titus andronicus - the monitor

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

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!