ON THEIR website Titus Andronicus declare themselves to be "specialising in punk solutions since 2005", and now, 10 years into the game, they find themselves 'selling out'.
'Selling out' is a dangerous thing for a punk band. It has connotations of conformity, abandonment of artistic principals, and no longer 'stickin' it to The Man'. Thankfully, the band named after a Shakespeare play, can have no such accusations levelled at them. It's more a case of people coming around to Titus Andronicus's point of view.
The New Jersey band, led by singer, lyricist, and guitarist Patrick Stickles, who also go by the shortened version of their name, +@, recently completed a very successful tour of major US cities, leading Stickles to say: "The band that swore they would never sell out is suddenly selling out from coast to coast. Selling out always seemed so wrong to me, but once we sold out in Hollywood, I couldn’t help but feel we were entering into some kind of ‘Post Sell-Out Era,’ and I will look for any opportunity to sell out in the future.”
Next up is a tour of Europe, which includes Galway's Róisín Dubh on Tuesday November 24 at 8pm. “After five weeks, America has learned its lesson,” Stickles said. "Now we will bring the fight overseas and show Europe, including multiple new dates amidst the lush fields of Ireland, how we sell out…American style.”
It has been a highly successful year for +@, which also saw the release of their fourth album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, the 29-track, 93-minute rock opera (how very prog! ) enjoy critical acclaim, with Pitchfork praising its "knotty guitar anthems filled with chords like power lines thrumming with electricity".
Tickets are available at www.roisindubh.net, the Ticket Desk at OMG Zhivago, Shop Street, and The Róisín Dubh.
