United State of Electronica

The United State of Electronica, or U.S.E., is a Seattle, Washington-based dance/rock band formed in 2002. It includes the four members of the band Wonderful: Jason Holstrom (guitar), Jon E. Rock (drums, vocals), Peter Sali (guitar, vocals), and Noah Star Weaver (keyboards, vocoder), as well as Derek Chan (bass guitar), Carly Nicklaus (backup vocals), and Amanda Okonek (backup vocals). U.S.E. was formed when the members of Wonderful posed as an imaginary electronica band from Mannheim, Germany at a Seattle-area nightclub. When the four members of the group noticed the audience's enthusiasm about their improvised dance songs, they decided to form a side project that would take dance music more seriously. Chan, Nicklaus, and Okonek joined the members of Wonderful to develop that project, which would become the United State of Electronica. U.S.E. released its debut self-titled album with handpainted covers in 2004. With no distribution, U.S.E turned to the Internet and gave the album to the world for free via http://www.mannheimworldwide.com. The album was released nationally through Sonic Boom Records in early 2005. U.S.E continued to tour, playing the U.S and Japan in 2005, including the 2005 Fuji Rock Festival. Besides releasing a Japanese-only EP in 2005 called "Party People", the band retreated for various personal reasons, allowing occasional live shows in Japan and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Finally, in 2009, U.S.E. released their sophomore album in the fall called "Loveworld". This album features some songs that date back to the era of the first album, as well as much newer tracks, all recorded shortly before the album's release. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.