MP3: These United States – “Get Yourself Home”
VIDEO: These United States – “Get Yourself Home”
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, TheseUS’s sophomore album, recorded in six short days at Shangri-La Studios, and out to the world September 23.
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‘ 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
Sept 20 Sat Lexington, KY Al’s Bar
Sept 22 Mon Rochester, NY Bug Jar
Sept 23 Tues Toronto, Ontario Sneaky Dee’s %
Sept 24 Weds Kingston, Ontario Grad Club
Sept 25 Thurs Montreal, Quebec Mon Tre House
Sept 26 Fri Burlington, VT The Monkey House +
Sept 27 Sat Waterville, ME Colby College
Sept 28 Sun Boston, MA PA’s Lounge *
Sept 29 Mon New York, NY Cake Shop $
Sept 30 Tues Brooklyn, NY Union Hall ^
Oct 02 Thurs Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s !
Oct 03 Fri Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery
Oct 04 Sat Washington, DC Rock and Roll Hotel #
Oct 14 Tues Los Angeles, CA Silverlake Lounge
Oct 16 Thurs San Francisco, CA TBA
Oct 18 Sat Merced, CA The Partisan
Oct 19 Sun Santa Cruz, CA The Crepe Place
Oct 22 Wed Spokane, WA Whitworth University
Oct 23 Thurs Portland, OR Holocene
Oct 25 Sat Seattle, WA Sunset Tavern
Nov 21 Fri Swarthmore, PA Swarthmore College @
% = w/ Entire Cities
+ = w/ Nick Jaina
* = w/ Grampall Jookabox
$ = w/ Pepi Ginsberg, Backwords
^ = w/ Band of Annuals, The Loom
! = w/ Buried Beds
# = w/ Evangelicals, The Silent Years, Parenthetical Girls
@ = w/ Bishop Allen
These United States
Crimes
(United Interests)
Street Date: Sept. 23, 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:
Press Materials: www.becomeinvisible.com/press/these-united-states
MySpace: www.myspace.com/theseunited
Band Page: www.theseunitedstates.net