happy christmas war is over video

John Romano at the Gig

John Romano music blog has moved to MOG.com. For current posts please visit MOG.com

1/9/07

Musician scores 13 points lower on IQ test while drunk.

After a night out celebrating the completion of his new CD "Evolution" Los Angeles based singer John Romano arrived home to find his girlfriend Laura Glendinning taking an online IQ test. Mr. Romano immediately fired up the couple's auxiliary computer and took a test of his own. The results?

"Laura scored 7 points higher than me" Mr. Romano related. Like a competitive ten year old (Ms. Glendinning's words not his) Mr. Romano argued his case that the results were flawed because he was somewhat intoxicated and of course he was smarter than her. Mr. Romano put his theory to the test the next morning and re-took the test and scored 13 points higher with a total score of 130.

Online IQ tests such as www.iqtest.com and www.intelligencetest.com claim to be an accurate measure of a person's IQ. While many critics argue the accuracy of online tests other claim to see no difference between results using a pencil or a mouse click. Modern day IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, tests measure a person's intelligence in relation to his or her age group.

Asked what he felt the difference was between being drunk and sober while taking the test Mr. Romano stated "I was shocked at how differently my brain reacted to the questions while sober. For instance a particular math question was clearly a trick question. Drunk I answered 'true', however in the light of day with a clear head the answer was obviously 'false'." Lesson learned? "Making any kind of decision while drinking, outside of where to eat, what bar to go, or perhaps what to name your next album probably isn't such a good idea." Mr. Romano said.

Does Mr. Romano feel satisfied that he scored higher than Ms. Glendinning on the second test? Mr. Romano states "Of course she's smarter than me, and unless I want to spend the next few weeks sleeping on the couch I'll apologize immediately. She had a few drinks too and she whooped me by seven points."

John Romano's CD "Evolution" contains the hit song entitled "TV Song" and will be released on itunes September 26, 2006. Get a preview at http://www.johnnyrome.com/TVSong.html

 

 

1/15/06

New York, New York

Back in Los Angeles after a week in New York. The show at Kenny's Castaways went very well. Eddy Martinez, Jimi Durso and Matt Dinsik did a great job as my back up band.

New York had 50 degree weather all week until the day of the show when the temperature dropped and the rain started. Great show and crowd regardless.

 

12/29/05

Bruce Springsteen

Just finished watching Bruce Springsteen's 1975 concert at the Hammersmith in London. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I'm playing in New York on January 14 at Kenny's Castaway's in the village. Watching the Bruce show reminds me of how important it is to plan your shows from start to end. I'm going to come up with some extra ideas for that show. My family and friends from NJ will be seeing me perform for the first time. The next 17 days will be spent working on that show.

Green Girl is finally done. Basically, the producer Dave LaChance took a shot at a final mix. So did my buddy, producer Brian Irwin. But in the end I used a mix that I did that was completely basic and clean. Is the song good? yes. Is it a hit? Maybe. But, right now if I hear it again I'll hurl. Who knows what makes a record a hit anyway? I just want to put out great material that gets me on the road playing for folks across the country while making a little dough in the process.

 

12/17/05

Drive Em' Through

Recorded the vocals for the full version of "Green Girl" yesterday. I love the song but it's too easy to sing note wise. It's literally right in my range. Whereas "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" made me work for a great take "Green Girl" was a piece of cake. My only fear is that I'll sound boring as I'm not being challenged vocally and it may come across as flat or dead sounding. Usually not the case but I'll find out tomorrow when we mix the song at Dave La Chance's studio in Silver Lake.

 

 

12/05/05

Money Matters

Dealing with the sheer horror of thinking about spending money on releasing another single to radio. I love what I do and think that my music is worth spending on, etc. But, it's just not that easy when thinking of bills, babies, bops and bingo. Recording another song is no big deal $500, another $200 to have it mastered.The difficult thing is then I have to have it duplicated, shipped to radio and promoted. The kicker? The CD that radio stations get has to be a single, no other songs on it at all. So I can't even sell what's left over. Without getting into specifics...it's alot of dough. I know, I know, if I didn't have the intestinal fortitude to spend on the second single I shouldn't of released the first.

My version of "Happy Christmas (War is over)" is charting on i-tunes Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Germany. It's also selling in the USA, UK and Canada. Plus we have 30 radio stations in the USA and it'll get 500,000 spins at AMC theaters this month.

Of course I have to release another song and then a new album after that. Maybe I'll just pretend that I have more money than I do like a Vegas hustler. Yeah, that's the ticket......not.

 

12/02/05

Sushi

Met with Jack Ashton over the phone today. Jack and Tom Mazzetta are two radio promoters I work with. Both guys are great at what they do. Jack decided on "Green Girl" as the follow-up single to "Happy Christmas (War is Over)". Since we only have an acoustic version of the song recorded, and a 58 second acoustic version to boot, I'll need to record a full three minute band version within two weeks time. Busy as da beavers is I. Took the night off and went to actress Antoinette Byron's birthday party at Tengu Sushi in Westwood, very cool night.

 

11/24/05

Thanksgiving

Went to see the Spectacles last night at Molly Malone's, ran into Michael Starr, Chloe Day, C Duck and Nate and Dakota, great musicians all.

Happy X-mas by me John Romano, got adds at 14 radio stations this week, the third most for all of AC. As a side note "adds" means that the radio station reports the airplay to the major music trade magazines and "AC" means Adult Contemporary.

Mailed out about 200 CD's to the best indie stores in the country this week. Basically gave them away to these folks. Since we are mostly a digital record company, i-tunes is what matters most, but we do need the indie stores involved. I'd love to sell records in the big stores but retail requires me to print 20,000 copies before I even sell one! If the record doesn't sell my garage isn't that big! I-tunes on the other hand "prints the record" when someone downloads. An amazing difference when planning record releases.

 

11/19/05

Retail

Spent yesterday looking up independent record stores in the markets where "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" is getting airplay. There aren't many left! Plenty listed on the internet but, most are just disconnected phone numbers, or have been out of business so long that the numbers ring in private residences.

Isn't it wonderful that Target, Wal-mart and Kmart now sell the most records in the country? I've always maintained that mid-level big box retail employees were on the cutting edge of music and definitely in the best position to break new bands. Ha, ha.

And then major labels complain about piracy and such, but there argument runs a thin after seeing them battle Apple to raise the price of songs on i-tunes. $.99 is the perfect price for a new single whether it's Eminem or Johnny Mathis. Raising the price above $.99 would drive consumers to piracy.

Anyway....found four cool stores in Iowa, Washington and Annapolis, Maryland and sent them each 10 records on the house.

 

11/17/05

Breakfast

Breakfast today with my main LA booker Cleo Antonelli. Cleo has been instrumental in getting about 5 or 6 bands up and running with major labels. We discussed marketing ideas for the "Best of Los Angeles Podcast Christmas Show" and final band lineup.