"Sonic Youth are like the Beatles to me," says Skip Engelbrecht of Untied States.

"That's like our vocabulary," agrees bandmate Colin Arnstein.

The similarities between this avant-garde noise-rock trio and its heroes are striking: racks of differently "untuned" guitars; songs that start off in stark dissonance, wind their way through near-symphonic arrangements and end up in the general vicinity of normal pop-song structure. On Untied States' self-released debut EP, Bird of the Blood Feather, Arnstein and Englebrecht document their sound tsunami in five songs and four noise compositions. Both hail from Sarasota, Fla., and were best friends years before relocating to Atlanta in 1997.

Live, the bond between Arnstein, the organizer and intellectual, and Engelbrecht, the goofball guitar savant, is palpable. They laugh at each other's foibles, share jokes while they re-tune, and then simultaneously explode into their head-splitting cacophony.

For the last eight months, drummer Jim Earley has attempted to find his place in the Untied States dynamic. Earley, who has five years on his bandmates, was trying to get out of music when Engelbrecht encountered him drumming to an X song on the counter at Aurora Coffee. His experience and brilliant syncopation add a much-needed backbone to U.S.'s divergent guitars and programmed beats. A long-term agenda for the band has yet to take shape, though a bass player may soon be added.

Meanwhile, Untied States continues to expand the boundaries of sound with its brand of intelligent chaos.

Actually there is one goal Arnstein, a Georgia State music major, has in mind for the outfit: "I wanna play at the Rialto. I want to go symphonic."

The Untied States play The Earl Thurs., June 12. $5

"I come from a music scene where the camaraderie was very bad. Bands down here in Atlanta all like to get together to just hang out and to actually be friends with other bands. That's what it is all about."-- Greg Gentry, Nillah