Titus Andronicus
The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Merge (2015)
Titus Andronicus (+@, as they shorten it) is a punk outfit led by Patrick Stickles, an obvious obsessive who has spent the last three +@ albums cramming barrages of references to Pieter Bruegel, Cheers, Nietzsche, and obscure New Jersey baseball teams into angry punk songs. +@’s most-talked-about work is their second album The Monitor, a grandiose, Civil-War-themed account of what’s it like to live in shitty-but-beautiful New Jersey. The Monitor was complete with Abraham Lincoln voiceovers, multiple 8+-minute dynamic epics, and self-deprecating anthemic chants (“You’ll always be a loser” and “They’re all going to be laughing at you,” just to name a couple). Stickles followed The Monitor with Local Business, an intentionally rawer album that deals with, well, Stickles’ local business (the go-to reference being “My Eating Disorder”). After Local Business, Stickles promised us a “30-song rock opera about manic depression,” which some thought was a joke and others desperately hoped it wasn’t. Three years later, The Most Lamentable Tragedy is Stickles’ following through with that promise - and although only 29 songs instead of the rumored 30, it’s totally blown my expectations out of the water, and I had high hopes for this thing.Since The Most Lamentable Tragedy is … Read more
Infera Bruo
In Conjuration
Bindrune Records (2015)
I came across Infera Bruo a couple of years back when they were releasing their debut album, Desolate Unknown. The … Read more
Neon Shudder
Ghost Process
Independent (2015)
Covering much of the same ground as a group like Perturbator, Philadelphia’s neon shudder makes dark electronic music inspired by … Read more
