I'm in the MLB (apparently)

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/People/Athletes/MLB/Chris+Snyder/0dMrbMv4op84Z/1

Review in Indie Music Stop

First review of our We Are The Erasers EP is up on Indie Music Stop:

Artist: The States
Title: We Are the Erasers
Rating: 4/5
By L. Anne Carrington

September 22, 2009 will be the day to watch when The States release their five-song EP, We Are the Erasers. On the lines of short, straight and to the point, this collection of songs is a not-miss.

According to a blurb on the band’s official MySpace, their ‘inventive songwriting has earned accolades from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Grand Prize Winners) and the International Songwriting Contest (Winners), and it has been featured on MTV’s ‘The Hills’, ‘The Real World,’ and ESPN’s ‘Baseball Tonight.’ Q104.3’s Jonathan Clarke recently included The States in his list of the Top 10 New York bands.

Their much-acclaimed talents and experience can be heard throughout the album, with the strongest cuts being “Our Time is Up” and “Erasers.” The song titles may be eccentric to some, but the music, productions, and vocals are outstanding.

The States are much deserving of radio airplay, and We Are the Erasers is just another good reason they should make the jump from indie to mainstream music. Check out this collection of work once it hits the market!

In the mini Zone

Ok, a little back story here... Back in March, we were in Austin for South by Southwest, and as we were preparing to leave after our last show, we were approached by a few very nice young ladies who were distributing miniature Zone Perfect Snack Size bars. Actually, it was the end of a long day for them, too, and they were practically begging us to take as many as we wanted. Joe and I, figuring we had a long trip ahead of ourselves (Pete, the lucky bastard, flew back), told them that we'd just take everything they had. So we ended up with maybe 100 mini Zone bars:



4 months later, I've probably consumed 30 or 40 of these things, so I think I'm pretty much the world expert on mini Zone bars. Here are my findings:

NUTRITIONAL VALUE: Honestly, I'm not really sure what half the ingredients are on this thing (Sorbitan Monostearate? Yeah, that sounds good for me). At the end of the day, each bar is only 80 calories, so even if you have a couple, it's not really gonna make a big dent. That said, it's got decent doses of protein and carbs (plus 40% of my vitamin E RDA -- woohoo!)... exactly the kind of nutrients a working band needs to fuel up on those long interstate drives. You can read all the nutritional info here. 3/5

TASTE: On the one hand, it's covered in chocolate. Good. On the other hand, the flavor is "fudge graham," which is secret code for "it kinda tastes like cardboard on the inside." Definitely passable if you're hungry (cf my above comment about the chocolate coating), but also definitely not as good as a platter of ribs at Jim & Nicks. 2/5

DURABILITY: Now this is the real test of any road food: what happens when you leave it for weeks in a hot van -- thereby melting and reconstituting the chocolate coating many times -- and subject it to various tests of its physical integrity (aka Joe taking a nap on top of it)? For most road food (pretzels, soda, bananas, and so on), that's just not gonna fly. Not so with these Zone bars. They still taste the same as the day we got 'em. They're even recession-proof. 5/5

PRICE: We got them for $0. 'Nuff said. 5/5

OVERALL: I'm gonna have to give these a 4/5 overall. Not exactly a revelation, but they've been like the cockroach of road food for us: there when you need 'em and able to survive any environmental challenge. Maybe we should have a band challenge wherein one of us has to eat only Zone bars for an entire week. The winner gets...

...a week's free supply of Zone bars.