Also, this video for “Everything Touches Everything,” directed by former Let’s French guitarist Max Sorensen, slipped through the cracks. Find it after the jump:
Read More “These United States Go 90s In New Video” »

Salome, one of the few metal bands that performed at this year’s CMJ.

For D.C. bands, the takeaway from CMJ seems to have been this: It will not pluck you from obscurity, but it can’t hurt. Also: Don’t believe the hype.

“The myth that you can land the perfect agent or manager at a place like that—I don’t think it pays attention to the reality that you’ve been talking to that person for seven months already,” said Jesse Elliott, whose polymathic alt-country band These United States played a handful of shows during this year’s College Music Journal Music Marathon. The annual industry gathering featured over 1,000 artists, close to 100 venues, and around a dozen acts from the D.C. area.

Elliott’s got a point: Most of the young bands I heard chatter about during the festival—like Florida’s Surfer Blood, New York’s Freelance Whales, and London’s Golden Silvers and Mumford and Sons—had recording contracts, significant blog buzz, or both going in, not to mention full management teams in place. These are not bands whose success lives or dies according to an industry festival.

“Most of the bands at these festivals are already signed,” wrote Todd Hyman, who runs the District-based labels Carpark and Paw Tracks and hosted CMJ showcases for both, in an e-mail. “Though this year there seemed to be a preponderance of unsigned blog bands. Seems folks were complaining about that.”

Read More “At CMJ, No Fast Track to Fame, but Plenty of IRLing” »

Because I wrote about Title Tracks’ versions of songs by The Flamin’ Groovies and The Merseybeats earlier this week, and because Bob Dylan’s truly atrocious new disc of Christmas standards leaked yesterday, I’ve been thinking a lot about covers.

Let’s put aside the illustrious history of ill-advised tributes (read: the entire Me First and the Gimme Gimmes oeuvre). A good cover can both satisfy a simple, dorky impulse—to hear one artist you admire spin another in an interesting way—and prove rather instructional. For example, it can tell you that Title Tracks frontman John Davis is probably a sucker for semi-obscure gems (he is), as well as a student of infectious, pop-classicist hooks. With that in mind, I’ve collected some recent covers by local artists.

My short list, after the jump, is fairly folk- and indie-centric, and by no means complete. Tell me what I missed in the comments.

Read More “Your Local Faves, Playing Other People’s Songs” »

Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

Tabi Bonney:

-Missy Elliot is/was great! How did I not list her in my top female rappers?She changed the whole game sonically & visually with Timbo & Hype

-I’m actually listening to my own music “dope” which I don’t do after I release it to the world.This joint is tight & I’m not even biased LOL

These United States:

-day off! sittin Oceanside in San Diego, listenin to Everest and The Parson Red Heads, two killer bands we’re rockin Los Angeles w tomorrow!

Wale:

-im happy .. but rewriting for the 848774943th time :)

-in the studio with pharrell…i wanna go live…but im not sure if this aircard can take ustream right now

Foul Swoops:

-grabbing all my can goods and headed for the hills. i am not gonna be a part of the race war taking place at the VMAs.

-who’s more in the wrong: me for trying to sell an unopened copy of Murmur to Cd Seller or CD Seller for not wanting it?

Craig Wedren

-The Making Of Pony Express Record in all it’s raw, mundane glory. http://bit.ly/34tGPe

These United States‘ new record, Everything Touches Everything, landed yesterday. It’s a little bit more rocking than the bands prior releases, as evidenced by the various singles that have been posted on this blog. But if all that electric guitar work has you ready to make like Pete Seger–taking an axe to the power cable–this solo session by the band’s singer, Jesse Elliott, might be something to check out. All Our Noise taped him a few night ago over at Big Bear Cafe, strumming a few songs real quiet-like. There’s another video and a audio-stream of the whole performance here.

AON Sessions: Jesse Elliott, “We Go Down To That Corner” from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

Drip your tracks like a busted shower head–is that how it works now? I just want the entire These United States record; the whole thing, so that I can get sweaty dancing in place, wearing nothing but my underwear, while my girlfriend rolls her eyes in disgust and surfs Facebook.

But Everything Touches Everything doesn’t drop for another five days (Sept. 1), so I guess I’ve have to make happy time with “Everything Touches Everything” in the meanwhile:

Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

These United States:

–oh, dear, I almost forgot how mind-ticklingly-Good this song was/is — http://is.gd/OoDu — read the lyrics, please, for the love of Dada?!?

–totally identify w/ How Frank Sinatra Feels on this one – http://is.gd/Po0l – Shervin will NOT stop bothering us to play “The Business” LOL!

Laura Burhenn:

–love to hear friends’ voices on the speakers in all kindsa strange public places. thanks, Maria, for serenading me outside the UPS store!

–when life gives you lemons, go swimming: http://yfrog.com/724mjj

Beauty Pill (Chad Clark):

–There’s a line from 30Rock that cracks me up whenever I think of it. “Never follow a hippie to a second location.”

–Oliver Messiaen was also an ornithologist. Transcribed birdsong into compositions. Glad I’m not the only one.

–Favorite Indian restaurant between gym and home. The world has a cruel shape sometimes. I try not to think about it as I drive by.

Wale:

–buisness can wait today is family day gonna see mommy too (african people say mommy till there60 ha) no dates no lunches nothin but fam 2day

Alt-country is when you sing about people who work hard. That doesn’t mean you have to work hard yourself, though. Somebody needs to mention this to These United States because, obviously, the band has been mislead. In the last 18 months the These United States–now evidently split between DC and Louisville, KY–has twice undergone the whole record album-release album-tour album process. Now it’s gearing up to give the whole rigmarole yet another go with Everything Touches Everything, it’s third full-length.

Anyway, the first single “I Want You To Keep Everything,” which rocks in that vast and spacious Steve Lillywhite sense, recently found its way onto the internet.