With their song, "Theme From Cheers," Titus Andronicus took a desire for alcohol as an escape from the pain of everyday living and turned it into one of the great anthemic rallying cries of 2010. Patrick Stickle's impassioned plea to "give me a Guinness, give me a Keystone Light, give me a kegger on a Friday night, give me anything but another year in exile," summed up this young, dumb need to find solace in chaos and blackouts. When he screams "I need a whiskey right now," he may as well be screaming "Love, reign o'er me."

Portland's And And And has a spiritual cousin of "Theme From Cheers" with their song, "I Want More Alcohol (It Makes Me Sadder)." Except, instead of the bravado that Titus Andronicus uses to barely conceal the loneliness, And And And put their depressive neediness right up front and center. Musically, like Titus Andronicus - as well as the forefathers of bombastic drunk outcasts, the Replacements - And And And craft songs that sound big, riled up, and lively in the face of a world that always seems poised to knock you flat on your ass.

Read Rev. Adam McKinney's full feature on And And And in Northwest Military's Music & Culture section.

AND AND AND, w/ Sun Angle, Camp Wisdom, 8 p.m. Friday, May 17, Northern, 414 ½ Legion Way, Olympia, $5