Features

Group At Work: These United States

These United States frontman Jesse Elliot takes the world in, internalizes it and then releases it, albeit with his own indelible mark. “I like to tell stories from different angles, with different characters,” he says. “Music allows me the greatest range of both evidence collection and recombination, and expression back out into the world.”

Since starting TUS and releasing a debut album in 2008, Elliot has worked with an evolving number of cohorts, recently solidifying the band with J. Tom Hnatow (pedal steel, electric guitar), Justin Craig (guitar, keyboards), Anna Morsett (bass, vocals) and Aaron Latos (percussion).

TUS’s sound touches on everything from indie rock and psych folk to Americana and alt country, but Elliot just calls it rock and roll.

“Rock and roll is the center of the Venn diagram where all our interests overlap,” he says. Lyrically, Elliot weaves verbose narratives that draw on his experiences on the road and interests, which include working abroad in international law and economic journalism.

The band’s self-titled fifth album portrays stories of American people and places. Elliot pokes fun at himself saying, “We just ran out of words,” when naming the album These United States. “It just made sense. That’s what the songs are about—places and people and states of being, states of consciousness.”

The album required a little more planning than previous ones because TUS recorded it in several locations throughout the span of 10 months and invited more than 20 guests to appear, including Deer Tick, Phosphorescent and Ben Sollee.

The album is a rousing celebration of life, with Elliot expressing his appetite for adventure and living life to the fullest.

“One of my favorite scenes in a movie is in What About Bob? when Siggy, the teenager who wears black all the time, tells Bill Murray, ‘I’m going to die, Bob. You’re going to die. We’re all going to die.’ Bill Murray has this classic expression on his face like he’s realizing this for the first time,” Elliot says. “I think that sums up everything: Have a good time why you still can. It’s not going to last forever.”