Titus Andronicus

It’s telling that New Jersey’s Titus Andronicus kick-start their album with a gang scream "Fuck you!” and end with "We don’t give a fuck about nothing, we only want what we are not allowed.” This five-piece — who cut their teeth playing basements and cafeterias across the U.S., with more than 18 members in their short life — bury verses from Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name, as well as Camus’s The Stranger, suggesting that yeah, they’ve got some pent-up frustration to uncork. Failure, mortality, injustice, it’s all accepted with a shit-eating grin and a drunken brawl, as front-man Patrick Stickles foams at the mouth, spitting his fierce words, while the band use the unhinged force of a young, pissed Shane MacGowan fronting the Replacements in Times New Viking’s recording hovel. They may take it as an insult but this debut expels the same 20-something fury as Conor Oberst’s late, great Desaparecidos, airing all sorts of grievances and aggravations while sneeringly proclaiming there is "No Future,” as well as a "day after no future.” Notwithstanding its intensity, The Airing of Grievances is in actuality an uplifting battle cry set to spark some kind of revolution, and an impressive career for this young band.