I could go on and on and on, weaving a dense and intricate web to illustrate to you just how interconnected Titus Andronicus and Hallelujah the Hills have been and will be, but by now, you probably get the picture. Take this shit seriously - Jah Hills obviously are, as they have posted two new songs for you to download for free in preparation for yr mind to be blown by them at the aforementioned concerts. If you decide you really love it, they are playing headlining concerts at Great Scott in Allston on 7/8 and Union Hall in Brooklyn on 7/9. Get on it!

All right, as we start to wind down this blog, let me remind you that this coming Saturday, we in Titus Andronicus will be performing at the annual Northside Festival, which celebrates all things North Brooklyn (or NoBro, as I have taken to calling it) and indie rock. If you haven't already heard, we will be playing the first ever concert at Greenpoint's Newtown Barge Park with Cults and our big homies Male Bonding, who really lived up to the promise of their name and became our dear friends upon running into them several times on our last Euro Trip. Did I forget to drop a "Hot Video Alert" on their jam, "Year's Not Long?" Well, if I did, then fucking Hot Video Alert!

Extra props for making optimal use of indie rock sex symbol extraordinaire Juan Vigoda, as you've never seen (but definitely imagined) him before. Yum! Anyway, that show is gonna be sick. It starts at 1:00 PM, because at 4:00 PM, we gotta hand over the reins to the still-undisputed kings (and queen) of twenty-first-century punk rock, Fucked Up, who are doing a show of their own at the very same location with Liars and High Places. Neat!

Don't stay too long though, because two of the most luminous graduates of the mid-'00s Bergen County scene are playing at Brooklyn's Shea Stadium that night, erstwhile TA guitarist and best bro for life Andrew Cedermark, and Ridgewood, NJ's Matthew Mondanile, aka DuckTails. Don't get caught sleeping on that show! Get jazzed about it by watching this video of Andrew and his crack band, Buffalo Wild Wing, playing "Ad Infinitum," the opening salvo from his forthcoming debut LP, Moon Deluxe. I remember fondly playing the keyboards on this song in a short-lived, Andrew-fronted band called The Mighty Oak way way back in 2006. Those were the days. So young and beautiful, we were. Anyway.

I feel like I am going to have a lot more to say about Andrew soon, which is probably going to fit into some larger discussion of my friends from high school and what their music has meant to me throughout the years and what it has come to mean now and will mean in the future and so on... who knows. Point is - go to that concert. Hell, go to all three of those concerts. Also, the So So Glos play Shea the night before - go to that too. Might have something to announce for the night before THAT, as well, though not any sort of Titus Andronicus concert or anything.

All right, that is more than enough for now. See you on Saturday! Take care.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Additional entertainment

2010-05-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot - you have probably been listening to The Monitor non-stop for about two months now, and The Airing of Grievances for about two years, stopping only to listen to The Monitor, and, well, you are probably understandably exhausted. Happily, two "new" (or new-ish) packages of Titus Andronicus music ae now available for you, for free!

Firstly, the internet's greatest Titus Andronicus website TitusAndronic.Us has posted for download a compilation of some "rarities" - b-sides, songs from out-of-print seven inches, live recordings, etc., from our early years entitled The Feats of Strength. This is funny for me, because every holiday, my cousin Connor suggests to me that The Feats of Strength has to be the name of our next album. Now I finally have a proper excuse for him! Frankly, part of me wishes at least one of the songs on this compilation would have never seen the light of day (cuz it suxx), but that is okay. It is still cool. It sort of reminds me of Naked Baby Photos by Ben Folds Five, although it doesn't have any songs as good as "The Ultimate Sacrifice." Download the compilation here, and tell all yr friends, "See? I told you they sucked!"

A slightly more up-to-date representation of the sort of noises we make has been made available by that always great internet resource NYC Taper. This great guy made a good quality recording of our most recent show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ, and you can download it here. It has all the hits on it, and us playing "Waking Up Drunk" by the Spider Bags WITH the Spider Bags! Neat! One disclaimer: on the site, it says that I told Greg (the NYC taper himself) that this show would be a good one to record. That wasn't what I said. What I said was that the show was probably going to be a lot better sounding than the last one that he taped, which sounded like shit. Don't go looking for that one. You should peruse the site though, and check it frequently - great recordings get posted all the time. I am especially fond of listening to their recording of our pals the Babies at Glasslands a few months ago. Great!

Of course, all this is moot until you get yr fill of watching the new Free Energy video, which, if you are like me, will be never. Great video? Or greatest video? Both, of course!

Bang Pop

FREE ENERGY | MySpace Music Videos

These guys are opening for Juliette Lewis in Paris tonight, something we did last night. I could say a lot of stuff about that concert, and I really want to, but I won't. Okay, gotta go now. Take care.

Yr friend,
Patrick

MONITOUR spiel pt. 2, plus North American YouTube Wrap-Up

2010-05-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. Greetings from Ghent, Belgium. I know it has been a long time since we have spoken here - some 55 days or so. It isn't because I don't care about you - things have just been busy lately, and time is always finding new and better ways of slipping through my fingers. I'm sorry - I shall try to be more dilligent. I have detailed some of our adventures in a tour diary for the website of Paste magazine - you can read the most recent of those (which itself isn't all that recent) here. I will write another one soon to close the book on the tour that it is concerned with, which I would just do now, but this Belgian keyboard on which I am typing has got me totally baffled, mostly because the A is where I think the Q should be, and vice versa. Crazy! Should you ever get tired of waiting for me to get it together, our always quotable guitarist Amy has got plenty of her thoughts flooding the internet these days - you can hear a lot more about our adventures, among other things, by reading her Twitter or Tumblr. Hey, those two words kind of sound alike! I wonder. She also made a very fine record called "For the Sky" under the name Solanin which you can listen to and learn all about here. Yes, Amy's control of the internet is truly masterful, though she doesn't embed enough YouTube videos for my taste. After all, isn't that what blogging is really all about?

So, as I said, we are in Belgium now. Ghent is a nice city, a college town; some 60,000 students live and learn here. Probably a nice place to do so - lots of nice castles and old churches and other such architectural jewels. I got the pleasure of listening to two older gentlemen, who had a violin and an accordion, play such chestnuts as "Down by the Riverside" and "If I Were A Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof - very pleasant listening. I also saw some kids fencing in full regalia - that is something young kids do over here, it seems! Our concert here last night was kinda cool. We played with a local band of youths who called themselves the Curvy Cuties Fanclub. Here is a video of them playing their song, "Nasty Sound."

We have been on this continent for about a week now. We arrived in London a few days prior to any scheduled concerts, onstensibly to speak to the press or something, though very little like that actually materialized (priceless video-game playing-ti,e squandered!). We did, however, go to see a concert by popular British rock group the Big Pink. You have to understand - the Big Pink's knob-twiddler or "electronics player," or "Knight of the Square Table," as our boy Pete would call him, is one of the owners of our British record label, Merok, and so when we are in London, he generously lets us stay at his house in Dallston (where Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher of Crass apparently now live, though I haven't seen either of them around). So yeah - we went to go see the Big Pink play at this greqt big concert hall and there were lots and lots of strobe lights and fog machines and all that sorta thing. It was pretty cool when they covered "100%" by Sonic Youth, so here is a video of them doing just that, though at a different concert.

The real news of our stay in London, though, was Double Dagger, beloved heroes of Baltimore and truly one of the greatest punk bands in the world. Of late, I have been enormously enjoying their new EP, Masks, available now from the good people at Thrill Jockey. In what is becoming a recurring motif, it is another massive leap forward in DubbDagg's artistry, simultaneously growing in both melodicism and intensity, with their messages becoming directer and more effective. All in all, a great little slab of badass rock. As happy as I was to welcome this music into my life, I was equally upset to learn that I had recently slept on a DubbDagg concert at Death by Audio which occurred a couple of weeks ago, so when I found out that we would have the opportunity to see the band make their London debut on one of the nights where we had no other obligations, of course I just about jumped out of my skin with excitement. Indeed, they did not disappoint. The whole climate of the performance was exemplary of DubbDagg's magical powers - the audience started out happy to reinforce stereotypes of London punters, with their arms-folding, "prove it" sort of attitude, but between the gnarly riffs and Nolen's extremely confrontational stage presence, it wasn't long at all before the room was a tornado of sweaty glee. Mirabile visu! Truly, Double Dagger doesn't take "no" for an answer, and thank God for that. Besides that, the company of the men in the band was as pleasurable as ever (did you forget that Nolen designed the artwork for our most recent album?), and we all enjoyed the adventures on the steel wheels of DJ Genuine Guy, who kept us dancing the night away. Awesome. Haven't seen any videos online from this concert, but that is probably because the DubbDagg live experience is so engrossing and visceral that trying to capture it on yr cell phone is as fruitless as trying to catch lightning in a bottle. I did see that someone dared a couple nights previous in Cardiff, so here they are, performing "Surrealist Composition With Your Face," from last year's excellent long-player More.

Speaking of Double Dagger, I saw the film Hype recently, a documentary about the alternative rock explosion that consumed Seattle, WA in the early nineties. Remember that? No, me neither. Anyway, one of the artists featured in the film was a group not from Seattle, but rather Olympia, called Some Velvet Sidewalk. At first glimpse, they seemed to have a lot in common with DubbDagg. Observe:

I had read that in DubbDagg's press materials for Masks, they list 74 bands they have been compared to in the press, so I was sure that I'd find this Some Velvet Sidewalk band somewhere on that list, since the similarities were obvious - manic, bespectacled man fronting a bass-and-drums duo who play badass riffs. They weren't on the list though, so either I was smarter than any journalist on Earth, or there was more to this Some Velvet Sidewalk than met the eye. I did some more research, and it turns out, their other music doesn't really sound like Double Dagger at all, but that is okay, for it totally rocks all the same. You know how indie rock historians are always talking about the Olympia-DC axis? That's fair enough, ideologically speaking, but Some Velvet Sidewalk actually makes noises that suggest a cross-pollination of musical ideas as well. To me, they bridge the K Records and mid-80's Dischord aesthetics pretty seamlessly, combining great earnestness with typical K foppishness... or something like that! Fuck if I know. Their song "Peel" should demonstrate what I mean, in addition to totally rocking you.

Okay, that kicked ass. Speaking of kicking ass, when arriving in the Netherlands, we got to play a show with the Canadian band Think About Life, who I had seen open for Wolf Parade several years earlier. They didn't sound very much the same, but they were still pretty cool, and their singer, Martin, was one of the most affable fellows you'd ever like to meet. What a ray of sunshine that guy was! In honor of his kindness, and in remembrance of the group's earlier sound, now largely abandoned, here's a video of them performing their song "Paul Cries," which used to be my jam back in the day.

A couple of days later, our paths crossed with "alt-bro" phenoms Surfer Blood, which was cool, because we spent a lot of time around the house listening to their record when it came out. Sweet. We played a concert with them in Amsterdam, and a good time was had by all. They were real nice fellows. So young! The world is truly their oyster, and they played a new song which was easily the equal of the material on their album - looks like everything is falling into place for Surfer Blood. Good luck, lads. Here's a video of that new song as performed at the concert.

Well, that's pretty much the scoop. In Paris, we will play a concert with Juliette Lewis, of Natural Born Killers fame. Wild, huh? Before we go though, let me share with you the three most beloved "viral videos" of our North American tour. Man, are they awesome. Enjoy!

3. Slack-Jawed Cat Can't Believe Its Eyes

2. "OOBE: Out of Body Experience" by Joe Sandler

1. "A Glorious Dawn" by Carl Sagan f/ Stephen Hawking

Those videos started out funny, but then they turned out to be just awesomely life-affirming. Fuck yeah. Okay, let's speak soon. Take care now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

MONITOUR Spiel pt. 1, plus Manifest Destiny, plus MONITOUR Phase Three: "Farewell to the Star-Spangled Banner"

2010-03-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hello, my little chickadees. Greetings from West End Espresso and Tea, a very fine coffee shop in the very fine little city of San Luis Obispo, CA. Today is day eighteen of the MONITOUR, which has proven to be every bit the magical adventure that we had been hoping it would be. There is much to cover, so let us not mince words. After all, brevity is the soul of wit, so here we go!

Firstly, it is with enormous excitement that we announce the MONITOUR fulfilling its destiny (its manifest destiny, as it were), for now we can finally declare that we have closed all the gaps in our schedule and made our "childish obsession with not taking days off," as my father calls it, a reality. The final shows added to the MONITOUR itinerary are as follows: On March 29th, we will be playing a house show at 540 Van Buren Street in Eugene, OR. Okay, great! Then, on April 3rd, and this is really fucking awesome, we will be playing at The Retired and Enlisted Association in Rapid City, SOUTH DAKOTA! That's right, baby - we are hitting both Dakotas on this tour. Rapid City is also a short twenty minutes from MOUNT RUSHMORE - hello!! That is going to be the bomb, even if it means two ten hour drives right in a row. Who cares, right? This puts the totality of the American MONITOUR at 54 shows in 48 days. You heard it here first, kids - taking it easy is totally bunk!

Yes, there is no doubt about it - America is a many-splendored paradise. Yet, though we love America the most, we acknowledge the needs of punks the world around to be entertained, and with that, it is our distinct pleasure to announce what will be the final leg of the MONITOUR, roughly two weeks of high-octane rock and roll madness on our second favorite continent, Europe, leading up to and including the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, which we have already heard about (remember? Pavement?). On this tour, we will be taking a couple of days off, because Europe is a huge and baffling continent. Those shows are as follows:

5/15/2010 - Utrecht, ND - Da Helling - Club Radar
5/16/2010 - Rotterdam, ND - Rotown
5/17/2010 - Amsterdam, ND - Bitterzoet (w/Surfer Blood)
5/18/2010 - Gent, Belgium - Charlatan
5/20/2010 - Paris, FR - La Fleche D'or
5/21/2010 - Liverpool, UK - Sound City Festival
5/22/2010 - Glasgow, UK - Stag and Dagger Festival
5/23/2010 - Leeds, UK - Cockpit 2
5/24/2010 - Manchester, UK - Ruby Lounge
5/25/2010 - London, UK - City and Arts Project

and of course...

5/27/2010 - Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival w/ PAVEMENT

Okay, that sounds like it is gonna be a total gas! As is our way, we throw ourselves at yr feet, at the mercy of yr generosity, our European comrades, and ask that perhaps you consider inviting us over to yr house after the show to let us sleep on the floor. Europe is a nice continent, but yr hotels are soul-destroying. If I never set foot in another Etap again, it will be much too soon (although we have stayed at some nice ones in the Netherlands, admittedly). If you can find it in yr heart to assist us in this, we will gladly let you and yr friend come to the show for free. E-mail TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com if you are interested.

Okay, so... what else is going on. As you may know, we began this tour by making a series of appearances in some of America's more admirable independent record stores, and that was a lot of fun. I gotta tell ya, when I was first told about this idea, I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard. Historically, I have always hated playing in record stores - so awkward! I was pretty sure this whole record store trip was going to be pure punishment, but I am happy to admit that I was dead wrong - it was actually a ton of fun! Wheee! Here is us having some of that awesome fun at Ear X-Tacy in Louisville, KY, a great store, and workplace of the friendliest man who has ever lived, our new friend Sean. What up, Sean!!

Yeah, it was pretty fun, all right. Thanks to all the folks who came out to see us, and all the great people at all the stores for treating us with so much kindness and respect. Top drawer, everybody! Another awesome thing was, because we were mostly playing in the afternoon or early evening, our nights were free to do whatever we pleased. This usually meant going to bed at a reasonable hour, but when we were in Chicago, we delighted to learn that our old buddies Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were playing a concert! Thanks to those guys for getting us in and entertaining us so thoroughly. I also had the distinct honor of singing a couple songs with the band, another one of those things that would make my teenage brain explode. Here is the last song of the night, "Angelfuck" by the Misfits, a very appropriate thing since earlier that day, no less a reputable source than the New York Times published a very nice article about the state of indie rock and roll in New Jersey, using our two bands as subjects! Wow! The Misfits are from New Jersey too, you have to understand. Bon appetit:

There is another video floating around the internet of this same crew playing "Merchandise" by Fugazi with this guy named Ralph, but I shall not post that here because Ralph is a much better singer and dancer than myself. A quite similar scenario played itself out the following night in St. Louis, MO, where we played a last-minute, "secret" show with our buddies Deer Tick, starring erstwhile Titus Andronicus guitarist and once-and-future best bro Ian O'Neil. They generously invited me onstage with them to help sing "Authority Song" by John Mellancamp. It looked pretty much exactly like this:

We also played a couple of normal concerts, which were pretty cool too. One of those was in Athens, OH - here's a picture of us just pretty much hanging out there, because that is something which we really do. Hanging out, I mean.

Damn, that shit is real! We played in Tulsa, OK too, which was also cool. After the show, we stayed with some more super-nice acquaintances of ours, Bart and Emily, who were very accommodating, and whose company was extremely agreeable. Serious Titusheads will remember them as the people whose hamster we buried in Episode 4 of Titus TV, "Super Maximum Overdrive." They had a funny ash-tray man made out of a beer can and a bunch of bottle caps, who had a funny penis that could be revealed to hilarious effect. Look at this thing:

They also had a pretty badass tree fort out back, which you can see below, with Ian standing on it like a true king. Dust yr shoulders off, Ian!

So yeah, phase one of the MONITOUR pretty much went like that. Let us move on, then, to that event which indie rocks nationwide look forward to every year with the sort of feverish anticipation usually reserved for kiddies awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus, the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX (hereafter referred to simply as SXSW). We had a lot of fun at this conference last year, but this year was even more of a blast. Is it okay if I tell you all about it now? Okay, I will!

Perhaps the best way to understand our experience objectively would be to read this great article, written by our new friend Patrick Caldwell, which details the excruciating minutae of our daily lives, in this case, on the day of March the 18th. It ran the following day in the Austin Statesman, and there are some cool pictures for you to look at here.

Early that sweltering Texas morning, we had the opportunity to break bread with some of the brass up at Extra Large Recordings, including our main man Kris Chen, who, as luck would have it, was wearing a shirt identical to Ian's! Look at these awesome twins, and understand that much better the strength of our bond.

Another serious highlight of our time in Austin was playing with the great band Free Energy at the Rolling Stone showcase. I have seen them a couple of times previously, but on this night, they were really blazing. Totally awesome. They also hooked us up with a cassette of their fantastic album, Stuck on Nothing, which has gone into extremely heavy rotation in Blue Thunder. I couldn't find any videos of that particular performance, so here is them kicking some other asses at a different show. I mean, it is pretty much the same shit, right? Just enjoy.

I also must say that it was a distinct honor to play not one but two shows with the greatest punk band of our young century, Fucked Up, one of which was their own showcase at Red 7. Maybe the most "fucked up" thing about this band is how nice they are, even though their music is so intense and often terrifying! They really treated us very kindly and had us feeling wicked good following all of our interactions. Thanks, Fucked Up! Annoyingly enough, our busy schedule precluded actually seeing them play at either of the shows we played together, but happily, our ace booking agent John Chavez, who also books FU, was able to get us into their performance at the Fader Fort on Thursday, where we all delighted in seeing them tear it up. Here they are playing "Son the Father," the opening salvo on their brain-melting masterpiece, Chemistry of Common Life.

So, what else did we do... some of the conference's corporate sponsors had some sort of rocker oasis set up on 6th Street, where we were rewarded for a brief interview with all the snacks we could eat and all the ping pong we could play. Here are Amy and Ian going at it:

Sadly, I was too out of breath to enjoy any of this as much as I might have, as I had just run to and from a performance by Demolished Thoughts, an 80's hardcore cover band fronted by Thurston Moore and featuring J Masic and Jonah from Fucked Up on guitar and bass, respectively. Two other people were in the band too, but shit if I know who they were. Here is this awesome band playing "I Hate Sports" by 7 Seconds, from their epochal seven inch, Skins, Brains and Guts.

Back at the place with the ping pong, Eric captured Dave in quite a candid moment of badass behavior, dramatically removing his coat ala Neo from The Matrix. We sure do get a kick out of this picture, and we hope you do, too!

Well, that is enough about that particular conference. Let us discuss the proper tour now. It has been going pretty well, so far. We have been traveling with a very fine band of British youngsters called Let's Wrestle, who are pretty much killing it. They are real nice lads too, even if they WALK AROUND GAS STATION BATHROOMS WITHOUT ANY SHOES OR SOCKS ON! Ewwwwww! So gross! Good band, though. Here is them strutting their stuff at the Bootleg Theater the other night in Los Angeles.

That was a cool show. We actually sold all of the tickets - only the third time that has occured in the history of Titus Andronicus. Thanks, LA! Also, we got to hang out with our man Doug after the show! Shit yeah! Doug is awesome. You might remember him as the fellow who did that stirring reading from Titus Andronicus (the play) on our album, The Airing of Grievances. Yeah, all things considered, it was a pretty fun night. Here is us playing our song "Four Score and Seven" at that very same concert.

Still not convinced this show was good? Okay, fair enough. Before you really make up yr mind though, why not read this quite nice article that ran in the Los Angeles Times the following day? They wouldn't say all these nice things if they weren't true, would they? WOULD THEY?!?!?

Here's some other massive news. The other day, just outsude of Phoenix, AZ, our beloved van, Blue Thunder aka Art Vandelay aka Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj, hit the magic 200,000 mile mark. We celebrated by listening to "Blue Thunder" by Galaxie 500 and doing a van-centric madlib. It was awesome. Here's the proof:

If I had to pick one moment of this tour where I really achieved transcendence, though, it would have to be a few nights ago in El Paso, where we found ourselves playing second on a four band bill, after our pals Let's Wrestle, but before this band called Nice Nice (not named after the club from the Lifter Puller mythology, I found out), who I had never heard of before. Long story short, THEY ARE FUCKING AMAZING. As a guy who has never been shy about his lack of patience with the excessive glut of "drummer and guy with a loop pedal" bands and how they usually suck, I can safely say that this band renders all those others moot and quadruple-handedly justifies the whole genre. Also, they use their technical virtuosity for good rather than evil, which is just unheard of. I will not bother trying to describe their music, as it was wild, nor shall I plug any record by them, as they truly have to be seen to be believed. They look like this:

Man, they rock. All right, well, I have to go and meet the others at the San Luis Obispo Arts Center to prepare to attempt to rock the faces off of whatever punks happen to show up. Why are we working so hard, you ask? Well, isn't it obvious?

BALLIN'!!! Okay, talk to you kids later. Stay safe.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Dreams come true

2010-03-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

First of all, a super big thank you to all the good people who made this Saturday's record release show the second-ever Titus Andronicus headlining appearance to sell all of its tickets! And a full two days in advance! Unbelievable. If only my teenage self could see me now, he whose life was so transformed within the walls of the Bowery Ballroom by the likes of the Arcade Fire and Ted Leo/RX and the Fiery Furnaces and Against Me! and all the other greats bands that me and my buddies have seen there. In fact, you all deserve two thank you's, since I promised myself that if that show sold out, I would buy myself a Playstation 2 (yes, 2 - the place isn't that big). Liberty City, here I come!

Speaking of my wildest dreams coming to brilliant life, could that version of myself, who, at sixteen, was never far from his Discman (remember those?) with the ever-present Slanted and Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, ever imagine that this summer Titus Andronicus would be playing with PAVEMENT not once but TWICE?!?!? Okay, those mindfucks will be going down at big-ass festivals where oodles of bands will be sharing in the unfathomable honor, but shit... remember Pavement? Seriously, though. Pavement! Okay, yeah, Silver Jews are better in a lot of ways (we can not live on smirking alone, after all), but shit - IT'S PAVEMENT, FOR GOD'S SAKE! We have already heard about the Primavera Sound Festival, so I guess what I am trying to say is that we are going to be playing this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival, which in itself is another surreal thing, since I can remember fondly road tripping out to Chicago with all my buddies (big shout out to Kevin, Doug, Andy and Tretiak!!) to see the first installment of that festival way back in 2006 and being bowled over by the Walkmen and the Futureheads and so on... damn, that shit was dope. We played the festival ourselves in 2008, which was one of the funnest weekends ever, and so of course we are looking forward to this very much! I have a feeling it is going to look sort of exactly like this:

Sounds like life is pretty great these days, but wait - it gets better. It is our profound honor and privilege to announce the band that we will be traveling with for the final nine shows of the MONITOUR. This is not just any band, kids, this is the Greatest Band in the World. This is the band that made the greatest record of the '00s. Hell, this is the band that made the two greatest records of the 00's. This is the only band that every member of Titus Andronicus can agree on. This is the band that, if there is any sort of justice in this world, yr kids are going to make fun of you for not spending yr whole life listening to. Of course, I could only be referring to Chapel Hill's own SPIDER BAGS.

What can I say about Spider Bags that I haven't said before? Probably nothing, so I am just going to keep it real! Spider Bags are the best. They prove definitively that musical intensity must not come at the expense of emotional resonance. Spider Bags lay it all on the line every time. Their singer, Dan McGee, is the best songwriter working in America today. He also blessed us with a beautiful vocal performance on the song "Theme from 'Cheers'" on our new record, which surely must be the most thorough and blatant attempt to rip off Spider Bags yet done by humans. What's more, they are upstanding and good-hearted men. For almost as long as we have been traveling to North Carolina, Dan McGee and his lovely wife Cordon have been opening up their home to us and seeing that all of our needs are met. I think our little buddy Liam hit it on the head when he tagged Dan with the title of 'wise king.' What band could ever rock so hard, pull so strongly at yr heartstrings, and do it all with a magnanimity worthy of Santa Claus?

But hey, don't take my word for it. Marvel at the video below, where you can see Spider Bags murderin' it at the Tip Top Bar and Grill in Brooklyn this past December. In that same video, you should also be able to see 60% of Titus Andronicus staring in wide-eyed wonder at these godlike geniuses. Wow, I am laying it on pretty thick, aren't I? Crazy thing is, it's all true. Anyway, this song is called "Long White Desert Rose," and its from their 2009 album, Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World.

So yeah. Spider Bags rule. Pitchfork Fest and Pavement are great. This Saturday's show is going to be the bomb. Life is beautiful.

Yr friend,
Patrick

The Beatles were for sale - we give it away

2010-03-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Speaking of instant gratification, it is about time we took that concept to its logical conclusion. If you head over to our MySpace (OurSpace?) you may now stream our new album, The Monitor, in it's entirety for free, just because we like you guys so much. I have been trying very hard over the past hour to put the songs in order, but it just isn't happening. How annoying. Anyway, you already know what the tracklist is, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. This streaming thing is only going to be happening until the 3rd, or maybe just until the 2nd. I never know with this sort of thing. Just to be safe, you better listen to it right this second.

Hey, stop reading this. Didn't I just say to go listen to our record on MySpace right now?

Well, as long as yr here, we might as well talk about some of the appearances we are going to be making at this year's SXSW music conference. We already heard about the Fucked Up Saves Music showcase that is going down on the 20th at Red 7 Patio, but did you know that we are also going to be playing with Fucked Up at a BrooklynVegan day party on the 17th at Emo's? Two shows with Fucked Up - how lucky are we? Fucked Up is one of the greatest bands in the world, even though my father doesn't approve of their name (nor Fuck Buttons, for that matter). Speaking of the world's greatest bands, Japandroids is playing at that show too. See what I mean about being so lucky? It is a little bittersweet, though - that show is probably going to make me really miss my beautiful girlfriend Emily, since Japandroids and Fucked Up are our two favorite bands to listen to while enjoying our morning cup of coffee. Sigh! Still going to be pretty great, I bet.

Anyway, we are also going to be playing the Rolling Stone showcase at the Beauty Bar Annex on the 18th. Deer Tick is also playing this show, which is neat, since that band currently features erstwhile TA guitar-slinger Ian O'Neil. I wonder if he'd want to play a song with us... hmm, I guess we'll find out. Truth is, we haven't really discussed it! He played a song with us at Glasslands some months ago. Anyway. We'll play at a party hosted by Frontgate Tickets on the 19th. This show isn't going to be as loud as the other ones. What that means specifically, I can't say at this point. It just can't be all that loud for some reason. Shit, I dunno! Again, we shall wait and see.

Then, of course, there is that in-store performance at Waterloo on the 18th, but you knew about that already.

So, what else is in the news... I just read online that the Shout Out Louds are playing at Piano's tomorrow. Reading that really took me back. Back in freshman year of college, the Shout Out Louds were one of my favorite bands. That album that they had, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, was the fucking jam. I even made a fake ID with help from some friends to get into a show they played at the Mercury Lounge. My name was Patrick O'Brien. It looked like shit, but it worked! I sure felt cool. I can't go to the Pianos show, because we have to practice (we like you so much that we want to sound really good when next we see you). You should go though. Also, the singer looks a lot like Jason Schwartzman, which is just fine by me.

In case you were wondering, due to the vehement protest of a certain member of the group who shall remain nameless, Titus Andronicus will NOT be covering the greatest punk song of all time, "Racism Sucks" by 7 Seconds, on our forthcoming tour, so let me take this opportunity to explain to you why I think it is so great. It is obvious the sort of youthful inclinations that inspired its creation - a love of hollering, the thrill of foul language, general snottiness. It sounds like what it was, a gang of teenage miscreants bashing away, too new to the game to lose that spirit which is so essential to rock and roll, and especially punk. It bubbles over with giddy joy and palpable adolescent frustration, and yet, they channel it in such a positive direction! Are there not a million songs just like this one, only about girls or beer or some other nonsense? 7 Seconds decided to stack their chips with a simple and very unsophisticated sentiment, a sentiment that doesn't need to be sophisticated! I mean, it's simple, right? "Racism sucks! Racism Sucks! RAY! CISM! FUCKING! SUXXXXXXX!!!" What more is there to say than that? It's true, isn't it? Racism sucks. Wonderfully unpretentious and good-hearted and innocent. It is like seeing a sad kid sitting by himself and then seeing another little kid come over to share his toys and be friends. Just beautiful. We should all be more like this song. But hey, don't take my word for it - just look!

So great. We are still looking for a place to play April 3rd between Missoula, MT and Fargo, ND. Come on, gang - don't leave us hanging.

Well, that's enough for now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Instant gratification

2010-02-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

When my brother and sister and I were kids, our father tried to teach us the value of delayed gratification. If we went on some outing, like to the zoo or a museum or wherever, he would allow us to pick out one souvenir, but we would always have to wait until it was time to go home before we could make that decision. That way, he thought, we'd figure out that, by waiting, we'd be able to determine what we really wanted and not miss out by being rash. It was his hope that we'd learn the value of long-term planning, being goal oriented, look at the big picture, that sort of thing, a lesson that would surely serve us well throughout life.

Well, forget that. Everybody knows delaying yr gratification sucks. With that in mind, let Titus Andronicus give you what you think you want right this second, damn the consequences, in the following two ways.

Firstly, it is our pleasure to share with you another song from our forthcoming record The Monitor. It is the first song on said record, and it is called "A More Perfect Union." You know, as in, "We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility..." and so forth. You know, the preamble to our United States Constitution, that most beautiful and beloved of documents. Get it? First song... preamble... come on, it makes perfect sense. What is that, you don't know anything about the preamble? Well, we can fix that, and have fun doing so!

Wow, that was great! I do wish Jack Sheldon had sung it though... what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, that mp3 you can listen to. Here it is.

Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

You're pretty much loving it, huh? Well, that's great. Let's go ahead and make yr life a little easier still, with help from our old buddies at Extra Large Recordings. Those great folks have made it so that, if you elect the pre-order The Monitor from their web store, you can have the mp3s of said album RIGHT NOW! This is really a good deal for you - for one thing. they are selling this 2xLP set for only fourteen bucks, which is just unheard of. Straight up bonkers. On top of that, you can have the mp3s to listen to or put on yr iPod or whatever without having to even wait until the record actually comes out! Sounds like a slam dunk to me. Take advantage of their generosity here, and do it now - don't think about it for a long time, just do it!

I should also mention that the grand finale of our forthcoming tour of in-store appearances will come to an electrifying conclusion on the 18th of March at Waterloo in Austin, TX. We are also going to play a place called Skull Alley in Louisville, KY on the 21st of April. Spooky! Did I already mention that last item in a previous blog? I guess I could go look at them and see if I did... nah, fuck that. Also, please note that the place we are going to play in Vancouver on April 1st (Amy's birthday!) isn't Cobalt like I said it was, but rather 917 Main. Why not, right? It is the same location and everything, just a different name. No big deal!

All right, that's enough blogging for now. Too futuristic! Enjoy the weekend.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Limited Edition Tour Poster

2010-02-26T10:44:00.001-08:00

Limited Edition Titus Andronicus "Monitour" tour posters available on our upcoming tour. 150 Made, Hand screened and numbered.

2010-02-26T10:05:00.001-08:00

Getting Ready for Tour

2010-02-24T18:53:00.001-08:00

New merch for tour

2010-02-24T18:52:00.003-08:00

Titus Andronicus Poster + Team Work

2010-02-24T18:52:00.001-08:00

Further MONITOUR information

2010-02-19T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hello again friends. Just wanted to dash off a quick note to keep you up to date with the latest additions to the MONITOUR schedule.

On March 15th, which so happens to be our beloved Ian Graetzer's birthday, we will play a concert in Tulsa, OK at a place called the Eclipse Cultural House. This will be a FREE show, and is being organized by our friend Jay, who worked at the late, lamented DIY venue The Monolith (who we all remember from this blog, surely). Okay, great! Not long after, on March 25th, we will play a show at in San Luis Obispo, CA at the SLO Arts Center. We played here with the So So Glos during the Bring On the Dudes tour. That band Cotton Jones was also there. As I recall, most of the people went home before we played, but that's all right. It bodes well for whoever happens to be opening for us that day. Speaking of...

We are pleased to announce another one of the fine bands who will support us on this MONITOUR, for the first run of proper shows following the record store trip and SXSW. Exploring the West Coast with us, all the way from El Paso to Vancouver, will be none other than English twee upstarts Let's Wrestle. Somehow, we always get mixed up with these sorts of characters. Anyway, their debut full-length, In the Court of the Wrestling Let's, later this year on Merge Records. I haven't heard the whole thing yet, but Merge did have the foresight to release In the Aeroplane Over The Sea, Madonna, Transfiguration of Vincent... need I go on? Merge really is the best record label, besides Extra Large, of course. They are also going on tour with Quasi in April, and Quasi is one of the all-time greats. Anyway, this promises to be a lot of fun. Check out the video for their hit single, "We Are The Men You'll Grow To Love Soon," below.

With the addition of these two shows, we inch closer to our dream of a day-off-free tour. We should have shows to announce for March 29th and April 21st soon-ish, I hope, but there is one date that continues to baffle us. Of course I am referring to April 3rd, a day on which we will be trapped between Missoula, MT and Fargo, ND with no one to play to. Doesn't this concern any of you? Please, all you citizens of Montana and North Dakota - help us out! Throw us a bone! I beg of you, if you have any information about where a gang of rascals can play some punk rock in that general area, please don't hesitate to e-mail TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com.

I guess we could also say now that we are going to be playing the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain this coming May, but one thing at a time, right?

Okay, that is all for now, but before we go, our keybs-playing friend Dave posted this humorous entry on his blog, Gumballs Please. Hi, haters!!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Spring 2010 Line Preview

2010-02-15T19:54:00.001-08:00

more to come soon

Four Score and Seven Inches

2010-02-12T18:11:00.001-08:00

DISCLAIMER: For all that the internet is great, it is also a very baffling place, and I don't know how to make it so that every picture I posted doesn't get cropped so that it looks shitty and stupid. If you want to look at this blog where it isn't so ugly, try TitusAndronicus.net.

First of all, let me give a big thank you to all the people who have responded to our plea for places to sleep/play. I had pretty much figured that I would put it out there and it would dissipate into the ether, so imagine my great surprise and delight to see so many of you opening yr hearts to us. So far, we have received about 130 e-mails in response to our last blog, and I am looking forward to the Herculean task of going through them all. Good to know we have so many friends!! :)

So yeah - hopefully soon we'll be able to announce some more shows. So far, we have been able to fill one off-day - on the sixth of April, we'll be playing at Project Lodge in Madison, WI. Neat! In addition, we can confirm that on the 1st of April, we will play a place simply called Cobalt in Vancouver, BC. Speaking of Vancouver, have you guys been pumping that new Japandroids song "Art Czars?" That is the fucking jam!

Also, there was some misinformation in with those tour dates. On the 11th of April, we're not going to be playing in New Paltz like we claimed. We are actually going to play in nearby Red Hook, at the high school there, the appropriately named Red Hook High School. That show, a benefit for a group called Men Can Stop Rape, was organized by a very ambitious and ethical senior named Rob. Great! That same night, just because we can't get enough of this sort of thing, we will be playing a late show at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT, in their upstairs "Lilypad" space. I wonder if they still have the John Brown biography I left behind back in June when we played there with TL/RX. I hope so - that shit was from the library! Eeek!

Speaking of that tour, and that CT show in particular, we are thrilled to announce the first of the wonderful bands that will be playing with us on the Monitour. Beginning with that show at Toad's Place, and through the show in Philadelphia at the Barbary, we will be joined by none other than The Babies. Here's them crushing it last month at Brooklyn Bowl:

This band is the bomb. Don't take my word for it, though - just head over to their MySpace and hear for yrself! They are going to be playing our record release show at the Bowery Ballroom too, so... great!

All right, enough jibber jabber. Let's get down to why we're really here. As you all know, today is Abraham Lincoln's 201st birthday. This is an extra special event for Lincoln-admirers from Glen Rock, NJ like myself, since 201 is the area code in Glen Rock! Maybe you remember Ludacris praising us in his song "Area Codes" for having "too much green [and] too much fun."

I suppose I could try and say something about why Abe was great, but what could I say about him that hasn't been said a thousand times before? Nothing, I suppose - he has more books written about him than any other American, something like 7000, I think (don't quote me on that). Besides, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is Titus Andronicus on their second ever tour, "The Deep Freeze" of January 2008, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in DC.

You know, I used to think pennies really sucked. They are hardly worth anything! Now I see what a fool I was. I mean, how lucky are we that we live in a country where you are likely to find a beautifully engraved portrait of our greatest hero just lying on the street waiting for you to pick it up? Fantastic. Here's us again last Autumn during the "Bring on the Dudes Tour" out on I-80, some ten miles southeast of Laramie, Wyoming.

Epic! Hey, let me tell you something else. If you feel like celebrating Lincoln's birthday by indulging in the great American tradition of spending money, you should give yr money to a nice lady named

That shit is hot! That design can also be had on a tote bag - oooh! Let's now take a moment to enjoy this beautiful reading of Lincoln's most enduring masterpiece, The Gettysburg Address, by Sam Waterson, who provided the voice of Lincoln in Ken Burns' The Civil War, played him in the TV movie Gore Vidal's Lincoln, and continues to totally kick ass on Law and Order. Also, how brutal is the song at the end of this video? Intense!!

Speaking of the first words of that speech, I have to admit that there is one Lincoln birthday present that no one is going to be getting this year, that being the "Four Score and Seven" seven inch. I know we said it was going to be out by now, but we were just plain wrong. Really, it isn't going to be out until the 23rd. Sorry! For now, here is the cover for you to look at, courtesy of our favorite typographist Nolen Strals.

How about that little puppy sitting on the drum in the middle! So cute! Almost as cute as this...

JESUS CHRIST! Anyway. Have you guys all heard the song that is going to be on that seven inch? You can listen to it and read all about how great it is here.

Speaking of that song, get ready to hear it again, as it provides the soundtrack for this trailer for our new album made by our dear friend and official TA videographer Alex Tretiak. If you weren't already bursting at the seams with anticipation over this record, hopefully this trailer will send you spiraling into full blow dementia.

Good job, Tretiak! Well, that was probably more information than most of you cared for today, and besides, it's almost ten o'clock on a Friday night - yr probably all out partying! So, with that, I bid you a very fond farewell... for now!

Yr friend,
Patrick

THE MONITOUR Phase Two: "Sea to Shining Sea"

2010-02-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Friends, it is with great pleasure that we reveal to you the remaining dates of THE MONITOUR, which, as you can surely guess, is the tour we will be doing to support the release of our new record, The Monitor. Get it? Monitor tour = Monitour. Right? You all remember the record store appearances we promised you a few weeks ago - we are still going to do those, don't worry, but now we can confess that we will also be playing a multitude of conventional rock concerts in conventional rock nightclubs and the like. Behold!

3/21 - El Paso, TX - Black Market
3/22 - Phoenix, AZ - Chryo Arts
3/23 - Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theater
3/24 - Santa Barbara, CA - Club Mercy
3/26 - Visalia, CA - Cellar Door
3/27 - Sacramento, CA - Luigi's Fungarden
3/28 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
3/30 - Seattle, WA - Vera Project
3/31 - Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
4/1 - Vancouver, BC - TBD
4/2 - Missoula, MT - The Palace
4/4 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium
4/5 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry @ 1st Avenue
4/7 - Chicago, IL - The Bottom Lounge
4/8 - Detroit, MI - Majestic Cafe
4/9 - Toronto, ON - Sneaky Dee's
4/10 - Montreal, QC - Green Room
4/11 - New Paltz, NY - St. Paul Lutheran Church Parish Hall
4/12 - Allston, MA - Great Scott
4/13 - Bronx, NY - Rodrigues Coffee House @ Fordham University
4/14 - Purchase, NY - SUNY Purchase Student Center
4/15 - Philadelphia, PA - The Barbary
4/16 - Washington, DC - Positive Force DC @ St. Stephen's Church
4/17 - Charlottesville, VA - Random Row
4/18 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
4/19 - Atlanta, GA - 529
4/20 - Indianapolis, IN - Radio Radio
4/22 - Columbus, OH - Summit
4/23 - Harrisburg, PA - Abbey Bar
4/24 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's

Hopefully soon, we will be able to tell you that we are going to be playing with some totally badass bands on this tour. Right now, all I can say for sure is that on the 23rd of March, we will be playing with our boy Ted Leo! Woo! Whether or not there are going to be any other Pharmacists there remains unclear.

Yes, we will play all these shows, for no other reason that we love all of you and want nothing more than for you to be entertained. We shall drag our weary bones from coast to coast, all in the hope that, for one magical evening, you may forget all yr troubles and dance and sing and share in the joy of just being alive... but it isn't going to come for free! This is where you come in, all you punks.

First and foremost, the broke-ass boxcar bums of Titus Andronicus need roofs over our heads. Will you please let us come and sleep over at yr house after the show when we come to yr town? Accomidations need not be anything special at all - a floor and a ceiling are our only two requirements, though beds/couches/beanbags/etc. are always nice. If you will agree to let us come over, we will make it so that you can come to the show for free! You can even bring a friend. Hell, you can bring two friends. Just send an e-mail to TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com and we will work it out.

Now, here's a request for the slightly more ambitious punks. Those of you who are familiar with what a calendar looks like may notice there are a couple days in the schedule above where we don't have any shows. You are probably thinking: "They must be doing something really cool and top secret that day." Wrong! We're not going to be doing shit. Black Flag never took days off, so why should we?

I guess what I am trying to say is, if you want Titus Andronicus to come to yr town on one of those off days, we will do it. We are happy to play at yr house/community center/church basement/whatever. All you have to do is ask. Here are the days that we are looking to be constructively occupied, and roughly the areas we'd like to do it:

3/25 - between Santa Barbara, CA and Visalia, CA
3/29 - between San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA (not Portland, though)
4/3 - between Missoula, MT and Fargo, ND
4/6 - between Minneapolis, MN and Chicago, IL
4/21 - between Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH

Can you do this for us? It doesn't have to be a big deal. If you have a PA system, we'll play for you and the one other punk in yr town. Simply e-mail TitusAndronicusTheBand@Gmail.com and all will be well.

In other news, it is snowing today. What better excuse than to watch this sweet video of everyone's all-time favorite band Galaxie 500 playing their song, "Snowstorm?" There is none, so let's hit it!

Hmmm, I sort of feel like I had been planning to say something else. Apparently not!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Whisper words of wisdom - let me pee

2010-02-05T12:17:00.001-08:00

Hey gang. Did you see this little blurb about us that is in Rolling Stone this month? Pretty cool, right?

Yeah, except for one thing - the actual lyric is "let IT BE on a stretcher if I get carried away," not "let ME PEE on a stretcher if I get carried away," even though that is funnier. Hopefully that bodes well for the critical response to the abundance of actual scatalogical references on the record. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up. Heh heh... let me pee.
Yr friend,
Patrick

MONITOUR eFlyer 1.0, plus, "I won't fuck us over, I'm Dr. Pepper"

2010-02-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. I hope this blog finds you well. Do you guys remember that short tour of record stores that we said we were going to do? Well, we are still going to do them, and to make it easier for you to remember to participate, the good people at Extra Large Recordings have prepared this eFlyer for you to look at. Behold!

Damn, that looks sharp. Well, now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to more serious (read - YouTube related) business.

Did you happen to see this video of us that was posted on PitchforkTV a couple weeks ago? It was from a performance we did at their offices as part of a birthday party for Pitchfork founder Ryan Schrieber. Do you like it? It is just another classic from the magical eyes of Ray Concepcion, who really stepped up his usual game into new, more psychedelic, high-octane territory. Yr crazy for this one, Ray! It will also give you a chance to observe Dave and Amy outside the context of a still photograph, which isn't really very helpful when you are wondering what something sounds like, know what I mean?

Speaking of PitchforkTV, you know what video I like to watch on that website? This one, of the National performing their song "Mr. November" from the album Alligator. This song gets me pumped up! It is a great song to sing to yrself when you need to get psyched, like how Ally McBeal used to sing that song to herself to stay focused and motivated. Remember? Ally McBeal? Anyway, this is a sweet song.

I'll tell you what isn't often said about the National, though - this singer seems to be taking a lot of his cues from late period Joey Ramone! Check out this video and see if you don't agree - it is from the last Ramones concert, a performance of "53rd and 3rd" featuring Tim Armstrong and Lars Fredriksen from Rancid!

Speaking of Lars Fredriksen, did you know he did a cover of the Billy Bragg song, "To Have and To Have Not?" Well, he did. Observe.

I can't help but imagine I would have felt differently about that in eighth grade than I do now. I still love that Billy Bragg song, though - it is so beloved around here that it was the last number played at nearly every show of last autumn's "Bring On the Dudes" Tour that we did with the So So Glos. Did you realize? Maybe if you went to one of the shows you did. Anyway, here we are playing it in Montreal way way back in September of 2009.

And now for something completely different. Recently, our old friend Dan Tews shared this picture with me on Facebook - an image of a badass king standing in front of a truly impressive collection of generic Dr. Pepper equivalents. Check it out!

Now, if you know me, you know I consider myself a pretty serious connoisseur of generic Dr. Pepper equivalents, but even I have to bow down before this guy. Some of my favorites from this picture which I have yet to encounter in real life include Dr. Extreme, Dr. Good Guy, and Dr. Radical. The two greatest ones, though, have got to be Dr. Becker, like Ted Danson's early '00s sitcom character, and Dr. Bob, the doctor character that Rowlf the Dog played on "The Muppet Show."

Also included in this masterpiece is Dr. Path, which, as some of you who have been paying attention will remember, got a shout-out in our song "Arms Against Atrophy." You see, Dr. Path was the Dr. Pepper equivalent sold at the Path Mark in Fair Lawn, NJ - three liters for a dollar. Unbelievable! Yum. For Christmas 2003, my friends all chipped in and got me 35 3-liter bottles of the elixer, with the condition that I accept a challenge to drink the whole stash before our high school graduation the following June. That is why I sang, "By June 22nd, I have done the math/it's 105 liters I'll consume of Dr. Path." Get it?

Speaking of that song, yesterday was the 23rd birthday of one-time Titus Andronicus keyboardist Matt Miller. You probably never saw him play with us - this was back in, like, 2005. I can't find any pictures of him when he was in the group that I am able to resize properly and yadda yadda yadda, so here is a picture of me and him dancing our asses of at our cousin Erin's wedding last year.

Anyway, while he isn't in the band anymore, he is still a great cousin, and I rather enjoyed celebrating his birthday last night with a screening of "House Party." Ace! I guess my point is, Matt Miller used to sing a solo on the song "Arms Against Atrophy," and so I wanted to share with you a recording of that song featuring his great voice from one of our early practices. Hope you like it!

Okay, that's probably enough for now. I guess what I am really trying to say is that I hope you like the eFlyer for our record store tour we're doing!!

Yr friend,
Patrick

The MONITOUR Phase One: "On the Record"

2010-01-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends. It is our pleasure this day to announce phase one of THE MONITOUR, which, as you may have guessed, is the tour during which we shall promote our new record The Monitor. Get it? Moni-tour? Anyway. This first bundle of promotional exercises will occupy our time between our record release show at the Bowery Ballroom with Parts & Labor and the Babies (but you already knew about that, right?) on March 6th, and the annual South by Southwest music conference in Austin, TX, beginning March 17th.

During this time, we will forgo playing the typical "rock concert," as it were, and play primarily independently owned and operated record stores. These shows will be free, all ages, and typically take place in the afternoon or early evening. Why would we do a thing like this, you ask? Well, we would do it because it is important to us to stack our chips with the mom and pop businesses, stores that represent the best of our free market system, capitalism not going awry (for once!), and enrich the culture of their communities in a sound and decent fashion. With the demise of Tower Records, Sam Goody, et al, it is essential that we all show our support for these businesses, who are on the front lines of the war on cultural whitewashing. Besides, since these performances will be the first that we do with our record officially available, where better to celebrate its release? Yes, you surely agree by now, it is all too sensible.

All this will begin with a performance at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ, a place near and dear to the hearts of New Jersey indie rockers everywhere. The full itinerary is below.

3/8 - Vintage Vinyl
51 Lafayette Road, Fords, NJ
8 PM

3/9 - My Mind's Eye
13723 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH
7 PM

3/10 - Used Kids
1980 N. High Street, Columbus, OH
7 PM

3/12 - Ear X-Tacy
1534 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY
6 PM

3/13 - Reckless Records
1532 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL
4 PM

3/14 - Vintage Vinyl
6610 Del Mar Avenue, St. Louis, MO
4 PM

3/16 - Good Records
1808 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX
6 PM

Well, I would guess that those shows are all going to be a lot of fun! I hope that we will see you there, yeah?

Speaking of that quaint, archaic process known as "buying records," let me give a big shout out to everybody that helped make The Monitor pre-order #4 on Insound this week! It was enough of a watershed moment that I just received a congratulatory phone call from my father, who also would probably love for me to point out that he is not the bad influence that he was made out to be in the recent Rolling Stone blog about our band. My old man is mad decent.

In other news, I just read on the internet today that we are going to be taking part in a very exciting event indeed once arriving in Austin for SXSW. Of course I refer to the "Fucked Up Saves Music" showcase that will be going down Saturday the 20th of March at Red 7 Patio. We played with Fucked Up a couple months ago at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, and it is a great treat to share the stage with the first ever band to concurrently hold the titles of Greatest Punk Band and Greatest Shoegaze Band (okay, JAMC maybe? But that was a long time ago). Also appearing will be none other than Greatest Guitar Player Who Ever Lived, J Mascis! Katie Stelmanis and Rival Schools also - neat! Let's rock!

I feel like I had something else to say... didn't I see something cool on YouTube or something? Oh well.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Indie Rock is Dead, Long Live Indie Rock

2010-01-20T10:05:00.000-08:00

Firstly, I gotta give a big shout out to Extra Large Recordings, who, as we have surely all heard by now, are enjoying their first ever number one album in the form of Contra by Vampire Weekend. I feel like there is something to be said about this and what it means for our band and for indie rock in general, but I am sick as a dog right now and not feeling my most loquacious. I will simply say that this news merely reaffirms what we at Titus Andronicus LLC have long known to be true - Extra Large Recordings is the best record label. Fresh for 2010, you suckas.

So, speaking of alternative rock bands who have had number one albums, here is some good news for people who like bad news. I was thinking today about the tour that we are going to do in a couple months, and so I thought I'd see what was going on with the Monolith, an all-ages, DIY show space in Tulsa, OK for which I have great admiration. Imagine my disappointment to see on their MySpace that the space closed a long time ago due to "an inability to communicate effectively amongst ourselves in addition to a lack of turnout the past few months." Shit, what a fucking drag! The Monolith was a super-cool storefront with a comprehensive library of alt literature and was operated by a bunch of very cool, caring punks, and the show we played there back in January was one of the highlights of that particular tour. There is little that is more inspirational to a band such as ours than traveling into what are, for us, hitherto uncharted territory and finding such an oasis of ethical fun. You can see a little bit of that show, and a subsequent impromptu prop comedy performance by Eric and myself, in the video below.

It is a harsh truth that running a space such as the Monolith (the late, great Spazzatorium Galleria of Greenville, NC also comes to mind) is too often a thankless task and, thus far, the formula for making such a great idea financially sustainable outside of an established indie rock hub remains elusive. Doubtless we in the greater NYC area are spoiled by the wealth of all-ages DIY spaces and can't properly appreciate what a space like the Monolith closing means for a community like Tulsa. I feel, again, that there is something to be said about this and what it means for our band and for indie rock in general, but, again, too sick and stupid. Maybe later on. Rest in peace, Monolith. You were too good for this world.

In other news, am I the only who sees stuff on the internet about this band the Besnard Lakes and immediately thinks of Barenaked Ladies? Not that they have anything to do with each other musically, but in, like, a Felice Brothers - Pernice Brothers kind of way. I don't really have a point, but I still love Barenaked Ladies. Would you believe I have seen them live FOUR times? They were also my first ever concert, at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ on the Stunt tour. That shit was awesome.

Also, am I the only one broken up about Stephen Page quitting the band? Feels like the end of an era. Get the whole story here.

I guess it is time to move on. Maybe the answer is this band Free Energy. Do you guys like them? Me and my roommates do, a lot, and can't wait for their show at Pianos tomorrow! Whee! We played with them at Georgetown University back in October, and they rocked. Surely, they will do the same tomorrow. Maybe we'll see you there? Look at this video if you are unconvinced.

Free Energy - Free Energy from DFA Records on Vimeo.

All right, I guess that is all.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Meet our new team, plus: A punk band meets the "A-Punk" Band

2010-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends. If any of you happened to see our performance at last night's Vampire Weekend concert at the United Palace Theater, you may have noticed that (geez, how many times have I said this?) we have some new members. Yes, it's true - Titus Andronicus v. 6.0 Beta is up and running. Who are these people, you ask? Well...

The woman on the right is named Amy Klein, and she is a native of Glen Ridge, NJ, and a current resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I have known Amy for a few years now, as she used to play in a band in college with a woman that I was dating at the time. Then she moved to Japan for a while and I was pretty sure I'd never see her again, but a couple of months ago, I happened to run into her at a Double Dagger/Future Islands show at Death by Audio (side note: the most recent Double Dagger album More is the best punk album since... gee, is there a better one? "The Lie/The Truth," which features the singer of Future Islands on backing vocals, is the sort of uplifting punk anthem that Double Dagger must not have heard isn't supposed to exist anymore. Anyway, I could go on and on), and I felt the hand of destiny on my shoulder. Maybe it was the Four Loco coursing through my veins, but I demanded right then and there that Amy join the band and, bless her heart, after a few meetings about logistics and other business related concerns, she did it! She will be playing the electric guitar (a beautiful, black Gibson L6, a precursor to our modern SG) and violin. Neat!

In point of fact, she has already contributed her violin talents to our organization. Here is a picture of she and I at Marcata Recording way, way back in the summer of 2007 during the recording of The Airing of Grievances (thanks to our main man Kevin Kearns for the picture).

Anyway, Amy is great. Speaking of great people...

This guy's name is David Robbins, and he will be playing the keyboards and the electric guitar in Titus Andronicus until further notice. This talented man was a roommate of Eric's back in their days at Bloomsburg University, where David majored in "Vocal Performance." This suggests to me we shall also hear Dave do some singing in our band, and probably Amy too for that matter. Hmmm... anyway, I digress. Here is a picture of Dave (top left) and Eric (bottom right) with the rest of their college roommates during a period when they all grew moustaches.

Dave first came to our attention when Titus Andronicus v 5.0 played a concert back in Autumn of 2008 at Oberlin College, where he was then working as an RD (Resident Director, I think that stands for?). He let us stay at his apartment that night, and a certain member of Titus Andronicus who shall remain nameless (it wasn't me!) cracked everybody up by making some truly hilarious/heartbreaking noises as he threw up outside! Oh my god, you should have heard it. Unbelievable.

Dave is remarkable for being the oldest ever member of Titus Andronicus, at a jaw-droppingly ancient 26 years old, and for being only the third member of our ranks who wasn't from New Jersey (he is from western Pennsylvania - close enough, right?). Yes, there in no doubt about it - Dave is the man.

It is worth noting that the pictures from last night's show were taken by someone named a Diana Wong. Thanks, Diana!

Speaking of that show, I am sure that enough about it has already been said. Suffice to say, it was one of the most bizarre nights of my life, but not in a completely unpleasant way. It looked and sounded a little like this:

All I have to say is, the bass player of this band is truly a fantastic dancer. Shit, that guy can dance his ass off. Who knew? I'd love to party with him sometime.

With all this talk of new members, maybe this is the right time to present a comprehensive list of all the people who have been in the band over the years, for prosperity's sake. Hopefully, this will be the last permutation, but I say that every time. In alphabetical order:

Sarim Al-Rawi: drums - Spring 2005 - Summer 2006
Liam Betson: guitar - Summer 2006 - Summer 2008, Summer 2009, Winter 2009
Andrew Cedermark: guitar - Summer 2007, Summer 2008 - Spring 2009
Martin Courtney: keyboard - Summer 2006
Alexi Crawford: guitar - Summer 2005 - Summer 2006
Ian Dykstra: drums - Summer 2006 - Summer 2007
Pete Feigenbaum: guitar - Autumn 2009
Ian Graetzer: bass - Spring 2005 - modern day
Eric Harm: drums - Autumn 2007 - modern day
Amy Klein: guitar, violin - Winter 2010 - modern day
Matt Miller: keyboard - Autumn 2005 - Spring 2006
Ian O'Neil: guitar - Autumn 2008 - Spring 2009
David Robbins: keyboard, guitar - Winter 2010 - modern day
Patrick Stickles: vocals, guitar - Spring 2005 - modern day
Dan Tews: guitar - Autumn 2005 - Summer 2008
Alex Tretiak: drums - Summer 2007

So many happy memories, so many heartbreaks. Let's hope that Dave and Amy bring more of the former and less of the latter, eh?

Okay, well, I guess that is all for now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Freek-A-Leek!

2010-01-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, gang. Perhaps by now you have heard that our new album, The Monitor, has been leaked onto the internet, and I would be remiss not to remind you guys that we'd really much rather you not download the record but actually just buy it when it comes out. I know that sounds pretty old-fashioned in 2010, but I had to say it.

I am glad that it seems those of you who have eaten from the forbidden tree of knowledge seem to generally enjoy the record, and it is a thrill to have Warren Ellis approve of our debt to Billy Bragg on Twitter (did I mention I love comic books? Because that is kind of important!). Still, you guys have to understand, that if you all just download the record for free, it will mean bad things for yr friends in Titus Andronicus, who, as we learned earlier, have to eat.

Also, there is going to be a two-LP vinyl release of this album that is going to sound way better than the lossy mp3 rips that you could listen to now. We expended a great deal of effort trying to make it sound as good as we could (no "lo-fi" aspirations here), and we want you guys to have the highest quality version possible, if that it something you care about.

That said, great big thanks to all the decent folks who made The Monitor pre-order the number nine seller on Insound this week! Woo hoo! You guys are the best.

All of you who are downloading our new album and sharing it with yr friends, we like you guys too and appreciate yr enthusiasm, but if you like the album, please buy the real thing and not just the digital bootlegs flying around, so that we may continue to survive while we attempt to see to yr rock and roll needs.

Obviously, once the proverbial genie is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back in, so... shit, I dunno. I hate to tell you kids what to do. Yr smart. I know you'll do the right thing.

Yr friend,
Patrick

More pre-order info, Smoking Popes, hate mail

2010-01-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hey gang. Guess what I just read on our favorite website, Insound.com? Apparently, when you pre-order our new record, The Monitor, you will also receive a free copy of the "Four Score and Seven" seven inch! Hey, wait a second - Four Score and Seven Inches? That's funny. It appears to me that this offer only relates to purchasing the vinyl edition of the full-length. Did I mention that it is a double LP? Damn, that's badass, right? Anyway, learn more here. How many times do I have to tell you this???

Anyway, remember that band from the 90's the Smoking Popes? I do. They were awesome. I recently obtained a used cassette copy of their 1995 album Born to Quit and it holds up nicely. Peep the video for their great song, "I Need You Around," which has some totally awesome fish-eye lens shot. I swear, if we ever get to make another music video, it is going to have so much fish-eye, it is going to be insane.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it is all because of that band Surfer Blood everyone is talking about. Amidst all this talking, why has no one mentioned that this Surfer Blood guy's voice sounds just like the guy from the Smoking Popes? Am I crazy? Just listen.

I am not crazy. This dude is taking a lot of his cues from the Smoking Popes, and you know what, that's great! Speaking of Surfer Blood, can President Obama or somesuch authority figure go on the record declaring this song "Swim" to be the best Weezer song since "Wasted and Ready" by Ben Kweller? It is decidedly so. Anyway, speaking of Smoking Popes, you know who else is taking a lot of their cues from them? GIRLS!

Doesn't that band sound like Smoking Popes too? And also, what is it with them and boobs? This video is like an awkward hipster version of the video for "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak. They're pretty good all the same though, and I am especially fond of their drummer Garett, but maybe he isn't in the band anymore or something? Who knows. Point is: Smoking Popes - biggest unsung heroes of 2010 indie rock.

You know who else? Luna! Why don't any of these chillwave/glo-fi/hypnagogic pop bands give lip service to Luna? I would embed a bunch more YouTube videos to prove my point, but we've had enough of those by this point, right? Hey, all you chillwavers - give credit where it's due. Luna is the one.

Speaking of chillwave or whatever that thing is, I was reading a review of that great new album by our homies Real Estate earlier today, and man, was it harsh! And poor innocent Titus Andronicus got caught in the crossfire! Observe.

"Stereogum made some stink about how Titus Andronicus were in this band’s top friends on MySpace. I read this review (which was gleaming, for some reason) while listening to Real Estate and began to think about the relationship between New York (and her bands) and the national press. If there were one city that this dirty hipster would think would have the balls and the brains to boo a band like Titus Andronicus off stage, I though New York would be it. For one reason or another, TA continues to play in front of big crowds at Bowery Ballroom. Maybe we’re more polite than everyone thinks. Way more polite. TA seem to be at the forefront, or at least towards it, of a new wave of extremely unprofessional, unpolished, careless bands. Real Estate may the next in line to take the stage at Bowery and not only sing out of key, but bore the crowd half to death."

Whoa, that smarts! Here was the death blow at the end of the review.

"Real Estate’s latest release is a raggedly-constructed cobweb of reverb that leaves this dirty hipster crying, “NO MORE!” Grizzly Bear (though I personally prefer Department of Eagles) and Fleet Foxes deserve our attention. Real Estate, and the unbearable, Titus Andronicus, do not."

Uncle, Uncle! Read the complete character assassination here. This guy got it about half right - we suck, it is true, but Real Estate is great! Come on, man. Get yr facts straight!

Okay, I guess that's all for now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Pre-order info, Total Dis Part II

2010-01-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. If yr interested, you can now pre-order our new record thanks to the good people at Insound.com. Do that here, or don't, whatever!

Speaking of Insound, here is a blast from the past - Kip Berman of TPOBPAH fame, back when he was still a lowly civilian with a flair for comedy, explaining how Insound works.

In other news, did you guys know that this was our first seven inch?

It came out way, way back in March, 2007 on Shake Appeal Records, a Chicago-based label run by jolly Uncle Joe Dixon. Our friend Brittany Botz did the art, and what a great job she did. You know who else must have thought so? Frog Eyes! Look at this record cover of this record they put out in MAY of 2007.

You snooze, you lose, Frog Eyes! Okay, that's all for now.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Total dis!

2010-01-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

On a lighter note, remember when we made this video?

Yeah, that shit was tight, I know. Well, just now, I was looking up information about the band Danananananananananaykroyd online, because they pretty much rock, and I saw this video.

Total rip-off of our video, right? Those posers! Well, I thought so too, but then further research showed that their video actually went up on YouTube two months to the day BEFORE our video! Oh geez, it was us that ripped them off! Sorry, Danananananananananaykroyd. We didn't do it on purpose!
Yr friend,
Patrick

Fuck you, Jersey

2010-01-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

And I'm not talking about the Situation.

New Jersey Senate Defeats Gay Marriage Bill

Hope is big, but they're always going to win.

Visit Garden State Equality for more info.

Yr friend,
Patrick

Points of interest for 2010

2010-01-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. First of all, let me thank everyone who came out to our New Year's Eve show with the So So Glos at the Mercury Lounge - it was a lot of fun! Whee! I want to send a special message to one person in particular though. It was some sort of burly-ish gentleman in the front row who wore a big winter coat and scarf. We were playing "Where Eagles Dare" by the Misfits because that song rocks, and during the last verse, I saw this guy singing along, and so I decided to stick the microphone in his face to sing with him, because that is the thing to do when you are playing a song like "Where Eagles Dare." Imagine my delight to hear that this guy had a great voice! Really, I have put microphones in people's faces many times before during that part of that song, and I can honestly say, this guy was the best singer of them all. My thought processes were a bit of a blur at this point, being New Year's Eve and all, so I made a pretty lame attempt at mounting this guy's shoulders so that I could ride him around during the last chorus. I don't know - at the time, it seemed like the thing to do. It didn't really work out, and my girlfriend chided me later for sticking my crotch in this guy's face. Hey, guy - if you disliked that event as much as my girlfriend thought you probably did, I am really sorry! I was acting crazy because I was so excited about yr great voice. You did a good job. I was trying to do a good job too - if I didn't, many apologies. If you ever see me on the street, tell me who you are, and I will let you stick yr crotch in my face for a minute or so, and we'll be even Stephens.

In other news, it has been brought to my attention the recent publication of what may be the first piece of Titus Andronicus (the band) "fan fiction," if you can call it that.

The End of the 00s: The Ballad of That Guy From Titus Andronicus (As Told To Matthew Perpetua)

It is kind of funny, I guess, but it still makes me unhappy. It seems the joke is that we are greedy capitalists who are in it for money and fame. I suppose I brought it on myself by writing that blog about the Vice Halloween party when I confided that I was concerned about my finances and admitted that it was hard making a living playing indie rock music. That was wrong of me, I guess. Our new position for 2010 is that we don't ever, ever think about money, and that we have the luxury of making artistic pursuits our only priority. That's right, folks - we no longer require food or clothing or shelter. After all, we have sold, like, seven thousand records. Obviously we want for nothing! We're big stars!!

Anyway, at least this joker had the decency to take credit for his work. I mean, he could have easily just posted an anonymous comment in some internet dungeon about how we would like to see us castrated. Very admirable, how accountable this Matthew Perpetua is.

In other news, we watched the movie "Wisconsin Death Trip" on Netflix last night, and it was kind of cool, so here is a little video of us playing in Wisconsin way back in February 2009.

Okay, I guess that is all for now! Best wishes for the new year.

Yr friend,
Patrick

End of decade madness

2009-12-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

The Best Album of the '00s

http://www.birdmanrecords.com

Our new record

2009-12-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

To our constituents,

This is just to say that on March 9th of 2010, Extra Large Recordings will be releasing our second full-length album, which we have been referring to as The Monitor.

Here is the album cover, just one element of the gorgeous artwork associated with this record by leading typographist, author, and Double Dagger vocalist Nolen Strals.

[Yr probably going to want to click on it, since I don't know how to make it small enough to fit on the screen. Oops!]

The image which is our record cover is a photograph taken in 1862 of the crew of the USS Monitor, which was an ironclad battleship employed by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Learn more about this amazing ship and its Confederate counterpart, the CSS Virginia (nee Merrimac), here.

Believe it or not, the lettering of the album's title on that there cover is actually taken from a letter written by none other than out 16th president, Abraham Lincoln! Wow! Cool, right?

The reason we have opted to release this record on March 9th is simply this - March 9th, 1862, was the day on which the Monitor and the Virginia did battle off the coast of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and laid waste to how we thought about naval warfare (though not to each other). Releasing this record is our way of celebrating the 148th anniversary of this historic event.

The various component sounds which make up this album were recorded during the month of August at Marcata Recording in scenic New Paltz, NY. We also took some fields trips to Boston and Baltimore, and some "field recordings" of sorts were done around Jersey and NYC, but it was primarily a New Paltz affair. Here is a picture of the barn that we lived in for that month.

All these summertime shenanigans occurred under the watchful eye of producer and engineer Kevin McMahon (who oversaw our first album, as well as Pussy Cats by the Walkmen, Son of the Tiger by the Big Sleep, and Promises Promises by Die! Die! Die! among others). The usual suspects from the world of Titus Andronicus were all in attendance, as well as an all-star cast of luminous friends (members of Ponytail, Wye Oak, Hallelujah the Hills, Spider Bags, Vivian Girls, Hold Steady, etc.) and a generous assortment of colorful New Paltz locals. The aforementioned Kevin McMahon also did the mixing during September and October, and Greg Calbi did the mastering (so chosen because he is the only person alive who can claim involvement in both The Chemistry of Common Life by Fucked Up and Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell by Meat Loaf) in early November.

So what does all this sound like? It has long passages of ambient drones, blazing saxophone, pianos homages to "A Charlie Brown Christmas," complete marching drumlines,Thunder Tube solos, fourteen-minute Billy Bragg knock-offs, backwards liturgical pieces, bombastic country duets, garbage cans hit with tambourines, choirs of angels with bromantic faces, probably too many spoken word interludes lifted from cassette tapes, and, of course, the hissy-fit punk songs, miserable, self-obsessed naval-gazing and off-key warbling we have come to expect from Titus Andronicus. With any luck, people won't talk about this record in the context of the media-concocted "lo-fi" movement, since we went crazy (and broke) trying to perfect the sound of "hi-fi punk."

The tracklisting is as follows, even though my roommate pointed out to me earlier that the perfunctory inclusion of track listings in announcements like these is kind of silly - "Here are the names of the songs you can listen to in a few months!" Either way, that seems to be the custom.

1. A More Perfect Union
2. Titus Andronicus Forever
3. No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future
4. Richard II or Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
5. A Pot In Which To Piss
6. Four Score and Seven
7. Theme from "Cheers"
8. To Old Friends and New
9. ...And Ever
10. The Battle of Hampton Roads

That sixth song, "Four Score and Seven," is streaming even as we speak on our MySpace. Elsewhere on the internet you may find two mp3s bearing this same name, one containing the first half of the song and the other containing the second. That is so because we have a seven inch coming out on February 9th, 2010 (that being Abraham Lincoln's 201st birthday, and 201 being the area code of Glen Rock, NJ, where we are from), which will divide the song in this fashion, sort of in the tradition of "Little Johnny Jewel" by Television or "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. The good people at Extra Large Recordings felt this was also a good way to present our current vision to you kids. Fair enough! You might find those mp3s on some other website, maybe one that reports on indie rock or something, but the version which will appear on our album can be heard on our MySpace. Hopefully, it will give you a pretty good idea of what we're going for.

So, as you may have guessed,The Monitor is more or less a "concept album" – that is to say, it uses the American Civil War of 1861-1865 as an extended metaphor for the concerns addressed in a somewhat linear narrative. In said narrative, our hero leaves his humble birthplace of New Jersey - the oppressive and stifling qualities of which were discussed ad nauseam about one album ago – for the greener pastures of Boston, Massachusetts. His thesis – "the enemy is everywhere" – is put to the ultimate test as he pontificates on the topics of regional identity, emotional anesthetization, and the heavy yoke of trying to live decently in indecent times. All the while, he is forced to wonder whether said American Civil War was truly won or lost, or even completed. Will he find the supportive environment and like-minded compatriots he dreams of? Or will he be forced to leave his newly adopted home in ideological disgrace? What does it mean to be an American in 2009 anyway? Who are our so-called "friends" and how actually friendly are they? Is it necessary, or even a good idea, for an indie rock album to ask these sorts of questions? The Dark Knight, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Taming of the Shrew also fit in there somewhere.

Well, all this is still quite a few months away, so perhaps I am saying too much. We will talk more soon about the tour to support this album, the user's guide, the making-of documentary, and all the other wild, potentially ill-advised mischief we are looking to get into. For now, please enjoy our new song. Tally ho!

Yr friend,
Patrick

Ironclads

2009-11-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

We will talk more about this soon, like, in a week or two.

The VICE Halloween Party is Decadent and Depraved

2009-11-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, typically, I am somewhat troubled by the unending deluge of young people describing the excruciating minutae of their daily lives on the internet, but shit, everybody else is doing it, so maybe I will be entitled just this once.

Last night, our band played at the VICE Magazine 15th Anniversary/Halloween party, which took place in some kind of unfinished warehouse space on N. 10th Street in Williamsburg. The theme of the party was "1994," and thusly, we were contracted to play a set of Weezer covers for generous compensation. Also, Jesus Lizard and Bad Brains were playing, and who doesn't want to play with them? Sounds great, right? Yeah, I thought so too.

The people who put on the event were very nice and gave us lots of free beer and sandwiches and all manner of other swag, and took special care to see all of our needs were met and gave us a nice room to hang out in, and so on. Around the time that Jesus Lizard were supposed to start, we crossed the street to try and see what was to be seen. We should have known we were in for trouble when the security gaurds wouldn't let us in, despite the fact that we had artist wristbands and guitars, and wouldn't explain to us why we were being denied. "I'm in a band, we're playing tonight," I told one burly gentleman. "Cool shit," he scoffed. Eventually, we had to be escorted in by the arist liason, who had to keep constant walkie-talkie communication with his colleagues. It was really bonkers!

Once we were inside, Jesus Lizard was hard to enjoy for all of the indie "Lord of the Flies" type shennanigans going on all around us. For every person drinking a beer or snorting coke in the bathroom, there were five people taking his or her picture, and they seemed to all be dressed as characters from Pulp Fiction. Okay, fair enough. It is fun, like, for Facebook and stuff, right? Something like that? Okay, fine, but by the tenth or eleventh time that some stranger took our picture while we were trying to relax and pretend we weren't in a swelteringly hot and disgusting filthy warehouse, my partner and I had had enough, and tried to seek shelter downstairs. This was equally terrifying (but kind of cool too, actually), wandering around the ground floor, which was covered in a very thick artifical fog, from which skeletons and other assorted ghouls would appear without warning. Yikes!

At this point, Bad Brains were playing, and it was clear more trouble was in store, when some guy in some sort of medeival doungeon master getup tried to crowd surf during "Attitude," which inspired the security to storm the stage twelve or so deep, evacuate the Bad Brains, and stand like some sort of musclehead Stonehenge along the end of the stage, while their leader informed everyone, "This is not a concert, this is a party. Have a seat." Of course, the floor was covered in horrible grime and broken glass, but whatever.

Poor Bad Brains. Or is it? With all due respect to these legends of hardcore and reformed homophobes, I don't know if I can ever recall a more phoned-in performance in all my life. This should come as no surprise, based on the ubiquity of weed stench emenating from their dressing room, and the equally ever-present site of all-time-greatest-hardcore-singer front-runner HR sitting motionless on a couch (seriously - this hardcore legend did not move an inch during the whole evening!). I mean, whatever floats yr boat, HR, more power to you, but for this Greatest Hardcore Band Ever to get onstage and have their singer remain motionless in body and completely monotone in voice... I dunno, it is just not how I imagined it might be. Disappointing at best.

Well, this whole scene was fucked, clearly, and my ladyfriend was getting more and more disturbed by the assholery on display (or sexual harassment, as she would call it, and perhaps rightly so) and the constant picture-taking by stangers, that she had to go home and try and live like a reasonable person. I wish I could have followed her, but as will become a theme throughout this sad tale, I really needed the money. So, I escorted her out of the building and out of the hellish nightmare that was this party, and I was glad to see her moving towards a more peaceful and decent evening.

Okay, so here is where shit got really weird, for me, anyway. I guess I should mention that I was dressed as Ulysses S. Grant, albeit a more glam version (I had no pants that matched my military jacket, so the above-mentioned ladyfriend lent me some blue leggings - a liberty I felt free to take), and my principal props were a cigar and a mid-sized American flag that I had attached to a mop handle. Understand me very clearly - there is no punk that loves the idea of America and what the flag represents at its best (all humans being created equal, land of opportunity, hard work and ensuing prosperity, forty acres and a mule, a potato in every pot, etc etc), and while some might take issue at my version of our 18th president being more in touch with his feminine side than he probably was, this costume was an unironic celebration and homage to a man that I deeply admire, drunken murderer that he was. Anyway. This is the important part!

Upon seeing my partner off, I was confronted by a large security gaurd, clearly recognizable as the sort of fellow I have encountered on NJ Transit and in the bro bars of Hoboken and frat parties the world over more times than I care to recall.

"You can't have that flag in here," he told me.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You can't have that flag in here, you have to take it outside," he replied.

"The flag?" I asked, confused.

"Just step outside," he said calmly.

This seemed like an odd request, but hey, he knows what he's talking about right, and perhaps he just wants to explain things more clearly to me when we are further displaced from the incessant thumping of electronic music, so I followed him a few yards in the direction of the door, at which point, he yelled, "NOW LEAVE!" and, grabbing me around the torso, began forcing me towards the metal barricades. I protested, primarily in the form of "Hey! Hey!" Not my most locquacious moment, but I was baffled. Growing frustrated at the effort it was taking to get a one hundred forty pound man in tights to do what he wanted, this gentleman grabbed me around the throat and lifted me off the pavement, tossing me over the barricade and onto the sidewalk. I figure that either, a) he saw his position of authority as a good opportunity to stomp queers like he used to with the other good old boys, or, b) this guy was a real American and seeing a degenerate hipster like me hoisting Old Glory was just so offensive a sight that he was driven into a blind rage, like any reasonable person would. Point is, I was now forcefully ejected and, indeed, physically assaulted, and unable to gain access to the event where I was expected to entertain the assembled masses. Did I mention that this assault was probably the single moment of the night that wasn't documented in about a hundred photographs, currenlty weighing heavily upon the Flickr server? Again, I digress.

So, at this point, feeling very insulted and violated, my neck now a mess of red handprints, and not really getting anywhere with my howls of, "You can't treat me like this! I'm an American!", I made my second-ever call to 911, who told me that police would be along shortly to see to my needs! Woo! Indeed, the police did arrive a minute later, sirens and all, and I ran after the car to tell them that I was the man who was so ghastily offended, but they turned the corner and sped off into the night, probably quite satisfied in knowing that the victim was some hipster douchebag who probably had it coming. Thanks, guys. To serve and protect. Fantastic.

Anyway, I called up my man, Ian, who is smarter than me about this sort of thing, and he came out to get the 411. Upon hearing the abbreviated version of my ordeal, he ran back inside to find the artist liason and get things sorted out. He returned a minute later to have my back, because that's how we do it in New Jersey baby, but upon trying to explain the situation to our ever-vigilant protectors, he too was swarmed upon by five or six mighty gorillas (Ian is about a hundred fifty pounds, by the way - none of these guys looked less than two fifty) and forced out in a similar fashion to myself. Hoo boy. What a pair we made, out there on the sidewalk. Ian is a good guy. He always has my back. A friend like that is hard to find.

Soon enough, the artist liason, a very nice young man named Joe, came over and found himself unable to sufficiently explain to the security that the two men they had just delivered minor-league ass-whuppings to were hired performers and needed to be inside to do their jobs, we had to be snuck through the back door. We met another security gaurd here, who I suppose was fairly high on the totem pole, since upon seeing me, said to Joe, "This guy's not getting back in. I saw one of my guys throw him out." Admirable, isn't it? Such integrity, such a commitment to excellence. This guy is going to make sure that his carefully-selected team of professionals is going to do what they believe to be the best job possible, even if it means assaulting the performers and alienating and terrifying the promoters who hired them.

I was ready to get wild at this point, so I berated this man to what I thought was a well-warranted degree, to which I was told to, "Calm down," since the man I was yelling at, "didn't know what happened." I told him that I did know what happened, and if he knew, perhaps he wouldn't be so keen on calming down either, which I thought was very fair. He must have thought so too, since he told me he wanted to start at "Ground Zero." Too soon?

Anyway, we were escorted back inside and played a very shitty set of Weezer covers. No, playing the all-time greatest guitar lick at the end of the "Buddy Holly" solo did NOT make me feel better.

Talking to the people from VICE following our performance, we learned that some young women had been ejected in a fashion much like the one I experience, though with an even more disturbing sexual twist, which I did not get the details of. They also said that they had severed their ties with the good people at Tight Security (http://www.tightsecuritygroup.com, if yr curious) and were actually going to sue them for their heinous misbehaviors. I agreed that I would give a statement whenever they needed. Is VICE actually going to do this, or were they just trying to hush me up and get me out of there? Time will tell. Next time you see one of those VICE folks, ask him or her how the lawsuit is going. I somehow get the feeling they will be too concerned with the latest gold lame unitard ad from American Apparel to give you much of an answer, but I hope I am mistaken.

With that, Eric, Liam and I went back to my apartment and watched "Trapped in the Closet Chapters 1-12" and felt all better, mostly. Walking young Liam to the L Train this morning, we found ourselves behind some typically costumed "hipsters" who delighted themselves between games of grab ass by smashing beer bottles on the ground and rearranging police barricades. Wow, you make us all look so great. Guess where they were headed? You win, you clever reader - they headed right into the very warehouse that had been such a portal to hell the night before.

Ughhh, this all raises so many questions! New York City is supposed to be a haven for people like me, and I am still getting my ass kicked by the same goons who were kicking my ass in high school. They probably want to kick my ass because they see what huge assholes we all are, with our cocaine and our cameras and our annoying music. I also wonder why it was that so many thousands of people wanted to stand for hours in the rain to get hot and filthy and have their pictures taken by strangers and probably get their asses kicked to boot. I was there too, and didn't want to leave despite any of these issues, and why? Because I am no better than anyone I despise and couldn't stop chasing the green monster. I degraded and debased myself for a few bucks, and yes, we all know where that money is going.

The whole thing is fucked. VICE is a perfectly fine magazine, and the people who work there are decent folks, but they really are bad at not getting mixed up with the wrong people and inspire my generation to really weird and troubling behavior. Tight Security Inc is raking in the big dollars by pointing fallen high school football superstars in the direction of easy targets. We are being choked and beaten and sexually assaulted, and all the while, my peers dance and snort cheap coke and photograph each other for the hundreth time. I scoff at it all now from atop my high horse, but I was there too, because I am poor and when people want give me money to play my guitar, I can't ever say no.

Kids, we are blowing it. Everything they say about us is true.

Yr friend,
Patrick

College Life

2009-10-06T18:35:00.001-07:00

Enjoy

2009-10-06T18:32:00.001-07:00

Tour update

2009-10-05T00:43:00.000-07:00

Tour has been great so far, however we have suffered several casualties in the field.

20 miles outside of austin one of the pistons in our engine blew a massive hole in the bottom of the engine taking every fluid with it. Since then we have abandoned our vehicle at a local auto shop and continued the tour in a budget rental truck.

Tour Kick Off Show

2009-08-31T22:04:00.001-07:00

Titus Andronicus US tour w/ So So Glos

2009-08-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

We are about to start a Full US tour with a friends from the So So Glos. If you can help us out with a place to stay please or know of some fun things to do in the cities we will be visiting, let us know. Contact Titusandronicustheband@Gmail.com

Richmond VA

2009-06-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

We had some time to kill In Richmond VA, so we went to vinyl conflict and here is what we came out with.

Liam Betson

Waco Fuck – Paranoia is Total Awareness LP

Total Abuse s/t (bad boy edition) LP

Ian Greatzer

Tragedy S/T LP

Kill your idols Salmon Swim Upstream 7”

Double Dagger / Economist Split 7”

Deathcycle S/T 7”

Portraits of Past / Bleed Split 7”

Bones Brigade / D.F.A. Slpit 7”

Career Suicide- Single e.p. 7”

Patrick Stickles

Off Spring- Smash CD

Eric Harm

Yeah Yeah Yeah – Show Your Bones CD

Get our album for free

2009-06-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

hello Friends,
If you don't have our album or never wanted to spend money on it, you can download it for free today and only today.

go here: http://www.beggarsgroupusa.com/releases/the-airing-of-grievances/

Also if you live in the tri-state area, we are playing tomorrow at the Music Hall of Williamsburg tomorrow located in Brooklyn NY

What’s Up World

2009-05-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Titus Andronicus UK tour is almost over and we will be coming back to the US with several items

On the Next tour we well have the following Titus Andronicus Paraphernalia.

- Titus Andronicus b/w Every Time I See the Light pts. 1 and 2 7” (Merok)

- My Time Outside the Womb b/w To old Friends and New 7” (Merok)

- Titus Andronicus Live in London 12”

2009-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

I got kicked out of the Abe Vigoda show in Nottingham.
Patrick and I devised a tongue-twister. Feel free to make an mp3 of your own attempt to recite it. Then send it to us for our amusement. It goes like this:

"Ack, Wack Mack! Stack Jack Black's black snack backpack back on the tacky cracked rack in the back of the hatchback by Quack Zach's yak hackey-sack."

This is how we pass the time.

2009-05-17T11:55:00.001-07:00

Some things about England:

1. We are currently traveling in something of a station wagon. It is pretty tiny.
2. In Brighton at The Volks, Patrick was sleeping on a bench in the venue's downstairs area. One of the bouncers insisted he go somewhere else. Later, said bouncer apologized, saying "I thought you were homeless."
3. We turned up our car stereo last night and now it goes from being entirely silent to being extremely loud, with no in-between.
4. The pizza place next door to Lennons in Southampton has very good fish and chips, as far as I can tell. Downstairs at the club I got the high score in "Paint It Black" on Rock Band but then accidentally erased it. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to.
5. At our second show in Brighton at Jam (formerly Water Margin), Patrick wanted to thank the audience for coming to our show while so many other popular bands were at the Great Escape festival. "You could be down the street seeing Dananananaykroyd," he said. A man in the front row replied "Hey, that's my band!" According to our intel, he wasn't lying.
6. Patrick has come to believe that he has a superpower wherein he mentions a person or band and suddenly we run into them.

UK friends! PLEASE let Titus A. sleep on yr FLOOR!

2009-05-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dear UK friends,

If you have ever been to a Titus Andronicus concert or read a Titus Andronicus interview, you have probably heard us deliver a lengthy monologue on our favourite topic, how we don't have any money. The cruel realities of life in our modern economy have forced Titus Andronicus to adopt a philosophy of extreme frugality, "jamming econo," as the Minutemen used to call it. The first thing that has to be sacrificed to live this lifestyle? Hotels!

As you may or may not know, we are heading out on a rather extensive tour of the UK later this month, and would really fancy coming over to yr house after the show and sleeping on the floor. Thus far, thanks to the assistance of Gareth from Los Campesinos! (yes, he thinks we are cool - let that colour yr perception to whatever positive end it may), we have lined up a few evenings of accomidations, but still desperately need yr help in the following cities on the following days.

5/14 - Brighton
5/15 - Brighton *
5/16 - Southampton
5/18 - Oxford *
5/21 - Liverpool
5/26 - Glasgow *
5/27 - Middlesborugh
5/28 - Leeds *
5/30 - Sheffield

( Dates marked with a * are with the Soft Pack, if that is yr thing)

If you let us come over after the show on any of these days, we are willing to get you and a friend into the concert FOR FREE. We may also be willing to do some household chores - straighten up, wash the dishes, clean some windows, water houseplants, etc. In addition, we will entertain you with a bevy of jokes and delightful yarns. What beer the nightclub gives us, you may also have some access to. Basically, if you look after our sleeping, we will make sure that you have the most memorable and enjoyable concert experience possible. Sound fair?

There are just four of us. We are all well-behaved and polite. We promise not to make a mess. We require nothing more than a floor and a ceiling.If it is yr pleasure, we are happy to go to sleep as soon as we arrive. If you seek further partying, we are happy to do that also. I believe that you will find our company most agreeable.

PLEASE, if you are at all interested, please contact us via message at this MySpace or send an e-mail toTitusAndronicustheband@Gmail.com. We will be eternally grateful. Thanks very much in advance for yr consideration.

Yr friends,
Titus Anronicus

Warehouse show / party in London Friday May 22

2009-05-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

2009-04-29T18:18:00.000-07:00

Upon exiting a gas station the other day, on the last leg of a 12+ hour drive home from Louisville, KY, Ian Graetzer and I overheard this: "I can't believe I shit my pants."

OLD TIMES THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

2009-04-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Much has been happening in the world of Titus Andronicus. Here:

RECORDING:
I don’t know if I can announce this project for fear that I may step on the toes of some XL Recordings marketing intern, whose only job, aside from buying coffee for the higher-ups, is to develop a Titus Andronicus release and announcement timeline, so I won’t say anything. However, I will but hint, in the most general sense, at what was committed to tape last week at Marcata Studios in New Paltz, NY. New songs were recorded. Only, the songs are not new to the world, only new to us. Look, if one is to assume that a particular song is, ipso facto, that very song, then, no, the songs are old, but the fact remains that Titus Andronicus has never performed these songs live, nor for their own pleasure or edification, etc, etc, but only in practice, so that they might be recorded. And they have been recorded. That is all.

These two songs will be released on two separate seven-inch records. Now you think, why would I buy a record that has only one song on it? To which I would say: There is another song on the other side. A crucial piece of information that I deliberately left out of the first paragraph is that the songs that we recorded are cover songs, so when I say that the songs were old, I mean to say that at the time of our recording them, another band had before then committed a version of their song, which was the quote-unquote definitive version of the song. None of this solves the mystery of what is on the other side of the record.

This does: the band whose song we covered on one side of the record will cover one of our songs on the other side.

FILMING:
1. We spent Monday shooting a video at New York’s famous Silent Barn with a guy called Mike Reynolds. He was great. Thanks to those who live there and especially Joe Ahearn, who runs show paper, and especially, especially to all of the folks who showed up and allowed us to cover them with mylar, even after they had begun to sweat. You are probably still trying to wash it off. Thank you. The video is for our upcoming single for the song whose title can be shortened to “Icarus.” That should give you some idea. We placed a baby on the floor, smashed some glass, jumped around, sprayed confetti. Not in that order!!!!!! You get me???

2. Episode two of our now famous webisode has been posted on our website, TitusAndronicus.net, for your viewing pleasure. It may soon be removed and slightly edited. Featured in the video is Randy and Dean of No Age, Hisham of Soft Circle, and other great friends from the tour from last Winter.

TOURING:
Lucero is a band from Tennessee that none of us were familiar with until we met them the other day in St Louis. If that show was any indication it is a different kind of thing, touring with Lucero, than it is touring with No Age or Los Campesinos. Case in point, they had not gotten as far as their second song before a brawl erupted between four grisly women. Bo, who was an eye witness to the affair, said that one woman grabbed a beer bottle and attempted to smash it over another lady’s head, unsuccessfully. The rest is a blur, but the bouncer kicked them out and these women had the rest of the night to think at home about what they’d done. Meanwhile Lucero finished their set and discovered that a fat clump of hair that had been torn from one woman’s head now rest on the stage. Imagine that. I thought we would be in for more of a wild ride after the first night, but the whole thing just started with a bang and has plateaued into something vaguely exciting. We are having fun.

Sorry, if anybody reads this, that there have been fewer posts of late. America isn’t as stimulating!

2009-03-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

Somebody forwarded this fantastic fansite to us:
http://titusandronic.us/

The webmaster here has a pretty comprehensive collection of our material. Maybe you are interested.

We are enjoying a day off in New Jersey after our show in Baltimore last night. But don't go on missing Titus Andronicus. We are going on tour with Lucero starting April 9th and hope to see all of you there. Also, don't miss us tomorrow night at Market Hotel. Come early or risk missing Dinowalrus and Real Estate, and be the only one of your friends who wasn't there for their explosive sets.

Serenity Now

2009-03-26T14:37:00.001-07:00

2009-03-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

I am writing from a Best Western outside of Austin, TX. We are in town for the annual South by Southwest festivities, where bands from all over the world, but mostly from New York, come to get noticed. It has always been a dream of ours to get noticed, and so here we are plugging & plucking away for some number of shows. (Seven, which pales in comparison to Vivian Girl’s astounding eighteen shows, or to the Mae Shi’s recordbreaking twenty-something shows last year.) If you are a very important industry rep or an A&R guy with one of the majors, please, please come introduce yourself after we rock your world because our bills don’t pay themselves, and we are committed to really making it by whatever means necessary. We are hellbent on making it. To all of you important people: we will wash your car if you let us buy you a very expensive lunch. We will give you a straight razor shave if you agree to let us look you in the eye meanwhile. We will wax your boots if you let us watch you crush our demo tape with them.

(THE MAE SHI: WATCH THIS TWENTY TIMES TO SEE IF YOU WOULD HAVE HAD FUN AT SXSW 2008)

The whole thing was a clusterfuck. "South By." We played some good shows. There was not as much free beer and food as we were told there would be. Abe Vigoda is the best band in the world. Ponytail is also the best band in the world. I saw our buddies in Real Estate play very loud and very, very good show at the Peacock Lounge. The Tallest Man on Earth (who is in fact very tiny) played one of the greatest shows in modern history, just him and his guitar. We went to see one of this band’s greatest influences, The Proclaimers, “The Twins with Bins,” in concert. They covered a Kings of Leon song, “one of the lesser known ones.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xmlb3ZRPuU
Click this link to see an amazing Proclaimers video. Embedding is disabled, but it’s worth your time.

Finally, Patrick, a few drinks deep, and in a dirty Paul McCartney shirt, met the mayor of Austin.

Since we arrived in Austin we have heard nothing but complaints from bands that had to carry their equipment for literal miles, like lowly packmules, between venues and vans. It is this band’s most recent logistical triumph over conventional wisdom that we have with us a Dahon Boardwalk folding bike to alleviate parking woes, spaces being both scarce and distant. The advantage of the Dahon Boardwalk single-speed folding bike is that, first and foremost, it folds and can be safely stashed along with any band’s equipment in the back of the van. Now we stash our van with great ease.

We played two shows en route to SXSW. The first of these shows was in Charlottesville, Va. Note that my notes on this show are skewed, for I was feeling jetlagged and overwhelmed, because I used to live there for three years. Playing a show for a group of people, all of whom you know at least peripherally but have not seen in a year, is a high-stress exercise in emotional management, and one that I failed. This show marked our return to mid-sized American venues with our own amplifiers, and that took serious adjustment. We were very, very loud but somehow did not clear the room. Many people did leave. This was the first of two dates with the good people over at the Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson team—or as we took to calling him, MBAR. Another band played, called St. God’s Hospital, featuring my favorite waiter Caleb L’Etoile, who used to serve me beer when I was still on college payroll.

Baton Rouge was a star-studded bill, with Marnie Stern and band, MBAR again, and our new buddies in a band called The Subjects. Jimmy of The Subjects set up my guitar and Ian’s bass guitar in exchange for only a couple of Oreos, and as it turned out later, free reign to touch our asses, in a buddy-buddy kind of way that was equal parts charming an off-putting. These guys are some of the nicest folks we’ve met. There was a nice sort of recess going on before the show, with the Subjects, MBAR and all of us doing bike tricks, playing wiffle ball and kicking a soccerball around. Then it was time to rock, and so we did. Marnie travels with a cute designer pup called Fig. It was one of those rodentine pygmy dogs that yelps always and forever, and the name of whose breed is impossible to remember. The name is a portmanteau of two breeds whose names you probably know, but once connected, are humorous. Like a golden doodle or cockapoo. I can’t remember this one.

European Tour Recap

2009-03-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

This was the first full-length tour without a CD player or an iPod that we could plug into the car stereo. So we were left to listen to the radio, which was unpleasant insofar as one likes to listen to music that one likes. Most discouraging was the seeming lack of regional music on the radio. Everything was American or British. One must travel far beyond Europe to escape that sound. We hardly even heard Lily Allen or Kate Nash in the UK. Similarly discouraging is the European predilection towards writing songs in English, which virtually every band we played with did. Why not sing some songs in French, so round and gummy, or German, so brutal, or Dutch, like silk boxers. Speak the language of your feelings! (Easy for me to say.)

Favorite Radio Songs
Andrew - "Viva La Vida," Coldplay
Eric - "Spaceman," Killers
Ian G - "Single Ladies," Beyoncé Knowles
Ian O - "If I Were a Boy," Beyoncé Knowles
Patrick - "Human," Killers

Best Band We Played With, By Far
Andrew — I Arkle
Eric — Stalin Vs Band
Ian G — Plug (Too hard to find their myspace)
Ian O — John and Jehn
Patrick — The Elvis Suicide

Best Venue
Andrew — Tsunami Club, Koln, Germany
Eric — Vera, Groningen, Holland
Ian G — Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
Ian O — Molotow, Frankfurt, Germany
Patrick — L’Abordage, Evreux, France

EUROTRIP 9

2009-03-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Frankfurt

There are depths of misery on tour that will forever remain untold, never to be understood by another. There are those who have felt it themselves, in their own way, but everybody has their own way of feeling it. I have tried to explain this particular feeling to my friends in the band, but they claim to never feel it, but they surely do, because, I figure, everybody who shares this lifestyle must. What I will say is this: the feeling is a cumulative and very specific convergence of things that are, taken alone, only moderately unpleasant. They include a deep gastrointestinal discomfort generally caused by too much gas station food, stinking and stretched out clothes, loneliness, and most of all, an aural overstimulation so pervasive it resembles chronic boredom in its monotony. This feeling inevitably comes once a tour, but only if the tour is longer than twenty days in length, and arrives unannounced as each tour’s emotional nadir. I can write of Frankfurt now, almost wistfully, because it was the only time I truly found myself in the pits, and only for a very specific moment. I was sitting with my head in my hands at the bottom of a staircase, feeling very tired, sorry for myself, and tired of feeling sorry for myself, when a door shut behind me. I was tired of all of these things, tired of playing shows after playing something like fifty show in fifty-five days, and eating bad food, missing my amour and what have you...but when the door shut I instinctively looked behind me where the door was and saw that painted on it was a woman, a sexy cartoon woman, naked up from the waist. She was chugging a liter of milk and spilling it all over her face and bare breasts. The painting was so detailed that you could see little milk rivulets gathered around her nipple follicles. (Nothing of this nature has so aroused me since Jessica Rabbit.) There had been one paying customer at a show on the other side of the world.

It was like the aimless sadness of youth, when one allows oneself to cry more or less because one was in the mood to make a scene, and only moments later mother or father comes to tickle you or make a face, and one can do nothing but laugh at how ridiculous it is to be upset for the sake of being upset. And so I realized, here’s this painting of a woman with milk on her tits, and my life in particular is too stupid to justify this misery. And so we drove to Koln.

Koln

Somewhere between everywhere we had been and Koln we passed the metaphysical border between places where pizza isn’t the king of foods and into the land where pizza is. I bought tubed mustard for my parents at an Indian supermarket and then we played a show. All was right in the land where pizza is king. This was one of tour’s resounding successes, which culminated with the promoter passing out on the bar while the lovely unsupervised bartender gave everybody whatever they could drink. Her mother was from Detroit, we all sat alone in the bar having free drinks and listening to a Motor City compilation. The bartender’s name was Manu, short for Manuela, but Eric misheard her and thought she said, “Anu.” The humor may be obvious, but it was particularly funny for us: some time ago my brother developed a pronunciation for the word “anus,” specifically “anu,” that later became colloquial usage in Titus Andronicus when referring to that part of the anatomy. Tee-hee.

Brussels

We played Tuesday in Brussels at a venue complex Botanique. The facility was built as a royal garden. This was not immediately apparent, as the whole place was concrete and plantless, save for a small hallway there some green plantlike things dangling. There was also a hedge maze and a fountain outside. Very European. Luc, the lighting engineer, told us that the room used to be a greenroom laboratory of sorts, and is in fact the very room in which the endive was “invented.” (Were they not warmed against playing God? These would not be the first peoples smote from existence for their hubristic chicory-smithery.) During the show I relayed this astonishing fact to the impressionables who watched us rocking and rolling, flailing with reckless abandon, and one of their ranks replied, “Neko Case said that on stage last week.” And so I came to realize that in Belgium, Neko Case’s word is alpha and omega on man-made root plants, and I am just a piece of shit.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez, former guitarist and principle songwriter of At The Drive-In, was playing in Botanique’s big room next door. He had a seven- or eight-piece band, who we encountered in the tiny hallways between green rooms. Ian O claims that he complimented Omar on his shoes, boutique Chucks, and Omar was “very friendly, seemed like a nice guy.” I felt bad for Omar & Co. because they took upon themselves the unenviable task of filling the facility with marijuana smoke. The ways in which they channeled those energy was apparent when I caught some of his set. Guitar pyrotechnics.

Paris

How ironic that we should play the same venue on each end of our maiden voyage? La Fleche D’Or was kind enough to have us back on their turf after some problem arose, likely from the fact that nobody had bought tickets to the show, with the venue we intended to play. I was too tired to do any of the things I promised myself I would do, like go to the Louvre and see La Joconde in the flesh (ie, in real life). The show itself was curated by a Parisian band called Sheraff. Everyone was very nice and sounded very much like Nirvana.

Be advised: it has been twenty years since Bleach came out, and nearly that long since Slanted and Enchanted. The people who bought first pressings of these records when they came are now married and their wives will soon force them to throw away or sell their favorite records, if they have not already. This means that we have reached the twenty- to twenty-five-year “vintage” cycle wherein things from that long ago will soon reach thrift stores and dollar bins, where the twenty-year old trash that forty-year olds bought the summer before they entered college will pass through thrift stores, into the hands of impressionable sixteen-year-olds, who will buy these treasures and make the next generation of important bands, most of which will be heavily indebted to the guitar rock of that period. And then, to them, your mid-eighties influenced electro-pop band will sound “like the Killers or something.”

All of the bands were quite good. Jack Graetzer brought the pain and we got to the Chunnel without incident for the last time. I woke up to deal with customs. We will be questioned each time we enter the country from now until eternity because of November’s customs mishap. Then full speed ahead to London, for a flight to Newark, home, and the next day to New York, for a show with the Wrens. Everything that happened there was normal and decidedly not-exotic, so I will not write about it. It was good. You have better things to read about. We are two days from SXSW.

Controversy

2009-03-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Conversation over dinner in Brussels grew tense when talk veered towards the recently proposed and highly controversial ban on smoking cigarettes in the van, slated to take effect upon our return to America tomorrow. The pro-smoking side argues that the intervals between stops for defecation, refueling, and/or snacks in American travel, vastly longer than European intervals, pose an unreasonable obstacle for even the most iron-willed nic-head. It is unreasonable, they argue, that any smoker be asked to hold out for what often turns out to be three hours or more. Additionally, for those who do not know the joys of constant smoking, there is no way to comprehend the pleasure; thus any such ban would be solipsistic, and what’s more, selfish.

The no smoking team argues these points. In the van, smoke is subject to no barriers—even the most diligent window wafter is fated to smoke out the entire van. Van smoking is thus in violation of the Personal Spaces Act of 2008, wherein Graetzer, Cedermark et al., backed by band majority, ruled that anyone can do whatever they want within a reasonable personal space in the van, so long as it does not impinge upon the well-being, emotional or otherwise, of any other member of Titus Andronicus. Non-smokers thus posit that van smoking should have ceased with the passage of that Act, along with deep flatulence, very loud headphone volumes, and “close talking.”

(CLOSE TALKING: BANNED IN TITUS ANDRONICUS)

The smokers retort that any prohibition on van smoking will be similarly in violation of the Personal Spaces Act for burden it places upon their personal space. A smoking ban limits activity of someone else in the Personal Space, which, for a person in his own space, is an ungovernable sector for he who honors the limits of his own boundaries. After all, it is the smoke and not the smoker that invades the personal space of another; the smoke and not the smoker. Touché, I guess. And then the no-smokers argue that there are special circumstances.

One needs look no further than Eric Harm’s medical records to see that he is an asthmatic, and so has more to lose than your garden variety smoker has to gain from smoking whensoever he pleases. This dark reality is compounded by the fact that he is The Drummer. Keeping Eric healthy means playing better shows, which creates more money with which smokers may buy, and subsequently smoke, more cigarettes. (So long as they do not smoke them in the van.) His thoracic and cardiovascular healths are ipso facto the band’s backbone, or for those of you logged in south of the border, its cajones. But others in this camp argue that it is not entirely about Eric, the guy who likes to scratch his balls and in fact lies doing so beside me in a cheap motel as I write this, scratch scratch, but about manners that ought to be upheld pro forma. After all, non-smoking is normative.

Or is it? Now we find ourselves at a deep philosophical impasse. J. S. Mill does not mentions this. The demands of each group burden the others within their personal spaces. Yet both the smokers and the non-smokers believe themselves to be the normative group. For smokers, smoking was once a choice but now occupies the nebulous ground between want and need that is psychological addiction. Within their paradigm, addiction shifts the foundation of normativity to include smoking as a basic need. To their thinking, non-smokers must allow this fundamental, or now-fundamental, need at whatever cost. Whereas non-smokers argue not smoking is normative because, first, no nicotine addiction drawn upon the tabula rasa, and in this day and age more people don’t than do.

(SMOKING: IF THIS WERE YOUR SON, WOULD YOU BE PROUD OF HIM? IF NOT, WOULD YOU BLAME YOURSELF?)

Should Titus Andronicus allow smoking in the van? Voting will take place tomorrow morning, Heathrow Airport, 11:00 a.m. Write your favorite band legislator.

An average day in Germany

2009-03-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

PHOTOS 3

2009-03-08T12:57:00.001-07:00

1. Jack Graetzer in the car outside Atlanta, brushing the last bit of yay from his nose. Jk. R ‘n’ R!
2. Andrew in a bar.
3. Jack at Pizza Hut outside Jacksonville, FL. We went to a Mexican restaurant instead.
4. Eric and our host Matt in Gainesville, FL engaged in a Rubik’s cube challenge. Eric later perseveres. Patrick films.

EUROTRIP 8

2009-03-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

DRESDEN

Getting to Dresden was a long, dark day in the van. Traffic woes doubled the length of the trip—not so bad, all things considered, since we’re nearly three weeks deep now and that was the first of it we’ve seen. We were greeted by sound guys who were by turn ornery and mum. Which was more our fault: we were three hours late for soundcheck and so had fucked the schedule. Their English was as good as our German, which is to say not very good at all. Beatpol is an enormous room that was doomed to look empty once the modest crowd rolled in. Again, there was a palatial greenroom and a veritable feast. We are again relieved to be in a place where we are blessed with support acts, for in Holland there are none. The other group in Dresden was a punk band called Stalin Vs Band. They were unhinged—what a fun band to watch.

We were very lucky to stay with new friends named Dani, Sebastian and their dachshund Marta, who are, in spite of the formidable language barrier, clearly some of the nicest people on the planet. Dani is in a band called Malory, and they’ve toured America at least once. Sebastian is a “pharmacy man.” (Language barrier blocked out many other details.) They like Sonic Youth. They referred to each other as husband and wife but when asked insisted, “No, we are not married!” They were enthusiastic dog owners—Dani had a tattoo of a sausage dog in silhouette on her forearm. A feast for breakfast again, delicious mustard, bread and cheese, and we’re getting fat and looking forward to being fed nothing during the upcoming American tour.

On the way out the door, Patrick joked that Dani should send us some pictures of Marta the dog. Below are the pictures she actually did send.

LEIPZIG

We had been dreading the show in Leipzig, which was rumored to have sold a grand total of zero advance tickets. When it time to play the show there were some folks there, likely for the DJs after us. We sat backstage listening on repeat to track 8 on the Lou Bega album—I don’t have access to the names of the songs—getting psyched to play that would amount to practice with a soundman watching us. Lou Bega sounds at times like Tracy Morgan making fun of music, particularly here. The Lou Bega song has a key change, and it got me psyched to play the song “Titus Andronicus.”

A guy or two danced. I broke the toggle switch on my guitar doing a somersault and had to fart around while we played “Roadrunner.” Even the keyboard didn’t work when I wanted to play it. Everybody had fun. We are staying above a café in another artists’ loft. Home soon!

GLEN ROCK, NJ