In less than a month, Titus Andronicus will release its fifth studio album, A Productive Cough. The seven-track effort follows 2015’s expansive The Most Lamentable Tragedy and is said to showcase new territory for the New Jersey outfit. Rather than relying on their signature raucous punk anthems, Patrick Stickles & co. delve into more balladry.
(Read: The 10 Most Anticipated Punk Albums of 2018)
Initial single “Number One (In New York)” highlighted this newfound approach. The second offering, “Above The Bodega (Local Business)”, follows suit as it plays out as a mellow ’70s rocker a la The Rolling Stones. Check out “Above the Bodega” below via its official music video. Shot live during their album sessions at Marcata Recording studio in New Paltz, New York, it was helmed by “Number One” video director Ray Concepcion.
In a statement, Stickles explained the track’s connection to consumerism:
“All the songs on [A Productive Cough] deal with the realities of life, as I understand them, in my adopted hometown of New York City,” explains Stickles, “and one quality that does much to define New York City life is the access to 24-hour consumption. The first floor of the apartment building in which I live is occupied by a deli-grocery, to which I give my patronage several times a day. As a result, I have developed a particular understanding with the staff there which I have not so far heard articulated in song. Thusly, I took it upon myself to write the ‘ultimate’ song explicating the bodega clerk-patron relationship.
More and more, we are defined by the things which we consume, and those who facilitate that consumption may glimpse a more truthful view of ourselves than the carefully curated image we share with our loved ones. No one knows the depths of my vice better than they who oversee the transactions which make it possible — in this way, the deli clerk knows me better than my own mother.”
A Productive Cough arrives March 2nd via Merge. In support, Stickles will embark on an intimate, two-person tour beginning later that month.