I'll be speaking on this panel, May 30th, NYC

I am honored and excited to be speaking on this panel with other entrepreneurs. 

Click HERE for more information and hope to see you there!

http://growdiy.eventbrite.com/ 

Drum keys

Love this. Can you name the types? Found this on a link to:  http://thedrummersjournal.com/

Playing on Ave A

Thanks Stef for taking this photo. Here I'm playing with the insufferably cool bassist Catherine Popper on acoustic guitar upstairs at 2A with a live camera streaming us against the wall across the street. Last March.

Drumming!!

5 Female Electronic Music Producers

FULL STORY HERE!

Savages and No Bra at Bowery Ballroom last night...

I'm smitten with Savage's guitarist Gemma Thompson. Check them out live and be sure to tell the soundman to turn up the goddam guitar if you don't hear it (a friend did so last night after a few songs when we couldn't take it anymore).

My favorite new band No Bra opened. Buy the music. The carefully crafted and deconstructed melt down beats and lyrical phrases are worth several listens. I noticed audience was both intrigued and upset about this one...

Lee Fields & the Expressions - go see them live.

Saw Lee Fields perform the other night. This song stood out to me. He sings about all the kinds of ladies he likes.."big ones, small ones, tall ones, white ones, black ones...." Whoa, love him.

The Julie Ruin mastering

Last week we mastered 10 songs at the famous Lodge Mastering in NYC, run by the award winning  mastering engineer and all around amazing business woman/music maker Emily Lazaar. 

 This is the turtle at the studio.

Subway reading on the way there. Who says you can't be both the type of person who reads Tape Op back to back every issue and also likes vintage inspired houndstooth jackets from JCrew? (Which are infinitely cheaper second hand...)

Recording 16 year old punk duet Petal War

Petal War are Abbie Hornburg on drums and Alex Ruiz on guitar/vocals. Check out Petal War's songs and site here.

Getting Alex all tuned up!

Abbie's view from the drums.

Isolation area for the Fender Twin Amp. Very DIY of us..

The new mixing board. We all referred to it as "sexy."

"A Date With John Waters" Valentine Compilation

Ahhh...from that very first note I'm in love...thank you John Waters. From 2007. Listen to some of it HERE on NPR.

Two very different women making this song great. I like how she leaves the stage to let her shine.



And yep, its a cover of a cover by Bruce Springsteen.

Los Angeles January 2013

Photos I took from my LA vacation in January. 

 Having a homemade popsicle at Suck It with Lisa's one-eyed dog Stitch.

Breakfast locale was based on who had the cutest logo. Senor Fish (awesome logo) or Los Burritos with the little happy Mexican donkey heads?!!

Art Museum (above) entrance.

L. Ron Hubbard everywhere.

Lisa's one-eyed dog Stitch and her seafoam Danelectro.

More art museum pieces.

A cool child's game in the museum's courtyard.

Paul K's house where I stayed and did cat sitting. Cat above!

Bedroom, another (live) cat sitting on a ledge. Hard to photograph... And may make more sense when you see his BOOK!

 Dire Wolf skull wall at the La Brea Tar Pits.

 Close up of the Dire Wolf skulls. I didn't know they really existed previously to this!

Dire Wolf on a stick photobombed the next 20 photos. Couldn't resist. And maybe it was funnier at the time?

Dire Wolf leaving Amoeba Records. Awww...

And a very Happy New Year

More aftermath photos here...a beautiful thing!

Happy Holidays

More new press on our band!

BUST MAGAZINE

PITCHFORK

Animated Sheet Music

Something so satisfying about it? Reading music, good for everyone....

Old band flyer...

This makes me laugh. A flyer for my old band The Chickletts, must've been around 1998. I remember the Indian guy at the copy place point and say "Monty Python." Yep! I scanned it from a Dada art book I was carrying around and put the logo on top. Ha.

Girls Who Rock Coloring Book Pt 2

Last year I purchased the Women Who Rock Coloring Book part I for my studio waiting room. What a fun read! This is the next one in my Etsy Cart. A great gift....

WOMEN WHO ROCK COLORING BOOK here

Rediscovering the Electronic Music Godmothers

Great article on Laurie Spiegel's new anthology of work from 73 - 77.

VIA New York Times article from Nov 23, Read the whole page HERE

FUZZBOX

AV Club

Interview from last week with Kathleen and more news on our 20 song album, The Julie Ruin

Cats in Bass Drums

23 BEST CATS IN KICK DRUMS HERE

Happy Turkey Day

Pink Veins tonight live on WFMU

Teen band "Pink Veins" will be live on Minor Music on WFMU, a show hosted by Jesse Krakow, tonight Monday the 12th! They'll be playing original songs and you'll hear a few I recorded at my Pencil Factory studio. Lucie and Webb, the guitar/bass/vocalists, have been students with me since they were 10 years old. Here they are all 16 (!!!) and performing originals live. Very excited for this talented trio. Breakout star Larissa on drums.

LISTEN TO "Lovesick Hellhound" by Pink Veins here!

Hurricane and more.

Its been awhile since I've written anything here, and am thankful that I have nothing newsworthy to report since my apartment and studio were undamaged during the storm last week. The difficult times around us in NYC are hard on the heart, but nothing compassion and a lot of hard work can't get us through. If your gear was damaged, please check with MAIN DRAG MUSIC. They're offering assistance with amp drying and other musical instrument repair: MAIN DRAG .

My bandmates and I in The Julie Ruin have chosen these Hurricane Disaster Relief funds to promote. If you're looking for somewhere to donate, please take a look at our short list: thejulieruin.com/ There are so many more out there.

Bass Instruction

Althea & Donna

Going through a pre-Clash reggae stage this year. I LOVE these girls....

Pink Veins

Check out PINK VEINS, the teenage all girl trio that I've been producing,  HERE!

They will be on WFMU's Minor Music on November 12th.

Pink Veins are Lucie (age 16) guitar/bass/vox, Webb (age 16) guitar/bass/vox, and Larissa (age 18) drums/vox.

Electronic Music

A MUST READ!

click:

FLAVORWIRE: 10 Female Electronic Music Pioneers You Must Know

Tender Trap

Thanks K & K for introducing me to this band yesterday in the studio. More TENDER TRAP!


From the new Album 2012

Blood Red Shoes

Guitarist of the day - Laura May Carter of Blood Red Shoes (uk). The videos I've found just don't capture what a solid guitarist she is live. Check them out on tour if you can, its worth seeing her play.

Savages

Two of my students! I have to show them off....

Webb (guitar) and Lucie (drums) playing at the Willie Mae Rock camp show last weekend. Sophie from Care Bears on Fire on bass. Yes! All ages 15-16.

Drummer STEALS the Show! A MUST SEE...

This changed my life. Seriously, I'll never be the same again. A hero. Scroll to 1:15 or so...

"The Perks of Being a Musician: Brain Function and Music Education"

A Great Read and more from THIS WEBSITE

The Mozart Effect: The Brain and Music

The Mozart Effect was an early discovery in the relationship between music and brain function. The name came from the way the experiment was conducted: participants listened to Mozart before taking different tests. Studies found that participants performed better on tests of spatial ability, processing speed, and creativity after listening to Mozart and other music than participants who sat in silence or followed relaxation instructions.

This experiment is obviously a superficial application of music compared to music lessons. When studying music, one does much more than passively listening; one engages with the music in an analytic fashion. The example of the Mozart Effect serves simply to illustrate the way that music can stimulate the brain.

Students of  Music are Smarter and More Talented? The Research Says “Yes”

Extensive research has now revealed the numerous advantages that those who have studied music hold over those who have not.

Some areas that favor people who have taken music lessons:

• Ability to detect speech in noise
• Being a “team player”
• General intelligence (on IQ and other intelligence tests)
• Grades in school (correlated even to high school GPA (take note, parents!))
• Hand-eye coordination
• Language memory (remembering prose or lists of words)
• Linguistic comprehension including processing of second or foreign languages
• Math ability
• Phonological awareness (detection of pitch)
• Reaction time
• Reading comprehension
• Self-esteem
• Short-term memory
• Sociability
• Visual memory
• Vocabulary
• Working memory