Airing of Grievances

Look, I know it's sloppy and the singer can hardly sing. . . but the whole band plays their instruments well, and the songwriting is mostly solid throughout, and quite frankly it is refreshing to hear music that is so full of emotion and rocks so hard.

Album is a grower. As a fan of Against Me! and the Clash, this is perfect.

Such a great album to own. Lyrics are amazing and the beat is addicting. Can't get enough of this punk/indie/folk stuff.

Great album.

("The Airing of Grievances" by Titus Andronicus)Taking their name from Shakepeare's bloodiest, most violent tragedy, New Jersey's Titus Andronicus could be the American response to Arctic Monkeys. While the two bands sonically have little in common, adulation from the blogosphere and Pitchfork Media have focused white hot attention to their debut album. With a rowdy bar band attitude and sweeping choruses, not to mention the occasional blast of horns, they could be called a punk rock version of Springsteen's E Street Band. Okay, that's sadly inevitable for a New Jersey band, but this time the comparison holds water. Filled with working class ennui and rage, but also with brains to match, not to mention the ability to write catchy indie-punk songs, TA will get you sweaty and drunk just by listening to them.The album opens with their all-purpose anthem, "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ," a song that starts out soft and hushed but comes alive with a hoarse shout of "[...] You!" What follows throughout the rest of the album is all breakneck speed, go-for-broke rock n' roll excess, the very example of a band with too many ideas let loose in the studio for the first time. It's all a little exausting, but one supposes it was meant to be. To extend the Boss comparison, imagine a show that was all "Born To Run" and "Thunder Road" but no "I'm On Fire." Even the relatively slow "No Future, Part One" leads into the faster tempo of the cheekily-titled "No Future, Part Two: The Day After No Future." They're not stopping to catch a breath, so why should you?Some random notes: the album's name is taken from an episode of "Seinfeld" (you know, the one about "Festivus"). The album includes brief end-of-song readings from the original Shakespeare play (of course) and a bit from Camus' "The Stranger" (in a song called "Albert Camus"--literature classes in New Jersey are apparentely good). The band's self-titled song is the best thing The Clash never wrote. Singer Patrick Stickles does not, contrary to what many have said, sound like a screaming Conor Oberst--he's closer to an American Joe Strummer. The only real question is: will the band have as long or rich a career as Strummer? I for one can't wait to find out.

It's nice that bands like Titus Andronicus can squeeze fresh songs out of the very simple medium that is punk rock. This album has a lot of classic punk but also a lot of distortion, maybe somewhere between Black Flag and Sonic Youth. The music is loud, proud, and worthy. I don't really know anything about this band, but their lyrics seem to mine the classic theme of youthful alienation, with a post-punk artistic and literary sensibility. Their music is rough and edgy while their lyrics reveal some erudition. If Thurston Moore and Paul Westerberg had somehow teamed up when they were in their early 20's, you might get something like the sound of Titus Andronicus. This is one of my favorite albums released so far in 2009.

Loud. Distorted. Melodic. This is the post-punk album I needed at this point in my life. It makes me want to pick up the guitar again and change the world, using three chords and lots of literature references.Hopefully these folks with survive long enough to give us a few more. Truly inspirational.

Imagine, if you can, Conor Oberst on a Springsteen bender and fronting the early Replacements, or Social Distortion covering the Pogues and you're still only halfway to picturing the storm that Titus Andronicus whip up. This is one of those albums that's deserving of a much wider audience than the one that it will probably get. Patrick Stickles is a great lyricist in the Bright Eyes mould - downtrodden, heartbroken and full of venom - but far from being depressing, these rabble-rousing anthems are utterly life-affirming and embody everything that good rock music should be about. The lyrics to 'Titus Andronicus', for example - "No more cigarettes/no more having sex/no more drinking till you fall on the floor" - and it's closing terrace chant of "Your life is over!" make death and misery seem like something to be heartily embraced instead of fought against. These guys are spiteful, sloppy, raucus, hideously depressed, raging at the world that made them that way, and absolutely steaming drunk to boot. The sound is rough and ready to say the least but the band are clearly having a whale of a time - so much so that they forgot to produce the album. Lyrically there's a great mix of the personal and the political, and musically there are hints of everything from Bright Eyes to The Boss and 60s doo-wop to Sham 69 . It sounds, quite frankly, like an absolute riot, and anyone whose been to one of their live shows will attest to their endless energy, charisma and raw power. Their 'screw it all' attitude is remeniscent of some of the first 'Mats records and that's something that folks of a certain disposition will find extremely appealing. Highly recommended for fans of the Replacements, Social D, Flogging Molly, Desaparecidos etc etc etc.

USニュージャージー州/グレンロックの5人組による1stフル。ワタクシ、既に十代のガキンチョって頃でもないんだが、ここには思わず我を忘れさせ、身体を突き動かす鮮やかな衝動が詰まってた。カテゴライズすらなら、パンク/ガレージ。なんだけど、満ちているのは圧倒的に陽なる熱量。自分の浅い引き出しから例えるなら、Flogging MollyやDropkick Murphysあたりの情熱的で豪快で爆発的な熱気に満ちた空間も連想したり。遠く響く弾き語りののち、爆発的に音が溢れ出す"Fear〜"に始まって、全9曲/45分を熱い音塊がノンストップで疾走。大胆なストリングスや時に混声合唱をも織り込んだ畳み掛けるようなアプローチは、パンキッシュに突き抜けたArcade Fireみたいでもある。だけどもその辺の装飾がキモにはならず、いわば完全に舞台照明役に徹して聴こえるところが決定的に違う。スポットライトに照らされたステージに浮かぶは、Liam Bestonの圧倒的なヴォーカル。叫び、ガナリ立て、情熱的に歌い上げるその存在感は別格。シンプルなコード編成の裏では、ハーモニカや鍵盤による意外に凝った音作りがされてるんだけど、このヴォーカルが見事にそれをブチ壊す。ワンマン・バンドって意味ではない。なんというか、愛する悪ガキのために全員で丁寧に砂の城を築き上げ「さぁ思う存分壊せよ」って言ってるような連帯感。最高のヴォーカリストと至福のメロディをかき鳴らすバンド陣による、シンプルで最上のロックンロール。意外な地点からヤラレタ感のある快作！