Kristeen Young tee

Proudly displaying my Kristeen Young shirt. Go see her, listen to her music, buy an album, buy the tee. She is THE REAL DEAL. She really is.

La Luz

Since my blog's theme is on music and girl empowerment, here's La Luz in Spin Magazine. Listen to the surfy warmth HERE

MOMA - Designing Modern Women 1890-1990

CLICK HERE for the MOMA website 

Designing Modern Women 1890–1990

October 5, 2013–October 1, 2014

Architecture and Design Galleries

Modern design of the twentieth century was profoundly shaped and enhanced by the creativity of women---as muses of modernity and shapers of new ways of living, and as designers, patrons, performers and educators. This installation, drawn entirely from MoMA's collection, celebrates the diversity and vitality of individual artists’ engagement in the modern world, from Loïe Fuller’s pulsating turn-of-the-century performances to April Greiman's 1980s computer-generated graphics, at the vanguard of early digital design. Highlights include the first display of a newly conserved kitchen by Charlotte Perriand with Le Corbusier (1952) from the Unité d'Habitation housing project, furniture and designs by Lilly Reich, Eileen Gray, Eva Zeisel, Ray Eames, Lella Vignelli, and Denise Scott Brown; textiles by Anni Albers and Eszter Haraszty; ceramics by Lucy Rie; a display of 1960s psychedelic concert posters by graphic designer Bonnie Maclean, and a never-before-seen selection of posters and graphic material from the punk era. The gallery's ‘graphics corner’ first explores the changing role and visual imagery of The New Woman through a selection of posters created between 1890 and 1938; in April 2014 the focus will shift to Women at War, an examination of the iconography and varied roles of women in times of conflict, commemorating the centennial of the outbreak of World War I.

"The World Before Her" Documentary

I highly recommend this documentary which follows two groups of Indian girls ages 15-25. One group is training to become finalists for the Miss India pageant in Bombay, the other group learns to fight and defend in a fundamentalist Hindu girls camp.

You can see on DVD. Or when it airs on PBS or watch it ONLINE HERE.

She Shreds Magazine

SHE SHREDS, a guitar magazine dedicated to female guitarists. I did an interview with them a couple weeks ago, hope to see it in the next issue! Get a subscription and support them if you can. I purchased a subscription for myself and one for my 15 year old student (she loves to play surf and the new issue of surf guitar was a total treat for her).

SHE SHREDS MAGAZINE

And a little video we made on the road...

This was in Portland, mostly. The guy in the Guitar Center would not stop noodling.

Henry Rollins on my band The Julie Ruin

Read a nice snippet from Henry Rollins about our show at The Echo in in the LA WEEKLY

"GIRLS LIKE US" by The Julie Ruin, Lyric Video by: Jenn Harris & Jimmy Gribbin

HAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAA! So good.

Dirtbombs and Ko Melina

Guitarist inspiration of the week for me: Ko Melina. Baritone Fuzz, Bass, and also a DJ. Plays with The Dirtbombs and also Ko & the Knockouts.

Gotta love The Dirtbombs. Read a good review and listen to samples from their new album HERE.

 Ko Melina and The Dirtbombs

"Party Store." The album from The Dirtbombs I can't get enough of. One of my favorite albums currently.

Happy Birthday Hilly

Happy Birthday Hilly Kristal, my boss at CBGB's from 1995-2006. Here he and Sofie ( Louise's daughter when she was 10 months old) are looking over paperwork. I was probably setting up the bar and sticking Pabst in ice someplace at this moment.

Hilly interviewed me when I was a super young kid and applying as a cocktail waitress at CBGB's, which I answered from an ad in the Village Voice. I had only been in NY for a few months at that point and desperately needed money besides the temp job I had. College wasn't even an option for me yet, not until years later. This is the time when the Voice would come out on Wednesday (only paper issues, of course) and us ambitious people would wait in line at Cooper Square in front of the the Voice street box for the secret early Tuesday evening delivery! We'd grab one and flip to the classified, looking quickly for apartments or jobs or whatever and head straight to the nearest payphone, which also had a line. Anyway, thats how I got that job.

Never would I have believed then how much that job would affect my life, or in a million years, how long I would stay there. He allowed us to make schedules that worked for our art or music and was suspicious of anyone who worked there who didn't openly have a bigger plan for themselves. In fact, those folks faded out or were eventually fired.

Yes, I saw thousands of bands in those years. With 4-5 bands per night, I could honestly say I saw thousands of bands per year? Truthfully, no one can digest that much music. And I hate to look back and say I zoned out on a lot of good shows or didn't pay attention to the up and comers. It was like whacking your way through a jungle in Vietnam, all those bands. And audition night? It was almost survival instinct to drown out bands. I bartended all the Sunday Hardcore Matinee shows for the last 5 years too. Thats when I noticed my right ear (the one that faces the stage when I'm behind the bar) has significantly more hearing loss than my left ear. And of course the older we get, the more we do things healthy for ourselves like wearing earplugs. But try telling yourself to wear earplugs when you're in your 20's!

Anyway, I've said this about Hilly before and I'll say it again. He is true punk rock in the way that he is not judgmental, hired and booked on instinct, and created a family out of people of all ages and misfortunes. He'd give total creeps a chance. He encouraged me to be part of the art shows Cb's Gallery and was fully supportive and encouraging about education. I'll never forget how his eyes and face lit up when I told him I applied to transfer to Columbia for Art History...and they miraculously let me in. I told him I couldn't believe it either, did I read this shit right? He was very proud of that and of the other bartender who had just started attending Juilliard in her 30's. He talked about it to strangers! He also reviewed my very first show with my first band The Chickletts (he said something like "well now, that wasn't so bad now was it. Better than the Ramones' first show.") Umm, thats not saying much but I get what he means. We had A LOT of work to do.  After a few years of playing he decided he really loved my drumming. I'll never forget how he told me my improvement and feel behind the kit was so great. I hang on those compliments daily. He was at my wedding. And he gave me more shifts when I was in a divorce. (This was all in one year by the way). I never told him what a soft spoken pillar of strength he was to me and I wish I had, but in the end it would've just embarrassed him to get that kind of praise. But I hope he knows he was a surrogate father figure to me and he deserves all the credit in the world.

Also, I think he'd be tickled at the idea of Alan Rickman playing him in the upcoming movie. I mean, I am!

Lots of love to Hilly Kristal, owner of CBGB's. RIP. Love and miss you.

Tour Pictures - The Julie Ruin with La Sera at The Echo in L.A. on Sep 19

 In action. New shoes.

"Head shot" by Carmine Covelli in front of the avocado house we stayed at.  My hair was perfectly lavender here on the second day of tour. I didn't wash it for over a week and it still faded back to blonde. Damn.

LA TIMES review of the show!

Tour Pictures pt 2

Fall Tour 2013! So far....

We played a small private show at Union Pool in Brooklyn before we started the tour. I was pretty nervous.

TBA Festival, part of PICA's art show in Portland. Look, they named a drink after us!

Kathleen took this photo of me at guitar center where we went to buy keyboard stands.

A clip from Spin Magazine where we did a little kareoke. I performed Cheech and Chong. This might be where we all sang "We Got the Beat"!

Wall Street Journal exclusive photo. I cut my own hair the day before.

A balcony view from Tavi of Rookie Magazine's outdoor party in Los Angeles.

Portland screened our name behind us. Nice light show of fuschia, blues, and pinks. Crowd was amazing too with 2,100 people counted.

My first performance on television...! You can watch it here: THE JULIE RUIN on JIMMY FALLON

The band "Stacey" from Willie Mae Rock Camp with my longtime drum student!

Whoa do they sound great! The drummer, Eva, has been taking drum lessons with me since she was in 5th grade. She is now in 8th grade. Natural loose sticking looks effortless here.

These girls met this week, wrote a song, and performed it yesterday. Bravo!!

Priests

On tour now, check them out: priests.bandcamp.com

New Studio

August project - get all the music teaching materials, the Julie Ruin gear, and a baby grand in this space. Only have a few weeks to make this new large music studio look and sound good. And convince the other bands to keep their areas organized. Dress form for draping, if I attempt to make more clothes for our September tour. All psyched about using black chalkboard paint for the wall area behind it. Who knew chalk was so fun? In the works...

Important Quote from Janelle Monae. Telling all girls...

"When I started my music career, I was a maid. I used to clean houses. My mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trashman. They all wore uniforms and that’s why I stand here today, in my black and white, and I wear my uniform to honor them.

This is a reminder that I have work to do. I have people to uplift. I have people to inspire. And today, I wear my uniform proudly as a Cover Girl. I want to be clear, young girls, I didn’t have to change who I was to become a Cover Girl. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable." - Janelle Monáe

Our new song with a lyric video by Brendan Kennedy!

Okay, so I love playing this song. I could mess with guitar feedback for hours. And here it created a monster...

Our first video at last!! Spin.com debuts it!!

SPIN.COM DEBUTS THE JULIE RUIN VIDEO for "OH COME ON"! CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Hard to believe all this work is coming together. Very excited to tour this fall and enhance our textured sound, give a live human feel to all this studio work, and bring colorful people together for a short memorable time. Anyone that feels like they want to give up on something that is hard work or taking a really long time, here's one word: DON'T. Get a sharpie (!) and write PATIENCE on your knuckles. Or sometimes I write notes in scribbly writing on my hand near my thumb. Want to keep your motivation private? Scribble it so nobody can read it at a glance. Keep yourself practicing. Keep your goals in focus! Okay, now I'm going to write FOCUS on my thumb. Back to work!

Bridget Everett!

Bridget Everett and the Tender Moments!! I had the incredible honor of subbing on bass here (for no other than Adam aka Ad Rock, Tender Moment's bassist) at Joe's Pub last week. Hands down one of the best shows I've played in years. I laughed so hard the first half of the set my eyes were watering but like a pro, I played the straight (wo)man. You should have seen my surprise when I saw the titles of the set list. Uh...

Listen to and buy her single here. It will be worth it and be sure to blast it.

Bridget Everett "TITTIES."