FRIDAY AUGUST 4th - 8 PM
$5 adv / $7 day of show

J DiMenna | site & sound
Knifework | site & sound
Harlan | site & sound
These United States | site & sound

These United States: Into The Business Pt. 1

Progressive Folk? Punk Rock Americana?

Only two of the many attempts at describing the music of one of the most original music collectives to grace the east coast with their presence. These United States are a band out of Washington D.C. that are breaking brilliant ground, while bringing together a community of music and musicians for the world to enjoy. I have as of late been in contact with the man who fronts this musical ensemble Jesse Elliott in preparation for their performance this Friday at Relative theory Records.

In researching the band one of the immediate things I found was the lack of a permanent line up, online they describe how, who you see play depends on the night you catch the band on. Prompting me to ask about the history of the band and its members, this turned out to be a confusing (but interesting, in a frustrating way) description of how the band started and got to where they are now. Jesse simplified it for me, I will attempt to break it down a little more to prevent confusion:

In the beginning there was (is) Jesse Elliott, all of the bands material belongs to him. He took this material and began to work with musician/producer David Strackany, who hails from the band Paleo. Enter Bassist Mark Charles of The Apparitions and Vandaveer, along with Robby Cosenza also of The Apparitions and his own project The Scourge of the Sea on drums and you have a full band. Of course that is far too simple, so Elliott gets his hands on three musicians from the DC music scene and brings them aboard, Josh Read of Revival, Kate Rears of The Alphabetical Order, and Tom Hnatow of “Too many bands to count on two hands”. In case you lost count that makes 7 semi-permanent members and 7 + other bands, but I am told that many more come and go as are needed/feel like.

The excitement of this constantly changing lineup is the wonder and anticipation of who you will see playing what at any given performance. This Friday may be a more broken down and intimate 2 piece, but as Jesse put it “Funny thing about this is: we never REALLY know until the day before. We’re working with a certain Element of Spontaneity here — which, once you get used to it, is kind of fun and keeps things fresh.”

Jesse, the modest maestro of this community of sound, considers himself “a writer in musicians clothing”. While he is definantly downplaying his musical ability, it is indeed the excitement in the songwriting that sticks out and makes These United States one of the most unique bands to come through our area. Listen to their song ‘The Business’ Here, and look for it on the bands demo being sold Friday.

You can read the review for J. DiMenna’s record Awkward Buildings HERE by The Franze