titus andronicus - the monitor

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

which maybe says everything i'm trying to say

that like that would never happen, and thats acceptable to me, cause that's not why i listen to them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7AgIaF_o40

^^ gives me chills

titus are playing here with the pogues in march and i am amped beyond words to see em again

and AM! is already plenty lit snob stately fuiud

I want to break something

UP THE PUNX

i love Against Me (and Gaslight Anthem) even more than Titus and I think the Warped Tour unnamed dynamic thing might have to do with it

i mean i feel like dayo is totally right that what these guys do lacks the melodic momentum, the gasp-out-every-word-from-the-depth-of-the-mosh-pit-ness, of someone like an am! or even a rise against, but again: i think what they lack in that kind of immediacy they make up in richness and attention to detail.

but then, i came to this record with absolutely no idea what it sounded like and literally nothing to go on but

http://i11.tinypic.com/4bfnofo.jpg
― suge knight btw (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, February 24, 2010 5:52 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

so i didn't have a lot of preconceptions or expectations.

plus the whole 'my breakup was totally just like the civil war, i swear' narrative had more than a few personal resonances for me, what with having a breakup that was totally just like the civil war (i swear) like the week i bought & over the ensuing two months that i processed this record.

rise against, fuck yeah

but then, i came to this record with absolutely no idea what it sounded like and literally nothing to go on but

yeah same here other than I knew it was j0rd's fave record of the year and seemed to be popping up in year end lists.

i think that's otm, and i first saw them at that vampire weekend concert. i don't even know that they lack gasp-out-every-word-from-the-depth-of-the-mosh-pit-ness, just that my experience of them lacks that xp

(so i think maybe you're not so otm about them not being great in a warped tour type venue. could be excellent)

where were they playing when they opened up for vampire weekend? i cant picture them in the large, possible open air venue that warped tour would necessitate, but maybe that's just because when i saw them it was an intimate as you can get

like, getting hit with patrick stickles's beard sweat and then smoking cigarettes with him after intimate

stickles is a dope last name

united palace theater last jan

ive only seen them in tiny spaces too they were p great live

think this album has tonnes of momentum & bombast when it needs to but theres a idk self-reflective quality to it that maybe prevents it from ever getting truly unhinged. like i have a feeling that even when hes screaming his heart out hes half thinking how ridiculous hes being yknow?

maybe thats why i love 'theme from 'cheers'' so much that knowing half-abashed quality adds a layer of sweetness and complexity to it like ur both sharing a joke thats also rooted in the truth

like its legit hard to play something so emtional str8 & i guess i can admire or ~get~ acknowledging it and trying anyway

like, getting hit with patrick stickles's beard sweat and then smoking cigarettes with him after intimate

sounds like torture, tbh

rong

stickles seems like one of the nicest dudes

this band is far too unattractive for me to ever listen to their stupid music

late to the game on this but: if you like this band and front like you hate the arcade fire you are full of shit imo

You're going to have to explain that one to me, because other than them both using similar types of instruments I don't see a whole lot of similarities between the two. I mean, yeah, both are white indie bands prone to half-baked concept albums, but, uh, thats about it.

well for starters they sound exactly the same