B.J. Graves - Drums, Drums, Drums -
Nate Hall - Guitars, Words, Amps, Voice -
Josh Holt - Bass -
Matt Johnson - Theremin, Synth, Guitars -
Chris Thomas - Guitar, Bass -
Justin Whitlow -Drums, Synth - Meghan Mulhearn, violin
Influences
American and British rock music. Guitars. Nick Cave. Big Amps. Women. Classic American country, bluegrass and gospel. Bob Dylan. Neil Young. Neurosis. Swans. Slayer. T-Model Ford. Evan Williams. SRV. Townes Van Zandt. ZZ Top. The Band. Cream. Jimi Hendrix. Johnny Winter. Junior Kimbrough. RL Burnside. Popcorn Sutton.
Sounds Like
All the cool parts of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"
From the New York Times, August 2008 *********************************A band from North Carolina, U.S. Christmas plays slow, loud, echoey and powerful psychedelic rock, reducing things to the essence of power chords and groove: even the guitar solos, such as they are, become sublimated within the fuzz and the unruly yelling of the singer, Nate Hall. But the music is really distinguished by the sounds of old synthesizers — bubbly, oscillating noises pushed up to the surface of the mix. These sounds worm their way through “Eat the Low Dogs” (Neurot), the band’s fourth album; it’s deeply interior music, stretched out to the length it deserves.****************
Eat the Low Dogs review from Scenepointblank.com
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Eat the Low Dogs is a beautifully dark and medicating record that fewer ears will hear than it deserves. It rocks, laments and hollers from the mountainous region of Marion, North Carolina with an enduring gloom that feels archaic and steadfast throughout. The old-timer influences are vast, but U.S. Christmas' old/new merged sound is unified and deliberate: Hawkwind, Neil Young and slow-burn sludge metal such as Neurosis or Isis with their amps to eleven all play a role in U.S. Christmas' composite sound which is less sinister as it is somber. The muddling of genres results in a drug-addled state of alternating between southern rock, psych outbursts and old-fashioned country. A grim sincerity permeates the album's core and the drawn-out hymns recall a southern fried Pageninetynine at their most fleshed out, downtrodden and helpless. Eat the Low Dogs is the blues for a generation of misfit types with social problems, from a handful of miscreants with those same problems.
The content running through the lot of songs on Eat the Low Dogs is despair, loss and abject paranoia about life, love and hate. As a whole the album is devastatingly cathartic in the dreariest sense, and if taken as a whole has a cleansing affect. Significantly though, and contrary to most albums of this ilk it envelops you rather than drowns you in its downs. Eat the Low Dogs song's works more like extravagant southern rock dirges rather than a drone which leaves you expecting a payoff that never arrives. As the layers unfurl, you will find yourself in a hedge maze of sound that is uneasy to escape and easy to lose yourself in. Eat the Low Dogs is cohesive and intelligent without sounding choppy or overbearing, on their third album U.S. Christmas have hit pay dirt for the loners.
“In The Light of All Time” sets the stage for the entire record, beginning with a repetitive, solemn guitar tone that waxes through the entire four minutes while Nate Hall's gravel-throated vocals dither in front of the music from processing and pedals. After four minutes, the first aural onslaught begins with “The Scalphunters” which makes apparent that U.S. Christmas are less a restrained band as one who is capable of both soft tickling and hard hits to the face, sometimes simultaneously. “Say Sister” is the point of no return, a nine minute song that epitomizes the sound of the record; it builds and churns along the deranged path of psych and art-metal, with whirring Theremin and keyboards as the song's underbelly. Six minutes in, a slow crawl is followed by a fervent three-minute breakdown of psychedelic cacophony—the payoff always arrives. With three songs stretching the eight minute mark, the band is patient and calculated in their ways of toiling through songs, yet the delivery is brutal.”Silent Tongue” follows the same path of despair and lasts for ten grueling minutes, Hall peppers the song with a deviant repeater in his declaration “fifteen bottles of gasoline will be there for me / when I cut out your silent tongue” Each song on Eat the Low Dogs is beguiling, interesting and memorable—even unavoidably catchy for the macabre. It feels complete with inspirations spanning throughout the entire record, and even an instrumental in the mid section (“The Light and Trails”) that cuts the record in half. It's also book ended by “Pray to The Sky” which is a variation of the first song with different vocals, that ends the record on an even bleaker note than it began—fitting.
Eat the Low Dogs is a sleeper that hopefully will find the right sets of ears; it should be a beacon of soft light in the minds of sludge lovers, ex-psychedelics and people who enjoy a voyage through forlorn dirges that are as murky as they are somber. It is honest and escapes classification while feeling consistent throughout. U.S. Christmas has created a long-playing set of dreary songs that won't drain you but rather cauterize any open wounds; it's a detox system for the loner, medication for the malefactor and prescribed music for the passionately low.
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U.S. Christmas- Enjoyed your website. Thx for friendship.Optimist Creed Song free download for from Optimist Enfant Evangel. Love and Peace- Ecologyngle www.myspace.com/Ecologyngle
I hate it when people bitch about bands not coming to their city, but if you guys ever have a chance to make it anywhere in the Midwest area, that would be amazing. I live in Arizona and would jump at the chance, and even travel, to see a live show. Illinois is just pushing it a bit for me. :)
I know ya'll get a lot of these, but my band put up a live set we played with Blacktusk and Deadbird... we got it on our page for free download. Pretty raw and we fuck up but you get the idea. We're trying to get a proper recording and a tour put together for this summer and would like to do somethin with ya'll if we get out that far. Hope ya dig it. If ya do we'll bring some shirts to KC on the 28th...
How are you, U.S. Christmas? Haven't checked in on you lately, so I swung by to wish you a happy November & hope you are feeling well! Listen, I have another track up on my page, "Attack Of The Mushroom People." You can Hear it right Now, if you'd like at: www.myspace.com/psychedelicpablo OK, that's it for the shameless sel-promotion.Thanks for being a friend. adios for now! Pablo
US CHRISTMAS "EAT THE LOW DOGS" VINYL AVAILABLE NOW FOR PRE-ORDER
USX full-length, Eat the Low Dogs, features nine carefully engineered tracks designed to thicken the surrounding air blasting out of countless headphones and speakers worldwide. A multitude of effects intensifies the experience leaving one wondering what kind of sick yet talented musical minds are capable of creating such controlled chaos. Eat The Low Dogs is an amalgam of fury and grit, with a heavy dose of Appalachian angst for good measure, and should be enjoyed at the loudest volume possible for maximum intensity.
The official release date for Eat the Low Dogs will be November 24th. I'm Better Than Everyone Records is ecstatic to have been given the opportunity to give this record a long awaited vinyl release. This will be our first double album as well! The run on these will be at 500, with 400 being on thick black vinyl. There will be an extremely limited run of 100 copies that will be on blue and dark red vinyl, with each record having a different color layout.
