So, I swear I'm totally not trying to pimp Kentucky or anything by featuring another Lexington artist today. And really, who knew Lexington secretly housed so much talent? The one time I went there it was raining and so I, err, left.

In reality, the lads from These United States hail from both DC and Lex so maybe I'm safe from accusations of homeland nepotism.

I will say, ever since I got my hands on a copy of their latest record, Everything Touches Everything, I've kind of been listening non-stop.

Bandleader Jesse Elliott suspects he may be a distant relation to the legendary Jonny Appleseed. He told us this story, "Johnny Appleseed was a real guy. His real guy real name was John Chapman. He was the best friend of my great-great-great-don't-remember-how-many-greats-grandfather, and his wife, Bethene Porter. He traveled a lot, back and forth, doing his Johnny Appleseed thing, but when he was in northern Indiana, he crashed on Bethene's floor, outside of Fort Wayne, where he's also buried now. Bethene had 13 children. Some of them we're timed kinda funny, like they appeared in the world when my great-great-great-don't-remember-how-many-greats-grandfather had been gone for, say, more than 9 months. There's a pretty decent chance that I'm a little more Appleseed than Porter. That possible fact has always made me smile, and occasionally made me write songs."

Apparently this photo features, from left, Elliott, Robby Cosenza, and Justin Craig experimenting with permutations of delicious new strains of mustard pretzels at SoundMine recording studio in eastern Pennsylvania.

I know I can't wait to see them live, and you should check 'em out, too, at Encore Patio on Thursday night at 8.00 pm.

While you're waiting for the show to start, you can have a gander at...

The LP Questionnaire
Name: Jesse Elliott
Pro Wrestling Name: Dash Hammer. That makes total sense. I've always thought of myself as something of a Dash Hammer. Though, technically, if we're talkin full name, middle name and everything, it's Dash Yeti. I've always thought of myself as something of a Dash Yeti, too. Totally makes sense.

1. Pretend you’re 15. Name three songs you'd put on a mix tape for your girlfriend. The year is 1996 and I've been champin at the bit for Odelay to finally arrive. I put "Jack-Ass" on for my sweetheart, just cause it's the closest that album gets to sounding sweet. I impress her (Leticia Benitez, still? I think so, yeah. She was the greatest there ever was.) by following that up with "1979," back when Billy Corgan still...well, you know. This shows her not only that a) I am 1-2-punch material doubly sensitive straight outta the starting gates of my killer mini-mix, but also that b) I have a great, and some might say even scholarly, respect for and interest in History. I seal the deal with a tasty Paula Abdul track -- for her, of course. I don't even remember the song name -- that is the extent of my cool and total detachment -- it's just one of those we heard over and over again, round and round in circles, at Roxy Wheels roller skating rink, back when we were 13. We laugh about how much has changed with the world and how much our musical tastes have matured since we were 13, as we eject the tape and Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" comes on the radio in my 1986 puke-blue Nissan Stanza. Sadly, I've only got a learner's permit, so the Blue Goose is still parked in the driveway. But only for a few more months. ISN'T THAT IRONIC??????

2. Which evil villain would make the best President? Billy Corgan.

3. What was your favorite cartoon as a child? Well, are we talking animated feature length, or are we talking Saturday mornings? The former, I'd have to go with Robin Hood. My sister and I wore that VHS all the way through before I was six. Little John, Friar Tuck, the rooster troubadour who spins the whole yarn together, Nutsy and Trigger the guard vultures -- whew, Maid Marian, forget about it -- and of course the largely unsung hero of it all, Lady Kluck, running the rhinoceros gamut, makin a mockery of em, breakin ankles, fullback-style, escaping back into the forest with a whooping "Long live King Richard!" Brings tears to my eyes every time. Satuday mornings were planned around Garfield.

4. What superpower do you wish you had? I wish I could be Lady Kluck, breakin ankles, fullback-style, fightin the good fight, everywhere I went.

5. What would the title of your autobiography be? A Death Row Pardon Two Minutes Too Late: The Occasionally Unfortunate but Rarely Truly Ironic Life and Times of a Full-Grown 15-Year-Old Man-Child

Pick Three
Wale: DC's latest, and many hope greatest, offering to hip-hop. I've never seen him live. This makes me feel like some kind of traitor to my District. This man can spin a word or two, tho - I know this. I've heard this. Observe, carefully, "Chillin," his song with Lady Gaga, and tell me that this is not in some larger sense True. Additional point of fact: I used to live a block from Georgia and Kenyon. I think this should entitle me to "relax" "backstage" with Wale. Please contact me directly if you know how to make this happen. [Ed note: Wale is, unfortunately, no longer playing the fest, but I thought this was amusing...]

Wax Fang: So half our band is from DC, the other half from Lexington, KY. Robby, our drummer, goes way back with the Wax Fangers, a troupe of rowdy Louisvillians - just up the road - and we played the grand opening of this killer new Lexington club with em a few months back. They slayed people with their rockmachine. Lucky for all us and the State of Music Today.

The Mynabirds: Man, we are seriously playing favorites. We rock local and fresh. Laura's not local to us anymore, we lost her to Omaha, but with that loss the world gained an amazing new band. Neil Young + early R&B, that's what she wanted it to sound like, she said. Turned out, there had actually been a band that was literally Neil Young + early R&B dudes, Rick James included... called The Mynah Birds. Even more importantly, Laura's a mind-shiveringly brilliant songwriter and she put together a body-shakingly great band with some serious help from Richard Swift - who of course is the producing equivalent of Lady Kluck in the 1973 Disney animated feature film, Robin Hood.

I think I'm going to be laughing at that Billy Corgan answer for a while today. I wrote this post jacked up on caffeine while listening to Suicidal Tendencies so if any (all) of it made no sense, I apologize. I was prolly more coherent in former posts and you can read all them's goodies righthere.

Thanks for being kind and stopping by. Continue to stay in touch with us at the tweet making place @sxsw and @mspark. Or you can always email bidness bears to musicblog@sxsw.com.

For a second that boat was still afloat, lp