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Hailing from Brooklyn, the States are an indie rock trio that exemplifies the post-punk indie rock sound. Their release Multiply Not Divide is a bit of sonic heaven paved with guitar noise, buried in static and fuzz that never manages to hide the fact that the band is also incredibly tight.

All Indie Rock Should Be This Well-Produced

The States play a melodic, wall-of-sound type of music, that calls up memories of older ethereal bands like the Church.


At the same time, they don't lose their rock edge. The album never busts out with intensity, but you are always left with the anticipation that it could. The energy is there; it's just refined, channeled and contained. You're not going to rock out with this album, but it won't put you to sleep either.

Comparisons with other modern post-punk bands like Interpol and the Killers are inevitable, and those sounds are definitely there. There is an additional element to the band that points to their mastery of the instruments. They have nailed their sound down, stretched it tight and polished it clean. Their guitars are fuzzy without sounding low-fi, the drums are manic without sounding sloppy, and the lyrics are poetic without sounding sappy. It's a great balance.

The album hits its highest mark with the song "Diplomats", which is also the song that sounds most like a Killers track. It's perfectly mixed, with its blurry-edged guitars riding beneath Chris Snyder's vocals. It's a bittersweet relationship song, but rather than lower himself to typical emo lyric writing, there is definite sharp songwriting going on as he smoothly sings the phrase, "Home is a trench where you kill what you'd die for, unless it kills you first."

The States play pure indie rock. It's as simple as that. If you are a fan of the genre, you should pick this one up. It's probably one of the best examples of its kind to come out in a while.

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