titus andronicus - the monitor

lol otm

looking forward to my local getting this on the juke so i can jam out with overpriced jameson & coke

just bought this due to all the positive stuff I've heard. vocals definitely sound like a mix of Conor Oberst/Will Sheff.

ok i'm only as far as "you'll always be a loser" and it resonates, so

Smoking’s been okay so far, but I need something that works faster,
So all I want for Christmas is no feelings, no feelings now and ever again

Yes, I have surrendered what made me human and all that I thought was true,
So now there’s a robot that lives in my brain and he tells me what to do.
And I can do nothing without his permission or wasn’t part of the plan,
So now in Rock Ridge pharmacy I will be waiting for my man.

^love the delivery here

IF I CAME IN ON A DONKEY
I HOPE I'M GOIN OUT ON A GURNEY

"theme from 'cheers'" is the song that has grown to knock me out once i've got accustomed to all of the heart-exploding solos & stuff

So let's get fucked up, and let's pretend we're all okay.
And if you've got something that you can't live with,
Save it for another day, all right?
Save it for another day.

i mean, let's get it imo

it's just, maybe i haven't listened to my fair share of anthemic rock music or w/e, but this album comes off as some raggedy, stream of conscious gut spilling, but it's such a well orchestrated album -- every song is long for a reason and pays off every single time & all of them have great musical moments, & as much as i love the last album, this album def strikes me as the work of a dude who is a super talented musician with as many good ideas as the touted indie bigwigs

like, "to old friends and new" shows that he doesn't have to resort to the heart-exploding solos to have a payoff that's affecting & cathartic -- in fact, the rising guitar squall + horns in the middle of that song probably hit harder than the solos & guitar codas depending on what mood you're in, and it's a very restrained and beautiful climax (not to mention the sing along) that really stands out amongst the rest of the songs

i'm also super glad that they had the wherewithal to do the whole cheesy sax solo + piano solo routine on "...and ever"

i haven't been this glad at a decent # of ilxors really taking to an album in a long time

i would like to personally apologize to patrick stickles for being too broke to purchase your album

i need to see this album played straight through live, preferably w/ big hoos doing slam poetry as the opener tbrr

i can't tell if i would try and mosh during the climax of "battle of hampton roads" or if i would just collapse into someone's arms

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22fucking+bagpipes%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

my mans here has really good quality live video here http://www.youtube.com/user/ZacMagnum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U52u-UtWd1Y&feature=related

kinda disappointed this dude has a beard tbch

idk tbh i get that a dude has to play it safe with his voice while on tour cause he has 4 billion songs to sing but imo without the unhinged ott delivery that song is not as fun to me?

also was not expecting that spoken voice to go with that singing voice

yeah agreed xp

I'm all for the idea of wordy, triumphant anthems via Springsteen-Neutral Milk Hotel-Arcade Fire-Hold Steady, but that voice wore me out before half the album was done.

too bad b/c the 2nd half is the best part. start from "a pot in which to piss" if you try again.

yeah seriously

"for the glory of the Newark Bears"

Oh I didn't give up, I made it all the way through the last 14 min track. Still wore me out, kind of like Meat Loaf does. Yeah, there's greatness in there, but maybe the kind you only need to hear once. A decade. Now if they had Meat Loaf do guest vocals, I'd see that.

stream of live in studio set by Titus Andronicus on 89.3 The Current here in mpls:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/05/titus-andronicus-live/

In all honesty, Titus Andronicus was probably too big for the Project Lodge. Stickles became a bit frustrated as the crazies up front kept disconnecting his mic cable. There were several “oh shit’ moments when the P.A. system was almost knocked over entirely, to the point that one of the Lodge’s employees felt the need to jump up front and hold the speakers up. During “Titus Andronicus Forever,” kids were even attempting stage dive off of the Lodge’s one-foot stage. During the heart-wrenchingly powerful “Richard II,” a kid crowdsurfed under the relatively low ceiling, in danger of kicking down a projector box mounted up there for film screenings and art shots. Then again, that's probably how a fucking punk show should be.

y'all convinced me to buy this -- and i'm really enjoying it

I really dig this album, and I enjoyed seeing them live (opened for Vamp Weekend when they played Washington Heights), but for some reason they often seem to be cribbing off this Springsteen/NJ thing more than advancing it, and when I hear something like, "Baby we were born to die," I'm 50% thrilled cause I'm a huge boss fan but also 50% put-off because it feels cheap (much in the same way that NJ band Thursday sings Needle and the Damage done in 'Understanding in a Car Crash' and I'm momentarily in love cause Neil Young <3<3 but then it feels less like a homage and more like heavily relying on the sentiment I already have for these lyrics and not creating new sentiment). Also, it feels weird to be championing 2003 emo music in 2010.

this music isnt 2003 its timeless

i thought they were dope live too but they need a hype crowd 4 the manic group catharsis moments 2 really hit

I am liking this, mostly because it is so loose and ragged

Okay fuck this has totally clicked with me and I love it so much.

I was just coming here to post that, this album is fucking great...

Yeah, I take back any reservations I had -- tho Gaslight Anthem is getting more plays than this now for me.

ditto but i really played the shit outta this for a month

unless the-dream's album is fucking titanic, i'm not sure if anything will surpass this on my year end list, prob not even lcd

This over Gaslight + Against Me for you, J0rdan?

i actually have only listened to gaslight twice so far, which is far less than AM! and titus, so not sure about that -- right now titus is my top 1, with against me! in the 3-5 range -- i just dig the total overblown epicness of the titus album which encompasses a bunch of really awesome musical moments -- also titus is a bit more identifiable to me, since i'm about to me drinking in my parents (non-) basement (lol miami) and was never actually a teenage anarchist

i remember just hating this band when i saw them a couple years ago, but i'm absolutely loving this. such an unbelievably well-sequenced record!

i've also just moved to dc after almost ten years in boston, and this is hitting me on this emotional level that music that sounds like this rarely does. i also don't know if stickles is bemoaning or wallowing in all that emotional isolation half the time, which is something i never wondered about, say, bright eyes (who i never really liked) - ultimately that makes this record so much more confusing and exhausting to listen to, which is of course the point

i would like to add to matt's point upthread that it's also perfect when you're hungover and alone in your room on a sunday morning in a city you don't know very well yet, dealing with unresolved Boston Issues and trying not to romanticize the idealized version of boston that doesn't exist - obviously this is a symptom of my own experiences but there's something specific about having lived there (and having had so much exposure to that "soul killing hellhole version of boston") that drastically affects my opinion of this record

i didn't articulate that very well at all but you know what i mean

god damn this album rules so much

When I'm an old man, I can be the quiet type,
and I can go without a moment of fun for the rest of my life.
I can read a good book, and I can be in bed by ten,
and I can get up early, go to work and come home, and start it all over again.

But while we're young, boys, everybody raise your glasses high,
Singing, 'Here's to the good times, here's to the home team.
Kiss the good times goodbye, oh yeah,
Kiss the good times goodbye.'

btw um

they played for 2 hours

i fucking love them

i peed next to stickles in a trough urinal and i said "does this make you feel like a horse too" and he said "i always feel like a horse"

http://i11.tinypic.com/4bfnofo.jpg

for all fucking time

this album is top 10 ever for me