Daily Dose: The U.S. Americans, “Fade Out”

Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.

On this day of all days, it’s especially important to recognize and respect that this country is a vast, diverse, beautiful country. For The U.S. Americans, a New York City-based prog-punk group, that awareness is inherent. The four-piece consists of bombastic Russian-American frontman Jeff Weiss and shredding Afghan/French/Uzbek/Egyptian/Isreali-American guitarist Roy Abraham, both first-generation Americans, plus second-generation Ukrainian-American bassist/songwriter Dan Deychak and Mayflower-descendant drummer Emerson Williams.

The band’s debut album, titled Greatest Hits with an implied wink, is set for an independent release later this month. Comprised of 11 tracks spanning 90 seconds to nearly-nine-minutes, The U.S. Americans first announced their presence with the most glam-punk song on the record, “FCK the KGB.” To follow it, however, they’re offering with what Abraham describes as the band’s “acid-prog saga,” “Fade Out.”

Weiss continues, “I liked the idea of releasing a seven-minute single after one that was under two minutes. I also liked the idea of putting out one of our more proggy songs right after probably our most punk song. I want people to see the depth of flavors in our group.”

The video for “Fade Out feels both cloyingly capitalistic and fatally foreseeable. With bastardized American symbols (think subway rats sucking at the teats of Midwestern milk cows, past presidents with skulls for faces, and comically cartoonish UFOs setting fire to Mount Rushmore) inflating and deflating like the juice in a lava lamp, Dylan Burger and Lauren Kolesinskas’s illustrations serve as subtle, yet scathing and trippy commentary on current affairs.

The combination of the shifting musical moods, song length and metaphorical video make for one giant bold statement from The U.S. Americans. Encapsulating the band’s typically snarky tone, Weiss summarizes, “Seven minutes might be a fuck you to be industry, but so is my face.”

Listen to “Fade Out” below. Stay tuned for more information on The U.S. Americans’ Greatest Hits and check out the unveiled album art here.