Riding Shotgun with These United States

admit, I sometimes neglect local bands. It's been a flaw in my music-loving for many years now, and it dates back to junior year of high school when I decided that British bands were the best thing since sliced bread. In an attempt to make amends (not that anyone should be complaining about British bands showing up here), here's one of D.C.'s best bands, These United States. Jesse Elliott took some time from a busy touring schedule to let us in on all things TUS (El Paso! Horses! Maine!), which you can read below while preparing for their Rock'n'Roll Hotel gig Friday, August 24th.

Touring is: a fool's errand and a crossroads bargain.

Our first gig was: very much closer to home.

Our favorite venue to play is: The Funky Church, Portland, OR.

Hygiene on a tour is: a fool's errand and a crossroads bargain.

Our favorite thing about touring is: when someone says "thanks," and means it.

And the least favorite: remembering how many fast food joints it takes to feed this country we're so thoroughly a part of.

City with the best audiences: El Paso, Texas, where kids are in love with the night and dreams, therefore, do still come true.

Band member most likely to disappear after a gig: Subcommandante Tom.

The tour bus/van smells like: success.

Laundry is: a) washed regularly, b) washed irregularly, c) we go shopping a lot d) generally purchased at a discounted rate from the band next door at the merch table.

What's the most unusual item on your rider? A horse.

Who controls the music in the touring vehicle? And what are you listening to on this tour? Driver. Always. Mavis Staples. Ever.

What's your favorite new watering hole that you've found while on tour? And/or the best place to cure late night cravings? Ramsi's CafŽ On the World [sic], in Louisville, KY. Hands down. (Mouths open.)

Most amusing memory from your current or most recent tour? Inspiring show + football field-long slanted cement floor + half dozen brokedown old office chairs + finish line of 50s couches providing padding + loving and tolerant venue = chair-racing the night away at The Irving in Indianapolis, IN.

Favorite tour activity (other than the gigs themselves): Daydreaming about chair-racing the night away again some day.

Please name the city you wouldn't ever play in again? Or if not a particular city, which venue (if any) would you not mind seeing razed to the ground? We are loving people who do not take the phrase "brick through the window" lightly, but for The Comet in Seattle we could make an exception.

Apart from the obvious CDs, what's the merch item of yours you think people should shell out for? Our email list. We have done the difficult work of traveling around the country collecting email addresses, which we will make available at the remarkably reasonable rate of one (US) dollar per email address.

Any pre-gig (or post-gig) rituals? Locating a particularly tour-crushing crisis, ensnaring ourselves thoroughly within it, freaking all the way out and thensome, and pulling back from the edge with just enough grace and time to waltz onstage again, all Sinatra Zenmaster sameoldsameold cucumbercool.

In how many languages can you swear? We have a whole team of monkeys working around the clock just to invent the new words and dialects necessary to get us to the way-out far-out points we freak out to.

Have you been to the top of the Washington Monument (or perhaps the more apt question is how many times have you been to the top)? Yes. We've seen the red eye in the sky from both outside and in - a thing of horror and beauty, no matter how you look at it.

What would you like people to be saying about These United States in 50 years? "Isn't it crazy that there was an internationally recognized political entity named after a music project?"

If we weren't in These United States, we'd be: a fool's errand and a crossroads bargain.

What's your favorite thing about being a DC band? And the least favorite? Trying to explain a place that not many people know very much about but everyone has an opinion on.

Which of the 50 United States is most favored by These United States? And which state (or states) should be kicked out of the republic? It's hard to argue with Maine. It's death to grow old in Florida.

Please recite a line of poetry: "Oh do not ask: 'what is it?' / Let us go, and make our visit."

And finally, it's BigYawn's round. What's your poison? Rat poison. Cut with Kool-Aid.

Looking for more? Naturally. So go here: www.theseunitedstates.net, and here: www.myspace.com/theseunited.

© 2007 BigYawn, all rights reserved