The Boys Night Video is HERE!

In 2009, Natalie and I were sitting in the backyard complaining about the subtle sexist things that people said to us as musicians. I had just been on the phone with a guy recruiting me for a cover band. After I spent about five minutes telling him I just taught girls how to play in rock bands, he said, “So you play acoustic, right?”* Natalie tells the full story in our blog post about Boys Night.

When we first wrote Boys Night, we felt kind of alone. At that point in time, Rain City Rock Camp (RCRC, or rather, Girls Rock! Seattle) had just put on its first camp. We were longing for a community, and Natalie decided to build it. Or as Rebecca says, “If you want people to come to your show, start an effing nonprofit.” While there were many amazing volunteers, it was not yet a united voice.

A lot has changed in four years. Today, I can post that quote from acoustic-man on Facebook and get a chorus of support. We now know our experience is not unique. Our community discusses the sexism, racism, ageism (and more!) on a daily basis. No apologies.

Today, we are excited to release our Boys Night video. Watching it, we are reminded of how far we have come. It’s not a video of our band grumbling to one another about undercurrents of sexism polluting our psyches. Instead, it features a bunch of our friends singing those lyrics with us. It symbolizes the voices and stories from the awesome rock camp family that sustains us. Maybe this is cocky (heh), but it feels like an anthem that reflects our movement.

Video credits to Todd Tibbetts of Happy Awesome, who did an amazing job helping us realize our vision! Thanks to Kate Cofell,Wayne Foley, Margaret Fulton, Jenn Johnson, Jeani Krogstad, Mandy Hubbard, Dacia Saenz,Robin Smith, T-Rex, Reese Tanimura,Barb Telford, Sally TerBeck, and Jess Wetter.

Releasing this video marks the end of an era for our band. Yesterday, we went into the recording studio for the first time since You Have To Care. Boys Night talks about the problem. The next album is about taking action. It’s about the flood of support we have for one another. It’s about Natalie helping Sasquatch break through industry barriers and put more women onstage. We (not just our band, but the entire international rock camp community) are trying to build something huge and it is starting to work. Stay tuned for our Indiegogo campaign.

What about you?

Boys Night is not limited to the music industry. The same could be said about tech, finance, cooking, fashion, engineering. Um. everything. So a friend of ours wrote an adaptation of Boys Night for female software engineers.

You’re not sexist, it’s just I’m not that good
You’re not sexist, it’s just I’m not that smart
You’re such a good male speaker! I can’t believe you’re on an all male team!
Did you write your storage layer?? How long have you been coding??

Document your own work, Troubleshoot your own bugs, Unit test your own code(x2)
Cuz you’re that special!

You’re not sexist, it’s just I don’t know how to build for scale
You’re not sexist, it’s just you’re a real developer
It’s so cool you were hacking mainframes when you were in 3rd grade!
Man, I wish I knew how to use the command line back then!

Document your own work, Troubleshoot your own bugs, Unit test your own code(x2)
Cuz you’re that special!

Thanks for the mansplanation
I guess I’m a little slow
Interrupt my presentation
glad you’re sharing how much you know

If one girl’s just a token
and two can write the docs
then three can be the booth babes
and five hundred are devchix dot com !!!!!!!!!!!

Document your own work, Troubleshoot your own bugs, Unit test your own code(x2)

It’s boys night at the Startup
boys night, boys night(x2)
x3
BOYS UNITE!

And hey, when I was in business school I threw down a few lyrics myself:

You’re such a good male leader
I can’t believe you are a working dad
Did you pass accounting?
That guy is such a f@**0t

What would the lyrics from your world sound like? We want to hear from you. Don’t limit yourselves to sexism. Racism, ableism, homophobia… What would they sound like in accounting, customer service, restaurant, product management, radio, film, fashion, advertising, the list goes on? Type them in the comments below.

Better yet, download the instrumental of the mp3 here, record your vocals, and upload it to soundcloud. We will add it to our Boys Night Playlist.

Lyrics to Boys Night
You’re not sexist
It’s just we’re not that good.
You’re not sexist
It’s just we’re not that smart
 
You’re such a good male drummer
I can’t believe you’re in an all-boy band
Do you write your own songs?
How long have you been playing?
 
Chorus
Listen to your own voice
Listen to your own song
Listen to your own speech
‘Cause you’re that special
 

You’re not sexist
It’s just we don’t know how to book a show
You’re not sexist
It’s just you’re a real musician
 
It’s so cool you heard that record
When you were in third grade
Man, I wish I knew how to listen
To music back then!
 
If one girl’s for the money
And two are just for show
Then three is just a gimmick
And five are the (Go)-Go-Go’s
It’s boys night in Seattle
Boys Unite!!

*We love acoustic music and acoustic guitars. It’s just this assumption that people make about women musicians that’s annoying.