dear reader,

before i truly wake up, it’s easier to set aside the headaches, worries, and mountain of phone calls and e-mails that instantly buries me when i return home. granted, it’s harder to form complete sentences; but everything’s a trade-off, right?

first of all, let me say that we had a great weekend overall. we had a wonderful time meeting and listening to the bloodsugars, and can only hope that relationship continues. in cincinnati we played at this club, were treated very well by their gentlemanly sound guy, dwight, and got to play (and share an apartment with!) seattle’s joy wants eternity. (their website is great.)

the only real spot on the weekend, of course, was my unfortunate allergic reaction and the resulting cancellation of our show at brillobox in pittsburgh. good night, states has never before cancelled a show, and i was particularly sad to have done so this past weekend. we appreciate so much the support of everyone who attended and chose not to receive the offered refund; please come see us in october. it’s not too far away.

although this clearly doesn’t make up for the missed set, i thought i’d offer a brief tour of our stage set-up, in pictures and words, as a peace offering. this is maybe sorta what you might have possibly seen at b-box.

clockwise from rear stage left:

TREVOR
t-dog stands RIGHT THERE, people. that’s his ’70s bassman 135 that gives him such a deep, woody tone (thanks, tubes!), his venerable fulltone ‘69 (the first of two and only remaining ‘69 owned by gn,s) used to great effect on “not come around” & “family dark,” and his fender jaguar baritone (tuned to low E, like a bass). he plays it on the aforementioned “family dark” and on “far side of the boulevard,” which truthfully has been out of the set for a while. had we played on saturday night, you would have seen trevor bop hard, rock his silver j-bass (not pictured–it’s actually fused to his waist at this point, so photographing it without him is just not possible) authoritatively with fingers, pick, and thumb, and sing a bunch o’ harmonies. the low end, as they say, would have been held down.

JOE
i get really excited when i see joe’s set-up, because i know there are just so many great sounds that are going to happen here. unfortunately, my amateur photograph does not include joe’s pro junior, and his blond strat is just barely visible as a voluptuous curve leaning on the x-stand; this shot is more from joe’s perspective as he stands like a pablo-honey-era-jonny-greenwood-haired giant at the front of stage left. the synth is the nord lead 2 that joe plays on “i am the loser,” “only thing,” and “far side of the boulevard.” (megan actually stands here and plays it on “there is a treasure” as well.) this is the first clavia product we bought. the pedals are entirely for joe’s intricate guitar work, and there are clearer shots of them in some of the recording photos. if we had managed to mount the stage at brillobox, you would have seen joe pick his guitar literally thousands of times–many of them furiously–, often whammying (not a word) dramatically, cooly lay down some fat mono lines, adroitly play the knobs of his pedals (especially on “long coats, no energy,”), sing intently, and play acoustic guitar on “sometimes i see you on the lawn.” joe = sangfroid.

ME (STEVE)
well, not much to say here. in fact, i play acoustic guitar ~60% of each show, so this picture is a bit misleading. what’s interesting about these shots to me is how little space we each actually have to stand in, and my position on stage is no exception. lately i’ve been setting up just slightly forward of the dead center of the stage, between and very slightly set back from joe and megan. so… my tiny pedalboard [80% homemade (i’m all about the percentages suddenly)] featuring the delay for “there is a treasure” that i control with my feet, and the fuzz i use for leads on “only thing,” “killer of the one,” and “sometimes i see you on the lawn”; my awesome coiled guitar cable; the gibson les paul deluxe i bought in highschool as my first real electric guitar (and play on “there is a treasure” and “only thing”); and my re-issue twin reverb that i’ve used with few exceptions for the entire short life (so far!) of gn,s. not pictured: ‘65 gibson sg junior (for the rest of the electric songs) and ‘68 gibson b-25. the set list from friday night is visible at the bottom of this photo–joe and i almost always share a set list. had i not been an idiot and eaten bleu cheese on saturday, you would have seen me say stupid, slightly unintelligible things, sing my heart out, thoroughly abuse my beloved acoustic guitar (probably smashing the headstock into one of dan’s cymbals at some point), squint cross-eyed at the mic, and walk around to the jup for the end of “long coats, no energy.”

MEGAN
we’ve never played with a band that had more keyboards than us, and unless we start opening for wilco or potentially jean-michel jarre, probably never will. i’m not proud.
this is where the proverbial magic happens. it would not be easy to describe everything that actually takes place behind these ‘boards, probably not even for megan. off the top of my head, i believe she currently uses 5 electro patches, 5 x-station sounds, and i think 11 jup sounds in the course of a set. (that’s actually like 275 possible combinations!) but i’m getting ahead of myself. the top right synth is a roland jupiter 6, made sometime around 1983. it’s been in gn,s just as long as any of us, and is prominently featured throughout “short films on self-control” and the internet singles. our website is modeled after the thing because we love it to death. it weighs like 10,000 lbs. or something and is 100% analog. i could talk about it all day. the little silver guy in the upper left is a novation x-station 25. it’s got a great little touchpad and joystick that megan uses pretty extensively in “long coats, no energy” and “killer of the one,” a bunch of onboard effects, and the ability to sync just about anything to tempo (in terms of bpm) which we really like. (that’s how those blips on “not come around” always fall right with the beat!) megan actually sits the x-station on a music stand these days, mostly because no one can figure out how else to mount it so it’s within easy reach. the third keyboard is a nord electro 73 that megan uses for all the non-synth sounds in our set: acoustic piano, rhodes, wurlitzer, and organs (except for the trashy ’60s organ sounds on “killer” and “she wrote a letter,” which are the jup). this a just a really great ‘board all the way around, and in contrast to the jup weighs like <1 lb. and is 0% analog. joe actually stands here and plays the electro on “there is a treasure.” among the things you cannot see in this photo are the two sustain pedals megan uses for the jup and electro, and the secret chinese-herb voodoo she must certainly be using to be able to step on both pedals while standing up. scary stuff, folks. notice the set list taped to the electro.
had our little band been able to play on saturday, you would have seen megan play maybe a trillion notes (192 of them 16th notes), constantly change patches, bop almost as hard as trevor but with a little more femininity, somehow direct nearly all of her voluminous vocal stylings in the direction of the microphone floating ominously above the sea of keys (25 + 61 + 73 = 159), and maybe, if you’re really lucky, tuck her hair behind her ears.

DAN
dan’s drums are really beautiful. although megan’s rig has approximately as many buttons, switches, lights, visual displays and control sticks as the cockpit of a commercial aircraft, the real helm of the gn,s live show is arguably right here at the skins. before i orient you to the inner workings of this command center, let me impress you with my drum knowledge by talking for a second about dan’s kit itself:
two cymbals: old. i think they’re zildjian, probably made by actual turkish people in actual turkey. they’re definitely different sizes or something. brass-colored.
hi-hats: definitely two of those.
rack tom: it’s small; it’s awesome; it has a moon gel.
snare: the head features two or three moon gels, usually some marker doodlings or drawings of robots, and one note reminding dan to put the lightbulb in his kick drum that backlights our logo on the kick drum head (thanks to emily kane–go, kanes!). there are somehow “wires” involved with this drum but i don’t know what they’re connected to. maybe dan.
floor tom: big. i know that i like when dan hits this and that it is hard to mic. two moon gels!
bass drum: also called the “kick.” i am NOT allowed to stand on this drum.
well, i think we’ve all learned something here. this photo does not show the hat trick that dan mounts on his hi-hats for some songs, or his stick bag (he uses mallets on “there is a treasure”). what you can see clearly are his yamaha clickstation metronome, his one-shot shakers (two of i think 4 shakers he uses in the course of a set), the briefcase in which those items live, dan’s roland spd-s sampler and trigger pad bank, and his in-ears that allow him to actually hear all of these things (they’re sitting on the floor tom–see?). dan somehow installed hardware on the underside of that briefcase that allows him to secure it on a stand, so he can grab things out of it and toss them back in without worrying about knocking it over. the spd-s is the source of many extra arpeggiators (”i am the loser,” “killer of the one,” “spring is the winter’s end,”), noises (”i am the loser”), drum loops (”sometimes i see you on the lawn”), and the glockenspiel and xylophone sounds dan plays on “family dark,” “long coats, no energy,” and “she wrote a letter.” although dan plays an actual glockenspiel in songwriting and recording, programming individual notes into each individual spd-s pad is easier for live work because, besides being one or two fewer instruments to lug around, it allows dan to play mallet instruments with regular drumsticks. dan’s role in live shows is special because we play to a click, but trevor, joe, and i (and sometimes megan) can’t hear it at all. it’s only in dan’s ears, so he has to somehow keep us all from going horribly off-course. the cruel dynamics of rock ‘n roll are such that, if one of us does go way off, it generally appears to be dan’s fault. it’s also his job to start the click at the correct tempo for each song, and then begin the intro or song at the appropriate time and when all the other involved members are ready. if one of us is for some reason not ready to begin a song (which happens all the time), of course we also find a way to make that dan’s fault. such is the life of a drummer. had my body produced the enzymes to digest casein, you would have seen dan make -1 or -2 mistakes, play his drums with a wide and thrilling range of dynamics and expression and often with one hand, yell effusively at at least one point in the set, have roughly 2x as much fun as anyone else in the band, make a series of inimitable faces, and probably mouth the words to several songs.

or something like that.

dear reader,

good morning. by the time i post this, many of you will probably be at work, or on your way. did you forget anything?

i admit to some pretty continual confusion about where all of my gear is (pittsburgh? ramsey? the coat closet?), but that certainly can’t quite account for what joe and i did last friday morning.
we were running pretty late, heading out to the ‘burgh to write “sometimes i see you on the lawn” and finish recording “she wrote a letter.” on our way out we perused our in the impossible tension rig, which in our defense is a pretty intense mix of junk electronics, labyrinthine routing, and recording equipment, and joe asked obligatorily, “do we need any of this stuff?”

“no,” i said, car running and clock ticking. “i think we have everything.”

this is the scene where all the footage is fast-forwarded. (actually, we had a really nice trip. joe drove so i could work on the song a bit more, and later on 28, so i could play him eagles songs on the guitar. although he didn’t know that.)
in fact, everything would be fast-forwarded, AND the screen would be split so you could see megan’s repeated communications with katie white (yeah, katie white!) to secure a piano for recording “she wrote a letter,” of course all while i fudged my way through “the greeks don’t want no freaks.”

so jt pulled up to the bakers’, opened the door, and reached back for his jar of peanuts. i don’t really like the ones with paprika. he got this real slow, deep smile, like he does.
“we are so stupid,” he says. “SO STUPID.” following his meaningful looks to the pile of equipment in the back seat, i get a sinking feeling.

this is the part where it’d cut to a flashback, and i’d see ALL THE RECORDING EQUIPMENT sitting there among the casios in nj. maybe the music would swirl up in dark, forboding washes that make the viewer wonder with a deepening sense of dread, WHO WILL THE KILLER GET NEXT!?

joe, of course, starts laughing. “look at me casually eating peanuts! this is so funny!”

at this point trevor walks out his front door and waves once from the porch. we look at him, and back to the peanuts. joe just laughs more.

“EVERYTHING is funny when you’re so casually eating peanuts,” he roars. “Here, you have to have one!”

“oh, man.” i take one. stupid paprika.

epilogue: good night, states, continued on to a productive songwriting-only weekend, and planned to finish “she wrote a letter” in two weeks. megan caused a miniature explosion that launched a needle into joe’s leg, dan napped a bit in the sunshine, trevor did GNS computer-related stuff that i don’t really understand, and joe recovered sufficiently to consume 1.5 chicken fried rices from tram’s, as did i. flat, gluten-free bread was baked in the meadow where all the characters would eventually frolic unto the forgetfulness of the disrepair into which has fallen their family’s estate and which will certainly be undone by their forthcoming marriage to the wealthy and upstanding Mr. Max Harding; NOT the forgetfulness that leaves you 400 miles from your recording gear.

ps. just a friendly reminder–we’ve got track two of in the impossible tension coming out on thursday. it’s great. for those of you who had a little trouble getting into “arsonist’s blues,” this will be easier. i promise.

pps. a couple of folks have confessed personally to me being behind with the internet releases. i understand, but people, it’s only gonna get worse from here. if you haven’t downloaded “there is a treasure” yet, do it NOW. (please.)

ppps. if you did forget your lunch today, go to franktuary.

pppps. oh yeah, and i beat tetris again. those dancers are awesome.

well, i just finished work, it’s about quarter of ten in the evening, and steve and i are about to drive to pittsburgh to record another track with the band.

i’m ready to go to bed.

something’s not right here.

oh yeah, it’s the part about our 4am arrival.

drive safely.

To those of you on our email list who noticed the day/date discrepancy in the most recent email:

The Album Release show is on Saturday, February 9th.

Sorry for the mistake! We will do our best to not spread misinformation in the future.

You’re the best!
-Good Night, States

A few weeks ago, I decided that it was finally time to open up a Good Night, States business checking account. Opening business accounts is something that I have some experience with, so I thought it would be a piece of cake.

I stroll into my local National City branch in the late morning (to avoid the lines) and end up waiting for probably 10-15 minutes for the next available customer service representative. Then, I get my shot.

The customer service rep takes me back to her small office with no windows and offers me a seat. I sit down and explain that I need to open a small business checking account. “Simple,” I think. She had a little more trouble than I thought a customer service rep should have, but no big deal, I’m a pretty patient person when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Then she asks me, “What is your business name?” I reply, “Good Night comma States.” She proceeds to type into the computer: “Goodnight, States”. Then I tell her, “No, it’s three words: Good. Night. States.” She writes it out on a bit of paper on her desk a few times, just to make sure she has it correct. “Great,” I think, “this was a bit painful, but it’s worth having things right the first time.”

She then proceeds to shuffle papers around, prints some things off, gets a cell phone call from her son, and has me sign a bunch of forms to finalize the account creation. She then jots another note on a small piece of paper and says that she’s going to have one of the tellers order me checks, free of charge! (This must be to make people feel really important. I mean, FREE CHECKS! How much better can life get?!?)

I leave the branch humming happily to myself because of my free checks and head back to work (a little later than I had hoped).

The end of the next week came and so did my lovely box of FREE checks! I threw them on the table with a pile of other stuff to take upstairs; I had decided to unwrap the goodness later when I got around to doing the band finances. The next day, I get another envelope from my bank. I opened it up and saw that my bank was sweetening the deal; they’d sent me a business credit card with a limit high enough to finish off the rest of my school loans (or purchase another vintage synthesizer)! I drooled over the credit line and took a second look at the card. “Wait a second, the business name says GOOD NIGHT ESTATES!” I looked at the box of checks still on the kitchen table, “The checks say GOOD NIGHT ESTATES, too!”

So, somewhere along the line “Good Night, States” got translated into, “Good Night Estates.” I can understand the mix-up, but I also feel like I am stuck in the middle of a large game of “telephone.”

I finally got around to going back to the bank and asking them to correct their mistake. They had no problem fixing things, though the service associate that helped me with the change scoffed at how this mistake could even happen in the first place.

All in all, I think Good Night Estates would be a great business name for a nice bed and breakfast that is set on and old family estate somewhere in the mid-Atlantic region. Maybe in a few years, I can settle down and start that business!