DC’s These United States launches a west coast tour on Tues. Oct. 14 in Los Angeles which will also include a performance at San Francisco’s The Independent on Weds. Oct. 15 as part of Barack ‘n Roll, a fundraising event for ObamaTravel.org, which focuses on getting Obama volunteers to key swing states. The event is scheduled to feature a “Surprise Headliner” which will be announced over the next few days. You can visit BaracknRollSF.com for more info. on the event.
Bio:
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.
THESE UNITED STATES
Oct 14 Los Angeles, CA Silverlake Lounge
Oct 15 San Francisco, CA The Independent
Oct 16 Oakland, CA Lobot Gallery
Oct 18 Merced, CA The Partisan
Oct 19 Santa Cruz, CA The Crepe Place
Oct 21 Pendleton, OR The Great Pacific
Oct 22 Spokane, WA Whitworth University
Oct 23 Portland, OR Holocene
Oct 24 Yakima, WA Yakima Sports Center
Oct 25 Seattle, WA Sunset Tavern
Nov 21 Swarthmore, PA Swarthmore College @
@ = 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