These United States [rank: 873] based on users subscribed

"These United States is the songs of Jesse Elliott, flipped, forged, phased, and fermented; stolen, re-taken, elongated and elevated, beaten and bruised, occasionally imbued, by an ever-battling band of music-mad robber-barons, enthused aesthetic thieves of the long and winding subway tunnels and underground railroads of our cacophonous nation."

[reproduced or excerpted from band website linked above]

Bandega Interview with Jesse Elliott of These United States (August 2009)

Pizzas by the people, for the people.

Q: How have your shows changed over the years? Has your perspective on performing live changed?
A: Yeah, it's been a constant evolution for us. First there was me, then me and Mark and Robby, then added Tom, then a lotta shows with just me and Tom, then played with a whole big rotating cast, me and Winston and Josh and other Josh and Tom and Drew and Jessie on drums some time, I'm forgetting some collaborators who came and went, it was total chaos, and that doesn't count the people Tom and I'd play with outta town, out on tour in different cities every night. We were regular Chuck Berrys. Now it's settled into a constant 5-man line-up, with Robby back full-time for the last year and Tom as always and Justin and Colin, friends of Robby's from Lexington. Now we're a proper band. That changes everything. The way you write. The way you play. The way you travel. Life. All of it. Life changes with the people who're in it with you, right?

Q: Describe the most memorable live show you've played.
A: Well, we played our first "stadium" gig at Colby College in Maine this Spring. That was odd. But if by most memorable you mean best, I suppose it'd probably have to be Maumee, Ohio. A wild little town of the West, smack-dab in the Middle West, middle of somewhere, to be sure, though not a somewhere most people'd call anything but nowhere. The Village Idiot. They are wild there. They live for the moment, invited us back into the kitchen to make pizzas for everyone at 3 in the morning, after we'd played 2 exhausting hour-long sets, 2 encores, the whole rock and roll enchilada, drank everything there was, then made pizzas with everyone, for everyone. Pizzas by the people, for the people, with the people, under and over the people, everyone dancing all around to the jukebox. No one lived to tell the tale of that evening in Maumee, Ohio.

Q: What venue do you consider to be your "home", where you feel most comfortable, with the crowd and the place itself?
A: There are a few different ones, and each means something different to us as a band. The Black Cat in Washington, DC, Al's Bar, this beautiful little dive in Lexington, KY, Union Hall up in Brooklyn, been through many a moment there, and then of course there's IOTA in Arlington, VA, where our local collective, The Federal Reserve, hosts its monthly showcases. The Hideout in Chicago, too. We're at home most places, but those are the most home homes we have.

Q: Describe the most enjoyable show you've ever experienced as a fan.
A: Wow. Tough. Andrew Bird at the 9:30 Club in DC. That's just for me, though. Everyone in our band would say something different. Robby saw X in Lexington the other night, left me a 4 minute incoherent message at 2 in the morning talking about the Nature of Music and all that. Of course the last 2 minutes of those 4 were just him singing a song we was writing on the spot. That's what the best performances should do: they should make you write songs, immediately. Any thing or any person or any experience that makes you write a song is a thing or place or person you should hold on to forever.

Q: You mentioned in an interview that, because band members are so spread out across the country, you don't really get to practice, so you end up spending a lot of time on the road. How do these logistical realities affect the dynamics within the band and the music that you create and perform together?
A: Ha. Yeah. We just tour. Our logistics have mostly to do with the pros and cons of stopping at gas stations versus stopping at state-sponsored rest areas with picnic tables. This is a big divide in our band - there is so much to talk about here.

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