Titus Andronicus, Three Trapped Tigers and more

Titus Andronicus: beery bards

Blood, gore, death, revenge, beheadings, plots and overblown mayhem: when you think about it, Willie Shakespeare really did have the rock’n’roll rattle sussed. Titus Andronicus was the bard’s first tragedy; a couple of centuries later a bunch of New Jersey lowlifes decided it would be an ideal name for their band.

From Glen Rock, NJ, Titus Andronicus play rowdy, irreverent, ramshackle, beery and cheery blue-collar rock’n’roll. Like fellow Jerseyites The Gaslight Anthem, TA owe a debt to some of Bruce Springsteen’s earlier albums, the ones where another bunch of bar-bums cut loose and tried their damnest to reach the promised land.

At the recent South By Southwest, TA played several times but seemed to approach every show as if it was their first time out of the traps. No matter what condition the band happened to be in (and boy, they looked rough near the end), every show was high in adrenalin, emotion, energy and killer songs.

Unlike many other acts who can do the live hustle but then fall to pieces in the studio, TA also hit the jackpot when they record. Their debut album, The Airing of Grievances, is bursting at the seams with riffs, grooves and rhythms that keep pounding away.

Lead singer Patrick Stickles can scream and shriek with the best of them, but he and the band are capable of showing another side too. Check out No Future Part II, an album highlight that ends with a quote from Albert Camus' The Stranger. High-falutin' – and good for your soul.

Not surprisingly, Stickles rates The Strangerhighly.

"I was a bored teenager when I first read that book and my friends and I spent our time knocking over trashcans and stuff like that just from sheer apathy and boredom. The Strangerwas the literary equivalent of the police blotter in the Glen Rock Gazetteto me. I suppose that idea of being an okay guy but having your environment turn you into an asshole is one of the central themes of the record."

www.myspace.com/ titusandronicus

Three Trapped Tigers: roaring

Need a shot of adrenalin? Rather than downing an energy drink or or munching Berroca tablets, take a listen to this London trio.

Three Trapped Tigers made their grand entrance last autumn with a five-track EP for the Blood Biscuits label. It was produced by Gordon Raphael, who had previously worked with The Strokes and came across TTT at a house party. None of the tracks came with a name, but each had the sort of momentum usually required to take over small countries.

Track 1 is probably the pick of the bunch, a giddy, dastardly, stop-go wig-out from a set of players who, by the sounds of things, know all about Dischord, drum’n’bass and weirdbeard free-jazz improv.

Many will call Three Trapped Tigers math-rock or “the new Battles” or “the new Holy Fuck”, but we reckon they’re much better than all of that. Let’s hope some enterprising Irish promoter decides to book ’em for a gig; by all accounts, their live show is off the hook.

www.myspace.com/threetrappedtigers

Three to try

Lukid

www.myspace.com/lukid

Fans of Hudson Mohawke and Flying Lotus will love the deep, soulful, abstract mis-shapes of this London producer, as seen on his current Fomaalbum.

Sleep Thieves

www.myspace.com/wearesleepthieves

This Irish electro-pop trio exhibit a neat line in pop shapes between the beeps.

I Am the Cosmos

www.myspace.com/amithecosmos

Slinky glitterball anthems, new electronic gold dreams and late-night ennui from Dublin-based producer.