We went out to listen to my daughter’s band; “People” play at a restaurant/bar called Lafayette’s in Lafayette, LA. They did a great job considering they hadn’t all played together in some time. One of the guitarists, BJ, just got out of school for underwater welding and is working now. He had to ride out the last hurricane on the crew boat and his car got flooded. My daughter called me Thursday to rant about how she never gets any respect from guys at music stores when she goes in to buy strings, etc. They always think she’s buying them for her boyfriend or they are really patronizing. I had a bit of an epiphany on the drive from Shreveport to Lafayette concerning this. Women have to be men if they want to get any respect in the music business, especially popular music. Look back at the women who have made a name for themselves in popular music and you’ll understand. Joan Jett is probably the quintessential example of this but you also have Pat Benetar, the Wilson Sisters from Heart, and Madonna (Yes, Madonna – she dresses like a woman and oozes sex appeal but in an aggressive push in your face, don’t screw with me kind of way). I could go on but I think it’s kind of interesting to look at the ones who don’t fit that type or have changed from that and it makes it even more interesting. Britany Spears for instance, no one takes her seriously that is a music aficionado. She’s the very definition of what guys want in a girl – sexy, blonde, maybe didn’t do so good on her SAT’s – you know what I mean. Actually, I think if she is going to continue after the birth of her baby, she’s going to have to toughen up a bit and try to appeal to a broader audience. A good example of someone who changed her persona and lost her fan base is Liz Phair. A year or so ago, she produced a record with one of these pop production teams because she said it was a financial necessity. It had the exact opposite reaction from what she expected. Not only did she alienate her existing fan base, she didn’t really break through and now she’s a bit like a ship without a rudder. I hope she figures out that you have to carve out and own your niche to have any respect from the serious music buying public. I have often wondered what happened to that crop of really great women artists came out in the mid 90’s, Meredith Brooks, Paula Cole, etc. I think I understand now. As soon as they showed that they were really women, all the interest faded away. There’s a whole new crop of women out there who understand this and are defining themselves to their fans for what they are and I think in the long run honesty will win out.

Anyway, enough of that. We got together Thursday night for rehearsal and it went pretty well. At least, I think Brandon knows what he needs to do now. We recorded each one of the songs with Joel singing Brandon’s part so that he can listen to that and practice with it. We listened to “Smells Like” and Joel wants to rerecord the whole thing because he doesn’t like his vocal on it and if we were to record another vocal part we could get some problems because during the last chorus, when Joel really sings out, his vocal bleeds into the guitar track (you can hear it if you listen to the guitar track here). I’m not sure how were going to set this up because Brandon’s kit is in the vocal booth, but I’ll figure something out. I’m going to start putting together the newsletter for the website soon so sign up for it if you haven’t already. I plan to have a section on new recording products, a short tutorial on different aspects of recording (effects, eq, etc) and maybe my musings on the state of the music industry. Look for it around the first of November.