The States were the featured music on ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Sunday April 6. We'll have video of the show shortly, but in the meantime, we wanted to share our favorite part of the show with you. Here you go:



Also, don't forget that Friday's show at Crash Mansion has free admission and a free vodka bar, provided you send a quick RSVP note to rsvp@newyorkunderbelly.com.

-Chris

Not sure if you've been following the news lately, but it seems as if New York's supposedly progressive and crusading governor, Eliot Spitzer, has been identified as a client in a high-class prostitution ring. Really, Mr. Governor? Way to flush your career -- and a bit more of our faith in public officials -- down the toilet. I even voted for that guy.

I mention this all because, well, it's a little disheartening to find out that one of the "good guys" is really a hypocrite who can't keep his pants zipped up. That said, it's great material for the next album...

Anyway, enough preaching. We added some info on upcoming shows (New York, Washington DC, Brooklyn, Boston...) Please have a nice day, and don't get yourself or your state into any trouble.

-Chris

Hello there,

Well, some awesome news, some good news, and some bad news. The awesome news first: We've been selected as finalists in the International Songwriting Competition for "All the Salt in the Sea" (which, we admit, is a pretty damn good song). The winners of the whole shebang will be announced on April 4. We'll certainly tell you what happens. In the meantime, you can vote in the somewhat-related "People's Choice" part of the contest HERE. Or, you can check out more on the contest here: www.songwritingcompetition.com. And to say thanks for all your support, we're giving away a free download of "All the Salt in the Sea" for a limited time. Just click here.

The good news second: We're playing what will be two really great shows next week with a great band from DC called No Second Troy. (Check them out here: myspace.com/nosecondtroy.)

Friday 2/29, 9pm: New York City: Piano's
Saturday 3/1, 9pm: Boston: O'Brien's Pub

As usual, all the details are on our webpage, thestatesonline.com.

Ok, now the bad news. Our big blue van died. Or, at least, it's in a coma. Either way, it's a bummer. We're waiting to hear back from the mechanic about the prognosis. In the meantime, here's a picture on our website of the van getting towed away. If you're religious, say a prayer, won't you?



Be good,
The States

A few tidbits of news for you today, mostly on the "shows" front. But first! It is snowing right now in Brooklyn (finally), and while that might not make Pete "I drive 2 hours to work uphill both ways" Connors that happy, it sure makes Chris "My inner child is taking over" Snyder quite content.

We've added some new stuff to our Myspace page, including the first segment of an interview on the making of The Path of Least Resistance. Check it out HERE. Thanks to Bonnut Film Studios for the video.

We're playing a few local shows over the next month or two with friends both new and old. Here's a rough schedule. More info available HERE.

Also, the newest installment of Sundays With Joe has been posted HERE. Enjoy. If you can.

Be good,
The States

We just wanted to wish you a very happy 2008 and to deliver some
belated holiday gifts.

First, as promised, there's some preliminary footage from our most recent New York show online. You can find the video from So Near HERE. Thanks very much to the hardworking crew at Bonnut Film Studio for producing this for us.

Second, we're very honored to be listed alongside The White Stripes and Bruce Springsteen on Jonathan Clarke's picks for Best New Music of 2007. (For those of you who don't know him, Jonathan Clarke DJs at Q104.3 in New York and runs the only commercial broadcast focused on new music in the city.) Check out the full list HERE.

Also, we took some new pictures recently and we think we look quite dashing. You can view them here: www.thestatesonline.com/photos.html.

Last but not least, we were also recently featured on the Niente Peaches podcast, which is run by some good friends of ours, and which we highly recommend. Click HERE.

So from all the States -- Chris, Joe, and Pete -- a very happy 2008
to you.

We realize that the holiday season one of the busiest times of the year -- on the one hand, there's all those boozy holiday parties to go to; on the other hand, all that shopping to do. For the record, we suggest combining the two: drunk holiday shopping. Makes those pangs of credit card regret hurt just a little less.

Instead of shopping, The States have been putting together two special holiday shows. Also, we've been boozing, but that's beside the point. Our New York show on Dec. 20 will feature something we've always wanted to do but never quite had the balls to pull off: a live horn section. There will be other guest appearances, too, and our good friends The Minus Scale. Then there's our Boston show on Dec. 15, which is special because it's with our good friends Thick as Thieves. By the way: check out this live clip from our last show in Boston:



Joe finally put together his second "Sundays with Joe" segment. Here's an excerpt: "This robot insubordination is nothing a little Tesla industrial magnet can't solve, but you need to get on it. Remember, robots are servants, not friends. Do your part." Confused? Me too. The rest of it, if you dare read, is right below.

If for some reason we don't see you before the year is up, happy 2008, and enjoy your holidays.

-Chris

The Charm Offensive video is finally done! Here it is:




Also, that handsome mug playing bass is our own Pete Connors, who has been playing with the band for a few months and takes over bass duties from Previn. We're all going to miss Prev, but Pete has his own amazing brand of bass hot sauce, so believe me when I say that we're in good hands. Say hi to Pete!

Shows have also been updated -- dates are coming up in Boston (Nov. 28 at Harper's Ferry) and New York (Dec. 2 at The Tank). Check the Shows page for more info.

Last thing -- we're starting a new blog segment called "Sundays with Joe." There's no good reason to start a segment like this, except that Joe threatened to impale me with a blunt object unless we did, so here it is. Enjoy!

-Chris

Hi everyone. It's a busy week, so this update will be pretty short. There's been so much going on, it's hard to know where to begin. Over the weekend, we filmed a brand new video for Charm Offensive in an old converted fire station in New York's Chinatown. The rough cuts look fantastic, and we can't wait to share it with you in a few weeks.

In other news, The Path of Least Resistance is now available wherever internet connections can be found. (It's also in some stores in the tri-state area.) To buy either a physical disc or mp3s, just visit our online Store, powered by Nimbit. We're going to add brand new t-shirts and other merchandise soon.

Also, we've announced a slew of dates in support of the album release. Just go to the Shows page to see them all.

We recently discovered the worst McDonald's in the world. It's in Conshohoken, PA. We were hanging out after our show with our good
friends the Pawnshop Roses (www.myspace.com/pawnshoproses) and, a majority of the band having had a good deal to drink, we decided that McD's would really hit the spot. Except for the fact that this McD's didn't serve anything after 11pm except quarter pounders with cheese. Nothing. Not even a goddamn milkshake. The worst thing about it wasn't the disappointment. Or the unsatisfied hunger. Mostly, it was just the utter shamefulness of the whole experience. Anyway...

We also wanted to pass along a few links from some recent press we've been getting. First, here's a link to the Orion podcast, which recently featured The States. Next, here's a link to a video interview we did at SXSW 2007. Note Joe's ridiculous beard, which has since been mercifully shaved off. Finally, here's an interview Chris did with the Boston Tab a few weeks ago.

Lots of new shows posted in the LIVE section of the site. Go check 'em out.

Also, T-Minus 1 month and 3 days until The Path of Least Resistance is released...

Good news: our NYC show has been rescheduled for July 17 at 9pm at The Annex. Check out the Shows page for more details.

Also good news: the first reviews of "The Path of Least Resistance" have started to come in, and they're very kind. We're blushing. Click here for the review from the Sea of Tranquility Blog. Here's a sample: "There´s no doubt after listening to this new platter from The States that there´s a world of potential here, so we could be looking at the next big thing, folks."

In other news, we spent last Friday with the good folks at Black20.com shooting five songs for an exclusive live feature on their very hilarious and very awesome website (it'll go live in a few months -- we'll keep you posted). Here's a picture from the shoot:

Happy new years kids!

I hope all of you puked on yourselves in a chair or a bed or on your moms lap or in a hospital after you've been force fed a charcoal solution to forcing you to puke (see my article entitled: "Stomach pumping your way to a new and attractive you") and loved it. Whilst I was drinking away '07 at a party I came up with TWO fun new games that you can play that actually work and can get the ball rolling into the next year all the more fasterestnessattitudenell.
Game number one: Start the new years countdown about ten minutes early.

While your friends are coming to the realization that midnight is quickly approaching and they have no one to kiss and are flailing around like a slew of drunken cattle in a panic to find that one desperate girl who is just really feeling that Maroon 5 song so hard in the corner so that they can start a short relationship built on lies so that they don't look like the fat kid in the Blade Runner t-shirt gawking awkwardly by the side of the pool at the party they shouldn't be at, as all of the hot chicks swim with the kids who aren't afraid to sell special K to make the extra cash and buy some turn tables and call themselves a DJ, and tell everyone that they are going to Ibiza some day just to party 24/7 and meet the "blazingist" babies alive, start counting LOUDLY down from ten. You will find that everyone will start yelling along with you and maybe, MAYBE one person will check their watch and realize you are full of shit, but who cares, that somebody will just think they are too drunk to tell time and you are cool. When you start laughing and people realize what an asshole you are, your year has already started off on the right little foot.

Game number two: Place bets on who you can get to puke before midnight.
This one is a tushy load of fun times. Sit there with your buddy and point at the people that you think are teetering on the edge of a coma due to drugs and or alcohol and place some bets. Then you divide and conquer. The easiest way to win is to challenge someone to a drinking contest, but I really like to get creative. Try a 'who can spin around in circles' contest, or an 'ill bet you cant eat all of that' competition. I won $50 bucks from my brother.

Anyway, I'm on a train right now with the lovely and handsome Christopher Snyder headed to Pete's house in Pennsylvania to begin what will be the outlines of the third States record. We are walking into the whole thing with only a handful of ideas and skeletal structures of some jamming that we have done in the studio and during sound checks. It will be the first record that we have ever written with our new bassist Peter Charles Connors and I have no idea what to expect from our session. Overall we are really excited to embark on a new journey together.

That's all for now on the band front.

We are playing a few shows in the next coming months with some new friends No Second Troy, who are from Washington, DC, and we're looking forward to that. We're also playing with our good friends Rails to Russia. Rails are working on their full length right now, and from what I heard its going to be EVEN BETTER THAN CREEDS SEMINAL ALBUM "GOD AND I PLAY TENNIS". That's a Creed album title right? And of course we will be playing a ton with our Mass friends Thick as Thieves, who are also recording right now and have new stuff online to hear. You should buy ten albums from them so they can quit their jobs. Each of their albums cost five thousand dollars. Actually fuck that, go buy ten copies of The Path of Least Resistance. Its only like ten bucks or something.

Know what that is? Thats the sound my robot made to me today when I asked it to get me a glass of ice cold water. If you ever have a robot respond to you that way, you need to get one of these bad boys and put it on its head. Cause that bucket o' rust just told you to get up off your lazy ass and get it yourself. This robot insubordination is nothing a little Tesla industrial magnet can't solve, but you need to get on it. Remember, robots are servants, not friends. Do your part.

All that aside, hi. Thank you for returning for my second installment of sundays with Joe. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you ate the shit out of some turkey. Or if you are vegan I hope that you watched the shit out of some people eat turkey.

Know what I did on Thanksgiving? I listened to my friends the Ascetic Junkies (and ate the shit out of some turkey). I did this because I have signed on to hit stuff on their album. They are awesome go listen now. Also, Itunes recommended this band Portugal the Man and they make my Hungarian heart beat fast. Please befriend them on Myspace and tell them we said hi!

I was going to close my post with a lengthy excerpt from the Anarchist Cookbook, but Chris told me that wasn't cool anymore. Also, he said there might be some legal implications with us advocating anarchist cuisine, so you can go find it yourself.

-Joe

...same old "the government is fucking me over" aftertaste. Greetings and salutations my little pork chops. Welcome to the first of many "Sundays with Joe" blogs.

As our year winds into drunken holiday parties, warm non-gas-station-purchased food, and memories of shows we have played and faces we have met, we're moving into a writing phase and also getting ready for attack mode in early 2008. A trip to Europe is in the works with our friends from Belgium, Drive Like Maria (www.myspace.com/Drivelikemaria), as well as another U.S. tour. (As I wrote that last line I spent 2 minutes trying to delete what i thought was an accidental "." and then realized it was just dirt on my screen. Remember what people say about drummers being stupid?) For the moment, there's no new album in the works, just pieces of a puzzle that the three of us will assemble as we go along. There has, however, been talk of horns and more piano, as well as Chris again using his talents as a violin player (he plays on "Parade" on our first album "Multiply Not Divide").

I would also like to announce that i have begun learning to play the sound of a frog crying. Should be a real treat.

Many of you will note that we no longer employ a ten foot Indian as our bass player. Pete Connors took over bass for us a few months ago and things have been just peachy. He can shred, knows how to play just about every song ever written, and loves chocolate in his coffee. Say hi to Pete.

We just released our video for the first single off of our current record The Path of Least Resistance! A little rock ditty called "Charm Offensive". The whole shebang was filmed in one day at a converted fire house in Manhattan. I think it looks pretty sweet and so does my mom. YOU DONT WANT TO CALL MY MOM A LIAR DO YOU? Good. So check it out on our myspace/youtube pages and make your computer happy, goddammit!

On a personal note, I somehow owe the State of New York 800 dollars in back taxes. Just a suggestion to you: don't try to claim that you are legally blind to get tax breaks. Be more slick and deduct things that you can prove by, for example, giving a friend at a gas station $50 to print up old receipts. Be smart. The Democrats and Republicans sold you out a long time ago, grab what you can and run.

Thats about all for now. Keep checking back because I'm going to try to be good about doing this as much as possible. Right now I'm listening to the Boston band "Thick as Thieves." You should check them out.

-Joe