United State of Electronica
w/Anna Oxygen, Kandy Whales, B-18
Thurs May 29, Crocodile, 9 pm, $7 (18+).
Last December I walked into Sit & Spin as United State of Electronica (AKA USE) were rampaging through "Emerald City," their heart-bursting love song to Seattle. It took about 4.7 seconds before I was grinning like a bastard, a rare occurrence for this old skeptic. A whirlwind of positive energy whooshed from the stage as the local septet churned out an ecstatic fusion of Daft Punk's buoyant boogie and Prince's catchy electro-pop. I felt as if I were peaking on E, though I was as sober as Ian MacKaye. I had to find out more about these Queen Anne disco darlings.
Turns out USE were "accidentally" birthed a year ago from Wonderful, a baroque pop group who recently dropped a new album (Wonderful's four members previously trafficked in goofy collegiate rock as the Lincolns). USE nucleus Noah Star Weaver, Peter Sali, Jason Holstrom, and Jon e. Rock formed Wonderful in 1999. Mirroring Brian Wilson's and Todd Rundgren's meticulous and burnished psych-pop symphonies, Wonderful's songs come about through painstaking arrangements; in contrast, USE's arise out of loose jamming in which everyone contributes and nobody dictates. If there's a common bond between the two projects, it's a rapturous devotion to melody.
"USE is the lovechild of the Summer of Love 2002," guitarist/vocalist Sali states. "Everything about it was divine or chance. Even the name was a joke."
"It was evident once we started playing USE music, we saw all the new things we could do," says guitarist/vocalist Holstrom. "We had all this energy for USE that we couldn't express in Wonderful because we had to really pay attention to what we were playing and be precise. With USE, we've all come out of our shells, especially performance-wise. People are surprised to hear those two bands are connected."
"We can also express our sense of humor," says Sali. "We're all pretty goofy people."
Last September, USE--which also includes bassist Derek Chan and singer/dancers Carly Nicklaus and Amanda Okonek--found themselves opening for Icelandic electronica sensations Gus Gus at I-Spy. The venue was sold out. It was USE's third gig. They killed it. "It was insane," recalls Nicklaus. "Everyone was asking where we were from. Everyone was surprised we were from Seattle."
"You're making people happy and you get energy from that," says Okonek about USE's sweat-soaked performances. "When people are screaming the words to songs you've never recorded, you know they're excited."
"We saw Andrew W. K. at Graceland last year," says Holstrom. "That taught us in a lot of ways how to bring it."
One can definitely see the AWK inspiration in USE's overwhelming live energy and positivity. Daft Punk's Discovery also figures heavily in USE's euphoric sing-alongs in 4/4. But what sets USE apart from their peers is funky drummer Jon e. Rock's dope rapping ("I am the 233rd best rapper in the world," Rock boasts) while playing along to sequenced beats, along with keyboardist Weaver's serpentine vocoderized singing and ridiculously glam threads, which include a dazzling collection of scarves. Never underestimate the power of scarves. And, as Nicklaus astutely observes, "It's impossible not to smile when you hear USE."
"As we've played more live and gotten better and more raucous, we're more like a rock band playing with some elements of dance," Sali asserts. "The idea is to loosen up a bit but still keep it full-on dance, and keep the Andrew W. K.-like energy. Yet we don't want to lose the Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx elements."
You can hear USE's uplifting dance action on the Emerald City 12-inch (on local label B-Side Records), which includes remixes by Bobby Karate and DJ Trip. Meanwhile, USE's debut album is due late this summer and will probably be self-released, though hot-shit labels like Kindercore and Force Inc. have shown interest.
Totally devoid of cynicism and negativity, USE's music may irk hard-line pragmatists. But the band's randy sonic escapism ("Every USE song is explicitly about love in any and all forms," Weaver claims. "Fun, love--that's it.") offers at least temporary respite from reality's grim clutches. "I've got more love than anyone could ever handle/I've got more happiness, too," Weaver sings on "Emerald City," and USE magnanimously bestow all that and more on their fans.
