Titus Andronicus never wanted to change the world. At least that’s what singer Patrick Stickles shouts in “A More Perfect Union,” the opening salvo from their new album, “The Monitor.” But with tunes as epic as the Civil War battles that serve as inspiration, excerpts from abolitionist speeches and enough paraphrasing to demand a fan site full of footnotes, the New Jersey band may be poised to at least change a few things within the indie rock genre.
Stickles credits the Ken Burns 1990 documentary “The Civil War” for the themes of his band’s new album, casually referring to the film as “the greatest movie ever made by humans.”
“That was what got the ball rolling for me caring about that time period,” he says. “Now I’m crazy about it, as you can tell by my Abraham Lincoln T-shirt.”
He proudly tugs at the bottom of his shirt to draw attention to the image his friend screened on it.
Although the band’s new guitarist Amy Klein didn’t play on the album she has spent a lot of time with it, and based on the smile on her face when she shouts along to the anthems, she seems quite fond of it.
“I think that this album embodies the American spirit of dissent in a very interesting way,” she says. “There’s room for anger and conflict and a celebration of the unity that we hopefully can create in this country between very different perspectives.”
Titus Andronicus
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