MP3: These United States – “West Won”
Sick, tired, torn, and frayed, These United States let no dust settle under their soles this spring as they made the pilgrimage from DC to Lexington, KY just 9 weeks after the release of their debut album, sights set on a rock-and-roll reformation. The result is Crimes, These United States’s sophomore album, recorded in six short days at Shangri-La Studios, and out to the world October 7th.
One part Rolling Thunder Revue, one part banged-and-bruised balladeering, two parts just plain strange, Crimes sees the band hitch an American folklore ride down diverging tracks from A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden‘s trembling psych-folk tendencies. Bandleader Jesse Elliott’s casual croon careens more often towards a yearning yelp – desperate times, you know? – as his merry gang of Obviously Five Believers vamp all piss and vinegar, hoot and holler, multi-instrumental mischief and sly saloon smiles.
In place of Picture‘s lovelorn protagonists, Crimes supplants the classic characters of a world gone wicked: bad men in boots and boats, all-too-able Cains, wolves in fresh-shorn sheepskin, sold-out sirens of the seashore, knife-wielding big-talking drunk drinkers, Moriartys, don Quijotes, Samuel Clemenses, and all manner of disillusioned Appleseeds in between – with the occasional dogged optimist thrown in for good measure, of course; even the world itself can’t be all bad all the time. As self-effacing as they are scathing, though, Crimes‘s critiques are ultimately an empathetic eye towards the sins, schemes, devils, and delusions that bind us all. Dreams, in other words.
Hot off pressing the ’08 flesh from Paris to Portland and Glastonbury Fest to SXSW, These United States will of course continue their mad march to – well, any sea that will have them – in support of Crimes.
THESE UNITED STATES
8/08 IOTA Arlington, VA
8/09 IOTA Arlington, VA
8/11 Fort Reno Washington, DC
8/13 Gypsy Hut Cincinnati, OH
8/14 The Hideout Chicago, IL
8/15 Slowdown Omaha, NE
8/16 Hi-Dive Denver, CO
8/17 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT
8/18 Record Exchange Boise, ID
8/19 Caterina Winery Spokane, WA
8/22 Dept. of Safety Anacortes, WA
8/23 Sunset Tavern Seattle, WA
8/24 Holocene Portland, OR
8/26 TBA San Francisco, CA
8/27 Echo Curio Los Angeles, CA
8/28 Plush Tucson, AZ
9/03 The Billiken Club St. Louis, MO
9/05 Bear’s Place Bloomington, IN
9/06 Magic Bag Ferndale, MI
Crimes
(United Interests)
Street Date: Oct. 7, 2008
1. West Won
2. Susie at the Seashore
3. Get Yourself Home (In Search of the Mistress Whose Kisses Are Famous)
4. Pleasure and Pain and Pride and Me
5. We Go Down to That Corner
6. Honor Amongst Thieves
7. Six Fast Bullets (Five Complaints)
8. Heaven Can Wait
9. Study the Moon
10. Those Low Country Girls
11. Old John Chapman Takes a Good Long Walk
12. When You’re Traveling at the Speed of Light
THESE UNITED STATES LINKS:
MySpace: www.myspace.com/theseunited
Band Page: www.theseunitedstates