dear reader,

firstly, thanks so much for commenting. it means a lot.

secondly, if you’ve downloaded “long coats, no energy,” thanks again! if you paid for it or decided to then buy the whole album, then you’re just about my best friend. i sincerely hope you’re enjoying the song.

we’re working really hard at these songs–recording the may 1st release this coming weekend, and writing the june 1st song last weekend–and it’s starting to seem like there isn’t anything else in life. honestly, i don’t even unpack anymore. the only thing i have to decide on a friday (or thursday night) is which of my half-packed suitcases (still invariably on the floor of my bedroom) i’m going to take that weekend.

but i’m not posting to complain. actually, i’m not complaining at all. i wanted to make the first mention here of some material joe and i have been working on in extra time afforded by the unparalleled convenience of living in the same state. the additional outlet has so far been refreshing and stimulating creatively, and the music shows both a continuity with and subtle distinctness from gn,s material to date. insanely, we are going to be releasing one track every month in addition to the full-band first-of-the-month release.

“arsonist’s blues” will be up on this site for download next tuesday the 15th. reception to follow.

well, 12 hours of driving, specifically.

it’s amazing what can happen in 12 hours. you can get pulled over by the mahwah police (well, apparently you can do that in 5 minutes if you’re going 71 in a 55). i assumed that when the cop looked in my back seat and saw the guitars and amps and then asked if we were musicians, he was going to call in the narcotics squad and have us strip-searched. instead, he returned my license and registration.

“slow it down.”

“but officer, reprise is already at 56 bpm. we can’t play it much more slowly”

i don’t think he would have understood the joke though, so it’s probably best that i just thanked him and drove away.

in 12 hours, you can drive from bergen county to pittsburgh and back (if you avoid rush hours). and during those 12 hours, you can spend 100 dollars on gasoline (thanks, opec), be reminded that sax and rock are antithetical (thanks, bruce), and repeatedly ask yourself and your passenger, “what the hell are we doing?”

it was never asked, but it was implied at moments. it’s a legitimate question, too.

lest we forget, the answers can be found on the music page. one answer is in the form of an album. another was posted last week, and more will be found there soon. i thought the last song was great, but the next one is better. actually, the next three are all better. and the fourth is so good that it makes me cry to hear it. not really because it’s beautiful, it’s just because it’s so damn good. as a band, we haven’t even started working on it, but i’ve been sitting on my bed playing it ever since we got back this evening, just to hear it out loud.

and even though my self-imposed question still stands (what the hell am i doing?), the truth is, i’m amazed at my good fortune. we’re recording again in 5 days. keep listening.

dear reader,

hopefully by now a bunch of you have gotten over your fear that “long coats, no energy” is an april fool’s day virus and downloaded it already. it’s not. it is awesome. i got to listen to it yesterday with a friend, and it felt so good to hear a new song, all polished up. that’s the feeling i was hoping to have doing this once-a-month single thing… recorded, mixed, mastered in two weeks = a warm fuzzy.

honestly, it would have been done even sooner on my end, but it took probably a solid 15 hours to get the bass end right in the mastering stage. part of this, of course, is because i’m an amateur (albeit a SHOCKINGLY talented one) with no love for post-production, but the large part of it consisted of agonizing a little over what the sound of this song says about good night, states and who we are. now stay with me here.

there is a now well-documented trend in the music industry of making records sound as loud as possible at the significant cost of dynamics, timbre and beauty. i say sound as loud as possible because of course it’s mostly psychoacoustics (not regular-type acoustics!) that engineers deal in these days; it turns out part of that ugly, back-room process for most artists who don’t have $100,000+ recording budgets is to really, really cut the bass frequencies. a bright mix with less roundness can more easily be made to sound incredibly loud.

but we can’t live with a recording like that. it’s not right, people. i’m as thrilled as the next guy with a great low-budget recording, but where are all the kick drums!? (they’re here, by the way.)

we, the people of good night, states, believe that we are endowed by our Creator with the BASS.

there will be no papery, cheesy-sounding shimmery pop mixes.

so when you’re running (do people still do that?) with your ipod shuffle and one of our songs comes on after something from “magic” (sorry, bruce, but that album sounds just awful–i still love you), and you wonder why it’s not quite so loud, you can think back to this post.

the answer is principles, folks. we believe in the bass.