Four Score and Seven Inches

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