Titus Andronicus

A punk-inflected indie rock group whose bawling, thrashing sound reflected a wide range of influences ranging from the Pixies to Bright Eyes to Bruce Springsteen, Glen Rock, New Jersey's Titus Andronicus formed in 2005 with bandleader and songwriter Patrick Stickles supported by Liam Betson, Ian Graetzer, Eric Harm, and Dan Tews. The band's debut full-length, The Airing of Grievances (which makes reference to a Seinfeld episode), was first released by Troubleman Unlimited in 2008, then picked up for wider distribution by XL Recordings in January 2009. For the band's impressive 2010 follow-up, The Monitor, Titus Andronicus beefed up the production value and enlisted the help of musicians from ten other indie acts, including members of the Hold Steady, Vivian Girls, and Ponytail. Two years later they returned with their third effort, Local Business, a more personal album that found the band looking inward for inspiration. In 2015, after a number of personnel changes (Stickles was joined by the core band of guitarists Adam Reich and Jonah Maurer, bassist Julian Veronesi, and drummer Eric Harm, along with a number of guest vocalists and instrumentalists), Titus Andronicus moved to the noted independent label Merge Records, who released their fourth album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, an ambitious rock opera in five acts inspired by Stickles' own bouts with manic depression. Stickles took Titus Andronicus in a very different creative direction with 2018's A Productive Cough, which eschewed punk rock in favor of a more casual, intimate sound fashioned with a large group of musicians rather than the band's core members. ~ Margaret Reges