After the Jump Band Profile: Titus Andronicus

Who: Titus Andronicus
Location: Glen Rock, NJ
Listen: Titus Andronicus - "My Time Outside the Womb"
ATJ Slot: Night, 11pm

The Airing of Grievances has been one of my favorite records of the year so far. It's loaded with some brilliant music, derived from shoegaze, and tweaked with some punk. It's an awesome sound and I find myself listening to it at least once a week. But Titus Andronicus are more then just a record band as anyone who has ever seen them can attest to. The band is positively electric live and that's why they'll be our second headliner of our nighttime benefit show. I had a chance to chat with the band and here's what they had to say....

PTST: Your band shares its name with one of Shakespeare's earliest and bloodiest plays, a story that is bathed in revenge, did that play into the naming of the band at all? Is there anyone out there that you wish to get revenge on? Was there ever any though in naming the band after one of his more popular plays?
Titus: None of the other Shakespeare plays would make as good names for bands as Titus Andronicus, I feel, though I did briefly think that starting a two-piece band called Two Gentlemen of Verona was a good idea. Our band has a pretty big axe to grind, what, with all of our talk of the enemy being everywhere, so we are in the process of taking our revenge on the world at large.

PTST: From the looks of your schedule you guys are big on hitting the road and playing shows, what is it about touring that makes you want to get out and hit so many towns?
Titus: Because they are there and, I have been led to believe, full of punks. Ian says: "Touring is the best way to promote yourself. Also, this is what Black Flag would have done."

PTST: Are there any particular places you like playing more then others? Any new places you're going to this time around that you're really looking forward to?
Titus: Ian says: "The state of North Carolina has always welcomed us with open arms. As far as new places, we have never played show out west - we are looking forward to doing that."

PTST: The Airing of Grievances has gotten a shit load of fantastic write ups, did any of the positive response surprise you at all?
Titus: I suppose that all you can really do is try to please yourself. Of course, I absolutely hated the record by the time we were done with it, having had to listen to it so many times. Furthermore, much of the recording process was kind of emotionally trying - much discussion of how I was a very poor singer and how the arrangements were all wildly bloated and stuff like that, so the completion of the record came with a lot of doubt. I was pretty confident that the record would pretty much disappear and we would all continue with our regularly scheduled lives. For better or worse, the kids seemed to like it and now we are stuck with it.

That said, the real surprise was how much people who write about the record seemed to have the right idea, aside from always saying that we are an emo band or something. I dreaded reading about how pretentious it was or how the songs were all about girls, but all the reviews I have read seem pretty spot on about what we were getting at. You kids on the blogosphere sure are sharp.

PTST: Amongst all that great press you were bestowed with the coveted Best New Music tag on Pitchfork Music, has this led to the fame and fortune and scores of beautiful women you truly deserve?
Titus: Most all the fellows in the group have serious girlfriends, so we don't have much use for beautiful women. We do eat almost every day though, which is as good a definition of fortune as I can think of.
Ian says: "It has lead to a lot of MySpace plays."

PTST: On your myspace site you have a list of the 20 reasons NOT to like Titus Andronicus, do you still believe the items on this list to be true? Why don't you have a list of 20 reason TO like Titus Andronicus?
Titus: That was just sort of a funny way to big up all of our friends' bands, who are superior to ours in a variety of ways, and to promote humility. A healthy amount of self-hatred has always been an integral part of our group aesthetic, so it seemed very natural. They are really all great bands though, it is true, and any sensible person should spend just as much time with them as they do with our band.

PTST: If you guys weren't in Titus Andronicus what do you think you'd be doing right now?
Titus: Today, June 18th, would have been my sixth day of graduate school if not for this accursed group. I was so close.
Ian says: "Using our college degrees to get a 'real' job."

PTST: Are you guys as excited to play After the Jump as we are to have you?
Titus: I don't know how excited you are to have us, so maybe?
Ian says: "Doing it for the kids."
(Note: We are really, really, super excited to have Titus Andronicus on this bill!)

PTST: Are there any other bands you're looking forward to seeing at After the Jump?
Titus: Dinowalrus. Also, my girlfriend really likes Wakey! Wakey!, so I look forward to seeing him for purposes of telling her about it later. Also, the singer of Pela looks exactly like this one guy I went to high school with, so that is going to be great.

Buy $10 tickets to the night show!!!