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 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!

This morning, I had my first overseas Skype video conference with Andrew Dubber.  If you’re in a band, you can’t afford to not spend time becoming familiar with his website, New Music Strategies.  RSS feed the hell out of that thing.  Make sure you download the free e-book, “20 Things You Must Know About Music Online“, which basically should be a bible for your indie band’s mentality.

If you’re in a band and you don’t love “20 Things”, then I (Dan) 1) don’t understand you or 2) your band is just too huge and is blowing up everywhere and we can’t possibly be friends.

(The views in this post are not neccesarily the official position of Good Night, States, its partners or affiliates.)

This weekend, we made two fabulous appearances in Pittsburgh, Pa.  On Friday night, we played at Howler’s Coyote Cafe, where a fantastic night was enjoyed by all, thanks to Paul Luc, Delicious Pastries, Jo (Howler’s booking manager), and a great array of friends and fans taking in the evening.  Perhaps someone else would like to elaborate on the show, because I’d like to call your attention to something else.

Last summer, our friend-but-we-didn’t-know-him-at-the-time-of-writing Drew Cucuzza, wrote a  article in Pittsburgh Dish about GN,S.  He said ““A gorgeous, melodic album with songs that immediately draw you in; a kind of “just right” sound-production that most bands go their whole career without achieving… What they sound like is Good Night, States and they deserve to have other bands compared to them.”  To be honest, I want to cry when I read those words, because that’s what we’re trying to do here.

Well, on Saturday morning, our friend Jeff Baron (thanks, Jeff!) hosted us at the Saturday Light Brigade for a live acoustic on-air set.  Hopefully an audio version and pics/video will be coming to you soon.   Our host, Larry Berger, was a joy to speak to and be interviewed by.  At one point in the conversation, he paused, and tried to explain who he thought we sounded like…and he was stumped (in a good way).  He said that Good Night, States sounded like Good Night, States and that was the highest compliment an artist could hope to have.

It’s true, Larry - it’s a high compliment, and we appreciate it.  Thank you for having us, and thank you for listening.

Friends, we’re gearing up to make more songs that sound like Good Night, States.  Songs of hope in the midst of fear, joy in the midst of despair, and change-for-the-good in the midst of change-for-what-seems-like-bad.  Hope you’ll join us for the ride.

Dan here.  Did you know my wife and I are pregnant?  Pretty cool.   We call it the bump, because we don’t know the gender.

As we get closer to the due date (March 8), we begin going to the doctor once a week, and today was our first in our series of once-a-week appointments from here on out.  At every appointment, the doctor uses a Doppler (a microphone that you put on the bump and it plays the sound of the heartbeat audibly as well as shows us the heart rate).  Today, the doctor asked if i would like to operate the Doppler, which i happily did!

As you may or may not know, the baby’s heartbeat is super-fast at the beginning of pregnancy (over 200 BPM - normal adult resting heart rate is something like 65 BPM, I think) and slows as the pregnancy goes on.

You will all be pleased to know that our bump’s BPM was 146 today, meaning that my son or daughter is poised to take my spot in Good Night, States, particularly with respect to playing “Killer of The One” or “The Only Thing” (both clock in at 144 BPM).