popwreckoning

Titus Andronicus, a five piece hailing from Glen Rock, New Jersey, are set to release their latest album The Monitor on March 9^. This will be their first full-length album to be released by XL Recordings, and if their 2008 album The Airing of Grievances is any indication, this album promises dark lyrics paired with an unlimited supply of raw energy. Let us see if presuppositions ring true.

The first track, entitled “A More Perfect Union,” starts The Monitor with a one-two punch of exhausting energy and absurdly fun guitar riffs. “A More Perfect Union” is a surprising seven minutes long, yet it never drags or loses steam. The lyrics have not lighted up any from The Airing of Grievances, although with lines like “I’m looking for a ‘new’ New Jersey, ‘cause tramps like us, baby we were born to die,” there’s an exuberance to their desperation that makes them more Coen Brothers than Wes Anderson, more Burn After Reading than The Royal Tennenbaums. “Titus Andronicus Forever” acts as an interlude song, leading us to track three, “No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future.” The end of this song is sure to be a crowd-pleasing live encore selection with a call-and-response of “You will always be a loser…and that’s okay!” Titus dials it down a bit with military snare and jangly guitars of “Richard II,” although “dialing it down” for this band means little more than a subdued introduction that segues into a spastic, thrash-about tune with shouted vocals.

The next track, “A Pot in Which to Piss,” is the highlight of the album and possibly Titus Andronicus’ best composed song to date. Not wanting to spoil the many surprises this song has in store for the listener, just know that this track has the power to transport you to far-away settings, not unlike Neutral Milk Hotel or The Decemberists. Oh, and there’s plucky little piano riffs too. “Four Score and Seven” is an ever-shifting, mostly instrumental jam that alternately strolls and stomps. “Theme from Cheers” is a leaving-the-bar-with-good-friends-after-a-long-night-of-pints-and-billiards kind of tune, and “To Old Friends and New” and “…And Ever” move the album along nicely to the fourteen minute finale “The Battle of Hampton Roads.” These fourteen minutes serves as a nice bookend to the previous nine songs, romping through crescendo-decrescendo pairs like their lives depend on it. Wow.

This album shows almost no weaknesses, but there IS a relatively large bone that must be picked: the repeated use of spoken word samples throughout the album. This group seems to have such an outstanding grasp of how their songs flow, both within each individual tune and from one song to another. However, they don’t seem to understand how disengaging and interruptive these samples are (especially considering where they’re placed). There are four such samples interspersed in the album: the beginning of track one, end of track two, beginning of track five and end of track nine. Looking at these placements, it would seem that Titus was intending to use the samples as a cohesive force, much like the “Spider” songs functioned in mewithoutYou’s masterpiece Brother, Sister. If this was their intention, the opposite actually occurred; the energy (a word that could have been used at least thirty-six times in this review thus far) that carries The Monitor is unnaturally and forcefully halted each time. Let us hope they learn their lesson and omit these samples in future releases.

Rob Gordon, the protagonist played by John Cusack in High Fidelity, famously said about making a mix tape: “You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.” Titus Andronicus followed these rules to a tee on The Monitor, and the resulting album is quite an accomplishment. Minor technical nit-pickings aside, this album is like the illegitimate child of Born Ruffians’ Red, Yellow, and Blue and The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife. Highly, highly recommended.

Track Listing:
1. A More Perfect Union
2. Titus Andronicus Forever
3. No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future
4. Richard II Or Extraordinary Popular Dimensions And The Madness Of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthem)
5. A Pot In Which To Piss
6. Four Score And Seven
7. Theme From “Cheers”
8. To Old Friends And New
9. …And Ever
10. The Battle Of Hampton Roads

The London folk scene is alive and well. And one of the newest bands of that scene, Fanfarlo, has announced their first headlining tour of North America for this November and December. Having played CMJ two weeks ago and received glowing reviews, this tour couldn’t have been timed better. The band released their debut album, Reservoir, earlier this year.

While you are waiting to see them in a town near you, check out their stripped down version of Neutral Milk Hotel‘s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.”

Tour dates:
Nov 09 – Schubas / Chicago
Nov 11 – Triple Rock / Minneapolis
Nov 13 – Moe’s / Denver
Nov 14 – State Room / Salt Lake City
Nov 16 – Knitting Factory / Boise
Nov 17 – Crocodile Cafe / Seattle
Nov 18 – Media Club / Vancouver
Nov 19 - Doug Fir / Portland
Nov 20 – Great Basin Brewing Company / Sparks, NV
Nov 22 – Rickshaw Stop / San Francisco
Nov 23 – Echo / Los Angeles
Nov 24 – Casbah / San Diego
Nov 27 – Soho Restaurant & Music Club / Santa Barbara
Nov 29 – Club Congress / Tucson
Nov 30- Santa Fe Brewing Company / Santa Fe
Dec 02 – Independent / Austin
Dec 03 - Loft / Dallas
Dec 04 – Walter’s on Washington / Houston
Dec 06 – Bottletree / Birmingham
Dec 09 – Metro Gallery / Baltimore
Dec 10 – Johnny Brenda’s / Philadelphia
Dec 11 – Iota / Arlington, VA
Dec 12 – Brillobox / Pittsburgh
Dec 14 – Majestic Cafe / Detroit
Dec 15 – El Mocambo / Toronto
Dec 16 – Il Motore / Montreal
Dec 17 – T.T. The Bear’s / Boston
Dec 18 – Webster Hall / New York City

Fanfarlo: website | myspace

Trying to evaluate your favorite band’s latest album is sort of like how I imagine self-performed open-heart surgery. And to boot, having that band be Brand New—a gang that earns as much sharp-tongued bullets as it does hugs and wet dream objectivity—it’s like your words should be as ground-breaking as they come. They’re the reason I literally wear a nickel around my neck (a nod to “The No Seatbelt Song,” my dears).

This Daisy conglomeration of a rock-and-ail renegade reaction has been pleasantly ground into my ears so much that I needed a hiatus of personal opinion. So I took the inevitable route—I asked the dude that introduced me to my emotionally whip lashed boys to provide a few words. His review was so great that I had to take a back seat, because these next paragraphs simply nail the idea.

In a word: “distressed.” The guitars are distressed, the production’s distressed, the vocals and the lyrics… my God, the vocals and the lyrics may come to define distressed.

More so than Devil and God, they’ve removed themselves from the emo scrap heap that they were so closely associated with just a few years ago. And it doesn’t sound like a self-conscious decision to pursue their current sound; it sounds exactly as it should – a natural progression from where they were then to where they are now.

Musically (that sounds dumb, doesn’t it?), the band continues to not exactly break new ground, but serve as a fascinating mixture of their own sensibilities and those of their influences: a little Nirvana here, some Fugazi there, a pinch of Modest Mouse and Neutral Milk Hotel to spice things up. They’re songwriting craft remains solidly in the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus vein, but they’re not afraid to take the songs down unexpected passages or pursue interludes that they may have shied away from before.

The production is much looser and jammier than anything they’ve done before. Less energy seems to be devoted to click-track perfectionism, and all of it seems focused on raw aggression and bashing away on their instruments. Which isn’t to say it’s lo-fi or sloppy – the guitars are still thick and sound fantastic in stereo, the bass and drums are still boomy and clear… it’s just that everything is done a little messier and rough around the edges.

The lyrics are darker and more tortured than ever. I know Jesse said Vinnie did the majority of the writing (you can probably clear up whether he meant with music, lyrics or both) but whoever wrote them seriously needs a hug. It’s one thing to sing about a millstone being tied to your neck; another thing to scream about your realization that your dead relatives are being eaten away by worms. At times it feels like their Your Favorite Weapon sense of humor is back, as the lyrics are SO morbid, you think it may be self-concious or satirical… but the ending refrain of “I’m on my way out” is genuinely disturbing and leaves a bitter aftertaste.

And because of the novelty, here’s a little song-by-song breakdown

- “Vices” – deliriously awesome, a mini raging animal of a song…when you get past the music box haunting start.

- “Bed” – smooth, mellow, goes down like amber ale

- “At the Bottom” – kind of Modest Mouse-y, powerful chorus and a great, jittery bridge with an anthemic edge

- “Gasoline” – oddly constructed, but driving and memorable

- “You Stole” – really great… the initial melody leads you to believe it’ll be a poppier (albeit still minor key), shorter tune, but it turns into something a little more somber and lengthy

- “Be Gone” – short and haunting – I have no idea why they wanted a nasty, Southern bluesy acoustic interlude, but I’m glad they did

- “Sink” – rough and violent, but fun, if that’s possible

- “Bought a Bride” – a highlight: trippy, groovy, probably my favorite on the album, along with the opening track

- “Daisy” – I only listened to this a couple of times and can’t remember enough to comment on it; ironically the album’s disappointment

- “In a Jar” – Quite possibly the rawest climax, with eastern-influenced choruses and the signature Lacey sing-to-screech vocals

- “Noro” – a great, dense, lingerer. The epitome of closing perfection, it combines a formula of bass and percussion with spoken and sung verses

The major heartbreaking discovery that comes with the initial excitement of such an intense release is an interview the band did with European magazine Rock Sound last month. “Since we released our last album the idea of the band has really been laid to rest,” Lacey admitted, “it is dead now.” The point being–coupled with the fact that the band does little-to-no American press availability—that this record wasn’t made with a theme in mind; no expectations to meet; who really cares if it’s heralded or spit on? It was just a project, just a sound, just something I love to blast in my ears as I pound the sidewalk late at night headed into Chicago for a solo adventure…it’s my new favorite weapon (aw, shucks).

Brand New: website | myspace

Contributed to by: Ryan Carroll