Search - Untied States :: Instant Everything, Constant Nothing

Untied States (note that the t comes before the i in Untied) is an art-rock band from Atlanta, GA that formed in 2003. The musical brainchild of co-writers and childhood friends Colin Arnstein and Skip Engelbrecht (they supposedly met as neighbors at age four), the group is often noted for their exploratory and sometimes elaborate take on arrangement and experimentation with popular forms. Their approach to songwriting has been labeled baroque, deconstructionist and avant-rock by critics and has garnered a wide array of comparisons from the more expected Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Radiohead and Liars and Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd to less mainstream acts like U.S. Maple, The Scientists and the more experimental sides of Wire and The Buzzcocks. Mixing elements of traditional rock with sonic experimentalism by way of full songs interspersed with sound collage, the group (at that point just the duo of Arnstein and Engelbrecht) recorded and self-released its debut EP, Bird of the Blood Feather in 2003 and followed up with two full-length albums, Ineffable, by Design, in 2004 and 2006 s Retail Detail both of which were also self recorded and released on the group s own Beet Nicotine imprint. These two records featured the core duo augmented by a slew of added musicians and earned the group positive reviews and college radio play in the US, expanding Untied States' exposure and leading the group to more live performances and tours. In 2007, after several live line-up changes, the group met fellow engineer Darren Tablan and recorded their first 7 single Bye Bye Bi-Polar with Tablan entering the fold as engineer/ keyboardist/ sound-sample manipulator. The single captured the attention of Paris based Distile Records and in 2008, the group, with the help of Tablan got out of their home and went into a large scale studio for the first time to record their next LP Instant Everything, Constant Nothing for Distile. Instant Everything, Constant Nothing demonstrated a newfound middle ground between the group s more structured works and sonic explorations and working with a larger palette of instrumentation. During the process of recording the album, the group also recruited full-time drummer Satchel Mallon who appears several of the record s cuts, including the oversized percussion of Wrestling With Entropy in the Rehabbed Factory.