No, the band Untied States didn’t choose the name as a political statement.
If you go
Untied States with Bubbling Well and Connect the Dots
Where: Paper Sun, off Monroe Street between 11th and 13th streets NW
When: 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday
Info: myspace.com/untiedstates
Rather the name is meant to show that you can take what is commonly known and turn it around into something quite different. “I love the name,” frontman Colin Arnstein said. “It keeps bringing up crazy things. That is one thing that is kind of exciting about it. It’s something that shows you can keep surprising people, playing around with things they think they already know.”
That’s just what the Atlanta-based rock band has set out to do on its latest release “Instant Everything, Constant Nothing.” Perhaps that’s because co-founders Arnstein and Skip Engelbrecht began making music almost from scratch by just picking up guitars and jamming several years ago.
“I wish I had picked up a hammer or something; it would have been more useful,” Arnstein said, lamenting the business side of music. “Just from a very early age I listened to class stuff — the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and [the call toward] music seemed undeniable to me. That’s what we try to do — make classic rock music though it doesn’t always come out that way.”
Perhaps that’s because the call for experimentation, as clearly seen in the band’s name, is also strong and the partnership among the band members is strong. Arnstein talks about having a “weird kind of telepathy” with the other members that let’s them quickly play off each others.
“The main thing we get is a kind of experimentation and an experimentation with the arrangements,” he said. “I think of those songs we take for granted like nursery rhymes. A lot of those songs are really out there when you really listen to them.”
There’s little doubt Arnstein and his bandmates are looking to press musical boundaries with their sound taking what they think is a good sound and making it reach even farther.
“It’s telepathy,” he repeated of how the members work out songs. “I would just say if anything [one of my] bandmates doesn’t even know the Beatles. It’s much more of an understanding, a philosophical kind of liking where you’re going and trying to actively press the boundaries. Take what you know is a good song and exploring beyond what you know is safe. That’s what good groups are all about.”
