titus andronicus - the monitor

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

i feel like i need to find stickles and hug him but i don't think he showers at all

me and my mans handed our glasses off to our dates to go into the pit during titus andronicus forever

lol

CONTACTS, SON

glasses define my face dogg there is no doing without

otherwise i can't even be seen ~while~ craning your neck

lol

*glasses fall down on a photo of h*os*

DEAL WITH IT

is what you're saying

well

talk about our grandkids
stroke our grey beards
funny we're still doin car bombs
after all these years

busy tonight with the excerpts, hoos

'car bombs' urgh

so irish

just want to reiterate: one of the best sets ever seen by a hoos

this album is still pretty cool now I'm giving it another listen

I mean I only gave it a listen coz hoos' current girl sitch reminded me of his posting itt but it's kinda synching up with me too in some weird way

love.

me + one of my bros are seeing these dudes tonight! PSYCHED

i figured out what was bugging me about "Richard II" which is that the melodic/harmonic structure is like a perfect imitation of old Okkervil River songs. plus the singers sound somewhat similar too.

but yeah anyway this album finally clicked for me and it is glorious

I'm three songs in but what's the diff between this shit and stuff like flogging molly or dropkick murphys

guess I should hear the album all the way through first

racist

more than halfway through and I guess this just isn't my thing

was trying to think why this rock band was getting indie acclaim, and then yeah ppl nailed it upthread, this is who the crits are crowning as the next hold steady, indie palatable bar rock

I guess I like my emotional punk harder/with stronger hooks and more abrasive instrumentation. this album is kind of polite and underwritten.

damn i don't think that describes it at all

yeah, i would not call this album polite

I guess I should qualify that by saying it seems polite when you consider what they're trying to achieve, this balls out catharsis, the singer gets into it but doesn't really get into it, that's cool, but the instrumentation doesn't really pick up the slack

there's not really any aggression

I'm wondering now if dayo is even listening to the right record, because I don't hear any of his criticisms when I listen to it. If anything, the record seems a little overwritten to me, there are a few places when things could have been a little streamlined to pack more of a punch. And I'm not sure just how much more you are wanting the lead singer to get into it, I mean, dude seems to be throwing a whole lot of himself into it. There are plenty of valid criticisms of this record - a little too precious at times, a wee bit overbearing with the whole Springsteen-indebted rock, among others - but I don't hear any of dayo's complaints among them. But, I'm sensitive because I really love this record and I want more people to discover the exuberance I hear in it.

yeah jon I realize that I come at this from a diff background, having grown up with super emotive power pop punk. when I say underwritten, I mean the sing along parts aren't really worth singing along too - they're not hooky enough. I guess I wish the songs were tighter, or made up for their sloppiness in some other way. like a good counterpoint to this record I feel would be the drones, whose songs have that same sort of rambly quality but their's a lot more base-level aggressiveness and viscerality that justifies it

this album seems polite as in it's something that seems like you should be able to mosh to and dance around to, but when you try to jump in there's just not enough sonic OOMPH to carry it

Okay, I totally get where are you coming from wrt to the "underwritten" now, yeah, this isn't something I come to looking for big sing-alongs (thats been this year's Superchunk, My Chem, and Against Me records), but I still feel a good sense of catharsis in it. I wasn't trying to be harsh with my post, I was just struck by your posts because I had pretty much the exact opposite reaction! I can see where you are coming from now, though I'm still not sure I agree with you on all of it.

i'm really stunned by the idea that this record, with its doubletime breakdowns and gang chorus singalongs and fuckin bagpipes and multiple-guitar-solo epics is lacking for any kind of oomph, and i too am coming out of a 90s power punk background

~~confused~~

FUCKING

BAGPIPES

IT'S STILL US AGAINST THEM, IT'S STILL US AGAINST THEM

hoos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEIxbO7g10g

ya mean?

xp

srsly when i saw them they closed w/that one and the whole club was going apeshit screaming along it was like O_____________________________________________O

if I went to a Titus Andronicus show, I hope I would be doing the same!

dayo yes just like that, i feel like titus is the anthemic high energy feel of am! given a stately lit snob strut, or if you like that they have more in common with the pogues than (say) flogging molly or dropkick murphys have in common with the pogues. what they lack in melodic momentum they more than make up in sonic & emotional fury, i think.

and plz do not let my previous post imply that i was not screaming along tbh

^______________^ may have been more appropriate but after that many beers it was more like \m/ >_________________> \m/

FUCKING

― k3vin k., Thursday, December 30, 2010 4:59 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

BAGPIPES

― k3vin k., Thursday, December 30, 2010 4:59 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

this will always
be correct kev
this will always
be correct kev
this will always
be correct kev
this will always
be correct kev
and that's
o
kay

haha hoos see titus andronicus comes nowhere near close to AM! on that front. I think my fondest show memories were seeing AM! around the reinventing axl rose period and climbing on stage and doing the sing along and getting the shit kicked out of me by all these other meathead punks. somehow I just can't see a Titus Andronicus show descending into that level of dionysian formlessness

for one thing, it's much too midtempo and mannered

i love these guys, but the show i saw of them was kinda lacking in a real sense of power at least from the audience's end. that said, they were opening for vampire weekend, and i bet if they were playing warped tour it would be explosive

haha man i cant ever imagine these dudes playing warped tour