Heartour’s Day Job

So I did my write up on Jason Young and his solo work, Heartour.  To re-visit that post click here.

The Ruse

Wouldn’t you know, a few days later I get a package from Jason in the mail.  Heartour’s complete ablum “Ate” along with “Midnight in the City”, a collaborative album with his band The Ruse.  I know, I love this job.

First off, not only is Jason talented as a solo artist, but The Ruse is quite the band in and of itself.

Check out the first track which had me at ‘beautiful’, called “Beautiful is Gone”. Okay, I didn’t need a band to tell me beauty is going, going, gone…

Track 1 Beautiful Is Gone, The Ruse

So if you like what you heard, it’s no doubt you’ve probably heard them before.

No stranger to television, the band has had over a dozen tracks and a cameo role on MTV’s “The Hills;” they performed in an episode of HBO’s “Entourage;” and several songs from the band’s last album, Midnight in the City, are in current use on MTV’s new show, “The Buried Life.” JamLegend.com will make Love Sex Confusion songs available for fans to play – the Ruse is a JamLegend.com favorite with over 900,000 plays on the website.

The Ruse have been known to deliver songs that will crawl into your head and take hold of your heart. Love Sex Confusion, the band’s fourth studio album of new songs, brings a blend of guitar-laden tracks and commanding drum and bass lines that generate the feeling of a live performance.

“We wanted to make the songs on the album much more ‘danceable’ than we did on previous albums,” guitarist Jim Bilus says. “Overall, we wanted to make a rock and roll album that would really shine when we played it live. We tried to create a bigger and brighter sound that would be fun for our audience.”

Love Sex Confusion is equal parts of lead singer John Dauer’s powerful operatic vocals, guitarist Jim Bilus’ rocking garage-y guitar riffs, and the burly rhythms dispensed by drummer Jason Young and bassist Mark Stolze.

Armed with Love Sex Confusion, the Ruse will launch a national tour starting on April 1st in Chicago at the Elbow Room in conjunction with the March 23, 2010 street date. The album was produced by Jorge Vivo and the band in their hometown of Los Angeles. With Love Sex Confusion, the Ruse continues to combine honest lyrics with a selfless message, swinging from stripped down rock to moving, moody, and melodic ballads.

For all you new potential fans, check out their tour dates below, and if you want to join me at The Roxy in LA on May 14th, send me a shout out.

http://www.rusemusic.com

http://www.myspace.com/rusemusic

http://www.twitter.com/theruse

http://www.facebook.com/rusemusic

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Showgirl & The Clown

That could have been the title for episode 6 “The Big Squeeze”.  And now you can see how I couldn’t possibly pass up such a song. Lucky for you and me, I didn’t.

Jason Young

“Showgirl and The Clown” is track number 10 off  Jason Young’s solo recording Heartour off the album “Ate” which was released on January 11 and is currently available on iTunes and other digital retail outlets.  With influences like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, U2, Phish, Peter Gabriel, The Killers, Bjork and Beck to name a few, Jason’s definitely got the chops to take his journey right along side these greats.

Not to mention FUN.  Take a look at his video for “Showgirl and The Clown”:

So who is behind this showgirl and clown?  Jason Young, drummer of Los Angeles rock band The Ruse.  Jason honed his recording skills producing the first two of his band’s albums and like many drummers, channeled his boundless energy into solo recordings under the name Heartour.  Young writes, produces, and performs all of the instruments on this and all Heartour recordings. But unlike 2006’s “Five” and 2003’s “Three”, “Ate” features less instrumental tracks and more vocals.

“While I enjoy all of my records I am especially excited about this new one because I feel like it’s the first time that I have really found my voice,” says Young. “Also my writing is more focused and less experimental than the past two records.”

As I mentioned before Jason draws influences as a solo artist from a variety of roots as mentioned above and alt-rock acts including Nada Surf, Wilco and My Morning Jacket. He also likes the idea of having complete control over a project from start to finish and has very simple goals. “As a music fan I can only hope that my music touches people the same way that so many other peoples music has touched me,” he says.

Here are some of Jason’s Discography:

The Ruse “Midnight In The City” 2008
The Ruse “Live At The Viper Room” 2007
Heartour “Five” 2006
The Ruse “Light In Motion” 2006
The Ruse “Invasion” 2005
After Bliss “Without You” 2003
Heartour “Three” 2003
Another Band “Turned On” 2002
Category 5 “Exit Botnation” 1998
Category 5 “It All Comes Back Again” 1997
Mock Turtle Soup “Sticky as a tree frog” 1996
Mock Turtle Soup “Seaography” 1995

Click here to purchase ”Showgirl & The Clown” and other tunes off Jason’s albums including The Ruse and Heartour. For more information on Heartour visit  www.heartour.com.

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Jen at original Starbucks

When in Rome

I’m in Seattle for a few days, and within minutes I had a cup of coffee in my hand. When in Rome right.

And I have to admit, these Seattler’s really know their coffee; Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, Tully’s not to mention all the mom and pop shops around town.

With that being said, I couldn’t help but think how Starbucks has managed to rise above the rest in it’s international appeal.  Not that Starbucks isn’t good coffee, but it certainly is not Seattle’s best.

I asked a few locals what they thought on the topic and they all had pretty much the same response [and it had very little to do with the coffee.] Marketing, Marketing, Marketing!

First Starbucks Seattle 1971

Which brings me full circle to why I’m writing about this.

It got me thinking about Party Girl Plus One and all the web series that sell their “cup of joe” to the viewing audiences.  What has made the Starbucks of web series rise above the rest?  And what is it going to take for Party Girl Plus One to find it’s own international appeal?   Well, I didn’t have to go all the way to Seattle for the answer.   Marketing, Marketing, Marketing.  [And to think I studied this stuff in college].

SO HERE HERE to my fellow Party Girl Plus One viewers, friends, family and fans.  I NEED YOUR HELP!  I am doing my part TRUST ME!  And now I call out to you from the roof top of my apartment slash set:  If you like, love or enjoy Party Girl Plus One, please share it with your Friends, Family, Co-workers, FB’er, Twitterers!  Subscribe on YouTube, Tweet, RT, share, share, share!  This is the time!  6 episodes in, number 7 on the way and 5 more to complete season 1.  And on the way to being the Starbucks of web series, Web Series’ Best and on everyone’s screen around the world.

THANK YOU!! for you love, support and help.  I do this all for you and couldn’t do it without you.

xo

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With this summer’s Steve Carell and Tina Fey’s “Date Night”, Jennifer Lopez’ “The Back-up Plan” and Alyssa Milano’s TV pilot “Romantically Challenged”, dating is a big topic.  Not that I need to tell you this.  Party Girl Plus One is all about dating.  So what makes Party Girl Plus One different from these star studded movies and TV shows?

Well, before I get to that, let me share what LATime’s Patrick Goldstein had to say about “Date Night” which I think is relevant to the topic.

“Why did “Date Night’s” Tina Fey and Steve Carell go from great TV to a bad movie?” according to the LATimes article?  ”At some point over the past decade, nearly every wing of television, from the HBO and Showtime pay channels to basic cable outlets like TNT and USA all the way to the Big Four networks, has generated a host of memorable comedies and dramas. Theories abound for why the renaissance happened in the 2000s. For me, the most persuasive explanation is HBO envy. After all, after raising the bar so high with “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” it was HBO that was rewarded with a hugely loyal audience.”

“At first, some network chiefs bitterly complained that HBO was stealing viewers simply by offering them nudity and violence. But when cooler heads prevailed, the channel’s rivals realized that giving their show runners the same creative autonomy as the creators of HBO’s shows could translate into better ratings and a whole lot of media heat.”

Shifting from movies to TV or TV to movies in Carell and Fey’s case, Goldstein is on to something.

Craig Bierko

When I first started thinking about doing a series covering my dating diary, I paid a visit to the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.  I wanted to know what attempts had been made on the topic of dating, the stars attached, networks associated and ultimately their demise.

What I found was a whole lot of network (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) attempts on the subject of dating:  NBC – 2003 Alicia Silverstone and “Miss Matched”, CBS – 2006 Tom Cavanaugh and “Love Monkey”, FOX - 2008 Craig Bierko and “Rules for Starting Over”, not to mention ABC’s “Cupid”, the first attempt in 1998 with Jeremy Piven and second attempt in 2009 with Bobby Cannavale.  And yet ABC is making a third attempt on the topic with “Romantically Challenged” which follows a 30-something man who is torn in between his needy best friend and new girlfriend.

Here’s the thing.  I think ABC’s biggest challenge in trying to pull off another dating TV series is ABC itself.  In that I mean, what it takes to tell the full uncensored, down and dirty stories on dating and intimacy cannot be done on network TV.  We learned that by watching the success of HBO’s “Sex and the City” and Showtimes “The L Word”.  You have to show the real life juices, smells and train wrecks of dating; not the fabricated witty banter that has only lived in the writers room.  Sure the audience might laugh like the first time they hear a blonde joke, but it’s easily forgotten because it wasn’t relatable.

Juices, juices, intimate juices flowing through the characters, the series and the ratings.  Which brings me full circle to what Goldstein hit upon in his article and why Party Girl Plus One is different than any of the other current series covering the topic of  dating. When writers are given the freedom to write their series from their experiences, point of view and research and eliminate the censorship of a general audience network, what you get is true reality. True hits and a fully exposed comfort level that tells the audience, “You’re not alone.” And isn’t that what dating is all about anyways?  Not being alone.

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Tattooed Millionaires

Bring on the Millionaires!

How do I pick the soundtrack of Party Girl Plus One? It takes a lot of sampling of music, however when I hear something that immediately grabs my attention, I bookmark it in my computer.  I know I’ll be back to grab it.

That’s the story with Johnny Jetson’s Tattooed Millionaires.  Johnny sent over a request to check out his music.  And I did just that.  I check out anyone who sends their work over to me; it’s an artist courtesy.  But there was definitely something about the Tattooed Millionaires that I liked.  I don’t know if it was the word Millionaires or the rock star commitment these guys drip in their pics.  But they look like a blast to hang out with, not to mention their rock solid music, and I mean that literally and figuratively.

With influences like New York Dolls, MC5, Motörhead, The Ramones, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, The Sonics, The Pretty Things, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and The Who among other great bands, the final sound is Ziggy Stardust meets The Ramones on Forbidden Planet.

Founded by Johnny Jetson in August 2004, the 2009-2010 lineup includes Johnny Jetson, vocals &

Johnny Jetson

guitar; Micheal Jennings, bass and Derek Warwick, drums.  A member of (ASCAP) since 1997 Johnny Jetson has written and recorded with such notable artists as Snoop Dogg, Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), Chris Verrna (Nine Inch Nails), Chris Holmes (WASP) and the Space Age Playboys.  Not too shabby.

The Tattooed Millionaires have been featured on LA’s Indie 103.1 “Check One…Two” show as well as 101.9 KFGO (The Box) “Rock and a Hard Place” show spanning the Upper Midwest area. They have been interviewed live on The Fox 99.3 in Vancouver, B.C. and Total Rock Radio in London, U.K. Their songs receive get airplay on radio stations all around the world.

In addition to successfully completing 4 tours thus far: West Coast of North America Feb. March 2006 Europe in June/July 2006 Europe in November/Dec. 2006 U.S. National Tour Summer 2007 (30 States) U.S. National Tour Summer 2009 (22 States), they have also played such notable Los Angeles venues as The Troubadour, The Key Club, The Dragonfly, The Cat Club, The Spider Club, The Whisky & The Viper Room.

Nominated for 2 AVN awards for best movie soundtrack 2005 and 2007 Metal Awards Demo of the Year, Maximum Metal Magazine CPI Digital has named Tattooed Millionaires, the number one requested band by their clients.

Tattooed Millionaires’ music appears on the following soundtracks: Redwire Pictures, “The Circle “Little Athens”, “The Bunker”, “Flowers on the Razorwire”, “Live and Loaded in L.A.”, “Live and Loaded in Switzerland” and have been featured both individually and as a band in numerous films, television shows, and music videos.

For more information on Johnny Jetson’s Tattooed Millionaires, and to hear the complete song “Dance to the Sound” off their album “Armed & Hammered” courtesy of Sex Sells Records Hollywood  featured in EP 6 “The Big Squeeze”, click here.

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And the Winner Goes to…My Crew!

If you are not quite sure what the Streamy Awards are, they have been compared to the Oscar’s of Web Series.  In

it’s 2nd year, last night’s award ceremony was not quite the Oscars, however host Paul Scheer, made up for it in his quick wit and humorous intention to keep the audience on his side.  Which won me over.

You can see the list of winners here, however, I cannot help but think they should add a few more categories to the Streamy’s, after all they award “Best Guest Star” in a web series.  2010’s recipient:  Weird Al Yankovic.  You go Weird Al!

My nomination for additional categories would be “Best Web Series Episode Under $200″.  After speaking to countless number of independent web series creators, that’s pretty much the budget until a sponsor or network comes in.  And let me just say, some of these web series are really great.  Check out Patrick Bardwell’s Slebisodes.com a WebV Guide to 200+ web series.

How about “Best Free Actor” or “Best Free Crew, DP or Editor”.  My favorite “Best Crew on Deferral” or “Best Cross-Promotion Trade”.   There are so many talented people that give up their nights and weekends making web series, helping friends, lending their talents; all these people should be handed an award.

With that being said, I would like to present all of my cast and crew with the BEST awards in their categories. Because they truly deserve it, and you the fans have voted by your comments.  Thank you John, Jason, Dave, Daniel, Clay, Daniel N., Lissa, all the BEST Guest Stars, musicians and anyone else who has lent a helping hand in the production to make Party Girl Plus One an Award Winning Web Series!

xoxo

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