A Haiku Review
September 9th, 2011These United States – Mercury Lounge – September 8, 2011
These United States
All did a shot while onstage
Before the last song
—Eddie Bruiser
Tag Archives: These United States
Five Questions … with Jesse Elliott of These United States
September 7th, 2011
Although These United States formed just five years ago, they’ve already put out four full-length albums. Armed with an increasingly deep catalog, the prolific quintet has toured extensively throughout the US, England and other parts of Europe, gaining a reputation for lively shows that aren’t to be missed. And to make sure you don’t, head to Mercury Lounge tomorrow night to see These United States (above, playing “Pleasure and Pain and Pride and Me” and “Honor Amongst Thieves” in Washington Square Park for Baeble Music) live. In advance of the show frontman Jesse Elliott e-mailed The House List from Fedora to answer Five Questions.
You’ve been putting out an album a year since 2008. Are you guys working on anything new for later this year or in 2012?
Yeah, we’ve been heading back to Lexington[, Ky.,] every few weeks all year long, experimenting more than working this time around, taking our time, maybe realizing finally that most of the best things come fast but a few do come slow. Should have a new litter of beautiful, feral pups to sick on the world by next year. I mean, if not by 2012, then when, post-apocalypse?
What’s the toughest part about playing New York City?
Having to leave the next morning.
What music or song always makes you dance?
LCD Soundsystem. Genius.
Do you have any crutches when writing a song—are there certain words or styles you feel you lean on too much?
If you’ve leaned on a certain set of crutches for a very long time, you can start to develop your very own rhythm on them, you know. You start to hear more subtleties in each click. It starts to be more about the surface you’re traveling on rather than the crutches themselves. You start to travel down different types of surfaces just so you can hear the same set of crutches on them. Your ears get more sensitive to that kind of change. Maybe you get better at what you make or maybe you’re just more sensitive and that’s all.
Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song? Do you have to be in love to write a love song? Is a song better when it really happened to you?
I have to be really depressed to write any kind of song—sad one, happy one, bittersweet, melancholy, exuberant. I don’t get depressed very often, because the world is a beautiful place even when bad things are happening to you. So when I do find myself in that blessed depressed place, I gotta move very, very quick. I gotta go down to the corner cafe with Miguel, fast as we possibly can, throwing shoes and shirts on fast, order two jalapeños from Annie—again, fast— move through it all like a fast angry bulldozer, merciless, pointed right straight at that song, no regard for life or limb, fantasy or feeling, whether anything at all ever really happens to you alone or whether it happens to everyone all at once. Hopefully the latter. Let’s pray the latter. —R. Zizmor
Get to Know These United States
August 26th, 2010
The rousing, rootsy These United States have toured steadily since forming in 2006. Of course it’s easy to do so when you’ve just about always got new music. And one thing’s for sure, these guys are prolific: In 2008, the band released two albums just six months apart, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden and the more rousing Crimes, to much acclaim even though the discs cover somewhat different musical territory. Last year they put out Everything Touches Everything, and in July they released What Lasts. Led by Jesse Elliott, These United States (above, playing “I Want You to Keep Everything” for hearya.com) sometimes sound psychedelic and at other times endearingly rambling and twangy, but, regardless, they’re always fun. Find out for yourself on Saturday at Mercury Lounge.
Northside Festival Starts Today
June 24th, 2010
Get ready for a flurry of indie rock in Brooklyn this weekend because The L Magazine’s second annual Northside Festival, today through Sunday, brings more than 100 bands to Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Of course you know The Bowery Presents is gonna get in on that, beginning tonight at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Thao and Mira with the Most of All and These United States. Tomorrow brings the Woodsist Records Showcase featuring Real Estate and Woods to Music Hall of Williamsburg while Brooklyn Bowl hosts the Fiery Furnaces (below, playing “Keep Me in the Dark” for Seattle’s KEXP), who will also be at Mercury Lounge the next night. On Saturday, Music Hall plays host to a Brooklyn Vegan showcase, with Memory Tapes, Twin Sister, Dom and ZAZA on hand. And, finally, close out this festival in style on Sunday when Islands hits Music Hall of Williamsburg.
See Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson This Friday
November 18th, 2009
With the recent release of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s second album, Summer of Fear, on Saddle Creek Records, the Brooklyn-based artist fits in nicely among the label’s other acts, especially alongside the raw, emotional back catalog of Bright Eyes and the twangy confessionals performed by Neva Dinova’s Jake Bellows. Though Summer of Fear was recorded during a particularly rough time in Robinson’s life, and stories of heartbreak and hard times are woven throughout the music, when he takes the stage (following musical-melting-pot These United States) at Mercury Lounge on Friday, don’t expect a pity party. Summer of Fear finds Robinson expressing his ennui through righteous, roots-y songs in the tradition of artists like Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, full of cathartic choruses and foot-stomping beats. So please leave your tissues at home, for on Friday, as Robinson tells his tales of woe, we can work through some of our own troubles by singing along as loud as we can. It should be a bit like group therapy (but with the added bonus of a full bar). —Alena Kastin
(See Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, above, playing “Trap Door”—last month during CMJ—broadcast on Seattle’s KEXP radio.)
See These United States Tomorrow
August 26th, 2009
These United States, whose members hail from Lexington, Ky., and Washington, D.C., have steadily toured since forming in 2006. Last year, the band released two albums just six months apart, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden and the more rousing Crimes, to much acclaim even though the discs cover somewhat different musical territory. Led by Jesse Elliott, These United States can sound at times a little bit out there and at other times endearingly rambling and twangy, but, regardless, they’re always fun. Check out the band, above, playing “Honor Amongst Thieves,” and then see them live at Mercury Lounge tomorrow night.
Deer Tick Ends Tour at The Bowery Ballroom
July 27th, 2009Deer Tick – The Bowery Ballroom – July 24, 2009
Deer Tick
Deer Tick had been on the road steadily since early June—including more than 20 dates with Dawes—before closing their tour in rowdy style at a sold-out Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. Playing tracks from their debut album, War Elephant, and their follow-up disc, Born on Flag Day, released about a month ago, Deer Tick began the show with a brief drums interlude and then firmly took hold of the audience with two hours of gritty, sweaty rock and roll.
Drummer Dennis Ryan, whose tour beard compared favorably to the Geico Caveman’s, his bassist brother, Chris, and guitarist Andy Tobiassen are talented musicians, but Deer Tick’s heart and soul is clearly John McCauley’s raspy, evocative voice. The frontman was chatty and affable throughout. (And possibly drunk. Although he’s not a haphazard drinker: He kept his beers cool in a koozie all night.) Before going into “Baltimore Blues No. 1,” McCauley said, “I wrote these fucking songs in my bedroom when I was 17 or 18 years old. And there were never this many people there. But if there were, we would’ve had a great time.” Those in the audience happily agreed as they stomped, clapped and sang along to songs like “These Old Shoes” and “Little White Lies,” plus a terrific cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Breakdown.”
As the show—and tour—wound down, members of both opening bands, Dawes and These United States, who had been singing along from the side of the stage, joined Deer Tick onstage. The mood was loud and rambunctious, like rolling thunder, as they drank, hugged, danced and took turns trading solos on a ripping version of “La Bamba.” Many young bands’ live performances sound remarkably similar to their recorded work, but Deer Tick’s live show breathed new life into their already-heady stuff, turning earnest music into something dirtier (in a good way). Like the recorded takes were just the beginning, a blueprint to build on. Hopefully they will. They’re off to an awfully good start. —R. Zizmor
