Age 25

C.V Interned for ABC.com, sonicnet.com, ivillage.com, SPIN.com and inside.com; editor at SPIN Magazine, managed the bands My Chemical Romance and stellastarr*. Author of The Pocket DJ: Ultragrrrl’s guide to building the best music library (due out on Simon & Schuster this fall), currently runs Stolen Transmission Records and works as a producer for VH1.

There’s been a ton of nasty shit said about Sarah Lewitinn, a.k.a. Ultragrrrl. You need only to check the New York Press (where she was ranked number 20 in their list of the city’s most loathsome citizens) and any trash-talking blog around to hear them rattle off variations of “privileged, dumb and shallow”. So if she sucks as much as the haters say, then why has she and the bands she’s championed (Interpol, The Killers to name a couple) made it this far?

The secret of her success might lie in any of the following areas. Sarah confessed to rarely sleeping, in order to juggle all her varied projects — writing a book, running a label, DJing and developing television shows. But maybe its her consistently upbeat and positive attitude, which any casual reader of her blog sees — whether she’s talking about her favorite band or what her friends are up to. Or perhaps it’s her tireless attempts to re-establish the connection between rock bands and their fans through every facet of her work, a bond that’s needed now more than ever in the age of digital division. Whatever it is, it seems to be working.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between blogging and music?
I think that blogging has really helped young bands gain a fanbase that normally wouldn’t have access to them. It makes the fan important again.

Tell me about your label, Stolen Transmission.
Stolen Transmission started out as a singles label through my blog. I’ve released singles from Louis XIV and the Oohlas, and upcoming singles include: The Spinto Band, Saints + Lovers, Nightmare of You, The Five O’Clock Heroes, and Ley Royal Scam. I’m in the process of turning it into a full scale label. I’m really looking forward to working with bands I believe in and helping them as much as I can.

With the advent of downloading, how will you entice people to check out the bands?
I am a criminal and a hypocrite cause I want my label to do well. I love downloading free mp3s . I am just going to hope that people will buy music from bands because they want to support them, because they like the packaging, and it’s easier to download an album on iTunes than Limewire.

How did you get involved with writing “The Pocket DJ”?
I had been approached by a bunch of agents and editors trying to get me to write a novel or something about my life — like a book version of my blog. But that didn’t interest me. I didn’t feel a little twerp like me had anything interesting to say, not to mention, I’m one of the worst story tellers of my generation. Simon & Schuster approached my agent about doing a book called “The Pocket DJ.” He thought I’d be the perfect writer for this and suggested me. It was assigned and I have to say I’m so happy that it was. I’m so proud of it and really hope to get it in the hands of aspiring music fans more than anything else.

You are involved in different facets of the music industry. How do you balance these things out? How do they work with / against each other?
They never really work against each other except for when I was at SPIN and wanted to write about bands I really believed in and thought would one day be huge — but was faced with the problem of the fact that they weren’t signed bands. That’s when I started my singles label, as a hope of bringing unsigned bands more attention and hopefully a lucrative record deal. My profile at SPIN brought the bands attention. It worked out for everyone, it seems. I made a lot of people a lot of money in 2004, except for me. I struggled to make ends meet.

What are your feelings on being voted one of “The Most Loathsome New Yorkers” by the New York Press?
Well, I will start off by saying that it’s been hard enough getting laid, that just made it a bit harder. I was actually totally surprised I was on it because I didn’t think I was famous enough to be acknowledged. When I told my parents about it they were shocked cause they didn’t know that anyone, outside of them, actually knew or cared I existed. I picked up five copies and was really stoked to be recognized, but then people started saying mean shit and that got me down. The whole thing just seemed pretty mean spirited, which is the anti-me.

Aside from the obvious common denominator of music, what do you think links all the things you are involved with?
Cute boys.

An almost heroic, if not maniacal, force of will guided Mr. Bacon, a man born and raised in Philadelphia, a city that he viewed on the eve of World War II as “the worst, most backward, stupid city that I ever heard of.”

But almost in the same breath, he resolved then “that come hell or high water, I would devote my life’s blood to making Philadelphia as good as I could.”

dude, i feel the same way about philadelphia now. may god bless you, you crazy old brilliant man.

After living in the shadow of sister band Dr. Dog’s New York Times induced fame, forebears the Teeth finally get a moment in the sun with their second full-length album. Whereas their first record and split EP with Raccoon were exercises in deafening distortion and boundless energy (think Pavement and the Kinks penning sea shanties), Carry the Wood trades in the band’s jagged and bizarre edges for a more subdued sound that perfectly accompanies their tales of twentysomething drama. The band offers up gorgeous harmonies and horn arrangements, filling in the void where the guitars might have been at their most mighty before. With these old layers shed, the Teeth continue to sound quite awe-inspiring. (Rockpile Magazine #117)

i dont claim to be the greatest photographer in the world. most of the time, its by blind luck that i take some of my best pictures. lately ive done quite a bit of magazine/promo work so i thought it might be nice if i passed along some of my wisdom, most of which i accquired by making many, oh so many, mistakes.

this info might be particularly useful for bands looking to be photographed but can apply to anyone in general. if im missing anything, chime in. ill happily field your questions if you’ve got ‘em.

» you dont have to be the snappiest dresser in the world to look amazing on camera. i mean, springsteen rocked it hard in jeans and a white t-shirt! the point is, take a moment to make yourself look mildly presentable. wrinkled shirts are a photographer’s nightmare — we can photoshop stains, holes, etc but wrinkles? no way. get an iron and touch up that shirt or pants.

if you’re being photographed with a band, try to coordinate your outfits. im not talking matching suits, just some forethought. avoid having more than one bandmate in a patterned shirt. let one person wear the pattern and keep everyone else in solid colors.

unless you are looking to advertise benetton or gay pride [these are not bad things, mind you], wearing similar colors is an ideal situation. one time i went to a phillies game and N*SYNC showed up in team jerseys, each a different color. it was a cute but stupid gimmick. go with one color, like, say, blue. you’ll get a nice variety of shades and fabric textures that way. failing that, stick to neutrals. see the picture on the right for clarification.

» i know you’re hungover as shit but please please please fake a pleasant attitude. smiling a little will go a long way. if you feel good you will look good on camera. indulge your ego, a little. please. i like to joke with my subjects so that they laugh. people look great when they’re laughing.

» keep talking to a bare minimum during a shoot. when the photog is snapping away lots of pictures in a short amount of time and you’re talking, more than likely will we wind up with a picture of you making some goofy-ass face. no one wants to be immortalized that way.

» there are two places you can look — right into the camera and off to the sides. you run the risk of looking weird otherwise. try not to blink so much. you will make the photog ver ver ver happy.

» don’t slouch! your mother said so and for good reason — having good posture makes you feel better. feeling better puts you in a good mood. a good mood translates well on camera. the entire point of this is to make you look good, right?

» concepts? you dont need a concept — a good photograph stands on its own. some of my best work has occurred in the most nondescript locations, like parking lots.

» avoid shooting in front of brick walls, unless you want to appear on rock’n'roll confidentials “hall of douchebags”. solid color walls, like white ones, are best. [they also make everyone’s skin tons look great.] however, should you find yourself in the presence of a truly amazing wall, dont stand right up against it. get about 5-10 feet away from it so it will show up on camera in a pleasing manner.

» you should always get two photos taken — one horizontal and vertical shot, respectively. that way people can pick and choose which image fits best for their materials.

» ask for a copy of the image at 300 dpi resolution and no smaller than 4 x 5 inches. this will create a manageable file size for you to email to publicists, magazines, etc in the future. save the image in JPEG format, as its pretty universal!

» so here i had this crazy plan to blog more until i discovered that i am currently wit-out internet access at home. in the meantime i have been entertaining myself via text messaging. take this juicy excerpt between me and sharkey of clockcleaner:

me: i work until 5ish but it depends on how much stuff i can do when im not sitting around writing text messages. zing!

me: just call me tomorrow and we’ll figure something out.

them: Twerp… I’ll call at 5 tom. Let’s aim 4 xxx at tritone. We’ll eat and write up something tentatively witty. Nignog.

me: zang!

them: Party on garth.

me: party on wayne!

if you’re wondering how i manage to write such literate text messages its because of this application. bluetooth is an amazing wonderful thing. also amazing is sharkey’s ability to pick up on my wayne’s world reference.

» in other news, my homeboys/swim club posse the constantines are written up in pitchfork today. how can they give that steaming pile of crap called the new broken social scene album a 9.274583456834658346857 and the cons only a 7.6? i mean, what the fuck?

» for those concerned, i am off my ELO kick. i saw united state of electronica sunday night at the north star; now, i am cured.

» lastly, the proofs for the delta 5 packaging should be in my grubby lil’ paws within a day or so. perhaps you may have heard of this reissue from pitchfork, yesno? im so so so psyched to see it!

last nights über last minute gig at the khyber turned out to be lots of fun. while its still fresh in my mind, some observations:

» i managed to play not one, but four, ELO songs: “showdown”, “all over the world”, “shine a little love”, “dont bring me down” and [if it counts], “magic”. strangely enough, the few brave souls who came out were very appreciative. what im trying to say is: dont humor me because ill wind up playing every bit of ELO that i own. and maybe some of the move and wizzard too.

» i cannot converse with anyone while im djing, so why do y’all stand around me? i feel bad for my friends who come out on their own and then clamor around the booth. i want to talk to you but i cant! bring a friend or two, unless you know the joint will be crazy packed. of course, this is my dj night, so it wont be.

» why do people just stand and stare at me when i break out “hollaback girl”? you know what to do — dance!

» dj pet peeve #2389472938472: people who request songs. what the fuck do i look like? the itunes music store?

» dj pet peeve #9093584309534095: people who have to stand over me like a goddamned vulture to see what im putting on. anthony, you’re awesome and all, but you need to stop doing this or i will kill you.

i went into the kitchen to make myself some tea when i started hearing strains of elton john from the front of the house. one of the workstudy kids was practicing the piano. initally i was going to get all grumpy about this, like, how dare he? until i realized ive been blasting electric light orchestra on my office computer for the last 48 hours. fair is fair, i suppose! then he broke out into the opening of “bohemian rhapsody”, which i was totally down with until he looped it back to the beginning and i was all, alright buster, i draw the line there.

if you truly know me, you know how much i adore queen, all thanks to my high school boyfriend. [theres one other band he seriously got me into, but id rather burn in hell before i told you about it. i dont believe in guilty pleasures because pleasure should never be denied but this, well…] i adore “bohemian rhapsody” with a passion that’s near frightening. im just disappointed that he’d hold back on playing the following section. i mean, he’s denying the rock! sigh.

anyway, here’s proof that my ole ELO obession may be going too far. i realized this:

yeah, you should probably go.