Video of the Moment #2938: Titus Andronicus
I have avoided posting lyric videos in the Video of the Moment slot unless they’re done really well. In the case of the newest video from Titus Andronicus, I think the visuals and where they were filmed are appropriate, almost painfully so, for who they are trying to address in the song. One of the first photos I ever saw of the New Jersey band looked like a candid shot of the entire group in front of the seated Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. If you have ever had the opportunity to visit my hometown of Washington, DC, and be a tourist, you are probably aware that the memorial to our storied 16th president sits on the east side of the Reflecting Pool that was immortalised by the footage and photos from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech in 1963. Further, if you stand in the Lincoln Memorial and look due east, you will see a massive obelisk, better known as the Washington Monument. When I was a kid, I used to call it the Giant Marble Pencil.
In about half of this video for single ‘(I Blame) Society’, frontman and singer/songwriter of Titus Andronicus Patrick Stickles is seen passing off cue cards with the lyrics to another band member. In the other half, he and another man in a hoodie covered with band badges are stood in front of another, lesser-known obelisk (I’d guess probably in Arlington Cemetery?) where the cards continue to be passed off. What do the cards say? While the choice of words is certainly vitriolic, Stickles and co. cover ground on inequality and the death of the American dream that many of us in wish we had a platform like this from which we could say them. Handily enough, their upcoming sixth album is called ‘An Obelisk’, and it follows 2018’s ‘A Productive Cough’. Produced by Bob Mould, it will be released on the 21st of June on Merge Records. Want to read more on Titus Andronicus here on TGTF? Right this way.
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