If Titus Andronicus (or “+@” as the band stylizes it) can be counted on for one thing, it’s to bring some motherfucking fire to pretty much everything it does—there’s probably never been a rock opera about manic depression more intense than 2015's The Most Lamentable Tragedy, for instance—but the band and frontman Patrick Stickles seem to be slowing things down for A Productive Cough, a new album that was just announced today. The reveal came with a music video for the first single, “Number One (In New York),” which opens with Stickles looking a bit like a man of the woods and singing over a quiet piano melody that gradually builds into a significantly more elaborate beast. There’s no guitar-shredding and no cathartic “fuck you” shouts, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking that usual Titus Andronicus fire:
A Productive Cough will be available on March 2, and it’ll be accompanied by what a press release says is the band’s “first-ever ‘acoustic’ tour” in the U.S., with Stickles accompanied by pianist Alex Molini. The press release also describes it as a “quiet evening with +@,” but, again, that may undersell how rowdy things could get. The full list of tour dates is below.
Titus Andronicus Tour 2018
3/7—Kingston, NY—BSP Kingston
3/8—Boston, MA—The Sinclair
3/9—Providence, RI—AS220
3/10—Burlington, VT—Arts Riot
3/11—Montreal, QC—Bar Le Ritz