John Davis stepped out from behind the drumset when his beloved D.C. outfit Q And Not U went RIP, launching the short-lived follow-up project Georgie James. That band with Laura Berhenn saw John on songwriting, vocal, and other instrumental duties, releasing one solid album before calling it a day and paving the way for Davis’s next evolutionary leap: the solo LP It Was Easy, under the moniker Title Tracks, on which he plays and sings everything, save a guest vocal by Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell on a pair of tracks and a sax line by Kriston Capps on another. I happened to catch an early Title Tracks set when John opened for Cymbals Eat Guitars at Glasslands in Brooklyn some months ago and left impressed, with both A.C. Newman and Elvis Costello on my mind. In April we pointed to a 7″ John released via Dischord in anticipation of this full-length debut It Was Easy. The angrily ebullient “Every Little Bit Hurts” appeared there and again on the forthcoming album, kinetic Costello guitars in tact. Download that below, and listen of the New Pornographic “Piles Of Paper,” to get more of a sense.

• Title Tracks – “Every Little Bit Hurts”Download

Title Tracks – “Piles Of Paper”

It Was Easy is out 2/9 via Ernest Jenning. It’s an 11 song set, nine originals and two covers (Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than The Rest” and the Byrds’ “She Don’t Care About Time”). Hear more at MySpace.

Title Tracks Tour (featuring a full band, all dates with Pretty And Nice):
02/11 – Washington, D.C. – Black Cat
02/14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox
02/16 – Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room
02/18 – Chicago, IL @ The Hideout
02/19 – Madison, WI @ Der Rathskellar at WIsconsin Union
02/21 – Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe
02/24 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
03/01 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
03/02 – Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5