THESE UNITED STATES
On sale: Saturday, July 30 at 12:00pm CST
THESE UNITED STATES
These United States surrender themselves to unbridled rock and roll exuberance: ringing guitars, thundering drums, desperate yearning bordering on hope. By turns larger-than-life and disarmingly intimate, this is folk in the truest sense – a record of the moment, of the cultural and emotional forces that animate everyday existence somewhere down below the headlines. (But never apart from them.) And These United States play it the way folk was meant to be played: hard, fast, big, slow, long, loud, loose, at last unburdened. They play like they mean it. Like there’s never been a better time to be alive.
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Over the last several years These United States has played 600 shows, released four albums and gained the support of NPR’s All Things Considered, World Cafe, and Mountain Stage, Spin, Paste, Filter, NY Times, Village Voice, Brooklyn Vegan, JamBase, The Onion, Daytrotter, My Old Kentucky Blog, KEXP, KCRW, WXPN, and WFUV. Festival highlights include: Lollapalooza, High Sierra, Pickathon, Glastonbury, Mt. Jam, XPoNential, Joshua Tree, Celebrate Brooklyn, and Forecastle.
These United States will release its forthcoming self-titled album on June 12, 2012 with United Interests. Written and recorded throughout 2011 with 20 outside musical collaborators from coast to coast, the s/t release is aptly named serving as a culmination of bandleader Jesse Elliott‘s geographical aspirations. These United States is the quartet’s 5th studio album to date and features collaborations with John McCauley of Deer Tick, Michael Nau of Cotton Jones, Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent, Laura Burhenn of The Mynabirds, Ben Sollee, David Moore of Langhorne Slim, Josh Read of Revival, and the entire Frontier Ruckus band.
Recorded with Duane Lundy (Jim James, Ben Sollee, Adam Arcuragi), the LP is a rambunctious melting pot of rock-and-roll, psych pop, folk balladry, and outlaw country. It’s a concept album that acts as a panoramic snapshot of numerous American musical styles over the past century, but still looks forward to the weird new world at the completion of the Mayan calendar. Inspired by the incredible mix of stories and people across these places, along with the breathtaking landscapes of the nation, Elliott returned to Kentucky and New York over several sessions to longtime band partners J. Tom Hnatow, Justin Craig, and Robby Cosenza, to make sense — and sound — of it all.
THE 4ONTHEFLOOR
The 4onthefloor deliver stompin' blues at an alarming intensity. 4onthefloor was born in the bottom of a bourbon bottle with the idea that it’s effing time to have some fun and make amazing music as well. Audiences immediately took to the infectious driving feel of not one, but four bass drums pulsing to the beat of the songs. The music is inspired by the gutsy stomp of the Delta Blues and the hoe-downs from America’s past and present. While 4onthefloor prides themselves on their original songs, they also love putting their signature stomp on covers from the likes of Wilco to Tom Jones.
PICTURES OF THEN
PICTURES OF THEN is a collision of contradictions that teeters between past and present without staking claim in either. The band simultaneously waxes nostalgic yet aches for transformation. Their sound is hauntingly familiar; the kind of music your parents would’ve listened to had they been hip instead of hippies; the songs Generation X would have written if only they’d discovered their voices sooner. It's a tribute to how things never were—but should have been.
