These United States at The Knitting Factory
These United States
These United States have jetted straight outta Kentucky, and they’re poised to be the next troop of archetypical woodsmen-hipsters to find a nook in the indie scene. They played on Wednesday night at The Knitting Factory’s Tap Bar, alongside Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and openers Mean Creek. The latter group’s formulaic sound had some political inclinations, and the band looked the part, but they didn’t exactly seal the deal.
Rather, it was These United States who mastered the small crowd by bonding with them over the frigid temperatures in the Tap Bar (apparently the heating system was broken) and playing plenty of material from their debut album, Crimes. The group’s signature is a classic southern rock mixed with glam romp appeal ‚Äì think Deer Tick’s ramshackle vibe meets Kings of Leon’s sleaze aesthetic meets Neva Dinova’s wild west fascination meets Ryan Adam’s intonation and ballads. Or you could just give the band a listen and see what we mean, because These United States deserve some of your attention.
These United States
Mean Creek
Photos c/o Mark Iantosca
The debut album from These United States is actually A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden, which, despite sounding different from Crimes because it was produced with a slightly different vision by David Andrew Strackany (aka Paleo), is absolutely stunning, and is pretty illustrative of Jesse Elliott’s gorgeous songwriting. They still play (and played at Knitting Factory) a lot of songs from that record, and for a very good reason, I think. It came out in March 2008, not many months before Crimes.