dear reader,

that’s right; it’s me. i’ve missed you all. i decided some weeks ago to return to blogging here with a vengeance, but now it’s happening and i couldn’t be happier.

actually, i could be somewhat happier. the occasion of my first post in over two months is not, truly, something about which i’m particularly excited. owing to some not entirely unforeseen but certainly uncontrollable externals, joe and i will be departing shortly from nj to play a c. lunchtime show in pgh, and returning shortly thereafter to nj. (go ahead, check the time. i’ll be back here by 9 tonight.)

so… though i am sadly without brilliance or insight at this hour, you can look forward to blogs and tweets throughout the day that will no doubt keep you informed of our progress in an entertaining way.

ps. did you like “in the impossible tension?”

ok. i don’t really blog too much these days. i know.

nevertheless, i need to briefly weigh in on this iphone/touch/noise.io thing. we’ve been seeing it show up quite a bit on some pretty tech-y sites (engadget and synthtopia, for two), and we here at good night, states, are getting that the gadget-and-synth-savvy world gets this.

i’m quite flattered by the attention, but make no mistake: i didn’t program these sounds for synthheads (though i probably qualify for that label myself). dear reader, you who claim to play no instrument, who do not own your very own modular synthesizer, who frankly are not even sure you can do this, know that this project is for you! gn,s thinks synths are so great, everybody ought to have one; we like making noise over a pretty song so much, we think everyone should do it.

and what’s the worst that could happen? so you don’t play it exactly right this weekend. it’s ok. you’ll get better. (maybe we’ll even invite you to a rehearsal or two.) in fact, several of the sounds will probably respond wonderfully to any mistakes you might want to make, and that tiny speck of unpredictability in a universe of planning is really the point. art is humanity. humanity is unideal.

again i say, you can do it, dear reader. you can stride confidently to the front of the stage, device in one hand, lowly earbuds in the other. you can make the happy accident.

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

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,

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.