Jesse Elliott's band, These United States, has released four full-length albums since spring 2008 — which is less time than it took Arcade Fire to make its latest album.
But making music comes naturally to the Washington, D.C., musician. He's also had lots of material to process through songs. Last year, Elliott nearly drowned in Lake Michigan. Once he recovered, he wrote an album about the near-death experience.
“The short story is it was a beautiful day. I was feeling floored by life, I took my uncle's kayak out into Lake Michigan, wasn't paying attention to how long I'd been gone or how far, kept going north and west, away from the shore, got hit by a bad wave from a freighter far off out in the lake,” Elliott said. “Too much water came up over the edge.… Suddenly full of water, suddenly then under the water, me with it. Just started swimming, dragging this big heavy hollow bucket.”
That new album, “What Lasts,” is filled with water imagery, desperation and a dash of hopefulness over the band's rustic music.
“This was certainly the most directly I've ever written about experience and trauma — it dredged up a lot of other past stuff, actually — a lot of the album is about previous deaths in my life.”
The band performs Wednesday as part of WFPK's Waterfront Wednesday series.
Elliott said that releasing so many records in such a short period of time is not part of a market-saturation strategy — the band has simply been particularly prolific. But that productivity comes with a cost.
“People get confused,” he said. “I mean, we get confused. But people wanting to know who we are or what we're about or what we mean or why we went here or there with this sound or why we didn't stick with such-and-such that they loved — they get even more confused. We're not an easy band to like, I don't think. That makes me sad sometimes.”
These United States began in 2006 as a musical collective with Elliott as its center. The collective format — pulling in new members for each album and tour — worked for a couple of years, but Elliott said it has its limits.
“(It) was invigorating, everything was always very different, surprising, frustrating, new things being added to the mix all the time. It allowed us to go wide but not as deep,” he said. “Eventually I felt that pull to go more deep than wide.”
First, These United States undertook a project that was an endless string of collaboration. Elliott decided to give These United States a permanent lineup after a 33-date tour in 2008 where the band performed with a different ensemble at each stop, with musicians from the host city joining Elliott and a couple traveling buddies. Three of the permanent members — bassist Colin Kellogg and guitarist/keyboard player Justin Craig and drummer Robby Cosenza — live in Lexington, and Elliott said the band spends much of its rare spare time in Central Kentucky.
“We love the music there, and especially the people and places,” he said. “Shangri-La Studios, Duane Lundy's place, has always been a kind third or fourth home for most of us.”
