Which indie rock band released the 2010 album 'The Monitor' based on the US Civil War?

Titus Andronicus released the 2010 album The Monitor, a Civil War-themed concept record. It was the New Jersey band’s second studio album, following The Airing of Grievances, and arrived through XL Recordings on March 9, 2010.

The album uses the American Civil War as both historical subject and metaphor. Its title refers to the USS Monitor, the Union ironclad that fought the CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. The closing track, “The Battle of Hampton Roads,” directly invokes that conflict and runs for more than 14 minutes.

The record also connects nineteenth-century history with Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles’s concerns about American identity, political division, violence, and his New Jersey roots. Songs such as “A More Perfect Union” combine Civil War imagery with references to Bruce Springsteen and the band’s own cultural landscape.

A common mix-up is confusing the album with a conventional historical soundtrack. The Monitor is an indie rock album that loosely uses Civil War themes; it is not a documentary or a strictly chronological retelling of the war.