The Witzard

Titus Andronicus, L-R: R.J. Gordon, Patrick "Paddy Stacks" Stickles, Chris "Big Steve" Wilson & Liam "The Younger" Betson (SOURCE: Big Hassle) Not entirely unlike Bob Dylan and/or Bing Crosby & David Bowie long before them, New Jersey's own Heartland Rock stalwarts Titus Andronicus are cranking up the festive mood yet another notch with the release of their first-ever stand-alone holiday single, "Drummer Boy." Having released one of the year's most celebrated Rock albums with The Will to Live and dazzled ecstatic fans across America, Titus Andronicus have much to celebrate. Plus, they're sharing plans to ring in The New Year with additional tour dates across The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, and Ireland. "Drummer Boy" lifts the musical components from Billy Joel's timeless 1973 anthem, "Piano Man," and retrofits it to tell The Nativity Story from the perspective of "The Little Dru...

Titus Andronicus (ILLUSTRATION: Nicole Rifkin) Esteemed East Coast Rock titans Titus Andronicus have announced the long-awaited release of their seventh studio album, The Will to Live, out via Merge Records this September. It was produced by Titus Andronicus singer-songwriter Patrick Stickles and award-winning Canadian producer Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) at the latter's Hotel2Tango Recording Studio in Montreal, The Will to Live is heralded by today's premiere of the stirring first single, "(I'm) Screwed," listen now at all streaming services. An official music video from director Ray Concepcion—which finds the band performing on a flatbed truck during The Independence Day Parade in the band's hometown of Glen Rock, New Jersey. Stickles elaborates, "in "(I'm) Screwed," we are introduced to the narrator of The Will to Live at the moment he realizes the walls are closing in. Be it real or ...

Earlier this morning, Titus Andronicus posted a rather cryptic video on their band YouTube page simply entitled "TITUS ANDRONICUS - 2020 TEASER." It came packaged along with this block of text within the Description section: "On March 9th 2010, Titus Andronicus released their landmark album The Monitor . On March 9th 2020, Titus Andronicus released this cryptic video. What does it mean? Stay tuned to find out..." along with the cryptic hashtag #MON1T0R . The monitor was, of course, Titus Andronicus' sophomore album and follow-up to Seinfeld-referencing The Airing of The Grievances . It included soaring contributions from frontman Patrick Stickles and a who's-who of 2010 Indie Rock musicians, family, and friends, including Brett Bondar , Ian Graetzer, David Bentley , Eric Harm, Greg Farley (Conor Oberst,) Andrew Cedermark, Dustin Wong (Ponytail,) Pete Feigenbaum, Kevin McMahon (Diarrhea Planet,) Ian O'Neil (Deer Tick,) Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak,) Li...

Over the years, Patrick Stickles -helmed Titus Andronicus have unleashed quite the expansive, genre-eschewing back catalog-worth of music; for me, personally, it all started with 2012's Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band-evocative Local Business . Titus Andronicus —often, affectionately referred to as simply "+@" —have since released a cascading 29-track "Punk" Rock Opera, The Most Lamentable Tragedy , a 2016 live album, S+@dium Rock: Five Nights at The Opera , and most recently, Folk Rock/Acoustic opus, A Productive Cough . In-between said releases, +@ have meticulously trickled out a gaggle of official/"unofficial" non-cannon releases, such as their mail-order SEVEN SEVEN INCHES series, Titus Andronicus, LLC Mixtape, Vol. 1 , Lil' Wayne-referencing +@ LLC MIXTAPE, VOL. 2A: SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY , Titus Andronicus Mixtape, Volume III: A Reductive Scoff , and spook-tacular "Home Alone (On Halloween)" 12-inch. Titus Andronicus ...

It's pretty safe to say that New Jersey Punks Titus Andronicus are having the most uncharacteristically blog-worthy week of their 8-year career; After unleashing "Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter"' s gritty performance video Monday afternoon, frontman Patrick Stickles opened his own singing telegram service... he'll personally travel to your house and sing anything you want, besides "Theme from Cheers" for $50, if you live in either New York City , New Jersey, or Long Island . Then Titus Andonicus uploaded an 8-minute "stone cold sober version recorded at one in the afternoon" of Icona Pop 's sugary sweet mega-hit, "I Love It." It was recently recorded at Brooklyn 's own D.I.Y. Punk club and the band's unofficial headquarters, Shea Stadium . I guess you could day Stickles went ahead and took a little bit of liberty with Icona Pop & Charli XCX 's lyrics: "Fighting with the cops (I love ...

Let's face it, karaoke sucks! Unless it's one of those beer-fueled, full bar sing-a-longs. Titus Andronicus are a "Beer-Punk" band hailing from Glen Rock, NJ who are named after a Shakespeare play. "Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter" is the second self-leaked track from the band's upcoming LP #3, Local Business (Oct. 22-23rd). " Titus Andronicus the studious recording project and Titus Andronicus the raucous touring machine are no longer two distinct beings; There is only Titus Andronicus , Rock "N" Roll band." ... Frontman Patrick Stickles notes that while Local Business isn't exactly a concept album per say, it was greatly inspired by a car wreck, "food fight" [eating disorder], and electrocution, a descent into insanity, and forgiveness. Loosely translating to "shit on a silver platter," "Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter" seems to be ragging on Hipsters [re...