Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Title Tracks
Thu, March 11, 2010 - 8:00 pm
Advance Cost: $15
Grog Shop’s favorite boys return to Cleveland! With his latest, Living with the Living, Ted Leo delivers that existentialist ethos to a new crop of rude boys. For their fifth full-length release, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists met up with Brendan Canty (Fugazi) at Long View Farms to iron out a new set of anthems that arrive with a confident and outspoken immediacy. With Living with the Living, Ted and Co. wipe clean the slate that once held names like Weller, Strummer and Bragg and indulge some of their farthest-reaching musical ambitions. ‘Army Bound’ and ‘La Costa Brava’ evoke the melodic spirit of Andy Partridge, Ray Davies and ArgyBargy-era Squeeze, while ‘Colleen’ is Ted’s most successful meditation on pop music yet. Along with the punk sound and energy found in Ted Leo and the Pharmacistsí previous works, Living with the Living finds soul, funk and R and B injected into the trajectory of Chris Wilsonís dexterous percussion, Dave Lernerís bedrock bass and an onslaught of combustibles from Ted’s possessed fingertips. In 2005, the refrain was “roll out and make your mark, pull on your boots and march.”
On Living with the Living, Ted doesn’t shy away from his convictions and, rather, invites the testing of his mettle. You can ask, take a look; / We’re all pretty open books. / What I stand for, I mostly stand behind. / What I am, I mostly can’t hide. The most indelible stamp Ted leaves on his work is an incitement to his fans to take themselves seriously, never compromise their ideals and, essentially, make a difference in theirs and the lives of those around them. Itís a message of compassion not unlike that of one of Ted’s denim-clad, working-class-empowering forebears. As we’ve learned from those artists, vital, impassioned music is often the direct result of a dire political climate, and Living with the Living is a shining example of that truism. A voice of dissent with a firm grasp of the past and a hopeful eye to the future, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists are rebels without a pause.
Where:
2785 Euclid Heights Blvd
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106