dear reader,

hopefully you have heard or will soon hear our new single, “the odd and the even.” we’re pretty happy with it. i’ve been mixing it on and off for a couple weeks, and as always the last few days have been a non-stop push.

but far from resting in the traditional sense, good night states is going to spend this weekend songwriting. dan, trevor and megan are going to work half days today and drive out to nj, where we’ll spend halloween playing music together.

i hope the weekend will be refreshing, if not physically relaxing, and we may even take some time out saturday night to support my father in a concert of no small notoriety (at least locally). i’m pretty excited about this, for many reasons: my parents are so, so supportive of us, and of course my dad has played a large role in my life-long love for and involvement in music; the album that maranatha made in 1971, soon, is something i just couldn’t be more fascinated by, though i think i’ve only listened to it four or five times. it’s just so… real. check it out:

anyway. i’ve got, as usual, a lot to say, about life, music, the truth, and of course politics, but i’ve also got a lot to do today and blogging is only one item on my list regardless of how many or how few topics i tackle in this post.

for now, be not so fearful of this tumultuous time; the panic of 2008 will surely pass (as did the panics of 1857, 1873, 1893, 1907, and 1929–am i forgetting any?), but our ability and obligation as people to choose the right and good never will.

enjoy some candy corn, some “the odd and the even,” and, if you find yourselves in north jersey tomorrow, perhaps some maranatha.

Dear fellow readers,

This is Steve’s wife, Allyson, writing to bring you the inside scoop. You may have heard that there will soon be a new internet single. It’s been in the works awhile now, and I can’t wait for it to get into your hands (and ears… and head). I’m going on record here to say that it is officially the new favorite, surpassing “sometimes I see you on the lawn”. If you liked that one, just wait… and when you hear it, listen for the obscure past participle, and the wondrous event to which it refers. Why do I love this song so much? One reason is surely that I could understand the words and their meaning without asking “what does it mean!?”, as is my wont. Steve will often play me whatever new song he’s working on even in its primordial stages, usually with the caveat that I can’t ask about what it all means… not until it’s finished. But the meaning of the upcoming release, “the odd and the even”, is so resonant (that is to say, it expresses through the music and words something real and true) that I find myself whistling along because I want to join in! There’s something about it that stirs you up inside and makes you want to say “yes!”

I even went so far as to ask Steve if he thought whistling might be an appropriate addition to the mix. He said no. On one hand, he’s right… whistling says “carefree” and other things that know nothing of this song, but on the other hand, I think you’ll know what I mean when you hear it and feel drawn to whistle. Isn’t that what we mean when we say that we resonate with something? When something “rings true” or “strikes a chord” with us, we are in that moment naturally caused to relate to or echo it harmoniously. (thank you, Merriam-Webster!) That’s sort of what the song is about, too– a certain resonance in all of creation: the odd and the even.

I’ll close with this:
I’ve found that my only consolation when Steve goes away on weekends for band stuff is that the five of them are creating music that is truly worthwhile. I was expecting really great things from their work on this song, probably because the more I miss him when he’s away, the greater the music has to be in order for me to believe it’s all worth it. So how did it work out? I asked if I could guest-blog to sing its praises.

dear reader,

morning. not sure i’ve ever posted on a saturday before. my schedule’s a little backwards because of our midweek shows in state college (go, roustabout!) and pittsburgh (thanks, wyep!).

firstly, a big thank you to state college fans who came out, and to jesse and jeff as always for putting us up. shane, you run a great house mix.

i can’t help but think of state college as the place where i inevitably say something from stage that’s very slightly wrong, generally due to misuse of a preposition. to be fair, mastery of prepositions (at least according to my wife, the resident authority) is one of the highest stages of language learning, mostly because it’s just a hard thing; everyday english speakers–probably including BOTH joe six pack AND now joe the plummer (how do we get our joe into election controversy? he could be the hip, young swing voter)–mess them up all the time. but the truth probably is just that my stage banter’s been getting more and more stilted this year, maybe due to general misanthropy, but more probably because our music’s gotten more personal as we’ve gone along.

returning to grammar, here are some examples: at one show i said that we were selling t-shirts “with owls,” as if to imply the two were a package deal, rather than that the t-shirt features a picture of an owl; on wednesday i said that we were releasing an internet single “about halloween,” suggesting the content of the song as opposed to the release date [”around” would have been a better choice (”about,” fyi, is one of the most misused and consequently most ambiguous prepositions we’ve got)].

right, if you didn’t get the e-mail and have noticed that the 15th came and went, “the odd and the even” won’t be out ’til closer to halloween. sorry about that.

usually people react to these comments by smiling initially, as if you’ve said something that makes sense, and then sort of looking off to the side or at their beer as they sort through whether good night, states is actually selling owls.

at wyep’s third thursday show in pgh, however, i laboriously got it right. (luckily they recorded the whole thing! so i have proof.) we really enjoyed that show, as we hope did you if you were there. a big thanks again to wyep generally and the staff that made it happen. joe and i listened to cindy howes‘ morning show on the way out of town yesterday (big fans), and she very graciously mentioned again what a good night it was. in other encouragements, the folks we did recognize on thursday night mostly had brought friends with them, and that’s just the best. you people are really making this happen.

good shows are especially nice when you’re as tired as our band definitely was on thursday. dan and joe had actually driven through the night after our 11.45p state college set wrapped up and we finished loading out sometime after 1.30a, so that dan could go to work thursday morning. seriously. here’s dan right before we walked onstage at third thursdays:

speaking of work, i’ve got some sessions to go to, but i’ll be back before too long. next boring subjects: recording and amp travails.

good luck with the prepositions today.