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THESE UNITED STATES

These United States is the new DC – a wide-eyed amalgamation of psyche-folk and the punk rock ethic, a band of merry pranksters spinning something fiercely, unapologetically positive out of the sinking reality of an empire gone Titanic. At the helm of the lifeboat, Jesse Elliott, gonzo-journalist-turned-troubadour, whose rag-tag States have criss-crossed the continental U.S. and Europe for nearly 300 shows in their first two years of operations, supporting and sharing stages with the likes of Califone, Richard Buckner, Page France, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Catfish Haven, Karl Blau, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, and Georgie James.

For his project’s debut release, Elliott called upon an old friend – David Strackany, known to the music world as Paleo, author and sole executor of last year’s remarkable Song Diary (365 songs in 365 days, what Paste Magazine called “a streetfight of freakish prolificacy”). The result of this collaboration, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden, is a 36-minute allegorical whirlwind through time, space, and sound – think Paul Simon narrating an Andrew Bird master-minded break-in of Bowie’s near-infinite Labyrinth – to be released March 3, 2008. Between them, Elliott and Strackany roped in upwards of 30 DC and Midwest-based musicians, and the mixing prowess of District stalwarts Chad Clark (Beauty Pill, Smart Went Crazy, producer for Fugazi, Dismemberment Plan) and T.J. Lipple (Aloha).

The preliminary word? According to Daytrotter:

It is, without being at all overly enthusiastic, one of the best records you will hear this year and it will make you feel completely human. You’ll feel your fingernails grow. You’ll start to understand what all of your facial muscles do when they’re not smiling or frowning. You’ll taste that blood as it finds all of your many cracks and detours.

Touring tirelessly from Glasgow to San Francisco, New York to Paris to London, Portland (ME) to Portland (OR), El Paso to Amsterdam – and taking their cues as much from Walt Whitman as from Wilco – These United States have always seemed determined to prove that worldwide American manifestations can’t be all wrong all the time. This modern-day Ship of TheseUS mutates more times in one tour than most bands do in a decade, but always draws on the talents of mind-bending multi-instrumentalists (first mate J. Tom Hnatow and Winston Yu of Child Ballads, the Boston Philharmonic, and Cat Power backing band fame), fellow balladeering death-dirgers (Mark Charles of Vandaveer and Josh Read of Revival), and sundry other kit-bangers and noise-makers drawn largely from DC’s fertile Federal Reserve collective.

Add to that mixture one bizarre genealogical twist: Elliott is the real, live, honest-to-god Midwestern descendant of one John Chapman, better known today as a DIY pioneer with a cooking pot on his head, a swagger in his soles, and a mission in his mind – Johnny Appleseed. Perhaps 2008 will be the year to bear witness to the flowering of TheseUS’s far-flung beanstalks, lifeboats, late nights, and daydreams.