aims for the band and album were to form "an avant-garde political/musical rock group with the idea of combining electronic sound (not electronic music)... musical/political radicalism... [and] performance art." According to Moskowitz, the choice of the band name "The United States of America" was intentionally provocative: "Using the full name of the country for something so common as a rock group was a way of expressing disdain for governmental policy. It was like hanging the flag upside down." As well as crediting the influence of Dada-inspired band The Red Crayola, Byrd said: The demo recorded by the band secured the interest of Clive Davis at Columbia. Through their friend David Rubinson - who had started working for Columbia as a record producer, for bands and musicians including Moby Grape and Taj Mahal - they gained a recording contract. Performances and recording The band undertook their first live performances in late 1967, at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, when Agnello was still performing with the band. Byrd said that "the two engagements at The Ash Grove helped define us as a combination of experimental rock and performance art. Everything we did on the album we had performed live, via the addition of two tape decks on stage. We traveled with a bunch of gear, including a calliope, a 3' x 4' neon American flag (which had alternately flashing red and white stripes), and a full-size plaster nun. We may have been the first to use fog machines: the low-lying fog and the flashing flag created a striking environment. We tended to use low stage lighting when we could, with only a pin spot for the vocalist. And since we often played from written scores, we used stand lights, which also added a kind of other-worldly lit-from-below effect." Electronic devices were used live as well as on the album, to process other instruments and Moskowitz's voice as well as providing their own musical textures. The band's performances got mixed receptions. They undertook a short tour of the East Coast, with Richie Havens and The Troggs, with their performances in Boston and Greenwich Village being especially well received. Byrd later said of their shows: "Audiences generally were positive, sort of... it was a new kind of experience, and it wasn't just the music, it was performance art." They recorded their first and only album in December 1967, produced by Rubinson, with Byrd