I’m Katy Goodman. I’m a musician, and also a junior web developer. I went to Rutgers and studied physics and education, but then decided to pursue music instead of becoming a teacher. I’ve been playing in 2 bands for the last 8 years (Vivian Girls, La Sera), and travel the world playing shows and having fun and loving it. But when I’m not on tour, I love learning to code and developing websites. I just started working for CASH Music, where I’m training to do backend development. In my spare time, I’m going to college full time studying Computer Science, I have 2 cats and a dog who I hang out with a lot, and I go hiking sporadically.
Katy Goodman of indie band La Sera talks about how she got serious about her longtime interest in coding while pursuing a music career.
“La Sera frontwoman Katy Goodman is an indie rock star equally at home among musicians as she is, shall we say, among a geekier crowd. For proof, look no further than the fact that she’s gone back to college to get her computer degree, an outgrowth of her long fascination with computers and with the intellectual stimulation of programming.
Goodman has actually dabbled in coding with varying degrees of intensity over the years. The programmer side of her might not have seemed as obvious to her more casual fans, especially with Rolling Stone calling Goodman an “artist to watch” as it did a few years ago; it seemed like the stage—and recording studio—were where she was destined to call home. Nevertheless, long before fronting a group adept at big, insistent riffs and personal lyrics delivered in her dreamy, California-girl vocal style, computers were the thing she wanted to be around, a programmer the thing she wanted to be.
So much so, that Goodman found herself becoming a kind of hobbyist programmer, writing programs of her own in Visual Basic and coding her own websites for fun. She had ambitions, and she even thought about seeing where that interest might take her as she pursued higher education, but life, as it tends to do, got in the way.
Here, Goodman explains what happened next, and how she ended up throwing herself into computer coding in a big way.”
“CASH Music, a non-profit that creates free open-source tools for musicians, literally embodied their mission with an announcement on Wednesday: along with a new platform launch, the organization hired Los Angeles-based bassist, singer and songwriter Katy Goodman, who records and performs as La Sera and, on the sly, has been blogging about learning to code.
“Her skills are perfect for what we need,” says CASH co-executive director Maggie Vail, who first met Goodman during her 17-year tenure as general manager for indie stalwart Kill Rock Stars (back when she was “Kickball Katy” with punk-y Shangri-Las revivalists Vivian Girls), “and what better way to build things for musicians than to hire a musician?”
For now, Goodman will be working on an application for CASH’s venues database, accessible to artists, managers, labels, and other music industry-focused entities. “Think of it like a phonebook,” explains CASH co-founder Jesse Von Doom. “Open code is great, but it needs to be paired with open data. We don’t want artists to have to enter details for Terminal 5 or the Echo every time they’re talking about tour dates. That should just live somewhere for everyone to know. There are services that collect all that data, but their databases are closed, the info is private or exclusive, so there’s lock-in. F— that.””
01. Like Ships in the Night – “If We Cut a Record”
02. The Aquadolls – “Don’t Mean Jack”
03. The Lovely Bad Things – “Hear or Anywhere”
04. JD Debris – “Panic Attack” (Prod. Bodek)
05. Eddi Front – “Superhero Style”
06. Faces on Film – “The Rule”
07. Lady Lamb – “Shoulders”
08. Marissa Nadler – “Carnival”
09. Michael Mirra – “Baby Blue”
10. Death Valley Girls – “Get Home”
11. Dum Dum Girls – “Lost Boys and Girls Club”
12. La Sera – “Love That’s Gone (Katy’s Demo)
13. Lay Low Moon – “Thru & Thru”
On this episode of Turned Out A Punk, Damian gets to chat to Le Sera’s Katy Goodman about going from watching New Brunswick basement hardcore shows, to playing at Coachella in the Vivian Girls. Listen in as two discuss touring together, the low points of riding high on the indie hype bubble, and punk.
Also touched on in this episode:
-Trying to get into NoFX and accidentally getting into the Germs
-Seeing shows at Ridgewood Lodge
-Fletcher And the Sticky Wickets: the pre-Real Estate Cricket referencing ska band
-Interviewing Lars from Rancid for… nothing… or no reason… and not recording it.
-Missing out on Emo?
-The importance of the Gossip
-New Brunswick, New Jersey: the capital of New Jersey Hardcore
-No Way Records
-Meeting future bandmates because of their choice in socks
-Following the Tragedy, Forward, Warhead Tour deadhead-style to Chaos In Tejas
-The infamous Mark Pesci’s Marked Man stage dive
-Rolling solo to the Fucked Up Hidden World Weekend
-The pre-Vivian Girls bands: The Gutter and We’re Not Virgins
-Finding a bass in a basement
-Having to curse when talking about the Wipers
-The origins of the Vivain Girls name (it’s not a Fucked Up reference, DAMIAN!)
-Poison Idea: literally the best
-Vivian Girls as a Punk band
-Brooklyn Vegan and learning the hard way to never ever read the comments
-People coming to see you play just to hate you
-Lots of Coachella memories
-Some light Sam Smith discussion
“So yeah, that’s a pretty generic title. In fact, it came along with my first sample blog post entry. But I thought it was a pretty appropriate start for this blog. Because…this blog will be my attempt to share with you my journey to becoming a web developer / computer programmer / database superhero / who knows! My journey ACTUALLY begins back in late December, and I really wish I had started this blog then. HOWEVER, better late than never…
This story actually begins a long time ago. When I was younger, I was super into making programs in Visual Basic, creating web sites, etc. When I originally went to college at RIT (for 3 months), I lived in the Computer Science house, even though I wasn’t a comp sci major, because I just LOVED computers. However, I was just never ready for an actual computer science course. I felt like they were all going to be too hard, and I would feel too dumb, so I just hung out with programmers instead of becoming one. I dropped out of RIT after 3 months because I wasn’t ready for school, but I went back to college for REAL a year later. I went to Rutgers in NJ, and got a Bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Education of Physics, all without ever taking a single computer course. Oh the regret! Don’t get me wrong, I love physics, but I would just much rather be a computer programmer right now than a physics teacher.”
This is a DECIDE-AN-ADVENTURE-THAT-IS-ALL-YOUR-OWN-FUN-TIME-GAME!
La Sera has a show tonight at The Echo in Los Angeles! Unfortunately, we seem to be lost in the venue on our way to the stage! Can you help us?
This is a fun lil game I made to practice learning to code in Python! If you would ALSO love to learn Python, check out Learn Code The Hard Way
Directions for Mac OSX:
1. Download the file! Right click and save THIS FILE. Click “Save link as…”, and save it in your Downloads folder. 2. Open your Terminal application. (if you don’t know where this is, just do a search for “terminal”) 3. Go into your Downloads folder by typing “cd downloads”. Hit “enter”. 4. Type in “python laseraislost.py” (feel free to copy and paste that). Hit” enter”. 5. Enjoy the game!
Directions for Windows:
1. Download the file! Right click and save THIS FILE. 2. Open Command Prompt 3. From there, I’m not sure. Figure it out. 4. Enjoy the game!
If you like THIS game, check out my older Vivian Girls game HERE
“A pop singer turned punk rocker wants you to join her feminist collective by Isis Madrid
In a sun-dappled Los Angeles apartment, a quartet of young women sits down to breakfast after what looks like a punk rock sleepover party. But a distressing text message from a friend in need cuts short the cheerful morning. The women trade their pajamas for black t-shirts and their OJ for weapons and dash out the door. They quickly locate their troubled friend, who’s being harassed by a menacing, oblivious young dude. The quartet brandishes chains and box-cutters, chasing the guy away and straight into a raucous, all-female punk show. Soon enough, even the douchebag is embracing, and being embraced by, the no-holds-barred crowd.”
“Jen hit up TBD Fest last week and chats with Katy Goodman of La Sera about their new album Hour of the Dawn out now via Hardly Art, band dynamics, shredding, the heat and what’s next for Girl Gang following their first public social at The Smell in Downtown Los Angeles. It was hot, sweaty and the fest DJ was really on some sweet Disney vibe. Thanks again Katy! Shred on!”
La Sera on Singing Like a Child and Her Secret Album
“If Katy Goodman’s first group, Vivian Girls, embodied the spirit (if not the sound) of late-’70s Ramones — pretty, primitive guitar-based pop with a nihilistic edge — her third record as La Sera, Hour of the Dawn, is like late-’80s Ramones. A great singer skillfully executing hit melodies derived from ’60s girl groups, Goodman is backed by aggressive yet controlled guitar playing and slick production. The songs themselves cover a range of emotions with complexity and nuance that is so often lacking in mainstream pop, which gives the album a darker edge — like if California hardcore guitar hero Rikk Agnew’s post-Adolescents solo work had been collaboration with Belinda Carlisle.
Tobi Vail reached Goodman by phone to talk about Stephin Merritt, writing a secret record and her new album.”
i need a little escape: a website dedicated to the Vivian Girls 