The new Titus Andronicus video features choreographed dance moves. Yes, for their new single “Give Me Grief” — a duet with between Patrick Stickles and former Titus drummer Eric Harm — Stickles and his bandmates R.J. Gordon and Ryan Weisheit took to a New York rooftop to bust a move in sync. Stickles himself handled the blocking and choreography, and longtime Titus director Ray Concepcion was there to document it. A New Jersey Devils jersey makes an appearance.
As for the music itself, if you liked prior The Will To Live singles “(I’m) Screwed” and “We’re Coming Back,” you’re probably going to enjoy this song’s loose, sax-blasted classic rock vibes as well — never mind that it was inspired by some intense encounters with mortality.
As Stickles explains:
Thematically, The Will To Live is an attempt on my part to reckon with the cruelest of life’s truths, which is that, the wider you open yr heart to the good things in yr life (love, hope, etc.), the more you expose yrself to life’s most harrowing pains. A full and rich life demands a vulnerability that will inevitably be rewarded with intense suffering. I have had to think about this a lot over the past couple years, as my father lay in a 50-day medically induced coma with no promise of his eventual awakening, or as my cousin was laid far too soon in his grave, or as I shivered one dreadful Christmas eve outside the animal hospital, hoping that a last-minute blood transfusion might save my anemic cat. These moments of agony could have been avoided had I simply closed myself off from the joys offered to me by those I love, but that is no way to live, and I force myself to move forward beckoning love in all its forms, however frightening a prospect. Grief is necessary, for without the threat of grief, there can be no love, and life without love is no life at all.
Watch the video below.
The Will To Live is out 9/30 on Merge.
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