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Joe Romano

Introduction

Joe Romano is an award-winning New York director known for the 1995 feature film, Niagaravation.

He is also the lead singer of the New York City punk band, The Brunettes, which performed at many NYC venues, including CBGB and Max’s Kansas City.

Film Career

In addition to his directing, Romano has worked as an actor, as well as a soundtrack composer, most notably for his work with Gato Barbieri on the 1993 film Manhattan by Numbers.

He also spent decades as an IATSE sound mixer. He worked on films like Ransom, The Real Blonde, Marvin's Room and The Basketball Diaries. He also has done more art-house fare, working alongside Jon Jost on All the Vermeers in New York, for example, as well as traveling extensively for films featuring many world-famous artists, architects, dancers and musicians, from Merideth Monk and Laurie Anderson to Louis Kahn and Kisho Kurokawa, to Elizabeth Streb and Louise Bourgeois. He has also worked on many seasons of episodic television shows like Law and Order, Sex and the City, Saturday Night Live, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, New York Undercover and Swift Justice as well as news shows like 60 Minutes, and 20/20. Concert films with Bob Dylan and Robyn Hitchcock, music videos with a repertoire of artists like Diana Ross, A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, as well as a range of high profile commercials for clients like Calvin Klein, Lexus, Karl Lagerfeld, and Clairol round out his extensive range of industry credits.

Music

The Brunettes original lifespan was short but impactful. Formed in 1978; by 1979 and through 1980 they were playing NYC's famed music venues CBGB, Max's Kansas City, Electric Circus, and many others. They released a live album, The Brunettes Live at Max’s Kansas City.

Album

Even though no other known concert recordings exist, their live performance reputation on the NYC live circuit was building strong momentum until their abrupt and untimely end in October of 1980. The album chronicles what only the local punk rock fans of 1980 NYC knew. In this almost legendary Max's Kansas City performance, on a hot early summer night, the band played to a nearly full room of an audience who knows their music, and others who are hearing it for the first time. The crowd is lively and spirited, as is the band, giving back energy and banter back to the band that was happy to give their all to those in attendance.