Our friend Autumn is a tour manager.  We met Autumn while playing with Jim’s Big Ego.  A tour manager is a person who handles all the details (venue, hotel, gear, food, money, etc.) for a band so that the band can concentrate on things like playing music and watching DVDs.  Basically, Autumn is kind of a big deal.

So, when Autumn rolls through Pittsburgh with a band she’s working with (including The Weakerthans and Tokyo Police Club), she usually gives us a call to hang out.  Recently, Autumn was working with Tina Parol, and invited Trevor, Megan, and I to the show.  Across the street, Kate Voegele was playing, and Angel Taylor was opening for her.  Well, it turns out Autumn knew Angel’s guitarist, so we went over to that show.  I was fairly curious because Kate Voegle is on MySpace Records, and if you’re anything like us and have a MySpace page (I refuse to link to ours - we loathe it), you receive automated messages from Kate ALL THE TIME.  Basically, I feel like Kate and I are good friends, so naturally, I wanted to catch up.

Well, we had a lovely evening with Autumn (she’s in the pic), but all we got from Kate was a pic next to her giant tour bus.  We’re planning on sending MySpace records tons of press kits with this photo on the front - think they’ll sign us?

I wrote a letter to Google several months ago, hoping it would meet this criteria. Didn’t hear back, but you Gmail users out there might get a kick out of it.

—

Greetings, Google!

We are a band called Good Night, States, and we would be remiss if we failed to credit your products for their assistance in our current and future musical successes.

Steadily flowing waves of interwebstuff have carried Good Night, States demos, songs yet unsung, cradling them gently from a Sent Mail folder in New Jersey to three Inboxes in Pittsburgh and a fourth in Philadelphia, via countless Gmails, neatly strung together as pearls of conversation between friends. Golden stars hang in the heavens of my Inbox each time I remind myself to take action on one of the 7305.100824 emails I have received relating to Good Night, States. I label, I archive, I am at peace with my email.

My publicity spreadsheets are nestled snugly in Google’s Documents, available for perusal anywhere in the WORLD (!) that there is internet, cohabiting with a family of press releases for, not one, but EVERY city in which we perform. AND, Google, let me tell you, The Every Show Checklist is a joy to behold and to share with all five members of Good Night, States, as we attempt to check off the forty-seven tasks that must be performed before, during, and after Every Show.

What can I say about the Calendar, glorious Calendar! At a glance, it brings joy to my misty eyes, sometimes in the form of our lead guitarist’s forthcoming dentist appointment, sometimes the gentle reminder that I missed yet another newspaper’s print deadline and forgot to schedule someone to work for me during our next songwriting session.

I will not omit, however, that there have been dark days. I have, at times, waited not fifteen, nor thirty, but at least forty-five seconds for Gmail to load before finally wandering off in search of some chocolaty snack that would assuage my impatience and despair. However, the care with which you decorate your logo on various holidays and the joy brought to my soul when I recall our drummer falling for your Gprint April Fool’s Day joke mitigate the occasional utter failure to load my precious cargo onto my screen.

And your newest creation: the BARS, the UPLOADING BARS! The ecstasy of watching a file slowly creep its way into my email is second only to the bliss when our van, loaded to the gills with instruments and careening through some unknown crowded megalopolis, screeches to a halt outside the club within MINUTES of Google Maps’ estimated driving time.

Well, what say you, Google? Are you ready to listen? Are your ears saying, “I’m Feeling Lucky”? Get ready for the glorious sounds of Good Night, States, the melodies that have melted the hearts of SPIN online magazine, dozens of bloggers, and show attendees throughout the Northeast. Google us, Google. You’ll see. We’re attempting to take over the internet, thanks, in part, to your glittering portfolio of products.

Your Google Friends Forever (GFFE),
Good Night, States
www.goodnightstates.com

I just was informed that The Afterthoughts Podcast is using “Sometimes I See You On The Lawn” as their theme song.  Very cool.  To be honest, I’m not sure how they found out about us, but they have a link to our Sixty One page, so that’s my hunch!