dear reader,

tomorrow, christmas will be only one week away. (unfortunately, i believe i’ve already missed the one-week mark for hanukkah, which was monday, no? although, if today were the 17th day of kislev, instead of december, i’d be right on the money… .) the solstice will be here even sooner, heralded for me personally by a vague recognition that i haven’t really seen the sun for A Long Time.

and in the category of Feels Like Christmas To Steve, we’ve got snow on the ground here in nj, a couple of nice little fake trees (that our cats insist on eating anyway) lit up in our apartment, and those red holiday cups at starbucks.

what could possibly be missing, you ask? how about a good night, states christmas song! i am not making this up!

in the fall we promised three more internet singles. after the halloween release, “the odd and the even,” our songwriting and recording schedule got a little difficult, so although you’ve seen photos of recording “if i can,” you haven’t heard the song yet. joe and i are still working pretty hard on that one, but we hope to get it to you by the close of 2008.

in the meantime–last weekend, to be specific–we did what any band in our position (one song in the works and one to go!) would do: set up at the hardings’ and recorded something very special for everybody who’s helped to make this a very special year for us.

there are sleigh bells, there’s a glockenspiel, and there is very much the sound of folks singing in the living room. so download the song tomorrow (it will be free! no excuses!), put it on in your living room, pour a glass of eggnog to go with your cookies (and maybe some silk nog for me if i’m lucky) and pretend we’re all together.

merry christmas to you.

dear reader,

before i delve into the real content of this post, a big shout out to the bloodsugars, an INCREDIBLE (note the use of caps) nyc band that we simply can’t get enough of, and to everyone who turned up at all asia last weekend and supported us in a way i have never before experienced.

a few posts ago i did promise some talk on recording and amp building (problems). as is often the case, i’ve had my hands full enough with the actual recording and amp building that blogging about them has been at best a line item on my list of things i wish i could get a minute for (but know i won’t). in the meantime, something has happened that cannot go uncovered in this humble blog.

as of friday, november 21, good night, states had never before played in boston, and we were not overly optimistic about a midnight set in an unknown venue in a (ridiculously cold) city far north of our usual show circuit. to make matters slightly worse, when we walked into the club, all asia, we were treated to a band of what i can only assume were highschool kids or perhaps college freshman playing a mix of original material and jack johnson covers, which was difficult to survive. following that were multiple trips to a parking garage around the block, some travails finding food (we ate at this place–good!), and a “real feel” of 0 degrees.

the night started looking up as the bloodsugars knocked their set out of the park (would that be fenway?), and even got some of the good-natured crowd moving a little. they seemed to really connect with the audience. one cannot help but enjoy the bloodsugars, although i admit that i started to feel our often-intense textures were going to be quite a letdown after their unstoppable infectiousness.

little did i know. how could i be prepared for the sweater vest?

after a strong, noisy medley of “long coats, no energy” and “there is a treasure,” we launched into “only thing.” near the very end of the song three guys excitedly ran to the front of the stage, which had been empty, and began dancing. REALLY dancing. it looked like they might have been doing serious moves. before they could really get into it, the song ended, and i was fairly sure that the dancing was going to end with it; but as we laid into “i am the loser”’s decidedly mid-tempo groove, the rest of the crowd began joining them. by the middle of the song the scene in all asia could only be described as an outtake from the “thriller” video. i am not making this up. the point man of the three original dancers–a guy in a swingin’ sweater vest–was actually leading the entire audience in some kind of improvised step dancing that they were somehow following quite impressively. despite my warnings that most of the rest of our set would not be so dance-friendly, sweater vest & co. cheered at everything i said and persisted in their synchronized ambulations through every song we played.

i really thought it must be some kind of a flash mob. there was simply no other explanation.

as the set progressed to “far side of the boulevard,” the five of us looked quizzically at each other. ‘we should skip this one,’ seemed to be the general sentiment on stage, but i figured, what the heck? i’ll ask the dancers.

“we were going to play a quiet one here… ” i began.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” shouted The Sweater Vest Dance Company. “TAKE US ON YOUR JOURNEY!” added one effusive participant.

needless to say, good night, states is coming back to boston. we are going to be working on our moonwalk, and our cover of “i wanna dance with somebody.” we are coming with warmer clothes, with definitely either red coats or socks, one if by land and two if by sea, and we are probably going to play “i am the loser” twice. mostly, sweater vest & co., we are going to go on YOUR journey.

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 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.

dear reader,

happy monday. that’s not necessarily said sardonically, i should note; i’m looking forward to this week for two reasons:

1. the october SAT is this saturday. that means if i can just get through this week (and get my clients through this week with their nerves intact), i will have some very slight respite from insanity. [this is said from the perspective of someone who has worked (either tutoring or playing, and many times both) literally every single day, monday-tuesday-wednesday-thursday-friday-saturday-sunday, for over a month.]

2. we are recording this saturday for the first of three fall internet singles. this song is great. i’m really excited about it. the tentative release date is october 15th, which should carry you through that period between the end of oktoberfest and halloween. speaking of holidays, our plan is to get the other two out for thanksgiving and christmas, because, well, why not. (the real answer is that we hunger and thirst for sleigh bells.)

so that’s me this morning. hope that gives you at least one thing to look forward to as well.