The Americas

There’s just something about The Americas that makes me grin like a shit-eating idiot every time I catch their set. It’s always been this way. Mainstays of Chico’s indie rock scene, the duo of Travis Wuerthner and Casey Deitz have really come up with an intriguing and visceral musical formula. While Wuerthner’s dynamic guitar playing and hyperactive, rapidly-spat vocals provide appropriate and captivating sound-washes and narratives, it’s at times difficult to divert attention from Deitz and his noteworthy skills behind the drum kit. His approach is as inventive as it is mind-boggling. Casey has a knack for injecting every song with an album’s worth of rhythmic satisfaction, and in doing so, really pushes The Americas’ music past prog-indie, into rock’s new math. We’re talking base eight shit here. Not to belabor the point, but Deitz’s rare mistakes are even impressive — for instance, during “Siam Brass Knuckles,” he dropped a stick, which only revealed the full, concise kick drum patterns nestled beneath his ride and tom beats. Theirs is a case where complexity doesn’t take away from the power of their music; you gotta see it to believe it. It’s a good thing.
- Synthesis Weekly

Though The Americas have a couple of spiffy demo EPs that showcase their schizoid sound adequately, it’s in the live setting--where you can watch exactly how the sounds are made--that you see that the duo is like no other band. - Chico News & Review