Pro Sound Blog

This is bad.

mediaguru Random

Checked my phone messages the other day and this is what I get:

Phone Message

This is an .mp3 file. I claim no responsibility for the content of this audio file. Please do not play this if you are offended by 4 letter words. I wouldn’t play it in front of your boss at work either. Please do not play it in front of children!

Parental Guideance Suggested.

mediaguru Boneheads, Recording

Foghat guitarist dead at 57

WILTON, New Hampshire (AP) — Guitarist Rod Price, founding member of the blues boogie band Foghat, died Tuesday after falling down a stairway at his home, a family friend said. He was 57.

mediaguru Musicians

When you deal with musicians you just never know what to expect. Getting paid for your work is an adventure with every client. You have to perform acts of sheer magic sometimes to get what they owe you.

I had a client years ago, very many years ago…. –in fact many years longer than the local statute of limitations – who owed me money. His family owned a sporting goods store in some other state that went belly up. That’s the story I got at least.

The guy had no dough for me, but had some golf gear. So rather than getting the complete shaft I accepted a bunch of golf stuff instead of cash.

You gotta to what you gotta do.

mediaguru Musicians, Random

At gigs I have fun by hucking drumsticks to my buddies in the audience and catching them when they huck ‘em back at me (all while playing).

One time I hucked a stick at this guy by the side of the stage but he never saw it coming. The stick perfectly lopped off the top half of his beer glass without spilling one drop. The guy didn’t even know his glass was broken until he lifted his glass up to take a drink! He had no idea what had happened.

mediaguru Gigs

Under the non music related category I’d like to congratulate MY University of Utah Utes for making it to the sweet 16. Unfortunately we are meeting Kentucky next. Kentucky is the team we were leading by 15 in the national championship game in 1998, only to lose the game. Kentucky has knocked us out two other times since then.

I hate Kentucky. I hope my Utes can be victorious this time. Go UTES!

mediaguru Random

We played a weekend in Sun Valley a few years back. We hadn’t played this place before and we were already in some trouble because we were starting late.

We busted into the first tune which is instrumental for a little while. When our guitar player/singer walked up to sing, something terrible happened. When he got about 1 foot from his vocal mic, a giant blue lightning bolt flew from the mic to his tounge. She shock flattened him and he hit the floor unconscious.

I thought he was dead.

We woke him up and he was F’d up. His hair (or what is left of it) was sticking straight out. His tounge was bright red and very swollen.

The bar owner was even more irritated that we’d have to go on break after 30 seconds of 1 tune and starting late…

The reason for the lightning bolt was that we’d had that vocal mic repaired and apparently the stellar repair man didn’t connect the ground or something.

From that day on if you watch our singer he always slowly goes up to the mic and touches it with his hand first before he sings. Similar to my always sniffing the milk to make sure it’s not rotten…

mediaguru Gigs, Musicians

I knew country artist Chris LeDoux and his band years before they hit the big time. Saw many of their shows here in clubs a long time ago. Though I never worked with Chris himself, I worked on several albums with the musicians from Chris’ band. They are all pros. This is an unfortunate happening.

mediaguru Musicians

If you’ve read any of my previous posts or know my band, you know my guitar player is a scatter brain. He’s one of those individuals who is gifted in certain areas but not in others. In the organizational area he is not. His gear is always broken, lost or malfunctioning. His cables are always tied in a knot and his jacks on all his guitars constantly short out.

So we’re at a gig one night and he breaks a string. No big deal. We just need to FIND another string to replace it. His Fender amp has an open back and most guitar players put a few small items in there like strings etc. I’m digging in the back of his amp and it’s like digging through a garbage can. Among the many things I find in his amp is a visa card belonging to some female that none of us know. How the hell does some unknown chick’s visa card end up in the back of his amp?

mediaguru Gigs

I’ve been asked thousands of times “how do I get a record deal?” Most people think this is an extremely complex question with many different possibilities. But it really is simple. When people ask me this quesion I give them all the same answer:

Shop at 7-11.

Yes, shop at 7-11. This is how to get a record deal. I’ll explain:

There once was a rock band with a decent female singer that I had done many albums with. This band was just like any other rock band trying to “make it.” They practiced twice a week, did shows, released CD’s, sent their discs in to record companies etc. They were doing all the usual things a band does to break into the big time.

One day the female singer stopped in at 7-11 to pick up some sundries. On her way out she bumped into a guy and dropped all of her groceries. The guy was very nice, and helped her pick up her stuff. Introductions insued. The conversation soon led to him saying “I’m an A&R guy with XXX record company (one of the big 5), and her saying “I’m a singer.”

One thing led to another (don’t know if any sexual favors were involved), and she was offered a recording contract. The record company only wanted her so she immediately dumped her band in a very sour situation. She then moved to LA.

She spent 2 years in LA working on her album. Then one day, record company XXX went through some management changes and all the A&R guys were canned. When the A&R gets canned, usually their artists get canned as well unless they are proven sellers.

She returned from LA with no record deal, no money and no band.

mediaguru Boneheads, Musicians, Recording