These United States - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

These United States is a musical group from Lexington, KY, Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, NY, and Carrboro, NC made up of songwriter and bandleader Jesse Elliott, pedal steel and electric guitarist J. Tom Hnatow, drummer and vocalist Robby Cosenza, guitarist and keyboardist Justin Craig, and bassist and vocalist Dave Wynn. The band released two albums in 2008, one in 2009, and one in 2010, all via Colorado-based record label United Interests. In the five years since their formation, TUS has played 800 shows across the United States, United Kingdom, and northern Europe, appearing at South by Southwest

South by Southwest

South by Southwest is an Austin, Texas based company dedicated to planning conferences, trade shows, festivals and other events. Their current roster of annual events include: SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Interactive, SXSWedu, and SXSWeco and take place every spring in Austin, Texas, United States...

, CMJ Music Marathon

CMJ Music Marathon

CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival is put on by CMJ Network. CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 is scheduled for October 19–23 and will be headquartered at New York University and other downtown NYC venues.- History :...

, and Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza

Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...

in the U.S., and the UK's Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury Festival

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...

.

TUS' debut album, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden, was recorded by Elliott and producer David Strackany (known to the music world as Paleo

Paleo

Paleo, aka David Strackany, is an American singer of folk music who is notable for writing a song every day for 365 days using a "half-size children's guitar" while living out of his car and being essentially homeless...

) in Elgin, IL, Iowa City, IA, Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, and Chicago, IL. The album features musical cameos by a large supporting cast -- notably, Saadat Awan

Saadat Awan

Saadat Awan is a Washington DC native, by way of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is a member of The Cassettes, Metropolitan band, and Thievery Corporation side projects International Velvet and I.C.U...

, Dan D'Avella, Dave Hahn, and early TUS collaborator Mark Charles, now of Vandaveer. Picture was mixed and mastered by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill

Beauty Pill

Beauty Pill is a shapeshifting post-rock band from Washington, DC based around the songs and ideas of singer/guitarist/producer Chad Clark.Beauty Pill's music is characterized by cinematic arrangements, sinuous melodies, and electronic textures and treatments. This detailed, atmospheric aesthetic...

and T.J. Lipple of Aloha

Aloha

Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, peace, compassion and mercy. Since the middle of the 19th century, it also has come to be used as an English greeting to say goodbye and hello...

at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA, and released on March 4, 2008. Track 'First Sight' had its UK debut on BBC Radio 6 on July 14, 2008, and the album as a whole enjoyed favorable reviews from The Austin Chronicle, Alternative Press, The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, and others.

Crimes, the group's second album, was recorded in Lexington, KY at Shangri-La Studios, 6 weeks after the release of Picture. It was produced and mixed by Duane Lundy, with co-production by Rob Gordon and These United States (by then composed of Elliott and full-time band members Charles, Cosenza, Craig, and Hnatow), and released on September 23, 2008. Paste Magazine, Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

, National Public Radio, and others praised the album despite (and in many cases because of) its sonic departure from the group's debut. These United States recorded live sessions and interviews for All Things Considered

All Things Considered

All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...

, Daytrotter

Daytrotter

Daytrotter is a website for the recording studio Horseshack, which hosts recording sessions with many popular and typically upcoming indie music acts, although it works with local bands in the Illinois area as well. The sessions can be compared to that of a radio station's lounge recordings, where...

, and WOXY.com, as Crimes reached #30 on the College Music Journal

College Music Journal

College Music Journal, commonly known as CMJ, is a music events/publishing company which hosts an annual festival in New York City, the CMJ Music Marathon, as well as a weekly magazine of and for the music industry and college radio stations in the United States and Canada. It publishes top 30...

Top 200 radio chart in late 2008.

In February 2009, TUS recorded its third album, Everything Touches Everything, at Inner Ear Studios, with T.J. Lipple this time taking on the role of producer. Released September 1 of that year, the album proved TUS' most energetic and upbeat to date. SPIN Magazine sang its praises ('captures the overwhelming jolt of simply being alive...swings between a sleazy leer and a dreamy purr...deftly blurring the line between carnal and cosmic'), as Jon Pareles

Jon Pareles

Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...

of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

weighed in on the band's live show ('superb...equally at home with quiet, morose tales and galloping punky-tonk adventures...a rambunctious alt-country band with story-songs that are both tangled and aphoristic'). Influential DJ and music writer Bruce Warren, of public radio station WXPN

WXPN

WXPN is a non-commercial, public radio station operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that broadcasts a music radio format called adult album alternative , along with many other format shows supported all with an indie slant...

, called These United States 'one of indie-rock's -- no, make that American rock's -- best kept secrets.'

For its fourth full-length album, TUS worked at Sound Mine Recording in rural eastern Pennsylvania. The resulting 10 tracks, produced by Dan Wise and TUS' Justin Craig, and featuring vocals by Dawn Landes

Dawn Landes

Dawn Landes is a Louisville, Kentucky-born, New York City-based musician who performs under her own name. She is also a sometimes-member of the band Hem, where she has lent her voice to harmony vocals, and plays glockenspiel. She has worked as an audio engineer at Stratosphere Sound in New York...

, were released on July 20, 2010, as What Lasts. The accompanying album tour included supporting dates with Fruit Bats

Fruit Bats

Fruit Bats is an American rock band formed in 1997 in Chicago. Noted as an early entrant into the folk-rock boom of the early 2000s, the group has had many personnel changes but revolves around singer/songwriter Eric D. Johnson.-History:In 2000, Eric D...

, Deer Tick

Deer Tick

Deer Tick is an American indie folk band from Providence, Rhode Island led by guitarist and singer-songwriter John McCauley. Deer Tick's music has been described as a combination of folk, blues, and country.-History:...

, Langhorne Slim

Langhorne Slim

Langhorne Slim is an American singer-songwriter, . Scolnick attended high school at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, part of the SUNY system.He began to gain public notice through several years of touring with the...

, and Bonnie Prince Billy, and continuing acclaim from The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Pop Matters, and The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

. Among its 180 live performances of the year were stops at Seattle's KEXP

KEXP

KEXP-FM is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project...

; Daytrotter

Daytrotter

's Barn On the 4th with The Walkmen

The Walkmen

The Walkmen are an American indie rock band, with members based in New York City and Philadelphia. The band formed in 2000 with three members from Jonathan Fire*Eater—Paul Maroon , Walter Martin , and Matt Barrick —and two from The Recoys, Peter Bauer and Hamilton Leithauser . All but Bauer...

, Dawes

Dawes

Dawes Cycles is a British bicycle manufacturer known for its high-quality hand-built bicycles. Dawes produces a full range of bikes including road, mountain bikes and tandems, but is best known for touring bikes, specifically the Galaxy and the Super Galaxy model lines.Founded in Birmingham, the...

, and Justin Townes Earle

Justin Townes Earle

Justin Townes Earle , son of Steve Earle, stepson of Allison Moorer, and named for songwriter Townes Van Zandt is an AMA winning, Americana musician based in Nashville, Tennessee. Earle is signed to Bloodshot Records and has four released albums from 2007–2010...

; La Blogotheque's Take-Away Show; and NPR's World Cafe

World Cafe

World Cafe is a two-hour long, nationally syndicated music radio program that originates from WXPN, a non-commercial station licensed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The program began in 1991 and was originally distributed by Public Radio...

and Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage

Mountain Stage is a two-hour music radio show, first aired in 1983, produced by WV Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide by National Public Radio and the Voice of America's satellite radio service. Hosted by Larry Groce, the program showcases diverse music, from the traditional to modern...

.

2011 saw These United States add bassist Dave Wynn to its line-up, scale back its frenetic touring pace to just 100 shows and festivals, and spend more time writing and recording in studios in Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. In 2012, the group will release its fifth full-length album, featuring contributions from members of Deer Tick

Deer Tick

, Langhorne Slim

Langhorne Slim

, Frontier Ruckus

Frontier Ruckus

Frontier Ruckus is an American folk-rock band from Michigan. The project is centered on the lyrically intensive songs of Matthew Milia, and was formed by Milia and banjo player David Winston Jones while living in Metro Detroit. The band released its debut full-length record, The Orion Songbook,...

, The Mynabirds, Cotton Jones, The Dead Men, and Ben Sollee

Ben Sollee

Ben Sollee is a cellist and vocalist known for his percussive playing style, genre hopping songwriting, wide appeal, and political activism. His music incorporates banjo, guitar, percussion and unusual cello techniques to create a unique mix of folk, bluegrass, jazz and R&B.-Musical career:Raised...

Discography

A Picture Of The Three Of Us At The Gate To The Garden Of Eden (March 4, 2008)

Track Listing

1. Preface: Painless

2. First Sight

3. Kings & Aces

4. The Business

5. Jenni Anne

6. Diving Boards Pointed At the Sky

7. Burn This Bridge

8. Sun Is Below & Above

9. Remember Dear

10. Slow Crows Over

11. So High So Low So Wide So Long

12. Only the Lonely Devil Knows

Crimes (September 23, 2008)

Track Listing

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

Everything Touches Everything (September 1, 2009)

Track Listing

1. I Want You To Keep Everything

2. Will It Ever

3. Everything Touches Everything

4. Night & the Revolution

5. The Secret Door

6. Conquest & Consequence

7. I'm Gonna Assemble a City

8. Good Bones

9. The Important Thing

10. End

11. Good Night Wish

What Lasts (July 20, 2010)

Track Listing

1. Nobody Can Tell

2. Dug Him in the Dirt

3. One You Believe

4. The Great Rivers

5. Just This

6. Life&Death She&I (feat. Dawn Landes

Dawn Landes

)

7. Ever Make You Mine

8. What Do You Want With My Heart?

9. What Lasts

10. Water & Wheat

External links

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